Superman/Wonder Woman #13 Preview

[Vanguard-01]

Don't love the continuing characterization of Diana as a vicious warrior-type. But that's pretty much to be expected, since Azz went to great lengths to establish the Amazons as a bunch of bloodthirsty thugs who prey on the weak. His portrayal of them as having precisely zero redeeming qualities doesn't help either.

Mahnke's art is definitely not my favorite, but I've tolerated far worse for a book that I enjoy.

So, not loving Diana's early characterization. But at least it's established as being a natural side effect of having been raised by barbarians, and not just a personal belief on Diana's part. Other than that? I'm still looking forward to this, and I think we've got some good stuff coming up.

[SofNascimento]

To be fair, Azz never showed us Diana fresh off of the island. His stories were all set either before she left or 5 years after she left.

He wrote a wonderful 13 year old Diana.

[Dr. Poison]

He wrote a wonderful 13 year old Diana.

That was way before she left the island.

[Blackest Knight]

I hate this preview. I'm sorry, but I really do. It's one-dimensional. The characterization of Wonder Woman here is like a 1 star action movie cliche of a female warrior. She has no depth and paper-thin compassion that is diametrically the opposite of the character that we've been shown pre- and post- Flashpoint.

Brian Azzarello's Wonder Woman would pull out a sword, but then stop in mid-stroke to think about what she was doing. Ultimately, she wouldn't strike without thinking. And she would speak out loud her reasons for advocating compassion for her enemies.

None of that is in evidence here. All the deft turns of phrases and subtle elements of character that Azzarello and Chiang gave us during their WW run are nowhere in sight here.

Between this and the shockingly poor writing shown in Meredith Finch's WW preview, things look very bad for Diana in the near future.

I think I'm finally giving up on the New 52 Wonder Woman. Congratulations, DC editors, on a bad job done very poorly. If you aren't embarrassed by this preview, you should be. It's terrible.

[GuiltyPleasure]

Diana understands the value of life, hence why she said she was not going to let the man die. She was just waxing poetic. She is used to doing things at a different speed and in a different way. Like how she wants to cull the herd of enemies more than directly protect the masses. Different tactics, different priorities. She is thinking of winning the war, Superman is worried about the common man. Two different and valid perspectives.

Great summary of a basic character juxtaposition that we've seen countless times in war movies. Ideally, both tactics are necessary. SM is being no more of a respectful team player than Diana is being. Which, of course makes sense since they haven't yet learned what it means to work as a team, especially with someone as strong as themselves.

[Dr. Poison]

I hate this preview. I'm sorry, but I really do. It's one-dimensional. The characterization of Wonder Woman here is like a 1 star action movie cliche of a female warrior. She has no depth and paper-thin compassion that is diametrically the opposite of the character that we've been shown pre- and post- Flashpoint.

Brian Azzarello's Wonder Woman would pull out a sword, but then stop in mid-stroke to think about what she was doing. Ultimately, she wouldn't strike without thinking. And she would speak out loud her reasons for advocating compassion for her enemies.

None of that is in evidence here. All the deft turns of phrases and subtle elements of character that Azzarello and Chiang gave us during their WW run are nowhere in sight here.

Between this and the shockingly poor writing shown in Meredith Finch's WW preview, things look very bad for Diana in the near future.

I think I'm finally giving up on the New 52 Wonder Woman. Congratulations, DC editors, on a bad job done very poorly. If you aren't embarrassed by this preview, you should be. It's terrible.

Diana certainly didn't stop mid-stroke when she impaled Strife, sexually assaulted Orion, or killed Ares(amongst other things) so I don't think Tomasi's portrayal is all that off. Plus, she's fresh off an island of barbaric sex-pirates in this preview so that makes sense that she's not extremely warm and fuzzy.

I will agree that the art isn't all that great but I'll read the first arc before I decide to drop the book.

[Silvanus]

The characterization of Diana gave me the same not-so-good impression it seems to have given a lot of people--but, you know, she does have a point. Given that the parademons can fly, the wall Superman wants to build seems like it could be a waste of time; and wasted time could mean more deaths, not fewer. Event the EMTs want the superheroes to go fight rather than tending to the bystanders. And I don't think she's wrong to want "ordinary people" to be stronger and more ready to fight evil.

Does she have to be so arrogant about it?

No, she probably doesn't have to and shouldn't. So I have mixed feelings; she's probably right, but could be more humble and less judgmental about it.

[wagthedog]

Diana certainly didn't stop mid-stroke when she impaled Strife, sexually assaulted Orion, or killed Ares(amongst other things) so I don't think Tomasi's portrayal is all that off. Plus, she's fresh off an island of barbaric sex-pirates in this preview so that makes sense that she's not extremely warm and fuzzy.

I will agree that the art isn't all that great but I'll read the first arc before I decide to drop the book.

You forgot the cannon fodder centaurs. As far as Diana was concerned, living amongst god and mythological creatures, why wouldn't she assume that they are living creatures and not try and lop off their arms, such as in the first issue?

[Blacksun]

That was way before she left the island.

so she change personality when she leaves island? lol

You forgot the cannon fodder centaurs. As far as Diana was concerned, living amongst god and mythological creatures, why wouldn't she assume that they are living creatures and not try and lop off their arms, such as in the first issue?

she was protecting zola, and they were zombies. people kill zombies, they have no soul

I hate this preview. I'm sorry, but I really do. It's one-dimensional. The characterization of Wonder Woman here is like a 1 star action movie cliche of a female warrior. She has no depth and paper-thin compassion that is diametrically the opposite of the character that we've been shown pre- and post- Flashpoint.

Brian Azzarello's Wonder Woman would pull out a sword, but then stop in mid-stroke to think about what she was doing. Ultimately, she wouldn't strike without thinking. And she would speak out loud her reasons for advocating compassion for her enemies.

None of that is in evidence here. All the deft turns of phrases and subtle elements of character that Azzarello and Chiang gave us during their WW run are nowhere in sight here.

Between this and the shockingly poor writing shown in Meredith Finch's WW preview, things look very bad for Diana in the near future.

I think I'm finally giving up on the New 52 Wonder Woman. Congratulations, DC editors, on a bad job done very poorly. If you aren't embarrassed by this preview, you should be. It's terrible.

I heart you. Chiang and azzarello do a very good job, that have no following from creators. sad.
Next week on sensation comics start a story on apokolips, maybe you will like.

[wagthedog]

she was protecting zola, and they were zombies. people kill zombies, they have no soul

Again, do you even fully read the posts? How does Diana know that they are 'zombie centaurs'? That was never established that she knew they were zombies and leads credence early on that she was a sword first kind of person.

[Blackest Knight]

I heart you. Chiang and azzarello do a very good job, that have no following from creators. sad.
Next week on sensation comics start a story on apokolips, maybe you will like.

Thanks. I take no joy in maligning Meredith Finch's work.
But I won't argue about how bad this preview of Meredith's writing reads. There's no defending it at all. The rest of her script for this issue of WW would have to be, well, the exact opposite of what we've seen here. And I seriously doubt that's gonna happen.

This is worse than I imagined.

[Sacred Knight]

Its not Dickens but I'm sure as hell not seeing what's so terrible about the #36 preview. Nothing gave me pause.

Whole lot of exaggerating going on. But what else is new.

[BlackFeath]

I have posted what follows in the other forum, anyway, that's what I think:

Maybe she came off a bit worse than in JL's first arc, which I don't think was as bad as some other JL's arcs that followed, but anyway I think I'll wait to judge.
She certainly lost time, and so did Superman. Both of their plans were wrong, by the way. Like she noticed those monsters could fly, so a wall wouldn't serve to anything. On the other hand fighting without protecting the people was wrong as well...but it's not like she wanted them to die.

About her dialogue when talking about human's fragility. Well...that's why I said I'll wait to judge. Apparentely it doesn't seem very good. The way she speaks is not certainly good. I am not really a fan of her saying this, and I agree on the fact I don't think Azz's Wonder Woman, even if young, would have spoken on these terms, (even if we didn't really see the Wonder Woman of five years ago interacting with humans except briefly with Steve), though... What are exactly her terms?

In particular I am referring to this: "I've been doing my best to help some of you since my arrival, but how will you ever grow stronger if you need us every waking moment?".

Now...is this really wrong? From a certain point of view yes. It's difficult to believe that all people could end up being as strong as her, Superman, or even the Amazons. From another point of view, considering her words in a more general way (she is referring to her having helped different people since she was in Man's world, and not all the people were in the situation the man in that page was), and if you think it may indicate that she doesn't believe that help people is enough: that it is important also to empower them, then, well...that's different...

If her words here translate in her empowering people five years later in this book, then I'll accept much more this dialogue. If I look at that dialogue in this way, it remembers me of these, from Trinity:





And empowering the people she met (each in a different way) was what she did during Azz's run as well. Milan for example comes to my mind.

So, mmm...it may end up being good instead of bad as it apparentely seems, so I'll wait, especially since her characterization in Batman and Wonder Woman wasn't bad. She showed compassion to a 'monster' and gave him the chance to see the sun, so I think that Tomasi can write her well, and I hope he will in this book as well.

[Awonder]

Wow. I was looking forward to picking up SM/WW again (dropped it for Doomed). But, this? Is laughably bad what they were going for?

I get the whole 'contrasting approaches' thing (ie, protect the innocent vs stopping the bad guys). But it's so very hyper-simplistic; it's just poorly done.

Lecture mode Superman vs Lecture mode WW - Let the battle for idiotic supremacy begin!

[Sacred Knight]

If the characterizations continue like this I'll be the first to complain, but until then I'd recommend at least seeing the way these characters are written after the flashback. I'm still pretty confident this is just extreme examples to make a point later on about their positive growth as characters.