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  1. #1
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    Default The Other History of the DC Universe & Diana

    Newsarama has a great interview with John Ridley, writer of The Other History of the DC Universe. If you weren't already planning to read it, the interview might make you want to, and if not Ridley's words, the awesome art (especially the layouts!) might persuade you.

    Anyway, one of the moments he's touching on in one of the five issues is Diana killing Max Lord. When I first read that, my reaction was, as it always is, "Why can't that story go away?" But as I read on, later in the interview it becomes clear that he's not going to be looking at it from a "Was she right or wrong?" way. Rather, Ridley says:

    This may not be straight with the Justice League, but when Wonder Woman did kill Max Lord and she's like, 'I got to do what I got to do. I'm a warrior and I'm going to do it.' People freaked out about that, and that's something that we do talk about in this series. Did they freak out because Wonder Woman did it, or did they freak out because a woman killed a man on live TV? There are other male heroes killing male heroes.
    I've been excited for this series, and the interview makes it sound like it's going to deliver on it's promise of multifarious perspectives.

  2. #2
    Ultimate Member Gaius's Avatar
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    Interesting interview, most of this has gone by me since I haven’t been paying much attention to BL news outside of Historia. Might check this out.

    Don’t recall Rucka explicitly bringing up Diana being singled out because she was a woman killing a man but I recall he did bring up what hypocrites Clark, Bruce, and general populace were for playing moral high ground.

  3. #3
    Astonishing Member Stanlos's Avatar
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    I just hope that TOHOTDCU looks at it with the complexity that the author provided rather than the schlock fest the bygone PTB demanded. Now that there is this so called "OMNIVERSE" where we can explore any story verse I hope that Rucka gets to do 12 issue limited series exploring the path he originally intended paired with a consistent superstar artist. I really hope they do it since she never got her FOR TOMORROW or HUSH. I don't think it has to be with Jim Lee.

    DC proved John Byrne's assessment of their doing the snap to be 100% true.
    Last edited by Stanlos; 12-03-2020 at 02:36 PM.

  4. #4
    Astonishing Member LordUltimus's Avatar
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    I know it won't happen, but I'd honestly enjoy it if Nubia was a part of this. Her outside perspective on race in America would be really interesting, and it would affect her in a way it wouldn't with Diana.

  5. #5
    Astonishing Member Stanlos's Avatar
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    Quote Originally Posted by LordUltimus View Post
    I know it won't happen, but I'd honestly enjoy it if Nubia was a part of this. Her outside perspective on race in America would be really interesting, and it would affect her in a way it wouldn't with Diana.
    Ooooooooooooooo that IS a delicious idea!! And it could be a nice callback to the Perez run when Philippus and other Amazons shared their views on race and sexuality

  6. #6
    Moderator Frontier's Avatar
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    I mean, personally I think the freakout was more because it was Wonder Woman that did it rather than her gender, because people would probably freak out if Superman snapped a dude's neck (cough)Zod(cough) but I understand where Ridley is coming from.

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    Ultimate Member Gaius's Avatar
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    Quote Originally Posted by Frontier View Post
    I mean, personally I think the freakout was more because it was Wonder Woman that did it rather than her gender, because people would probably freak out if Superman snapped a dude's neck (cough)Zod(cough) but I understand where Ridley is coming from.
    I think that is what the original depiction of the scene and fallout was going for. Though it reads rather flat since Diana already killed people before that and even on televised to global audience.

  8. #8
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    On a related note, there's this neat commentary on Diana in The Other History of the DC Universe # 1 (though she barely appears in the issue itself).

    spoilers:
    Basically, Jefferson Pierce tries to reason why the Justice League didn't intervene during the 1979 Iran hostage crisis. He thinks about how Batman is a street fighter and wouldn't typically involve himself in international affairs. Superman tries to stay as apolitical and pacifistic as possible. But Wonder Woman, he reasons, is literally a warrior princess...why isn't she in favor of doing something?
    end of spoilers

    I wonder if we get to see this perspective unpacked a bit further in later issues.

  9. #9
    Moderator Frontier's Avatar
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    Quote Originally Posted by bat39 View Post
    On a related note, there's this neat commentary on Diana in The Other History of the DC Universe # 1 (though she barely appears in the issue itself).

    spoilers:
    Basically, Jefferson Pierce tries to reason why the Justice League didn't intervene during the 1979 Iran hostage crisis. He thinks about how Batman is a street fighter and wouldn't typically involve himself in international affairs. Superman tries to stay as apolitical and pacifistic as possible. But Wonder Woman, he reasons, is literally a warrior princess...why isn't she in favor of doing something?
    end of spoilers

    I wonder if we get to see this perspective unpacked a bit further in later issues.
    This makes me curious how many actual comic stories have involved heroes getting involved in international, but not real life, incidents.

  10. #10
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    Quote Originally Posted by bat39 View Post
    On a related note, there's this neat commentary on Diana in The Other History of the DC Universe # 1 (though she barely appears in the issue itself).

    spoilers:
    Basically, Jefferson Pierce tries to reason why the Justice League didn't intervene during the 1979 Iran hostage crisis. He thinks about how Batman is a street fighter and wouldn't typically involve himself in international affairs. Superman tries to stay as apolitical and pacifistic as possible. But Wonder Woman, he reasons, is literally a warrior princess...why isn't she in favor of doing something?
    end of spoilers

    I wonder if we get to see this perspective unpacked a bit further in later issues.
    spoilers:
    Someone suggested this was another example of (deliberately written) hypocrisy on Jefferson's part. He refuses to help a kid who is being bullied by his classmates. Jefferson thinks he's teaching the kid to stand up for himself and intervenes whenever the kid is about to get seriously hurt but his mother shows up then asks what the hell is wrong with him. Jefferson explains and she transfers him to a magnet school where he excels. Jefferson says she did wrong by the kid.

    Jefferson then unironically blames the JLA for not stopping the Iran Hostage Crisis.
    end of spoilers

  11. #11
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    Quote Originally Posted by Agent Z View Post
    spoilers:
    Someone suggested this was another example of (deliberately written) hypocrisy on Jefferson's part. He refuses to help a kid who is being bullied by his classmates. Jefferson thinks he's teaching the kid to stand up for himself and intervenes whenever the kid is about to get seriously hurt but his mother shows up then asks what the hell is wrong with him. Jefferson explains and she transfers him to a magnet school where he excels. Jefferson says she did wrong by the kid.

    Jefferson then unironically blames the JLA for not stopping the Iran Hostage Crisis.
    end of spoilers
    Hmm...could be.

    Though one can argue that the stakes are very different and the two situations are not entirely analogous.

    I guess that's one of the fundamental fallacies of the superhero genre. You have these people who're willing to take action to change the world around them...up to a point.

    Now in the case of some characters, it makes sense why they'd want to preserve the status quo, or at least not damage it too much. In the case of others...not so much. In-universe, I think Jefferson was wondering why Diana was such a status quo-ist.

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