I liked it more than the 1st book despite it feels rushed (mostly in the 2nd half). Can't wait for the 3rd and final (?) volume.
I liked it more than the 1st book despite it feels rushed (mostly in the 2nd half). Can't wait for the 3rd and final (?) volume.
I hope the third isn't the last. Despite how flawed these books are, I love that we have alternative takes on WW for a change.
And if this thing ends without Morrison taking on crazy pants Priscilla Rich, but Max Friggin Lord gets to be in this thing, I will feel pretty ripped off.
That would be a pleasant surprise, and this book did have multiple villains, but I don't see how she can be worked into the Lord/A.R.E.S plot. Maybe she's Max's Lady Macbeth or something? Lol
I want some awesome hammy B-movie dialogue with Priscilla talking to her reflections, similar to what we got with Paula ("My Nazi ideals...slipping...away!" I LOVE IT).
I liked it. The art is gorgeous, especially how Diana gets the fancy golden lasso esque paneling but the normal people get normal boxes.
I just feel like there could've been a few more pages to flesh out some stuff in the middle.
I thought some more, and what I think is fundamentally bothering me about this book is Diana's lack of agency. She never shows it in the book: never makes clear her goals, never works towards them, never makes any independent decisions about anything (except running towards the guns during the beach battle, but it never resulted in anything). She's just moved hither and thither on the say-so of Morrison. Which fundamentally makes the Doctor Psycho plot feel hollow, since Diana did not have agency before it, and didn't take it back afterwards.
Looking back, I think I can see traces of the same problem in volume one, where Diana does take action, but it's mainly borrowed actions from the original origin story, and where Morrison explicitly included the fates describing how everything was ordained in some way or another. The only person who really showed any agency in the whole book was Maxwell Lord. Everyone else was simply reacting.
In interviews, the creators have said the story for them is over in the third volume. And in the second, there is the "to be concluded" text.
The only flavour problem I have with this version of Wonder Woman is the mythology stuff, which doesn't match the Marston influences. I'm not even sure Zeus was name dropped in a Wonder Woman character during Marston's life time and I think his first appearances date to the Bronze Age, where he first appears in the form of a statue and later I think his first full appearance was in that last two issues of Wonder Woman Vol. 1. Yes, Mars was her primary arch villain and Pluto showed up too, but these were completely detached from their mythological origins. Those sorts of stories are only a fraction of Marston's work too, with most fans of that era (like me) highlighting the Evil Incorporated issue and preceding stories that introduce those villains.
#InGunnITrust, #ZackSnyderistheBlueprint, #ReleasetheAyerCut
Well he did pop up as 'Jupiter' under Kanighter towards the tail end of Kanighers run. It was a story where being an asshole, he decided to just go around chucking thunderbolts at Wonder Woman while she was taking an Amazonian test to prove her ability...Until Wonder Woman started deflecting them off of her bracelets and hitting Zeus with them, causing the god to fall from the sky into the ocean. This naturally was long after Marstons passing.
To be fair it was pretty forgetable. It was an issue where Wonder Woman was asked by some children why she had exclamations like 'Suffering Sapho' which led to her going through a list of a list of two page adventures with everything she exclaims ever as part of her explanation. Also had Pluto playing fetch with Cerberus and Neptune being a jerk
Happend around the same time as that issue where they retconned the invisible jet to be a shapeshifting pegasus
This was a fascinating read, as was the first volume. Morrison is once again bursting with ideas and embracing the weird sexual psychology of the original comics in a way that no other creators have been willing to do. Paquette's art is gorgeous, as always.
However, I think Morrison & Paquette have hit the same wall they did in Volume One. All the ideas and intentions don't really gel into a story that works completely because Diana still doesn't connect with me. Their story in Wonder Woman: Earth One is ambitious as hell, but neither volume has really been a home-run because Morrison & Paquette have the same problem most comics creators have had--nobody has managed to figure out a way of making Diana herself click on the page. She remains too much of a blank page that readers imprint with their own notions, rather than a fully fleshed out character who feels real and 3-dimensional. With Lynda Carter and Gal Gadot, Wonder Woman works because those two actresses filled in the character with so much of themselves, her thin characterization isn't as much of an issue as it has been in the comics for me.
I look forward to reading how Morrison & Paquette will conclude their story. Thus far, it strikes me as a noble failure, but at least they have been trying harder than most to really plumb depths that most are too afraid to touch.