Wonder Woman #36 came out on Wednesday, and things are happening in the Wonderverse.  The Amazons are in a state of bubbling, barely-restrained rebellion against Achilles, their new king.  Wonder Woman and Nemesis seem to have ended their courtship, and Diana is ordered by the daughter of Kane Milohai, the volcano god, to ‘remember her vow’ which means openly standing against Achilles.  In other words, things are looking very, very grim for our heroine.  Again.  I swear that woman has Peter Parker’s luck.  Everytime she does anything, she ends up the worse for it.

I’m pleased and impressed by the characters in Wonder Woman.  Nemesis is convinced that he’s not on Diana’s level (the one weakness in his characterization is the fact that we never see him do anything which would lead to this conclusion) but that’s not what ends their relationship.  Neither is Diana’s ‘lie’.  It is only when he realizes that Diana wants marriage and kids, a normal life, that he pragmatically states that that can never happen after the life he has led, and breaks up with her.

Achilles is a surprisingly likeable character, despite his deep flaws.  We see him trying, again and again, to do what is right while obeying orders that are wrong.  He’s not a bloodthirsty zealot, only someone too mentally subjugated to follow his conscience.

Diana continues her quest to find out who she is, which is a legitimate quest.  The problem, though, is I don’t know who she is.  She’s supposed to be honest, but all that her honesty has shown me is that she loves her family and she’s compassionate.  What does she enjoy?  What particularly drives her?  What feels personal to her?  What about the world she lives in does she identify with?  What gets under her skin?  What foolish faults does she have?  I can fill in all these blanks for Green Arrow, Batman, Superman, Stephanie Brown, Barbara Gordon, Tim Drake, Dick Grayson, Scandal Savage and dozens of other characters.  Wonder Woman remains a fog of admirable virtues, and not much else.

Fine, fine, the next DC animated straight-to-DVD movie is badly named.  ‘Crisis on Two Earths’?  We’ve had infinite earths.  Two earths just sounds like people being stingy with the crises.  I was skeptical.

I had reservations.

I was not impressed.

And then?

Hell. Yeah.

Yes, that is James Woods as Owlman.  And Gina Torres as Superwoman.  Is it wrong to hope that evil wins this one?

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Okay, okay, that’s just a shameless play on his name rather than anything specific that Mister Didio has done, but I recently saw a Newsarama interview with him that included the following quote:

 But our plans for Superman/Batman are interesting. Over the next few months, you’re going to see Superman/Batman actually reflecting major events of the past of the DC Universe. We’re going to be building on other stories, other events, using these characters. So you’re going to see an expansion on Superman/Batman’s role in the post-“Emperor Joker’s” world. So you’re going to see effects of “Emperor Joker” in Superman/Batman. As well as “Our Worlds at War”. There are going to be events that we’re going to be filling out there.

So for folks who had fun and enjoyed these big events of the past, we’re going to revisit them in the Superman/Batman book. And expand on the stories of those. And those stories will fit within continuity even more tightly now because they’re written with the current DC Universe in mind.

No!  I beg you!  Didion’t!  One of the reasons I love Superman/Batman is it is a break from continuity and, much of the time, sanity.  It’s fun and ridiculous and you don’t have to figure out the timeline or understand anything of the larger universe.  That book is its own little island of nuttiness.  Leave it pristine!  Let nature take its course.

Think of the children!

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It seems that FOX did something to Joss Whedon’s vision of the first season of Dollhouse.  Joss Wheden talked about it after a charity screening of Doctor Horrible’s Sing-Along Blog.  And after reading the quote, I have no idea what it is.

[FOX] said “so they’re kinda like prostitutes and that’s not ok” Word came down that it wasn’t ok. I wanted to make a show that’s about feeling bad about feeling good or good about feeling bad. Fantasy is just that, fantasy. FOX wanted to back away from these implications.

The thing is, they are prostitutes and that is ‘not ok’.  It seems like acknowledging that is doing the exact opposite of ‘backing away’ from the implications of that concept.

Or is it ‘not okay’ for them to be shown as prostitutes and Joss Whedon wanted to lay what the dolls were used for out plainly enough for us all to have moral objections?

Or were the FOX executives simply saying to lay off the hooker plots?

Only Joss knows for sure. 

What does that even mean?

I guess it just sounds cool.  And although Red Hood has a dippy catch phrase and is lobbying hard for the title of World’s Silliest Mask (Getting strong competition from the Purple Conehead in that issue.  Does anyone know who that is?) he’s shaping up to be a pretty good character.

I like that he’s obviously out to make a name for himself, for whatever reason, and approaches it with pragmatism and care.  It’s nice to see a hero/villain/anti-hero/whoever who is media-savvy.  I also like seeing the relationship between him and that girl who is his sidekick.  Funny that it seems about five times more tender and respectful than the relationships that most of the heroes have with their sidekicks.  The two seem to like each other and respect each other’s quirks.

Now, to the meat and potatoes.  Guesses on who Red Hood is?  I think the Jason thing is a red herring.

Aaaaaaaaaaand cut it.

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Firs:  This is a fantastic cover.  I dare you to look at this cover and not want to buy the comic.

Second:  Most superhero comics involving teenage heroes revolve around the question of identity.  This can get stale, but Adventure Comics has an advantage over the competition.  It isn’t the old question of presenting one identity to family and friends while living the hero’s life in secret.  Every important person in Kon’s life already knows his identity, and is happy with it.  There isn’t any tired sneaking around, no depressing damned-if-you-do-or-damned-if-you-don’t choices.  Instead the identity question is there because Kon has two biological parents, one of which he was literally programmed to emulate, and needs to reassure himself that he’s most like the one he admires.

Third:  I’m seeing young love, and I’m not seeing stupid love or needlessly-dramatic love, and I like that.  All the false crises that a lesser comic would pump up, (Wonder-Girl kissed Robin!  Oh no!) this one dismisses (Kon was dead at the time. ((He was on the moon.  With Steve.))  She can kiss whoever.).  Okay, their encounter was a little too gluey and sacharine.  I could have done without the ‘you are too good for me,’ ‘no, you are too good for me‘ aspect, and I’m still looking for a couple who genuinely has fun together instead of just being romantic, but I have high hopes for these two.

Fourth:  It seems that all young-super books are improved by the addition of super-pets.  Krypto is a running joke and a freaking joy.

Fifth:  I’m expressing another hope, now.  The last page of the book had Lex Luthor seeing that Kon was alive again.  In the last few issues of Teen Titans before Kon’s death, Luthor is shown as thinking of Kon as his son and acting charitably on his behalf.  I hope that they’ll continue that aspect of the character instead of tipping him into general villainy.  We have had, and will have, a thousand chances to see Lex Luthor be a bad guy what likes to do bad.  This is one of the few chances we’ll have to see him as a bad person who still cares about someone.  I hope this book will take advantage of that.