Suffice to say that people love Wonder Woman right now — and what’s not to love? She’s one of the best superheroes ever! — so I’m here to show what’s currently available for the Wonder Woman fan in all of us!

Mattel Wonder Woman Fashion Doll Assortment — £14.99 each. Age 6+
The most powerful Amazon Warrior returns to protect mankind! These stunning, highly detailed 12″ fashion figures celebrate her new movie and feature iconic clothing, weapon accessories, and poseable arms and legs for action battles and dynamic display. You can choose Wonder Woman™ in her eagle-adorned battle suit with headdress, Lasso of Truth and golden armament, or her alter ego Diana Prince in an elegant blue evening gown with classic boots and pulled back hair – concealing her infamous sword.

Mattel Wonder Woman Deluxe Fashion Doll Assortment — £19.99. Age 6+
Bow-Wielding Wonder Woman Doll features Princess Diana wearing her beach training outfit wielding an authentic working bow and arrow. Simply press the button on her back to launch the arrow. Prepare for battle, practice your aim and defeat the world’s enemies like the Super Hero herself! Shield Block Wonder Woman Doll features Wonder Woman in her iconic eagle encrusted outfit with shield, tiara, golden armbands, and kneeling defence action. When the doll’s body is pushed downward, she raises her arms in a shield block!

Funko Wonder Woman Movie Pop! Vinyl Figure — £12.99
The Amazon warrior princess known as Wonder Woman is about to take your collection by storm! From 2017’s Wonder Woman movie, comes this Pop! Vinyl Figure of our hero, Wonder Woman armed with her sword and a removable shield. The Wonder Woman Movie Pop! Vinyl Figure measures approximately 3 3/4-inches tall.

Funko Rock Candy Amazon Wonder Woman — £14.99
The warrior princess known as Wonder Woman is about to take your collection by storm! From 2017’s Wonder Woman movie, comes this Rock Candy version of the superhero in her Amazon outfit. The Wonder Woman Movie Version Rock Candy Vinyl Figure measures approximately 5-inches tall.

It’s fantastic that Mattel has jumped on board to create some truly stunning dolls for kids and collectors to enjoy and Funko’s dedication to the more adult market brings out a cutesy-yet-iconic pair of figurines that I’m sure people will love. These, along with more amazing official merchandise for the Wonder Woman can be find right now in most good retailers and online!

And, just like last year, I’m lucky enough to be taking a look at both sets of the brand new LEGO Superheroes Mighty Micros wave and we’re kicking off with the DC offerings!

Immediately, it’s nice to see a more varied selection of characters; having the Big Three represented is a good choice but also an eclectic selection of villains too! Speaking of eclectic…

BIZARRO LOVE SUPERMAN! It’s everyone’s favourite Kryptonian son and his evil(?) twin! This is a fantastic set in concept and it really pays off!

Superman and Bizarro are perfect mirrors of each other, Supes being all perfect and Bizarro looking grim as anything, and that even extends to them coming with their opposite number’s particular flavour of kryptonite poisoning!

Now, I was all ready to not like this set due to Superman’s kart being a plain-jane plane with fists on it but because Bizarro’s is the exact same vehicle but BACKWARDS — I’m instantly sold! It’s a clever idea that I wholly approve of.

Batman’s back (Go see The LEGO Batman Movie, I hear it’s really good!) and this time he’s battling a odd choice of villain but one he’s faced in a set I reviewed previous; Killer Moth!

Killer Moth isn’t just a downsize of his previous minifigure. I mean, he IS, but he’s also looking comically simplified like he’s straight out of the Batman ‘66 series. Which is funny because there’s a definite Adam West vibe from this Batman. Between the light grey and blue costume and his vehicle, I do get a retro vibe.

Killer Moth rides in a bug-mobile that’s more mosquito than moth but it’s goofy-looking and neon-coloured so I naturally love it but I’m also a big fan of the understated Batman ‘66 homage with the black and red helicopter. It’s a much more interesting set for Batman than last years, that’s for sure!

Rounding off DC’s trinity, we have Wonder Woman fighting Doomsday! Why not Ares or Circe? Probably the same reason for Hulk vs. Ultron last year, because it was part of a big movie!

Wonder Woman, like everyone else, is made up in a simplistic rendition of her iconic costume, decked out with a sword and shield and a cocky grin. Doomsday, meanwhile, looks utterly ridiculous with his bone neck beard and brown cudgel.

Doomsday’s vehicle is suitably chunky and covered in spikes and teeth and fire in his signature colours. Wonder Woman is riding in her invisible jet! It’s got wheels on! I like the idea but the execution is a bit lacking. I wonder how much it would add to cast all of the jet parts in clear plastic so you don’t have the design interrupted by the ugly grey bricks. Still, it’s a fantastic idea!

Unlike the previous assortment, where I only recommended the Flash/Captain Cold set, I think each of these two-packs have their own merits and I recommend every one of them if you’re a big fan of the characters involved! The LEGO DC Comics Superheroes Mighty Micros retail for £8.99 each and are available in stores and online!

I have gone on record numerous times on this website that I have a problem with how Warner Brothers portrays their super heroes and how they’re handling their franchise. There is a reek of desperation about their need to catch up with Marvel’s success but you can’t fast-track what Marvel have accomplished. Especially with the gloomy movies DC have been making.

Zack Snyder is directing again so I’m not thrilled going in to this but the cast is pretty great with Affleck and Gadot returning along with the debuts of Jason Momoa, Ezra Miller, and Ray Fisher.

– Aquaman

Jason Momoa is cool as balls and I don’t understand why he doesn’t get more work. I hear he can be difficult on set, and that’s fair enough, but I think it’s a good trade off.

This scene is silly. Like, King Tide? He’s says that like it’s a thing. And isn’t it kinda messed up if Aquaman is delivering his buddies to be eaten every winter? Wouldn’t he be against eating fish? I don’t know.

– Wonder Woman

Once again, she doesn’t get to feature much in a trailer (although I suppose having her own makes up for that) but her interaction here is fun and a nice breath of fresh air considering what BvS was like.

– The Flash

What’s this? A happy person in a Warner Bros super hero movie? Surely it can not be! Ezra Miller is a pretty cool actor and often goes intense/weird with his performances so it should be interesting to see what he does with this.

I’m slightly confused why the lightning effects are necessary when he literally just steps out of the way. I understand they are part of his power but I always thought they were a result of him moving so fast and building up so much friction and static electricity.

Also, why is Bruce using his Batman voice out of the suit? That seems unnecessary.

– Cyborg

Blink and you’ll miss him. Cyborg almost takes on The Flash’s abilities he’s so quick to disappear in this trailer.

I understand he’s not as big a name as the other guys but still… it’s glaring how little they care about him. Who is he? What are his powers? We hear both about Aquaman and Flash, why not Cyborg? #WhyNotCyborg

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Overall: It’s nice that they had a more upbeat feel to the trailer but at the end of the day, I don’t know who or what they’re fighting and I don’t know anything of the plot other than Bruce Wayne is trying to find friends. That trailer was a bit of fun but it didn’t really sell me on anything.

Okay, DC… You got me. After the debacle that was Man of Steel and the awfulness that was Batman v Superman; I was ready to write DC off all together but as this year’s San Diego Comic Con has shown… Maybe there’s still some hope for the world’s most iconic heroes and who better to bring that hope than Wonder Woman?

She’s Beauty, She’s Grace…

Holy cow, Gal Gadot is gorgeous! Maybe I didn’t see it in BvS because the movie was bad and the promo shots of her weren’t fantastic but seeing this lady in motion sends my heart aflutter. Whether in her finest gown (with matching sword) or on the battlefield, Gal exudes femininity like a physical aura of awesome.

… She’ll kick you in the face.

And lady knows how to beat an ass or two, that’s for damn sure! While traditionally a peaceful emissary for the Amazons, Diana is no stranger to combat and she certainly gets to show that with multiple shots of swordplay, close combat, lasso tricks and taking heavy machine gun fire like a champ!

Secret Origins

This line is pretty indicative of the way they could be going with Diana’s origin and that’s great. Because she’s had, like, six in her 75 years of publication and having one of the more mythical ones is a good step. Unless that’s just the story Hippolyta (Diana’s mother) told her… Which would also be interesting!

Take me down to the Paradise City…

Diana’s people, the Amazons, inhabit the hidden island of Themyscira (aka Paradise Island) and we get a nice few shots of the island, it’s people and their culture and I’m getting a very Thor-ish vibe from it.

Pine-ing for Fjords

Chris Pine is Steve Trevor; first man to set foot on Themyscira/Paradise Island and designated damsel for the movie. Pine’s a good choice because while he is charming, he can also play clueless and inept for laughs equally well. Which is another thing…

Candy is Dandy

There’s HUMOUR! Oh glorious gods of Olympus; there are jokes in a DC movie! Etta Candy (Lucy Davis) is Steve’s secretary and one of Diana’s closest human friends. Great to see a long neglected character get some real screen time.

To say I’m excited would be an understatement. Sure, Wonder Woman appears to be aping Marvel’s earlier outings with Thor and Captain America but is that a really bad thing? Given how dire MoS and BvS were; DC are clearly going for a more Marvelous approach and just look at the response on social media – people are responding positively to it! People are hyped for Wonder Woman and I’ll gladly count myself among that crowd!

Wonder Woman will be spinning into theatres June 2nd 2017! Be sure to keep your eyes glued to Doom though because Aaron will be looking at something in a whole different League!

That’s not necessarily what I got…

– I Am The Bat

The whole opening sequence of Batman fighting criminals in a warehouse rings very true. It’s the first time since footage first hit for this movie that I felt like I’ve seen any real Batman moments. I think Ben will do a great job of his part.

– I See You

Aaron, you’re just posting pictures of Ben Affleck’s face. Yes, but I’m doing it for a reason (other than an excuse to stare in to those beautiful eyes). This trailer is almost entirely from Bruce Wayne’s point of view. It represents the film as a Batman movie that features Superman. For some reason this is the first trailer I’ve seen for BvS:DoJ that has interested me at all and I believe it is because of that choice. Well played.

– Now Spin Around And Change Into Your Costume!

She finally speaks! But only in a cocktail dress… Warner Bros (emphasis on the Bros) has some issues, man.

– …

… alright, damn it, you have my attention.

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OVERALL: Isn’t it amazing the difference a good trailer can make? The right music, the right tone, the right footage can all turn around the public’s feelings towards a film. There was previously no chance of me ever watching Batman v Superman. Now? Well, they’ve at least upgraded me to intrigued.

I guess it’s true, time does fly when you’re having fun.
I can’t believe it’s been a year already.

Thanks to everybody who has encouraged me to start this and to keep running with it.
And thanks to everyone who has stopped in and taken a peek and hopefully at some point, somewhere, at some time, some of these silly shenanigans made you smile for a second or two (but not three, I don’t want to be greedy).
And if you actually liked these sort of things YOU’RE IN LUCK! Because there will be plenty more a-comin’!

Note: I wrote this about a month ago and because of scheduling problems (read: laziness) I never posted it. Issue 13 didn’t really change much about my feelings. They still treat Steve Trevor like crap, all of the characters are written strangely, if not poorly, and despite a fairly entertaining story, I find myself not caring at all about DC’s flagship title.

After a year’s worth of books, (the zero issue doesn’t really count because its about Captain Marvel/Shazam) I have a few of problems with this new version of the Justice League that Lee, Didio, Harras, and Johns have given us. The book is still fairly young, nearly in it’s adolescence in terms of comic bookery, I suppose, but when it’s their most popular book, the most important to the new 52, and they still manage to burn a few panels an issue making a dumb joke or referencing a Martian Manhunter fight that seemed painfully irrelevant and a wasted use of character, I feel that I have a foothold to complain. Don’t get me wrong, its been an entertaining book. Lee draws some damn pretty comic books, the first six issues were pretty damn solid as far as a team introduction, and the narrative hasn’t been lacking for action or effort, but there are still quite a few problems.

They’re still not a team:

I thought the entire idea behind starting Justice League 5 years in the past was to establish how they all met and became the League, but we find out that they still are immature and don’t really realize what their doing. Aquaman even says in issue 12 “It’s time to be the team they thought we were instead of the team we’ve been these last five years.” What was the point of introducing Darkseid if not to make them a team? What was the point in referencing Manhunter “testing” them if not to make them a team? You could have done this conflict in issue 6 and saved everyone a lot of forced drama. Apparently, at some point the league decided that Batman was in charge, cool, that’s fine, he’s the smartest one there so he should act as the general. However, how they’ve decided to portray everyone is completely contrary to this. The characters that are written in this book would not have voted for Batman to lead them now, let alone 5 years ago when they had just formed.

Wonder Woman + Superman:

I don’t know. It doesn’t really affect the story at all. It just was a very forced romance, and a very forced move. Like much of the “big events” in the new DCU, they’re trying to create sensation without building up a story at all.

The relationship between Batman/Superman and the world has always been one of good cop/bad cop and in this new universe it has become aloof cop/detached cop, completely negating the friendship and relationship that they had.

Superman works best as a character when he is that boy scout, when he is entirely alien and uncomfortably powerful but his soul and everything that drives him is more human than any other hero or character in the universe. He needs to have that attachment and desire to help his fellow man, because Superman was never the man, Superman was the mask that Clark Kent, the human, used to be a hero. Its something that has been explored in every great Superman story, its currently being explored alongside Justice League in Action Comics and even in the Superman main title, but that whole plot idea is ignored in this book.

Conversely, Batman has been written best when he is detached, driven, and possessed by his crusade. He is, at his core, oriented to the pursuit of justice to the point of self-destruction. He operates in shadows and removes himself from the world, wearing the mask of Bruce Wayne because he no longer identifies himself as properly human. Even the “family” that he surrounds himself with is kept at a great distance because affection is so unnatural to him. His desires and his purposes are higher, and it is an effort for him to put on a show of normal. Again, in counterpoint to Clark, Bruce is the mask that Batman uses to be “human”.

Superman and Batman’s friendship was compelling because Superman was the boy scout who knew without a doubt that Batman, a man who fought using fear as a weapon could be trusted implicitly. Batman, on the other hand, knew that while Superman was an alien and powerful enough to destroy the world and everyone in it, he was the one person who would never do that because his entire being was so grounded in compassion and honesty. They both distrusted the rest of the league for various reasons, but they never truly doubted each others resolve to be good.

In this new version of the league, there is a shadow of that relationship. The DC powers-that-be have decided to maintain Batman and Superman’s friendship, but alter the individuals to the point where it doesn’t work anymore. Yes, we are missing 5 years of history that this new DC timeline has hopscotched for the sake of storytelling, but the league is very different. Superman isn’t the moral compass of the League, he examines everyone else, afraid to let them know him (except for Batman). Instead, Batman has become that morality, the humanity of the team. Their roles have been reversed, or at the very least both steadily pulled into the intervening gray area between their once polar characteristics in a massive divergence of each character’s core conception.

The rest of the league is largely there as space filler:

In a complete relaunch, there could have been a massive move made to restructure the social power of each of the characters, but they have all nearly become the least compelling and least effective versions that they could be. (These are not my opinion of a perfect character, but just ideas that might have at least given some variance to the old model).

Cyborg:

Cyborg was great when he was a member of Teen Titans, but he’s never been a particularly compelling character on his own. I’m still not sure why they chose him to be in the league or what role he’s intended to play but I haven’t seen really anything of significance from him yet. There are plenty of roles that he could have played within the league: he could have been the voice of youth, acting as a conduit for introduction and explanation, or he could have been the moral compass when the others are jaded and overconfident. Instead he receives a watered down version of Superman’s regular story where he is struggling with his humanity. They could have even taken his machine nature a bit further, trying some legitimately interesting scientific concepts (that Marvel is doing quite well all of the time these days) making his consciousness digitally transferable, commenting on his nearly infinite processing ability which would make him think and analyze battle faster than the Flash, or giving him the ability to create, interface directly, and/or control any number of machines with his incredible knowledge. That would have been at least interesting, but he just coldly makes remarks about being relatively omnipotent and proceeds to be surprised/defeated by a sadness monster.

I really don’t understand why they expect anybody to care about Cyborg or his subplot when he is the only League member who doesn’t have his own book and therefore doesn’t have any of the back story necessary for any emotional connection.

Green Lantern:

Johns’ Green Lantern has been growing steadily more disappointing over the past few years. He took the spirit of Hal Jordan, the one that made a regular man worthy of the power of the ring and at every opportunity made him seem like a (for lack of a more accurate term) assbag. Hal was never encumbered by an overwhelming desire for planning, which was his greatest flaw, and he would rush into a situation without heed of why or what he was going to do, but he did so because the idea of sitting back and not taking action against an enemy was offensive to him. To Jordan, inaction was the greatest sin.

However, Johns has transformed that impetuousness and misdirected chivalry into a rampant egotism and suppressed self-loathing that makes Hal oppressively dislikable. They tried to redeem him in issue 12 and they might have succeeded if it wasn’t such a late effort. Hal takes on the “hero we deserve, not the one we need” mantle from The Dark Knight and takes the blame for the league in-fighting, but he does an insubstantial reason, with no allowance of discussion, and which makes no mention of the 4 other Earth-based Green Lanterns that already protect Earth and the sector.

Flash:

Flash, for the most part, has remained solid. I’m not a fan of them writing out Wally West, even though I see the logic behind the move on a creative level, but Barry Allen as an individual has remained very strong and has even improved through the reboot. The Barry/Iris relationship is gone and replaced tenuously by a Barry/Patty Spivot relationship which I guess makes just as much sense and affects the character on the same emotional level without having to bring in Wally, and he still cracks the same jokes and brings a good amount of sanity to the team. The character, though, is much more focused on the forensic analyst and detective this time around, which seems redundant for the league that has Batman, Cyborg as a techno-forensic-analyst, Superman as an investigative journalist, and Green Lantern who is also a galactic police officer (with whom he is friends for vague, unsubstantial reasons).

All of this is irrelevant, however, as for most of his page appearances he is relegated to the fast, funny guy for the team with the on-page depth of a potato, albeit a very quick potato.

Wonder Woman:

Possibly the most disappointing secondary member of the league, mostly because her appearances and role in the book have been used as a development tool for Steve Trevor. In the first few books, every character has their bad-ass first appearance moments, but then were all put backstage while Batman and Superman did all the hard thinking and had all of the interesting conversations. For a character that was raised on a magic island with an army of warrior women and who has fought with and against gods and other supernatural weirdos on the regular, you would think that her opinion would be more important. What happened to the Trinity?

It is fairly wonderful when the most powerful and significant female presence in the entire DC universe, possibly the most prominent female superhero in existence, and possibly the only prominent one that has been (at times) portrayed as a sexually ambivalent entity is, in the flagship book, completely viewed in relation to a man/men. And even when she leaves that man in issue 12 for almost entirely selfish reasons, she immediately moves on to Superman with whom there was extremely sparse relational history for no reason other than super-powered loneliness. She clearly has already experienced the events from her main title, because she knows that Zeus is her father, but she has also clearly forgotten everything that makes her character strong in that book. Johns doesn’t seem to know what to do with her, remembering her strength only when she needs to punch something and completely abandoning the character’s willingness to stand up to her entire nation, including a number of gods, for the sake of justice.

Steve Trevor:

Steve does only slightly better than Wonder Woman, having been given some fairly good character moments in his own right and already displaying more moral fortitude and strength than anyone in the actual league during the issues where he was captured/tortured. I actually care about this Steve Trevor who was nearly non-existent in the pre-reboot DCU. Fair play to Johns & Co. for writing him well, but they quickly rectified that good move by moving him to another book.

Aquaman:

DC almost fooled me. They almost made me believe that Aquaman was going to matter in the new DCU. Sure, in his individual book he is pretty awesome. He gets stuff done while bearing the weight of the entire world while everyone (including his former aqua-squad teammates) seems to dislike him. However, in this issue 12, which was widely advertised as “Aquaman steps up and takes charge” he gets berated and insulted by pretty much every single league member in the immediate area. Aquaman taking charge amounted to him putting his name in the hat for being the leader and being immediately and very patronizingly denied that opportunity. He seem to have been doing the superhero gig longer than anyone else in the league. He even has a dark past where he beat up ocean-themed enemies with a team of artifact-laden super pals. Cool. At every turn, Johns has consistently shown us that public opinion and even the opinion that the rest of the league has of him is still that of a joke while simultaneously Johns is trying to convince us that he is everything but. His joke-superhero reputation doesn’t seem to be based on anything but non-comic book preconceptions by the general public and the writers are doing nothing to try to change this by making jabs about talking to fish.

Aquaman has been seen as useless in past years because he has been written that way, he was never given the positive modern reworking that Batman, The Flash, or Wonder Woman was given (or attempted). Very few arcs in his nearly 72 year career have garnered significant acclaim and even great writers like Kurt Busiek and Peter David were only able to have minor revivals before experiencing sharp declines in quality. Instead of a proper story trying to re-imagine the character (its worked for Namor, it can work for Arthur Curry) he was given silly themed pets, a hook hand, and a beard. He doesn’t have that anymore. He’s interesting. He’s useful. They need to stop writing him as a burden and using him well.

Actually, my biggest problem in about Aquaman is that one man can create two very different versions of the same character, in the same universe, at the same time, and not seem to realize he’s doing it. New DCU Arthur Curry feels far too much like old DCU Hal Jordan. Maybe Johns is only good with one character model.

I get it. Batman and Superman are the most popular characters and are, in turn, going to get the best character moments and do the coolest things, but after 12 issues of the league standing around and talking about how awesome they all are, the most significant things anyone else has done is to watch admiringly at Bats & Supes, saying “Look how good he thinks!” or “Look how hard he can punch!” while fighting secondary baddies.

Have I mentioned that I hate that Superman doesn’t walk anymore?

The future of the series:

The hints at the end of issue 12 don’t leave me much hope for the book to improve.

• Amanda Waller might be my least favorite character in all of DC Comics. She is an entirely unlikable version of Nick Fury who operates under the sole assumption that the best backup plan is to find a way to kill everyone that can actually help. Her appearance gives me only apprehension.
• Apparently Gary Frank is taking over drawing duties until David Finch steps in, or at least that’s what it looks like. I should really read the news more.
• Wonder Woman and the rest of the league, if not written poorly, should never have a problem subduing someone like Cheetah.
• Aquaman is going to decide to try to save the world on his own with the Atlanteans, or he’s just going to attack the world Namor-style because nobody will take him seriously.
• I’m slightly interested to see the proper introduction of Captain Marvel …Shazam into the universe but I haven’t liked how much of a little jerk that they’ve been writing Billy as.
• A dangerous JLA? I’m glad that Manhunter is being brought into the fold, And Hawkman and Green Arrow are always good parts of the team. I love Stargirl being in there, but I wonder at her role because she was drawn sans-cosmic staff. I can even understand putting Steve Trevor and the new Green Lantern Baz in there, but you don’t need Catwoman on this team, you don’t need Katana on this team and you certainly don’t need Goggles McCrouchstare (Vibe) over in the corner…wasn’t he dead a couple times.

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By the way, I call the Martian Manhunter fight irrelevant for a few reasons.

1. The flashback fight carries no importance, because we know that they beat him (kinda…at least they survive).
2. It would have been much better served as each of them meeting him separately, being beaten by him and them all having to fight him together later to realize that they need to work together. They could have actually used Manhunter as a Justice League proving ground.
3. The fight has no importance, because we know he’s not actually a bad guy (see: Stormwatch).
4. If it was a test by the Manhunter of the league’s preparedness to be the league, why would he only test them once?
5. Manhunter was always misused on the league because he was essentially a green Superman who could shapeshift. His main difference being one of the very few telepaths in the DCU. Instead of making him a villain, they could easily have changed up his power set and made him the watcher in the tower who coordinates their attacks. I don’t like an agressive, hostile J’onn J’onzz

All images were pulled through Google. None are my own scans of the comic.

In my last review I made a big deal about a lot of the arbitrary changes made to Green Arrow’s character and mythos and how they added very little to either the narrative or character. Similarly, a lot of fans became polarized by Brian Azzarello’s Wonder Woman because of a specific change to Diana’s backstory, mainly the circumstances of her birth and her relationship with her mother that follows therefrom. But unlike the changes in Green Arrow, this change actually informs the character, makes the story more interesting, more dynamic, and invigorates it with life and nuance. It gives a staid and well-trodden character somewhere new to go, rather than, say, retread older, better stories all over again. Without it, Wonder Woman has no thematic parallel to the story being told and no deeper motivation to see her mission through.

Some could make the case that this alters Wonder Woman’s character in a way that won’t be appealing to all readers, especially long time Wonder Woman fans. To their credit, Diana is a lot angrier in this book, more dispassionate — more attuned with her Amazon roots, I would argue — and the change I mentioned only exacerbates these qualities. But this is a younger Wonder Woman, as well, one more disconnected with mortals and their less violent, more introspective foibles, so, on a character level, I think these things can be forgiven. Nevertheless, for anyone used to Wonder Woman’s character as it was prior to the reboot, this book may be a tough sell, but, to Brian Azzarello’s credit, at least he’s using the relaunch as an excuse to do something new, something we haven’t seen before with this character. But enough of that, on to the book at hand.

Well, what’s there to say about Wonder Woman? Amazon, ass kicker, spirit of Truth, and foremost superheroine of the DC universe. Indeed, we waste no time with introductions as this book leaps straight into the action:

Zola, a woman living in isolation somewhere in Virginia, receives a sudden visit from the Messenger of the Gods, Hermes himself, informing her that she is not only pregnant, but pregnant with a child of Zeus. Immediately, two centaurs beset them and Hermes teleports Zola away, away to the home of Diana Themyscira, who, upon hearing Zola’s story, agrees to help her, rescuing Hermes, and whisking the two away to Themyscira itself, Paradise Island. Elsewhere, the gods plot and scheme, pondering matters beyond the bastard of their father god. Matters of succession. Matters of right. Matters of blood.

As the volume’s subtitle, Blood, implies, thematically this book is about family. The ties that bind, drawing people relentlessly together despite their efforts to forge their own path. Every conflict in the book revolves around these ties — the old grudges, the allegiances, the days long past both fond and foul. On a personal level, we see Diana confront her mother Hippolyta with lies and secrets hidden for decades, a fantastical conflict born out of a genuine emotional kernel: What happens when you realize a parent is something more than they appear, something more insidious and challenging to your personal ethos? And how do you react when you realize their blood flows in your veins as well?

As 100 Bullets stands to prove, Brian Azzarello knows how to craft an intricate, well plotted, and irresistibly intriguing story. From the very first moments when the headless bodies of two horses explode into mighty centaurs in wicked, bloody fashion, it is difficult to tear one’s attention away from this book. And like 100 Bullets, as the various factions (here, the gods and goddesses) reveal themselves, hints at multitude plots and conspiracies being woven by numerous players, each seeking the throne of Zeus, emerge. As such, this volume is mainly concerned with introducing the players themselves who will no doubt serve larger roles later in the story. Long time Wonder Woman villains Ares and Hades make only brief appearances before retreating into their own maniacal webs.

Indeed, the biggest criticism I can level at this book stems from how much it’s “written for the trade” — hell, one could say it’s written for the omnibus. Character development comes slim in each issue, and, even in this collection of the first six issues, the characters only just begin to take form. Not that big a deal given how little backstory and development need to be covered with Wonder Woman herself, but the supporting cast feels a bit lacking. However, this doesn’t read so much as a “lack” of character but, rather, like Brian Azzarello is keeping his cards close to his chest, eeking out fragments of the characters’ hidden depths slowly, deliberately. Zola alludes to her past, showing very little, but what hints we get aren’t pleasant: an abusive father, no other family to speak of, anonymous encounters with multiple men (to the point she doesn’t even remember sleeping with Zeus, the friggin’ king of the gods!), and she seems to take the news of her pregnancy with a demigod and impending murder at the behest of a goddess in stride.

In lieu of deep characterization we get ACTION! Big, bold, bloody, and brutal. DC’s interpretation of the Greek mythos, like many modern interpretation, is largely sanitized, lacking the grit and gore of the classical myths. Myths which largely focused on enormous men beating each other crimson and screwing anything that moves in a whirlwind of passion, rage, and sweat. Azzarello takes that old depiction, the safe and wholesome Greek lore, and tosses it in the bin, giving us something more akin to old myths, the grim and gritty myths. The gods are gods and humans merely playthings to them as we see Apollo casually obliterate three women in the first issue.

Artwork by Cliff Chiang and Tony Akins is a particular highlight among the New 52 titles, nicely stylized without deforming into the cartoonish, able to blend the real and the fantastical seamlessly. Their designs for the gods build on simple iconography evocative of both role and stature: Apollo the sun god, coal black in the night, explodes with the first rays of sunlight, shedding light on the world and the myriad plots taking form about it. And for a book calling for action, Chiang and Akins deliver with fearsome impacts of swords, arrows, and fists. Blood runs through more than veins here and colors by Matthew Wilson shine with every trickle, complementing the illustrations fantastically. This has to one of the most vibrantly illustrated and painted of DC’s current line.

Along with Batman, Wonder Woman is one of the most solid entries in the New 52 line, a beautiful blending of art and writing. A great starting point for new readers as well as something new for the longtime fans. All that’s required is an openness to change and patience enough to wait for the full story to take form.

The latest in DC’s direct to DVD animated features, Justice League: Doom is an adaptation of the JLA story arc ‘Tower of Babel’. It bears similarities to many of the previous animated outings of the Justice League, sharing the Lead Character Designer with Justice League: Crisis on Two Earths and Young Justice (Phil Bourassa) and it’s voice cast are synonymous with many of the characters depicted onscreen. Kevin Conroy, Tim Daly, Susan Eisenberg, Michael Rosenbaum, Nathan Fillion and many others do a wonderful job and deliver the performances we come to expect from them in these roles.

So what about the story? As I said before, this is an adaptation of the ‘Tower of Babel’ storyline and for the most part is faithful, while being adapted to better suit a 77-minute runtime. The story beats are much the same but the details are changed. For the most part, this works well but it does kind of suffer towards its ending. The scenes of the League being taken down one by one are some of the most tense and, dare I say, enjoyable of any animated outing to date and is the high point of the movie in my opinion, closely followed by Batman‘s realisation that it‘s his plans that have taken down the League.

The music feels fairly stock but hits all the right cues when it needs to. Animation is slick and fluid, as you’d expect if you’re familiar with Crisis and Young Justice and it’s just how I like it. The fight scenes have both grace and force to them.
This is the last written work of Dwayne McDuffie, who tragically died last year around this time. The film is dedicated to his memory.

It’s not the best of the DC Universe features but by no means the worst. More middle of the road but it’s word checking out both if you’re a fan of these films in general or a fan of Dwayne McDuffie. You can pick up Justice League: Doom on Single and Double-Disc DVD, as well as Blu-Ray on February 28th.

The day of the reboot has come. It was largely a disappointment, but I don’t really know anyone who was expecting it to be anything other than complete garbage.

I suppose I’ll start with the end, rather than the beginning.

Flashpoint #5
Written by GEOFF JOHNS
Art by ANDY KUBERT, SANDRA HOPE, and JESSE DELPERDANG

In a word…or three: I hate it.

This was a mess. Let me just start out by saying SPOILERS SPOILERS SPOILERS because if you don’t know the story and conclusion of Flashpoint, you’re going to in a second. Secondly, TERRIBLE TERRIBLE TERRIBLE because it was everything I really wished it wasn’t.

The buildup that started way back when with Flash #1 in June 2010 was actually very good and pretty interesting. Barry Allen of the future kills the Mirror Master because he was going to kill Iris or some such. It was actually the Top whose motivations are to stop his ancestor’s criminal record from getting him barred from becoming a time cop (which he already was) and some such that I don’t really remember but it was an interesting little mystery story. The end of that 6 issue arc referenced some changes to the timestream and some things going on that made it that led directly in to Flashpoint. Now, problem the first, the changes to the timestream seemed to be limited to Wonder Woman having a different costume, Darkseid sending Bruce back in time with the Omega effect, Lex Luthor meeting Death, Deadman with the White Lantern Ring, and what looked like the Dread Pirate Roberts fighting another pirate…not a lot that spells out “TIME DISASTER!” to me. Even if you take into account the mess that was Time Masters: Vanishing Point to try to explain everything, you only get the idea that Darkseid messed something up. None of the other items belong on that board really. Does a costume change really mean a glitch in the timesteam?

Now, I suppose we’re supposed to believe that there are two, distinct timelines being viewed here, or at least 2 of the 3 mentioned in Flashpoint #5. This, however, is unclear, because in a splashpage in #5, we see what looks to be the rebooted timeline (#1), the pre-reboot timeline (#2), and the Wildstorm timeline (which is not, in fact, a timeline but is apparently another universe of some sort) (#3). I must note that nowhere in this mix is the actual timeline created during Flashpoint (#4). So that leaves us with at least 5 “timelines” (including the broken one from Flash #6 from whence Hot Pursuit came) . This is either a gross oversight by the artist, poor planning, or evidence that they don’t know what the frak they’re doing.

To quell some argument: Yes, I’m being this picky. No, this isn’t being overly analytic of the comic because Flashpoint, JLA, The Flash, and Brightest Day are all written by the same man who has a responsibility to keep his damn story straight or let somebody else take the reigns.

TL;DR: It doesn’t make a lot of sense.

Now, the book itself. The issue is mostly a huge argument between Flash and Reverse Flash about how the Flash ruined everything by trying to change time. The entire reason for Flashpoint’s existence is explained pretty swiftly over two panels. Barry Allen was sad because he learned that Rev. Flash killed his mother in the past. In a flashback that we never actually saw in comic books and is referenced for the first time on page three here, we see The Flash go back in time to stop The Reverse Flash. Apparently, Allen did some hooba jooba with the Speed Force and caused a massive timesplosion that created the Flashpoint universe.

Now, to the weakest part of the story, the part where Eobard Thawne reveals that he’s an absolute dick. He wanted Barry to remember, he could do it at any time and make him suffer in the knowledge that he caused all this. He could have done that before Barry had the help of Batman and could have done it without anyone’s knowledge and thus made the entirety of Flashpoint obsolete (because, honestly, the end of the issue does that anyways).

Rev. Flash also pointedly states that he is now immune to time…apparently. Because of the fact that he was traveling through time when Barry changed it, the rules of time no longer apply to him. To make a point, THAT’S NOT HOW TIME TRAVEL WORKS! I get it, comic books have free reign over the laws of physics and the rules of the universe. The second you travel through time, you become immune to time travel. You create infinite alternate universes every instance that you step out of the normal stream of time.By the simple act of going back in time to kill someone, you would create a universe in which you kill them, while leaving the original completely untouched.

Thawne uses this new knowledge to beat the Flash to a bloody pulp (because The Flash, trained fighter with the Justice League, suddenly cannot fight worth a damn). He claims that he now has eternal double jeopardy for Barry Allen and there will never ever be any repercussions for killing him. However, Batman, once again proving to be the only effective hero in the DCU, Bat-impales him on his Bat-sword.

Some other stuff that doesn’t really matter happens. Superman/boy shows up and punches people, Flash runs really fast to stop himself from running really fast, and a creepy phantom lady head tells the Flash that he done messed up. Time hits the restart button, Barry wakes up and makes Bruce Wayne cry with a Bat-letter from his future/not-future daddy.

Rating: 5/10 (If only because Reverse Flash gets Bat-sword-ed)

FIN.

Justice League #1
Written by GEOFF JOHNS
Art by JIM LEE

Similarly messy to Flashpoint #5, was its progeny, Justice League #1.

Now, this story takes place 5 years prior to any of the events of the rest of the reboot. This doesn’t immediately condemn the story to being awful because you can do a few “how they met” episodes and I’ll be just fine. It didn’t bother me in Lost and it don’t bother me now if they want to show me how they first met. DC wants new fans and I won’t begrudge them the effort, but as a long-time fan, don’t expect me to fawn over another gorram origin story.

An origin story that feels terrifyingly similar to All-Star Batman & Robin. However, this is a story without the goddamn Batman and lemonade, this story has a dickish (but still kinda awesome) Batman and a jerkass Hal Jordan. It also reveals pre-Cyborg Vic Stone for 4 pages of awkward father issues, and a Superman that might need a high-five for hurtin’ the face of Johns’ baby GL. Still no sign of Wonder Woman or Aquaman, though I really quite liked the rejected sketch in the back of the issue with Aquaman’s crustacean armor.

In relation to the rest of the reboot, this book doesn’t tell us much. The world seems to be a bit more hostile to superheroes in general, which I’m ok about, I guess it explains why there are so many “covert-ops” teams in the 52. Hal seems to have a much better grasp on being a Green Lantern, which might make some interesting reading for the main GL series. Bruce is a bit of an ass (Jordan DID deserve it) but at the end of Flashpoint he seemed like an alright dude when talking to Barry. Does he soften up a bit in the 5 years between Justice League #1 and now? Does Damien warm his heart to the cold, cruel world? Do rhetorical questions ever solve anything? The answer to all is a big ol’ MAYBE.

Final Thoughts:
1) GCPD has some damn nice equipment. Gatling guns, at least three helicopters, state-of-the-art body armor and uniform decals, irrational prejudice, Stormtrooper-like aim, real karate chop action, etc.
2) WHY IS BATMAN PUNCHING THE BUILDING WITH HIS CAPE!?!?INTERROBANG?!?!
3) Alien’s fire-breath-thingy also seems to be fire-butt-thingy.
4) By removing Hal’s ring, did Batman realize that the fires all over Gotham aren’t being put out anymore.
5) Bonus: Hal Jordan’s ring constructs show a bit of imagination.
6) I get the feeling that the little boxy thingy that they pulled out of the wall is going to be a portal for Darkseid/Reverse Flash/anyone they want because its a plot loophole/Nekron to return and for Hal Jordan to get heroically whisked away into not-being-around-land.
7) I’m going to stencil “Hustle, Hit, Never Quit” on my wall.
8) Superman’s punch is strange to me. Its blue and red, so it must mean that he flew into Jordan. However, he is seen walking out of the building a second later, so it seems that he is being intentionally deceptive about his speed to hide how fast he is.
9) In the confrontation with Supes, Bruce is clearly in the middle of an open area, but in the last panels, behind him is seen building, and he’s looking at Superman who is framed by building. This new DC universe has Chia-like buildings “Just add superheroes, and watch them grow!”
10) Every individual character sketch but Superman’s has a better costume/look than the final that they went with.

Rating: 6/10 (There is potential here. Somewhere beneath the madness, there is potential)

Tomorrow, hopefully, I’ll post another bit about the books this week that I liked. Warning: there will be fawning over the ground that Warren Ellis treads.