Wonder Woman #61 the Just War pt 4 spoilers

[kjn]

I liked it. Wilson finally got the pieces into the places she wanted them, and Xermanico did much better art than Nord. I sadly still think Diana still was the poorest element in the art department; she comes off as rather stiff and not very animated in her expressions. And not a sword in sight

Wilson characterisations comes off well, though Steve Trevor's words on honourable fights ring hollow with him being in the US military, especially a SEAL. I mean, the latest war with US involvement that can be said to come close to Steve's ideal is the First Gulf War, and that thing was a one-sided slaughter. And before that, you have to go back to the Korean War, long before he was born in the current continuity. Not Wilson's fault, though; it's the hand she was dealt by Rucka.

I like the attitude of Aphrodite as she is literally turning missiles into flowers. It adds a touch of needed levity to all the explosions and shield work.

I don't get the impression that Diana finds it "difficult to deal" with regular army weapons. What she has trouble with is (a) the amount of them, (b) trying to keep normal people safe, (c) not escalate the conflict. She could easily handle two out of three, but doing all three at the same time is trickier.

[kjn]

Also, now I noticed the art in the PM's office. The old statues are incongrous, but I can sorta see them. The painting of a seated statesman is entirely appropriate for that sort of place. But then we have the paintings by the side of the door. When Wonder Woman and later Steve enters they are blank.

But on the next pages they get filled: by a seated older woman, by a very colourful painting of a tree, and of a topless hairy man. I have no idea on what these are meant to depict or mean…

[kjn]

And something that Wilson just twittered:

Gudopop: It's very interesting that interchange of Ares & Aphrodite hair colours... Makes me wonder a lot of things. :3

Wilson: You may be on to something here...

[starlight25]

Well it was good for the most part. The art on WW could have been better. And i don't understand why she didn't fly Steve and the other man to the place they had to reach. We know she can fly faster than speeding bullets and missiles.

[Fuzzy Mittens]

So with one issue left of this story arc followed by according to the solicits a standalone focused on those mythical creatures, it will be good to see how things develop

[Last Son of Krypton]

The "Just War" arc is getting better with each issue. I wasn't impressed by the first 2 issues but I really liked the last 2.

Btw, I'd prefer Xermanico as main artist of WW instead of Nord.

[SiegePerilous02]

Strongest chapter yet. The much stronger art shows how promising this run can be with stronger art bringing the story to life. I'm glad Xermanico seems to be around for at least part of the next issue.

Liked that there was more "meat" to this chapter. I think the last three chapters could have been condensed down to two, but this one felt just right. I also think that the next issue will not even have a fight at all, but will be a discussion between Diana, Ares, Aphrodite and Steve, which will be an interesting way to resolve this.

Wonder Woman seems to struggle a bit with even regular army weapons. She flies the kids to safety, but for some reason insists of running along the ground to get the PM to his meeting with the rebels.

I don't know that the story is portraying any of the regular army weapons as a threat to her. The kids are small and she can carry them both and they were close to their destination. Three grown adults are a bit more cumbersome to carry while also deflecting the artillery heading their way. It's just more practical, if tedious, to go on the ground.

It also seemed very odd that the PM seemed to know a lot about the gods, whereas Diana does not even recognize Aphrodite when she shows up and has to be told by Steve.

Aside from knowing the Gods are back, I wouldn't say that PM displays a lot of knowledge about the Gods. Steve only knows who Aphrodite is because she introduced herself to him as such and displayed some power to prove her credentials (while surrounded by bunch of mythological creatures). Diana has never seen her Gods in person when they're not in animal form aside from Ares, but she was able to figure out who he was pretty quickly.

but the "Power of Aphrodite" [which seems to manifest itself via MY LITTLE PONY style energy butterflies] is not much evidence.

Her turning weapons into butterflies is pretty impressive, as is healing Steve. She's disoriented in her new environment, and such a setting is Ares's place of power, not hers. What more can she display?

I don't get the impression that Diana finds it "difficult to deal" with regular army weapons. What she has trouble with is (a) the amount of them, (b) trying to keep normal people safe, (c) not escalate the conflict. She could easily handle two out of three, but doing all three at the same time is trickier.

Agreed. Again, I don't think any of these weapons are portrayed as being a threat against Diana. But when one of her main enemies is Ares and the horrors of war, the writer needs to show how dangerous war is for the combatants and those caught in the crossfire. Wonder Woman effortlessly protecting everyone on all sides would render the story meaningless.

She is at least going to be fighting some Titans soon alongside Giganta. Major superhuman feats against Gods is more appropriate for that story instead of focusing on modern human war.

And something that Wilson just twittered:

Interesting! Eager to see where this goes.

[kjn]

Strongest chapter yet. The much stronger art shows how promising this run can be with stronger art bringing the story to life. I'm glad Xermanico seems to be around for at least part of the next issue.

Yep. Earlier it felt like the art was letting down Wilson's story, and caused it to be less well received. Granted, she's opened rather slowly and deliberate, and didn't spell out the type of story she wanted to tell at once, which also didn't help with some reviewers, but those are valid artistic choices and should be graded on how well they are executed.

I don't know that the story is portraying any of the regular army weapons as a threat to her. The kids are small and she can carry them both and they were close to their destination. Three grown adults are a bit more cumbersome to carry while also deflecting the artillery heading their way. It's just more practical, if tedious, to go on the ground.

On the other hand, Aphrodite just proved that she could teleport herself and Steve. But rule of drama and all; as long as it's not actively stupid and out of character I'm not going to care much.

Agreed. Again, I don't think any of these weapons are portrayed as being a threat against Diana. But when one of her main enemies is Ares and the horrors of war, the writer needs to show how dangerous war is for the combatants and those caught in the crossfire. Wonder Woman effortlessly protecting everyone on all sides would render the story meaningless.

Personally, I find the complaints on the board about Diana's lack of powers in various depictions to be rather tedious and one-sided. I much prefer an interesting and meaningful story that tries to say something rather than power exercises. I won't say no to getting both, but if I only can have one, I'll take the story.

[brettc1]

Why would Wonder a Woman have to fly three adults? Aphrodite being a goddess can surely fly (we’ve seen Ares do it) which means she can carry Steve. And really can a person who arm wrestle Krytonians really be more burdened by a two men than two kids?

So, no - for me that “rule of drama” was entirely too contrived. And when I’m paying $7.50 AUD an issue I’m not disposed to compromising either.

[Gaelforce]

Personally, I find the complaints on the board about Diana's lack of powers in various depictions to be rather tedious and one-sided. I much prefer an interesting and meaningful story that tries to say something rather than power exercises. I won't say no to getting both, but if I only can have one, I'll take the story.

I agree, story is the most important aspect.

But there is absolutely no reason that story should equal/require a downgrade in power to work.

The writer has been given one of DC's most powerful superheroes, and though by no means should the writer feel the need to always use those powers in the story, they shouldn't ignore/rewrite those powers to *fit* the story.

Diana has gone toe-to-toe with Superman on numerous occasions in many iterations of the DCU. From the 1970s giant-size 'versus' book to Sacrifice to Batman declaring that Diana is his only plan to stop Superman, that's the level of power that is being dealt with.

I cannot think of a single superhero whose powers fluctuate so much from writer to writer. Can she fly or can't she? Does she have the fastest reflexes outside of the Flash family or doesn't she? Does she have super healing or doesn't she?

It just seems to depend upon the day of the week anymore :/

[brettc1]

I agree, story is the most important aspect.

But there is absolutely no reason that story should equal/require a downgrade in power to work.

The writer has been given one of DC's most powerful superheroes, and though by no means should the writer feel the need to always use those powers in the story, they shouldn't ignore/rewrite those powers to *fit* the story.

Diana has gone toe-to-toe with Superman on numerous occasions in many iterations of the DCU. From the 1970s giant-size 'versus' book to Sacrifice to Batman declaring that Diana is his only plan to stop Superman, that's the level of power that is being dealt with.

I cannot think of a single superhero whose powers fluctuate so much from writer to writer. Can she fly or can't she? Does she have the fastest reflexes outside of the Flash family or doesn't she? Does she have super healing or doesn't she?

It just seems to depend upon the day of the week anymore :/

Or rather the week of the month. Her JL Dark feats have been pretty solid.

The only other character who's abilities change as radically at the moment would be Harley Quinn, though in her case they seem to be trending upwards at "breakneck" speed.




See what I did there?

[starlight25]

I agree, story is the most important aspect.

But there is absolutely no reason that story should equal/require a downgrade in power to work.

The writer has been given one of DC's most powerful superheroes, and though by no means should the writer feel the need to always use those powers in the story, they shouldn't ignore/rewrite those powers to *fit* the story.

Diana has gone toe-to-toe with Superman on numerous occasions in many iterations of the DCU. From the 1970s giant-size 'versus' book to Sacrifice to Batman declaring that Diana is his only plan to stop Superman, that's the level of power that is being dealt with.

I cannot think of a single superhero whose powers fluctuate so much from writer to writer. Can she fly or can't she? Does she have the fastest reflexes outside of the Flash family or doesn't she? Does she have super healing or doesn't she?

It just seems to depend upon the day of the week anymore :/

Isn't that the fault of the heads at DC? I don't see didio, geoff, synder, etc doing that to other powerhouses. And i mention them because they are pretty much in charge of DC. They don't seem to care about consistency when it comes WW. Well as far as being powerful goes, they do seem to prefer seeing her nerfed most of the time. At this point nobody can deny that they have a lot to do with Diana's situation when it comes to her powes.

[kjn]

In this exact case, it doesn't bother me that much that Diana doesn't use her powers much. She's largely acting defensively and tries to avoid making too many waves. I can easily see various limits on Aphrodite's teleportation abilities hindering her moving them directly to the temple as well, given its possibly mystical nature or that it required the mystical connection between Steve and Diana to get to the target. Or it's not safe flying with a passenger given the hostile environment.

So I'm sure Wilson could come up with a decent reason for why they needed to walk, but it'd take time to explain and it's funnier to see Aphrodite turning missiles into flowers, Steve running around shirtless, and Diana lassoing missiles going *nyyom*.

I do agree that Wonder Woman's power (and skill!) set tends to fluctuate a lot. I think one part (but far from the largest part!) is that she has quite a disparate and in part vague/open-ended set of powers. Pérez gave what is probably the most defined set of powers to her, but what does "sisterhood with fire—that it may open mens hearts to her" even mean? And unity with beasts has been most consistently been brought up in the Sensation Comics digital shorts.

[starlight25]

In this exact case, it doesn't bother me that much that Diana doesn't use her powers much. She's largely acting defensively and tries to avoid making too many waves. I can easily see various limits on Aphrodite's teleportation abilities hindering her moving them directly to the temple as well, given its possibly mystical nature or that it required the mystical connection between Steve and Diana to get to the target. Or it's not safe flying with a passenger given the hostile environment.

So I'm sure Wilson could come up with a decent reason for why they needed to walk, but it'd take time to explain and it's funnier to see Aphrodite turning missiles into flowers, Steve running around shirtless, and Diana lassoing missiles going *nyyom*.

I do agree that Wonder Woman's power (and skill!) set tends to fluctuate a lot. I think one part (but far from the largest part!) is that she has quite a disparate and in part vague/open-ended set of powers. Pérez gave what is probably the most defined set of powers to her, but what does "sisterhood with fire—that it may open mens hearts to her" even mean? And unity with beasts has been most consistently been brought up in the Sensation Comics digital shorts.

She has one of the most common sets of powers. Flight, super speed, super strength, durability. That is the base of her powers. They are not difficult to understand at all.

There is not a rule that says you can't have a good story without nerfing a character. That is ridiculous. She is a character with a rogue gallery filled with Gods, Avatars, etc. Aka opponents that are supposed to be powerful. And she is supposed to be powerful enough to face them.

Writers that need to nerf characters to proceed with a story is in my opinion, an evidence that those writers lack imagination, creativity and that they are lazy.

[Joao]

Wilson's best issue till now for sure. Aphrodite is amazing personality-wise. Steve also reads great, equal or even better than Rucka's. Buuuut Diana is still the weakest point of the book.

It's getting better though. Her moment saving the kids and the line about the eagles were great and very true to the character.

Also: amazing art.