Crimebuster
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Post by Crimebuster on Aug 7, 2014 13:50:45 GMT -5
Wonder Woman #6written by George Perez and Len Wein, art by George Perez and Bruce Patterson Synopsis: Diana and her friends battle the soldiers being mind-controlled by Ares! Steve Trevor chases general Tolliver into the command room where the nukes are launched from. Diana tries to join them, but is suddenly whisked away by a mystic power! On another plane of existence, she faces Ares himself! Diana battles Ares! It goes poorly. Around the world, we see everything on the brink of total destruction, including the Amazons on Paradise Island, who are rapidly aging, and the gods, who are waiting to decide whether to take their pleasure cruise to hell or not. Meanwhile, Trevor shoots Tolliver, but Tolliver - and all the other soldiers Diana's comrades have gunned down - rise like zombies, powered by the evil might of Ares. Things look hopeless! In a last ditch effort, Diana uses her lasso on Ares. The power of Christ truth compels him! Ares sees in a vision what will actually be the final result of his gambit: Not destruction, but complete oblivion. With humanity destroyed, Ares himself will eventually follow, as he will have no followers left to power him. Everything will cease to be. Realizing this is a bad plan, Ares withdraws his powers from his minions. They all collapse and the world is saved. Ares charges Diana to save mankind from itself - but, you know, only kind of. He just wants them to kill each other, not destroy the whole world. He warns her that if she messes up, she'll have to answer to him. Of course, if she messes that up, they'll both be dead, so that's a bit of an empty threat from where I'm sitting. Back in the real world, the "good guys" in the government show up and reclaim the base... but Diana is unconscious and gravely wounded!! TO BE CONTINUED!!! Notes: There's not as much to discuss this issue, which is pretty much par for the course of big superhero epics. Once the fighting starts, it's mostly just punch punch. There are a couple things, though. In terms of satsifying action throwdowns, the face off between Diana and Ares leaves a little to be desired. That's not to say the conclusion isn't satisfying - it's perfectly in keeping thematically with Diana and her arc, using the power of truth to overcome fear and hatred. And there's a lot of cool action back in the base with Steve and Etta and company battling a horde of zombie super soldiers. Just on the face of it, though, having a climax where the bad guy basically just realizes his own plan is dumb and stop it himself is not necessarily as thrilling as, you know, Diana lopping his head off. Which we know is also a real possibility! Still, the way Diana wins is how she's supposed to win - by convincing people violence and war are the wrong way to solve problems. The fact that she does this with the god of war himself is a cool way to kick off the series. It's also interesting commentary on just how bad the Cold War was at the time, where even the god of war thinks humanity is going too far. The lettercolumn also has a couple interesting bits. Someone writes in to ask exactly what I asked regarding Diana's reaction to Vanessa and the whole nature/nurture Amazon/lesbian thing. Karen Berger responds that while Diana is more comfortable around women, once she gets to know men, she's going to be attracted to them. She also quickly squashes any idea of attraction to Vanessa, saying it was just wonder at seeing another younger woman. So while the scene itself was obviously ambiguous enough for some readers (including myself and the letter writer) to interpret it as possible romance, editorial makes it very clear here that Diana is not gay and will not be doing any gay stuff. So get that right out of your head! The cover for this issue is also cool, highlighting the new design for Ares, dramatically juxtaposed with an atomic explosion. I feel like the coloring might have been a more effective, though. But that may be my colorblindness speaking. Boston Stuff: As with last issue, they do the "previously" exposition by means of a page of TV reports on the situation. Last issue, though, this was a generic TV thing. This time, on the other hand, the news report of from TV35. I feel pretty sure that this is the television equivalent of the "Boston Globe-Leader," where they took a real, recognizable thing and tweaked it just enough to avoid legal issues. The real channel in question was WSBK TV38, a Boston institution. It's not very prominent now, but back in the day - including when these stories were taking place - TV38 was a major player despite being an independent channel. Most of their cultural cache came from the fact that they were the TV home of both the Bruins and the Red Sox. basically, everything NESN does now was originally on TV38. Other than that, TV38 had a famous movie show called "The Movie Loft," which would air unedited films - showing even things like the 3 hour epic Deerhunter in their entirety, without editing for content, language or time considerations. My Grade: B. A solid ending to the arc, though just a wee bit anti-climactic.
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Post by SJNeal on Aug 7, 2014 18:54:44 GMT -5
Funny to think that in just a few short years Berger would be launching an imprint chock full of "gay stuff"...
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Post by MDG on Aug 8, 2014 11:43:16 GMT -5
The real channel in question was WSBK TV38, a Boston institution. It's not very prominent now, but back in the day - including when these stories were taking place - TV38 was a major player despite being an independent channel. Most of their cultural cache came from the fact that they were the TV home of both the Bruins and the Red Sox. basically, everything NESN does now was originally on TV38. Other than that, TV38 had a famous movie show called "The Movie Loft," which would air unedited films - showing even things like the 3 hour epic Deerhunter in their entirety, without editing for content, language or time considerations. A brief digression: In the late 70s-early 80s, when they used to do this type of thing, my cable providers in Syracuse and White Plains had WSBK as part of the basic package, and i used to watch it a lot. The best thing they did was an early Sunday show called "Ask the Manager," which was basically the host of the Movie Loft and the station manager reading mail from viewers and trying to crack each other up. I miss that kind of informality on TV.
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Post by Deleted on Aug 8, 2014 16:57:14 GMT -5
A brief digression: In the late 70s-early 80s, when they used to do this type of thing, my cable providers in Syracuse and White Plains had WSBK as part of the basic package, and i used to watch it a lot. The best thing they did was an early Sunday show called "Ask the Manager," which was basically the host of the Movie Loft and the station manager reading mail from viewers and trying to crack each other up. I miss that kind of informality on TV. I remember that show. It was cool the way they just sat there and talked about the station's programming. That was the only thing I remember watching on WSBK, except for the Red Sox games. This was during the brief period when I cared about baseball.
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Crimebuster
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Post by Crimebuster on Aug 12, 2014 21:53:22 GMT -5
Wonder Woman #7story by Len Wein and George Perez, art by George Perez and Bruce Patterson Synopsis: The gods rejoice at being saved from Ares by Diana. But Diana herself is at death's door. That won't do, so Neptune swoops in and fixes her. The Zeus appears and is like, you gals are okay. Maybe I should pay more attention to you in the future. Which has the oracle feeling a little uneasy. It's nice for George and Len that when they need a Greek chorus to add dramatic moments, they can literally just go to one. The lady gods who give the Amazons their juice are also uneasy at the idea of Zeus taking more interest, but their ranks are bolstered when Hera throws her lot in with them. She's tired of her husband being a dweeb, so she's decided to be proactive for once. We'll see how that works out. Diana wants to go back to America, but Hippolyte is against it. She asks for some kind of sign from the gods. As if on cue - which it is - Hermes appears and gives Diana his sandals, so she can travel at will between Paradise Island and man's world. That settles that, and Diana whisks herself to America, right into Steve Trevor's hospital room. She administers a magic ointment to him and he immediately starts healing. Meanwhile! A publicity flack named Mindi Mayer shows up at the professor's house, wanting to get in on the Wonder Woman action. The professor throws her out on her ear. Then the professor rushes to the hospital, where she discovers that Diana has used her magic ointment to cure Vanessa's illness as well. It's all a big happy ending! Except it's not the ending. Rather, the government wants to debrief Diana. She's not sure what the hell that even means, but the professor convinces the government to let her handle things. The government reluctant agrees, and then immediately regrets it, because the professor somewhat inexplicably decides to contact Mindi Mayer and launch a full scale publicity attack hyping Wonder Woman. The idea, I guess, is to give Diana a bigger platform to present her message of hope and love. We'll see how that works out. Meanwhile! A mysterious lady gets wind of the arrival of Wonder Woman and demands that her servant brew her a mystic potion. A mysterious lady who may or may not be... the Cheetah! And by that I mean, she definitely is the Cheetah. TO BE CONTINUED!! Notes: The arrival of Mindi Mayer is an interesting direction to take the book, but I'm not sure I'm entirely on board with it. It seemed a bit out of left field with the way it was set up. Given their antagonistic first meeting, I'm not sure why the professor decided to hire her as their p.r. agent, when she could have found someone else instead who she wasn't already on bad terms with. Then there's the abrupt jump from "let me get Diana away from this craziness so she has time to get acclimated" to "forget that, let's make her the center of a media firestorm!!!" I felt like there was a step missing here - like they were squeezing in too much development into too short a space. The pacing for this issue just felt off. I also thought they were being a little too subtle about what is actually happening in the p.r. campaign. It's implied that Diana is telling the world the truth behind the Ares attack, but since the focus is on Wonder Woman's rise to fame, the ramifications of what's she's saying are lost. Like, how is the world reacting? We see the government doesn't buy it, but maybe they would if she had done a debriefing with them instead of going to the media with her crazy story first. I did appreciate the scene where Wonder Woman and Mindi Mayer are working out the details of the p.r. campaign. Mindi suggests they give her a cool name, like "Diana Prince," and Diana immediately shoots down the whole concept of a secret identity, saying that nobody could trust her if she started off by lying about who she is. I love how they just chucked the whole Diana Prince secret identity in two panels. Bye-bye! Overall, though, this whole concept feels very 1980's to me. The exploration of superheroes in the media is a big 80's trope; from Watchmen to Booster Gold to American Flagg, the idea of superheroes as celebrities was a major part of the zeitgeist in the comics world at the time. It was like the big concept to explore. Which is fine, but it also means that a) through no fault of the creators, it now feels a bit "been there, done that" reading it 27 years later and b) it doesn't necessarily feel like a natural fit for Diana or for the series. I think that is part of what they are trying to set up here - Diana's discomfort with the modern world - but I'm a bit leery about this direction. Finally, the scan doesn't quite do the cover justice; it's a cool one. One thing I haven't discussed is Perez's design of Mount Olympus, which he renders in this M.C. Escher style, with buildings and people at all kinds of crazy angles. It works, but barely for me; the concept and execution are cool enough to carry it, but it's also visually confusing. I know it's supposed to be, but that's still a bit of a drawback for me in terms of actually reading the comic. Cool, but just on the razor's edge of being too much. Boston Stuff: Not a lot, but there is some. During her initial p.r. push, there's a drawing of the downtown Boston skyline, focusing on the Custom House Tower. There's also a billboard in the shot saying that you can read about Diana in the Herald, which as I've mentioned before is a reference to Boston's other newspaper, the Boston Herald. Apparently the Globe-Leader's plan to increase their market share by controlling coverage of Diana is not working. My Grade: B. Too much going on and it never comes together as a coherent story. The art is still excellent and they're setting the stage for what might be some interesting developments, so this is a transitional issue. But it didn't seem as sure footed as the first arc.
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shaxper
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Post by shaxper on Aug 12, 2014 22:36:39 GMT -5
it never comes together as a coherent story....so this is a transitional issue. But it didn't seem as sure footed as the first arc. Your mileage may vary, but this is pretty much my impression of the entire run. I love the characterization, but the plots and conflicts are never worthwhile.
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Crimebuster
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Post by Crimebuster on Aug 13, 2014 15:48:29 GMT -5
Wonder Woman #8story by Len Wein and George Perez, art by George Perez and Bruce Patterson Synopsis: This is a hard one to summarize, and oddly enough, it's because the comic itself is a summary. George experiments with the form, as instead of your typical comic book stuff, most of the issue takes the form of four different letters/journals/reports, each written by a different supporting cast member, and each offering a synopsis of what has happened since the end of #7. We see that a) Diana finally did have her debriefing with the government, where she showed off her powers and convinced them she's telling the truth; b) met all the other major DC superheroes in Legends, where they defeated G. Gordon Godfrey; c) became good friends with Vanessa and gave a lecture at Vanessa's school that inspired the girls there; and d) continued her media blitz with Mindi Mayer, but also announced she was going to be returning home and leaving man's world. This is intercut with more traditional comic book scenes of Barbara Minerva, aka Cheetah, arriving in Boston, with her manservant and her magic plant in tow. She sends a letter to Mindi Mayer explaining that she has Gaea's other girdle, which apparently was given to Antiope, who we last saw split with the other Amazons back in #1, thousands of years ago. She wants to meet up with Diana to discuss it. TO BE CONTINUED!!! Notes: This was an interesting experiment. But I'm not sure it was a successful one. You'd think thatgiven the visual nature of comics, it would be easy for creators to follow the number one rule of storytelling: show, don't tell. But this entire issue is about telling - despite the letters being accompanied by Geroge's illustrations, we don't feel like we're really seeing any of the events happen. We're just being told about them by the four narrators. That makes this issue feel even more like a transitional issue than last, and it also makes this issue feel really static and slow. Partially because it is; reading through all those pages of text was a major chore, in part because of the choice to do some of them in handwritten cursive font. It adds flavor, sure, but it also adds eye strain. The plus side, of course, is that we get a lot of character bits with the four major female supporting characters - the professor, Vanessa, Etta Candy and Mindi Mayer. This is the first time we really get a chance to get inside Mindi's head, since she was just introduced last issue, and she doesn't come off nearly as abrasively as she did in #7. We also get a real insight into who Vanessa is, which is good since she spent the first arc in a hospital bed. I do think there was also a clear desire by George - and probably editorial - to make it clear who Vanessa is because of the confusion caused by her brief first appearance. She is drawn (and portrayed in her diary entry) as much younger than she seemed in her first appearance. It's stated here that she's just turned 13, whereas I definitely had her pegged at 16 at least in her first appearance. There's also a big deal made here about Vanessa becoming suddenly popular at school thanks to her adventures with Wonder Woman, which brings the attention of a cute boy she has a crush on, Barry. But in her first appearance, in #3, it was stated that she already has a boyfriend named Brian. I think somewhere along the way, possibly in response to the letters the received about her initial meeting with Diana, it was decided to reconceive her as a younger girl. I also feel like this issue works okay in the context of the larger series, but totally fails as a single issue. In that sense, it feels like a very modern comic, a bit ahead of its time even for 1987. This changing of focus away from Diana (though, unfortunately, that's not that much of a change - more on this in a moment) to spend an issue dealing with supporting characters and subplots reminds me in a way of later stuff like James Robinson's Starman, which did this sort of thing all the time (though more successfully). it's more than "writing for the trade," it's really writing for the omnibus, an issue that only works if you're reading like 20 in a row. Luckily, I am, but still. If I had been buying this off the stands, I think I would have not enjoyed this installment very much. While it's cool to get inside the heads of the supporting cast, about the only character we haven't gotten inside the head of yet is Diana herself. We're getting a lot of stuff about how Diana affects other people, which is of course important since that's the key to her mission and in some ways to her character. But we don't really have much of an idea of Diana as a person herself. How much of this is intentional I'm not sure. It's often been said that the big problem with Wonder Woman is that she's very difficult to relate to, and one way to deal with that is to embrace it and go with it, playing up just how iconic and inspiration she is, and showing how she inspires people. But will that actually work long term? I think it could, but only if we really, really care about the people she is affecting. In that sense, if that is the direction George is going to go with the entire series, then maybe this issue will pay dividends down the road that aren't evident now. Finally, during the "media blitz," Diana signs a deal with DC Comics to publish her adventures. The panel shows Wonder Woman standing with George, Len (I think), Jenette Kahn and a woman who I presume is Karen Berger. Boston Stuff: We get several establishing shots, including the skyline, Logan Airport and Charles Street. George's version of Charles Street is a little off. There's basically two parts to the street, but the famous section is much more old school than what he portrays. Not a big deal. We also cut outside the city to Wakefield, Ma, to the professor's "summer home." Just how many homes does she own?! One on "Beacon Hill," a winter home and a summer home? Seriously, she must be teaching advanced diamond mining, because that's a damn lot of houses. For what it's worth, Vanessa's school is called "The Adams School," presumably after John Adams and Josh Quincy Adams. There are a couple Adams schools in Quincy, but that's on the other side of Boston from Wakefield. Lastly, during the media blitz section, Diana is given the key to the city by then-mayor Ray Flynn. Flynn was a classic Irish Catholic Bostonian; he resigned as mayor in 1993 after being appointed by President Clinton as ambassador to the Vatican. My Grade: B-. A lot of good character work, but not with Diana, and in the service of something that is not actually a story.
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Post by comicscube on Aug 14, 2014 3:43:35 GMT -5
it never comes together as a coherent story....so this is a transitional issue. But it didn't seem as sure footed as the first arc. Your mileage may vary, but this is pretty much my impression of the entire run. I love the characterization, but the plots and conflicts are never worthwhile. That's my view of the run as well. Love the characters, but I never felt the stakes. It did seem that Perez was plotting for the long term (Cheetah shows up once in his entire run as artist), but I didn't reach the point where things paid off (if they did at all).
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Crimebuster
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Post by Crimebuster on Aug 15, 2014 1:00:04 GMT -5
Wonder Woman #9written by George Perez and Len Wein, art by George Perez and Bruce Patterson Synopsis: Something bad is happening with Barbara Minerva and her "plant god." Meanwhile, nothing bad is happening with Diana, who is flying around willy nilly. She's excited, because Minerva's letter promises her answers about what happened to the missing Antiope. When she and Mindi Mayer go to meet Minerva, though, the lasso of truth compels Minerva to reveal it was all a hoax. She just wanted to talk to Diana. Diana blows her stack, tells off Minerva, tells off Mindi for some reason, and leaves in a huff. Now what? Oh, here's what: Diana goes off into the woods to meditate sulk, and Minerva shows up - only now she's been transformed into The Cheetah by the evil plant god. Diana is like, "whatever," I'm Wonder Woman," and as a result, The Cheetah totally kicks her butt. Diana is quite surprised that someone is fast and strong enough to kick her butt, and even withstand the power of the lasso! But kick her butt, The Cheetah does. Luckily, at the last second, the professor shows up with a rifle and shoots The Cheetah! Pow! The Cheetah flees - or drowns in a nearby lake, one or the other - and Diana can't find her. Diana decides, you know what, eff it, I'm going back to Paradise Island. So she splits. Meanwhile, Steve Trevor and Etta Candy head to Steve's boyhood home, as his father is on death's door. TO BE CONTINUED!! Notes: This cover is great. Much as I like George, his cover design is occasionally muddied with too much clutter. He's turned in some good ones in this run, and has some better ones still to come. This one is a keeper, though, thanks to the unusual design and logo placement. As for the story, well, that's another matter. After two issues of setting up Diana's fight with Cheetah, it's pretty anti-climactic. They tussle in the woods for about four pages and then the professor just shoots her, the end. As the first chapter to a bigger Cheetah arc, it might not be half bad an introduction. As the first chapter to nothing, which is what this is, it really falls flat. This is what we've all been waiting for? Really? I'm not sure why Diana lost her cool at Mindi Mayer, either. Mindi didn't know Minerva was faking it. Even Diana was fooled until the lasso came out. How is this Mindi's fault? Boston Stuff: A lot of backgrounds which are now not even drawn, but are file photos of the Boston skyline, just photostatted into the comic. Which is fine. It's still cool to see Boston landmarks and buildings instead of the same olf NYC stuff Marvel always gives us. No water towers anywhere to be seen! Diana decides to take her leave of man's world by flying away from Martha's Vineyard. I'm not entirely sure why she picked that spot. It's a good ways from Wakefield to drag the professor and Vanessa, considering Diana is just going to slip on Hermes's magic sandals and fly off. It's not even the most obvious jumping off point for the Atlantic, either; both Nantucket and Cape Cod are farther East. But whatever, maybe the professor has a fourth house on the island. My Grade: B-. And barely that. This Cheetah thing really fell seriously flat after all that buildup. Only the cool cover bumps it up from a C+.
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Post by SJNeal on Aug 15, 2014 11:19:41 GMT -5
Wonder Woman #8story by Len Wein and George Perez, art by George Perez and Bruce Patterson While it's cool to get inside the heads of the supporting cast, about the only character we haven't gotten inside the head of yet is Diana herself. We're getting a lot of stuff about how Diana affects other people, which is of course important since that's the key to her mission and in some ways to her character. But we don't really have much of an idea of Diana as a person herself. How much of this is intentional I'm not sure. It's often been said that the big problem with Wonder Woman is that she's very difficult to relate to, and one way to deal with that is to embrace it and go with it, playing up just how iconic and inspiration she is, and showing how she inspires people. But will that actually work long term? I think it could, but only if we really, really care about the people she is affecting. In that sense, if that is the direction George is going to go with the entire series, then maybe this issue will pay dividends down the road that aren't evident now. One thing that I think Perez' successor did better than him was get inside Diana's head. Speaking of, Messner-Loeb's run is great; hopefully you continue your reviews to include it!
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Post by BigPapaJoe on Aug 15, 2014 18:25:33 GMT -5
Great thread. I had read the initial 7 issues a couple of months back, but unfortunately didn't continue after that. Things just got in the way. Re-reading the summaries of these issues has revitalized my interest. I do consider myself a Wonder Woman fan, although a new one. So I'm anxious to continue Perez's run since he's one of my favorite artists of all time. Thanks for taking the time to do this.
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Post by SJNeal on Sept 27, 2014 16:44:32 GMT -5
*Opens thread* *Crickets*
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Post by Deleted on Sept 27, 2014 20:18:40 GMT -5
*Opens thread* *Crickets* Scott is out of the country on holiday currently, I am sure he will pick this up again at some point when he gets back and back into the swing of things. Patience grasshopper (unless it brings us a cricket grasshopper duel to the death) -M
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Post by SJNeal on Sept 28, 2014 15:01:53 GMT -5
*Opens thread* *Crickets* Scott is out of the country on holiday currently, I am sure he will pick this up again at some point when he gets back and back into the swing of things. Patience grasshopper (unless it brings us a cricket grasshopper duel to the death) -M Ah, good to know. In the meantime, I'll chill out and mull over the potential outcomes of this duel to the death...
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Crimebuster
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Post by Crimebuster on Sept 29, 2014 21:46:54 GMT -5
I haven't given up, just been very busy. In the meantime I have managed to finish putting together the entire Perez run, as I picked up all the issues I had previously been missing. I've also read the next arc, just haven't had time to write up my thoughts. But at some point I will return to this, and to the Superman review thread.
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