Wondering about Wonder Woman

It's month three of the DC relaunch and sadly one of the books I have been getting is on the chopping block. That book is Wonder Woman.

The buzz right now is about the fact that in the new timeline it has been revealed that Zeus is her father. That has nothing to do with my problem with the title.

My issue is that they have made her uncaring.

Her attitude to the woman she is trying to save in the storyline is borderline abusive. She seems to be more bloodthirsty and does not appear to get along with the other Amazons. It’s like they gave her the personality of the Huntress

Batman is being portrayed as being more compassionate right now.

I think this is the latest expression of a problem Wonder Woman has had since the Crisis on Infinite Earths reboot in the mid-eighties. Every writer who comes on to the character sits down to figure out who she is and what her place in the DCU is. That would be fine, except they then make that exploration the whole point of the series.

And is that really necessary?

In 1941 William Moulton Marston created Wonder Woman. He saw a comic book market saturated with male characters and wanted to create the ideal female hero, one that would overcome her foes not only with her fighting prowess and powers, but also her heart. She was a heroine who could be a role model for young women.

Yes he did include Greek mythology in the origin, and yes do to his unconventional life style there was some unique philosophy and a lot of bondage. But in the end it was about a strong, caring female hero.

Is that so hard now?

Let’s stop trying to figure out her symbolic place in the DCU. Let’s stop exploring her mythological roots. Let’s tone down the examination of the Amazon culture.

Just get back to the strong, caring heroine who goes out and fights the bad guys. Get back to the role model.

I’ll give the book another issue or two, but I’m not hopeful. But maybe someday a writer will be inspired to go back to Wonder Woman’s true roots.

DC Comics Relaunch: the first month in review.

Over the last month we saw the release of the 1^st issues for DC comics new 52, the relaunch of their universe.  It’s clear that it has been an initial success.  Many titles are already in reprint, DC is dominating the sales chart and Marvel is already showing signs of their attempt to rip it off.

But was it any good?

I guess the final answer is…..sort of.

There are certainly individual books that are good.  Originally I was not going to pick up Green Arrow or Swamp Thing on a regular basis, but both first issues were good enough to change my mind. Batwing and Justice League International were not as good, but good enough for me to give to want to read more.  Aquaman I bought on the strength that it was being written by Geoff Johns, and it paid off. The Superman books and Wonder Woman were well written and I enjoyed them. The Batman and Green Lantern books were continuing stories from prior to the relaunch and still enjoyable. Resurrection Man also seems to be jumping off from the old series from a few years back, but its nature makes it flow well into the new continuity and was a good relaunch of the character.

I have heard good things about Animal Man, Blue Beetle and Demon Knights, but as of yet I have not picked those up.

On the negative side were Catwoman, Red Hood and the Outlaws and Deathstroke. And each case it is an issue of bad or lazy writing. No second issues for these.

I’ve also heard bad buzz on Hawk and Dove, OMAC and Suicide Squad, but again I did not pick them up.

And on the meh side was the Flash, Justice League Dark. Both were passable individual stories, but didn’t fire me up. I’ll give them a few issues to see if they are worth keeping up with.

And then there is Justice League. The way it was written, I have no idea yet. I can’t help feel this one was paced for the trade edition. I’ll give it a few.

Overall I am happy with the books I am getting, but I see a major flaw developing. The source of this flaw is an issue with consistency of continuity.

When the relaunch happened you had some characters like Superman and Flash getting full on reboots. Others like Wonder Woman and Aquaman were more or less getting some retooling. Characters like Booster Gold and Resurrection Man are vague on what, if anything has been changed. And then you have Batman and the Green Lanterns, where they have not been changed and are in fact continuing their stories uninterrupted. 

Add to that there we have some books taking place today, and others five years ago.

This leads to confusion as knowing how characters relate becomes muddled.  The Kid Flash in teen titans, who if he? Barry Allen is not dating Iris West, so it is unlikely he is Wally West. Is he Bart Allen? Ok but again Barry and Iris are not together so saying he is their grandson from the future is still awkward at best. Is he option C, none of the above?

What about Superman? In Action comics, the book that takes place 5 years ago his costume is jeans, a t-shirt, and a cape that I suspect started life as a table cloth. In Superman which is set today his custom is some sort of Kryptonian armor. Ok fine, expect that Superman appears at the end of Justice League number 1. That issue was set five years ago and yet he was wearing the Kryptonian armor.

I’m sure the real answer was that the editors were not keeping up on what the creators were doing; this seems to be a problem at both DC and Marvel right now.

Once a few more issues are out I will probably start giving more in-depth opinions on the various titles.  

DC Comics Relaunch: Fairwell to the old DCU

With last week’s release of Flashpoint we have seen the end of the old DC universe. I can’t really comment on the New DC Universe yet as the only book out is Justice League. So let’s look at how the DCU of old ended.

Remember that we only heard about this change back in June. At that time the DCU was chugging along and none of us knew the end was nigh. What I wonder about is how many creators had advanced knowledge.

Zantanna was a title that was still relatively new with issue #16 being the final issue. During its run there was the set-up of a new mystic villain Brother Night and a new love interest Dale Colton. At around issue 12 the series was I would say midway through the Brother Night arc. I assume the plan was to go on with this story for a while.

Then we get the relaunch. Rather than accelerate the arc, the writers ignored it, Brother Night and Dale. The last issues of Zatanna were all stand-alone stories. To be fair they were good stories, but they did nothing to resolve the hanging plot threads of the series.

Zatanna will still be in the new DCU. She is a member of Justice League Dark. Maybe these threads will be picked up there, but I personally doubt it.

Wonder Woman was different in that the story already was dealing with an altered timeline. In this case the final issue resolved the storyline restoring Wonder Woman to her proper self. In a nod to the coming change Wonder Woman herself said she felt another change was coming. At least in this case there were no major plot threads left hanging.

This leaves the final story of the old DCU, Flashpoint.

Here is a case where I wanted to like this story, but in the end it just left me a bit cold.

Had this been just a simple Flash story line I would have been fine with it. But it isn’t, it is the catalyst for the new DCU.

When DC did its first major reboot in 1985 with Crisis on Infinite Earths it was a story on a grand scale. It incorporated the majority of the characters in the universe, was played on a cosmic scale and took place over the course of a year. Basically DC earned the reboot.

With Flashpoint it was in the end a Flash story dealing with time travel. While it could be argued that it dealt with major characters of the DCU, they were in unrecognizable forms, with half the heroes being turned into villains.  None of the mini-series that went along with Flashpoint have any apparent impact on what is to come and were really nothing more than a sales ploy. Some of them were good stories, but they do not add to the relaunch in any way that I can see.

The whole thing leaves me with the feeling that this is reboot feels soft and that at any moment the powers that be at DC (Dido, Lee and Johns) can say “Ok, done with that, fix the timeline and return the DC Universe to normal.”

So in the end the DCU went out not with a bang, but a whimper.

DC Comics Relaunch: Today is the Day.

Today is the Alpha and Omega for the DC Universe.

Today DC comics will release Flashpoint #5 which is basically while taking place in a altered timeline marks the end of the mainstream DCU that has been in existence since the end of Crisis on Infinite Earths in 1985.

Today also sees the release of Justice League #1 which users in what many are calling the DCnU.

I won’t be picking up my new books until later this week so I will not really have a solid opinion on anything until then. If I am truly honest I will give the new books until November to really pass judgment.

Here is what I do know. DC reports that they have orders for over 200,000 copies of Action Comics #1. That is easily doubling what they were previously.

My friend Aron, who runs The Dreaming Comic and Games here in Seattle, tells me his in-store numbers are up. People are really interested in what is happening and this is bringing people back who gave up or coming in for the first time. This was exactly what DC has said they were shooting for. For now Aron agrees.

His exact quote “This makes him both excited and nervous.”

He is excited because he is getting the increased sales and traffic in the store.  He is nervous because until we see how the books are received there is no way to know if these numbers can be sustained.

Well we will know soon enough. Once I actually get the books and have a chance to read them I will give you my thoughts.

And of course I wait with anticipation on how Marvel will try to make a veiled copy of all of this.

The great Marvel Flashpoint cover cut up controversy

Marvel and DC, the big two in the comics industry were always friendly rivals. Note the past tense.

When Joe Quesada rose to the position of Editor-in-chief at Marvel the friendly part faded away. Pot shots became common and the hope of joint crossovers like they did in the eights and nineties became a thing of the past.

The biggest shot in the rivalry was fired last year.  At the time both companies were in the middle of big cross over events. DC had Blackest Night and Marvel had Siege. Both were selling well, but Blackest Night was getting better press. Marvel had a unique response.

Marvel made an offer to comic shops. Rip of the covers off of 50 Blackest Night tie in books and send them in and Marvel would send you a special variant cover of Siege #3.

Yes you read that right.

Destroy $150.00 worth of our competitor’s product and we will send you a copy of one of ours with a special cover.

Yeah I don’t thing Douchebag is too strong a word here.

The claim was that they were helping retailers get a return on unsold books, which is odd because you were not finding unsold Blackest Night books.

Marvel claims they received tens of thousands of covers. I never heard of any store taking up the offer. A search of EBay does not turn up any copies of the variant for sale. So it was a mean spirited ploy that got Marvel a lot of scorn and no real return.

DC took the high road and largely ignored the whole thing. The only response I ever heard were some jokes made by the DC staff at Emerald City Comic-con that year.

Really that should have been the end of it. But Marvel must have liked the press, because they are doing it again.

Right now Marvel has an event going on called Fear Itself. Don’t feel bad if you haven’t heard of it. It’s not getting much buzz. It is basically Marvel getting around to ripping off the plot of Blackest Night. DC has Flashpoint.  This event is getting plenty of buzz as it is the lead in to the September relaunch.

So naturally Marvel felt that history needed to be repeated.

For every 50 covers of Flashpoint books retailers rip off and send in, Marvel will send a variant cover copy of Fear Itself #6. Once again they claim it is to help out retailers in these tough economic times.

It strikes me as a desperate grab for press. DC has been overshadowing Marvel in the press with the upcoming relaunch. Sure Marvel has their movies, but in the end they are a comic book company and losing the limelight to DC must be intolerable.

It would be nice if they could find a way to do it without acting like jackasses.

San Diego Comic-con; Let the games begin

Back on July 1^st I set out to make Seattle the Geek Capital of the World 51 weeks of the year. Today marks the start of the other week. That’s right today is the beginning of Comic-Con International, better known as the San Diego Comic-Con.

Found in 1970 the San Diego Comic-con is the premier pop culture event of the year. The unofficial motto of presenters and exhibitors is “go big or go home.” As a former exhibitor I can tell you that unless you have attended it is almost impossible to grasp the scope of this event, and it has grown in the years since my last attendance in 2004.

Starting tonight a lot of fanboy news is going to be coming out. I am going to do my best to comment on the highlights. Even now, with show not even open yet we have a lot of information.

• Tomorrow night will see Captain America: The First Avenger premier a day early. Star Chris Evens will be there to kick off the event.
• The official World Premier of Cowboys and Aliens will take place at the convention.
• IDW will have a special offer called Sparkles for Blood. Attendees will be able to trade in a copy of any of the Twilight books for a new 30 days of night graphic novel. There stated goal is to return vampires to what they were always meant to be: bloody and terrifying monsters.
• A group of fans have vowed to stage a protest of DC Comics upcoming relaunch. It will be interesting to see if that actually happens.

And trends from years past will be repeated.

• DC comics will be a focus as they prepare for the relaunch in September.
• Marvel will be pushing their movies and valiantly trying to steal the comic news press away from DC.
• Several TV shows will have panels. Half of which have nothing to do with comics, Sci-fi, or fantasy, but want to be at Comic-con anyway.
• Twilight fans will swamp the con again in hopes of seeing the stars.
• Cos-players will hit the floor looking to be noticed. There will be far too many Batmen, Harley Quinns and Slave girl Leias.
• And the convention hall will once again reach maximum capacity, leading people to beg the convention to move to a bigger site like Anaheim or Las Vegas.

So let the good times roll and let’s see what this year brings.

DC Comics Relaunch Part 4

Ok, so for the last 3 posts I have gone on about why I think the relaunch is happening. Today I want to wrap this up by going the other direction and discuss what I think about what will be happening.

My biggest issue right now is the derailing of characters that have seen a lot of growth over that last few years. The relaunch appears to be sweeping a lot of it aside.

First, the one everyone is talking about: Batgirl. Since the 60’s Barbara Gordon was Batgirl. She was the plucky girl who wanted to be a crime fighter like Batman and Robin. She was often the third wheel of the Batman characters.

Then the Joker shot her.

And he didn’t even shoot her as Batgirl. He went after Barbara Gordon as part of a plan to destroy her father. The result was she was left paralyzed from the waist down.

This resulted in her going from a third wheel bat character to a major force in the DC universe.

Rather than wallow in self-pity, Barbara used her intellect, drive and cunning to re-forge herself as Oracle, information broker for the superhero community. She trained to be a bad-ass fighter even from a wheel chair and formed a team of heroes to work directly for her called the Birds of Prey. In the process she became a role model for people dealing with disability that the public embraced.

And now that’s over.

Come September Barbara will somehow be healed and become Batgirl again. DC has said that they are not rewriting her history. The old stories I have mentioned are still be her back story. But instead of being a strong woman rising above the adversity of being confined to a wheel chair coordinating heroic efforts across the globe, she will be leaping the rooftops of Gotham City fighting one crime at a time.

I note that no one has said anything about Stephanie Brown, the daughter of minor Batman villain the Clue Master that Barbara took under her wing and trained to be the new Batgirl.  I guess she will either be ignored, killed, or go back to her previous identity of the Spoiler.

Another point is that several other characters are getting completely rewritten, so that unlike Barbara, the previous backstory is just gone.

So if you had been following any of the Teen Titans almost all of them are getting completely new backstories. Wonder Girl, the mortal daughter of Zeus, taken under Wonder Woman’s wing and trained to be a hero. She has gone from Heroic leader of the Teen Titan’s to a thief being recruited by the team to help on a mission so they can keep an eye on her. 

Why this complete change? We have no idea.

Finally we have Zatanna, one of the premier magic heroes. She has been headlining her own book, which has been very well written and is in the middle of a story that from where I sit doesn’t seem like it will be wrapped up in a satisfying manner in a couple of months. Well that book is over in August and Zatanna will now be part of Justice League Dark, the new magic based team. Maybe her storyline will continue there, but I doubt it and she has to share the stage with the other magic heroes.

I notice I have focused on female characters. They are not the only ones this is happening to. Superboy, Kid Flash and Red Robin are getting complete overhauls as well. And theirs all all just as annoying as Wonder girls.

However I could be wrong. This does not have to be gloom and doom. Batgirl is being written by Gail Simone, one of DC’s best writers. If anyone can take this and turn it into a compelling story it is Gail. Too bad they had to cancel her excellent Secret Six to do it.

DC Comics Relaunch Part 3

So far we have looked at how book sales and legal issues could be playing a part in the DC Comics’ relaunch. Now let’s look at another factor.

Intellectual Property.

In 2009 DC Comics’ parent company Warner Bros announced a corporate reorganization. They formed DC Entertainment Inc. The purpose was to have a division that had oversight on all the DC comic brand properties throughout the company.  The idea was to allow for better integration of the DC properties through the rest or WB’s divisions and promote them as media franchises.  Warner executive Diane Nelson was made President of DC Entertainment and DC Comics was moved under it as a subsidiary. In 2010 Geoff Johns, one of DC Comics’ top writers was made Chief Creative Officer of DC Entertainment, which basically meant it is his job to oversee the use of DC characters in other media to maintain their integrity.

On paper this looks great, DC now had a cohesive vision for its characters in other media and the authority to back it up. But all was not well

First you have Smallville, the teen angst version of Superman’s origins, that since 2001 had been steamrolling its way through DC continuity.

On the other end of the quality spectrum in 2005 and 2008 you have Christopher Nolan’s brilliant Batman movies. Wonderful films, but the realism that he injects, while making great cinema, do not lend themselves to integration into a greater superhero universe.

Add to that the pressure being put on by Marvel Studios. Marvel Studios is in the midst of a frankly  brilliant plan. They are creating a shared universe for their characters, giving the build up to the Avengers movie the feel of an all-star cast epic, but with actors they themselves have built up. So far all DC movies have been in their own little continuities.

Oh and their one entry into the Blockbuster sweepstakes this summer, Green Lantern, is met with a lukewarm greeting, While Thor is a smash and Captain America looks to be the movie to beat this season.

So DC Entertainment, despite having some of the most recognized intellectual properties in the world, can’t seem to get them out there in a big way. They need to get people talking about them again.

So how about resetting the universe they come from in the first place.

Not only can you generate press about the reboot, but you can use it to mold the stories into ones that will translate better into other media.

To back this theory up I look to one of the 52 titles launching in September, Resurrection Man. This is a character practically begging to be adapted into another media. Mitch Shelly is a man who wakes up one day in a shallow grave and suffering from partial amnesia. He comes to find that he has superpowers. His main power is resurrection, when he dies he quickly comes back to life, and as a bonus he has a random super power to boot. He is hunted by a shadowy organization that wants to study him. And the best part, he doesn’t wear spandex. His costume is jeans, t-shirt, a duster, and a wide brimmed hat. Seriously, cast Josh Holloway and you have a hit right there.

(To be fair I have always liked this character and plan to pick up the title myself, but I still stand by what I said.)

Next post I wrap up my thoughts on the relaunch and then we can move on to other subjects.

DC Comics Relaunch Part 2

Yesterday I took a look at the possible financial motivations for DC comics’ upcoming massive reboot of their superhero universe. Today I am going to go over the possible legal motivations for at least part of it.

In 1999 the heirs of Superman co-creators Jerry Siegel filed a lawsuit to regain at least partial ownership of his creation. In 2008 they won a significant part of that suit. According to the ruling the Siegel estate now owns 50% or all concepts related to Superman introduced in the early comics and newspaper strips. This includes his origin as an alien from a doomed world, his alter ego of Clark Kent, his career as a reporter, his love interest Lois Lane and the Lois/Clark/Superman love triangle. Also his Basic powers of super strength, super speed and being bullet proof.

What they don’t own is his expanded powers including flight, the vision powers or other super senses, or his weakness Kryptonite. They also don’t own Lex Luthor, Jimmy Olsen, Perry White, Lana Lang, Supergirl, Krypto, and the Daily Planet.

Add to this that apparently they will gain control of the full copyright in 2013.

Now how does this affect the reboot?

While there has been no official comment one has to wonder.

According to writer Grant Morrison they have changed some of the basics of the story.

Ok, but how?

The one thing we know for sure is that the costume is different. You no longer have the red trunks on the outside of the suit. Another thing is when I look at it I get the impression that it is metal, like maybe armor of some kind.

The biggest buzz however is for plot points that I have not seen confirmed officially anywhere. The big one I touched on yesterday. Lois Lane will no longer be the love interest.  The rumor mill suggests that Superman will now be involved with Wonder Woman.  I also note that not one solicitation, interview or press release that I have seen has used the name Clark Kent. To be fair I have heard nothing saying he won't be Clark Kent, just that with eveything else going on it is something I took notice of.

It doesn’t take a legal genius to see that the reboot appears to be moving away from the Siegel co-owned aspects of the character.  The theory going around is that DC will try to establish that the current Superman is a distinct character from the Siegel co-owned version prior to the 2013 deadline. And what better way to sneak that in then as part of a universe wide reboot.

The inherent problem here is public perception. If you ask any person on the street about Superman’s backstory they will tell you some variation of the one used in the 1978 film. Trying to sell an altered Man of Steel to the public, especially one as picky and the comic fan community, is an uphill battle.

Next post I take a look at the possible role of DC comics’ parent company in the relaunch.

DC Comics Relaunch Part 1

The big news in fanboy circles these days is the September relaunch of DC comics superhero books.  For those not in the know DC will basically be ending all of their current mainstream superhero titles in August.  Then in September they will be launch 52 new series.  Many of these will be relaunches of already existing titles.  So in August you will have Superman #714 which will be the final issue. In September you will have Superman #1 the launch of the new series.

Confused yet?

Not a lot is known about this storyline yet, but we do know there will be changes. For example Superman is no longer married to Lois Lane. No they didn’t split, but are now said to have never even been a couple. Instead reports tell us that Superman is dating Wonder Woman.

So are all the books resetting their stories? No.

Batman and Green Lantern are continuing their storylines even with the new series launches. 

So what is the reason behind this massive change in the status quo?

That is a good question, and the answer is murky at best, and likely due to the fact that there are several factors at play here. Too many for a single post, so I will only tackle one today.

What is the big number one reason for this? Sales suck. This is an industry wide problem. In the nineties you would have comic book titles that would sell millions of copies. Today the most successful books sell around 100,000 copies. On top of that sales are trending down. Last month DC show their sales dip by 11%.

The hope is that this relaunch will boost interest and bring in the elusive new readers.

Along with the relaunch DC will for the first time make their titles available through digital distribution. The digital versions of the comics will be available for $2.99, the same price as the physical books and can be purchased on the same day as release.

While all this is nice I think it ignores a fundamental fact. The reason sales are down is the economy.  Following comic books is great if you have the disposable income, but if money is tight they are generally going to be on the top of the list of things to cut, especially when a single issue is three dollars.

To me this push would make more sense if they were offering digital copies at a cheaper price, but they aren’t, probably because they still need the support of the comic shops and undercutting them would not help that.

 That said digital distribution could make a difference for bringing in readers who for whatever reason have not, or will not, set foot in a comic book shop. But first you have to get their attention and convince them to give it a shot.

Next post I will go over the possible reasons for the relaunch involving the U.S. Legal system.