Happy snowy WedSNESday everyone! This week, we take a look at Wonder Woman in Man of Steel 2, Why I love DC, Crisis on Five Books, and weekly spoilers.
I prefer comics
As a blanket of snow wraps itself around several cities and towns, people have become more melancholy, and bitter. The world of comics is the same way; with the events of Forever Evil going on over at DC, and the aftermath of Infinity, and thew new Inhuman series going on at Marvel. It’s nice to look at some characters that can still be fun and funny, even if they’re taken to the 90’s.
Instocktrades:
Now I know it is the time people love gift-giving, and are always looking for cheap, yet high quality gifts to give. Last week, I was able to test out a website call instocktrade.com. It’s a plug-in for sure, but guys, trust me, this is a golden site. Normally, I order all my comic book trades over at Amazon. However, after I had a falling out with Amazon this summer (sold me a softcover when It was displayed as a Hardcover), and their recent change to $35 for free shipping, I figured it was a good time to look around for a “better” website. The good friends at reddit pointed me in the right direction with Instocktrades. It has all comic book trades for so cheap! 45% off, 50% off, and sometimes more! The catch is, it’s US only, and you need to have $50 in your cart, to get free shipping, which seems like a lot, but you can get SO MANY BOOKS for that. I actually put 8 trades of the New 52 in my cart, and it came down to about $63 total. That’s not even $10 per book! When put to the test with Amazon (which does sell the books cheaper than in store), I actually saved $21 on 5 books! I ordered last Wednesday night, and it shipped on Friday morning, and arrived yesterday (Tuesday) morning. Which I suppose depends more on where you live, but that’s still pretty fast (The package was also done very well). If you want to give a bulk of comics to someone, even something like an Omnibus, and live in the US, check out Instocktrades!
Trail of Diana Prince:
Okay, back to my groovy comic news, let’s take a quick second to talk about “Man of Steel 2”. The way I feel about this movie, is that it isn’t a sequel to Man of Steel, but a prequel to Justice League. An actress was given the role for Wonder Woman in this film, and it really has made the internet explode. I can’t remember if this amount of hype and casting problems came out for The Avengers. It really feels like DC is “forcing” this film to us. Like they’re saying “Hey DC fans, here’s our ‘Holy Trinity’, please give us 5times the money you gave Marvel for The Avengers!” All over the internet, people are saying “DC doesn’t get it” or, “DC hates woman” or something along those lines. That’s just my thoughts on the matter. It feels forced, and there’s a lot of pressure on this film. Ignoring Marvel for a second, there’s a lot of eyes watching the process of this film. Man of Steel got mostly positive reviews (It does have some dumb moments, interesting, yet very underdeveloped characters, and a large ending with no shown consequences.), so when they announced a sequel, it was only natural. Suddenly, Batman’s going to be in it, and then, they reveal who’s going to be the actor. And now, the same thing is happening with Wonder Woman. I don’t have a problem as of now, with the cast, but I really can’t see how they’ll fit all of this into a 2 hour film, while still centering it on Superman (after all, he’s the title character). Which is why I feel it’s a prequel to Justice League, rather than a sequel to MoS.
When it was just Batman, I could see it working. Batman is promised to be established in this universe, and would be the Batman from the comics (not the Dark Knight, Batman). Batman as a detective, and Bruce Wayne as a business man, it could fit into the plot naturally, with Bruce coming to Metropolis on business, and Batman coming to investigate something strange, or whatever. But Wonder Woman? No disrespect to WW, but how is she going to work without her own film, or some back story? Batman is a bit easier, if you know Batman, you know his back story: His parents died when he was a kid, promised justice, became a bat to fight crime, uses his company to fund his super heroism. Even if the details have changed over the years, and under different writers, it’s pretty much the same thing. But Wonder Woman isn’t like that. She’s an Amazon, peaceful female only warriors that live on an a hidden island, and they live in a Greek-era. Wonder Woman, AKA Diana Prince, is the princess to the Amazons. How can you work that into MoS? In the comics, the Amazon believe man is corrupt, and that’s why they don’t venture into “Man’s World”.
So a pilot, Steven Trevor, crashes into this island, and the Amazons decide to escort him back to where he came from. Diana, AKA Wonder Woman gets this job, and that’s how she ends up here.
Tacos and Coffee? Yuck
Thing about Wonder Woman for me is, she usual isn’t a very strong stand alone character. Now don’t misunderstand me, she’s fantastic, and powerful, and has a very rich upbringing, and culture and history. I LOVE Greek Mythology, so a character that could not only fight invading aliens, but fight people like Ares? That’s badass. But how many writers has she ever had? How many incarnations of Wonder Woman have there ever been? How many times have you seen a Wonder Woman graphic novel on the level of popularity with Batman: Year One, or Superman: Red Son, or something like that? EVERYWHERE online, people battle and fight, how no men, or how women, don’t know how to write Wonder Woman. I think people know how to write her, they just don’t know where to take her. Which is why I believe the New 52 Wonder Woman is so popular. I don’t think it’s as “Godly” as people make it to be. IT’S GOOD, don’t get me wrong, beautiful art, great story telling, very entertaining, I really like it. BUT, I feel like people make it out to be much better than what it really is, because they actually have a plan for Wonder Woman (for now anyway), and because they want the chance to make Wonder Woman top notch. In other words, “We need to show people Wonder Woman is awesome. So read this because it’s current and flawless.” Again, the current run isn’t bad, I just think it’s being made over rated. So how fitting is it, that Grant Morrison’s, Wonder Woman’s Earth One title, is called The Trial of Diana Prince. As Grant said, Wonder Woman, Diana, Women in general, are always on trail. That’s so true, and this is so timely (why I love Grant <3).
My point in all this is, introducing Wonder Woman into this film, isn’t easy. He origin has been changed, and is different from others. They can’t just throw her in like Batman, and expect it to work. You need to build a strong foundation for this character, or it’s going to fail. That’s my point. And I feel like this is what DC is going to do: “Hey, you guys know Wonder Woman right? Here you go, she’s fighting in Metropolis for reasons you don’t need to know about! Money please!” I’m fairly sure the only reason why everyone is really making a big deal about Wonder Woman in film, is because of the lack of superheroes in film. In Marvel’s The Avengers, all we really have is Black Widow, which is obviously just…..well, If you see it, you know. That isn’t to say she was unhelpful, or useless, but compare Black Widow, to her version in the Cartoon “Earth’s Mightiest Heroes”. Black Widow there, KICKS ASS. She’s a spy, she’s a fighter, she’s a tactician. And it’s not like Marvel doesn’t have any other females. Captain Marvel (formally Ms.Marvel), is a strong, interesting character, that is a huge part of the Marvel universe. They’re being smart by using Scarlett Witch for The Avengers 2, but still, besides the point. The point i’m making is, as of now, we don’t have a female superhero that the plot can focus on for a while, and she does something that amazes everyone, which adds pressure to Wonder Woman and this film. But I guess I should cut myself off here, since there are over a million other sites, and blogs who can dissect this a lot better than I can.
I’m a DC Fanboy
I suppose now is a good time to address something: Why do I love DC comics so much? To starts, I love comics in general, but now, as of right now, DC Comics are the only one’s appealing to me. I LOVE Marvel, trust me, I grew up with Spider-Man and Wolverine and Hulk. But now, Marvel has done something that just makes me furious: Killing Peter Parker. WAIT, there’s more! Spider-Man is alive, but it’s not Peter Parker. You know what I’m referring to, if not, see Superior Spider-Man. I know it’s stupid or biased, but I don’t care how good the series, or Marvel itself is now. It could be godly; but as long as Peter Parker is dead, I will not read any modern Marvel comics. I’ve read Infinity this summer, but other than that, I’m off Marvel. I’m still all for 90’s Marvel and prior, but everything else is horrible to me. That being said, I REALLY do want to read the new Hawkeye, and Captain Marvel, so I hope Marvel fixes that for me soon.
Every other comic publisher, doesn’t quite appeal to me now. Comics like Saga, or Lazarus or Sex or Trillum, doesn’t appeal to me. I hear how good they are, how fantastic, and Indie they are, but I don’t care. The story doesn’t interest me, and it doesn’t reel me in. Right now, outside of DC, i’m just reading IDW’s TMNT trades, and Image’s Invincible’s trades. As much as I LOVE comics, and reading them, right now, I don’t care for all these new and indie comics. There are some series I want to wait to read them all, like Dark Horse’s Star Wars. It might just be a current thing, where I see new comics as too “hipster” and at the same time “mainstream” but that’s how I see it for now. So I guess I am a DC fanboy for now.
Weekly Spoilers:
Here’s the weekly section where I talk about current news and what’s in my Snes-Bag of comics this week. I finally buckled down from Instocktrades and got Batman R.I.P, Crisis on Infinite Earths, Identity Crisis, Infinite Crisis and Final Crisis. 5 amazing books that I will be reading this week, and I am excited to do so. I’ll also be picking up Grant Morrison’s Action Comics Vol.2 in TP. So they didn’t have Vol. 2, and instead, I picked up Mara, a graphic novel from Image, and Grant Morrison’s “Batman: Arkham Asylum”.
In case you’re curious, I have read Fables Vol. 1 that I picked up last week. I’ll eventually do a more in depth review of it, but a quick overview is, I have a mixed bag of feelings about it. While I mostly and overall enjoyed it, there are parts that I didn’t care for, or thought were bland and dull. It’s good enough where I am going to pick up Vol.2, but it’s nothing fantastic.
In some news, The Batman team has announced that #28 will be a sneak peak issue at future Gotham, that ties into next year’s Batman: Eternal. As much as I’m all for finishing up Zero Year, I’m a bit upset that it’s literally one issue away from ending, and they decide to “take a break”. It’s one issue, I understand the pressure as a writer, and with your artist, but it’s one more issue, i’d just pull together and finish it up, but in either case, issue #28 looks promising, especially with that image of what appears to be a new character, that slightly resembles Nightwing. Harper Row?
And hey, a new writer for Red Hood and the Outlaws! It’s interesting how people actually want Scott Lobdell BACK on the series. Lobdell isn’t a terrible writer, he has fantastic ideas, but doesn’t know how to run on all 4 wheels. I haven’t read RHatO, but I hear it’s appealing enough that it’s worth reading.
Justice League 3000 also FINALLY launches! After some trouble and delay’s, we finally get the obvious question answered: What happened? If it wasn’t for the…odd art, shown in the preview a few weeks back, I’d be very excited about this title; but i’m not. Save for, is that Wally West as the Flash?!
Superman/Wonder Woman #3 appears on shelves today as well! Guest staring Batman! Could this show how MoS 2 could handle having all three?
Sherlock Holmes: Moriarty Lives #1 (of 5) from Dynamite comics is also out! Could this hold over until the New Year’s showing of BBC’s Sherlock?
Marvel Knight’s: Hulk is also out this week. I can’t say too much about the current Hulk title, but the art is a turn off for myself. Maybe a mini-series Hulk will fare better?
And of course, TV’s Arrow, is closing into it’s mid-season finale. Why do show’s feel the need to have a mid-season finale? Just show the show, stop flinging us around! With Barry Allen finally here, what of the future of the Flash TV show?
That’s about it for now!
Coming Soon: Countdown to War of Light!
COMIC BOOK HERETIC 