CBF Quick Picks #96 : Wonder Woman #2

October 23, 2011 by
Filed under: CBF Podcast 

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CBF Quick Picks #96 : Wonder Woman #2 [ 30:37 ] Play Now | Play in Popup | Download

After 2 issues, the directions Wonder Woman can go under Brian Azzarello and Cliff Chiang’s guidance are endless. This is an exciting time to come back if you’ve wavered from the book during the many promises that new blood would reinvigorate her solo series. The intrigue behind Zola’s baby and Wonder Woman’s questionable origin should keep this going for a good while.

Just behind it came Batman #2 and another stellar showing from Scott Snyder and Greg Capullo. Building out the history of Gotham and treating it as an actual character has fleshed out Batman’s stories in many cool and interesting ways. And the best part of it all is it’s being done with intriguing new villains being introduced, the Court of Owls being the latest.

And of course if you want your off-the-wall super-hero action, you have Justice League #2 to please. Geoff Johns obviously wrote this in mind to show Jim Lee off. The action sequences are a sight to see and shows that even 20+ years later, Lee still has it. The slow burn in the story may turn off some people from reading, but I think it’s a great way to again show why this is the premier team of the new DCU.

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Comments

  • http://captainbloggington.wordpress.com Wade Christian

    I, for one, don’t feel like Justice League is a slow burn, decompressed story. I feel like it’s Geoff Johns seeing how poorly he can pace a story and still get people to believe it’s good.

    Seriously, though, I’m all for decompressed, long-form stories, but I feel like we’re not really going anywhere worth going. I feel like this is just validating my apathy toward previous Justice League incarnations, despite being interested in some of the individual members.

    I agree that Batman and (especially) Wonder Woman have been amazing, though. When it comes to my hopes for a mainstream comic, they go to 11.

  • Anonymous

    I’d describe it as simplistic more than as poor in terms of pacing.  We’ve seen it before in comics – team slowly comes together to fight a common enemy.  It’s written more for the new readership, which I’m fine with as that’s one of DC’s goals with this re-launch.  We’re only 2 issues in any way, so I’m willing to give it the benefit for however long this story arc goes.

  • http://captainbloggington.wordpress.com Wade Christian

    Pacing can’t really be simple or complex. It’s well-paced, too fast, or too slow. In terms of plotting, it is simple and is what you say, but that’s part of my problem. Like I said, I don’t feel like we’re going somewhere worth going. The biggest reason for that is that we have seen this before a lot of times, and it doesn’t seem like Johns is doing anything new or revolutionary with the “team getting together” story, which makes me wonder why he’s subjecting us to it, especially when, if solicitations for upcoming issues are to be believed, it’s going to take 5 issues to get 6 heroes together. It seems like we should be getting there more quickly and then having them face this conflict together, rather than dragging out the formation of the team.

    As for DC’s claim that this relaunch was supposed to entice new readers, I don’t buy it. If that was really a major goal of theirs, then why are two of their biggest franchise families (Batman and Green Lantern) carrying over pretty much all of their old continuity? The Lantern titles are even basically picking up right where their last pre-relaunch issues ended. A lot of the other titles (Justice League Dark and Stormwatch, for example) make absolutely no attempt to get new readers up to speed on who these people are or anything. Sure there are some that are new-reader friendly and good (I, Vampire, Batman [new-reader friendly to some degree], Action Comics, etc.), but many of the ones that seemed most accessible to new readers were awful (Red Hood and the Outlaws, Voodoo, Grifter, Superman, etc.). Based on what they published after the relaunch, I have a hard time believing that this was actually one of their primary focuses. I think it just made for good press. While I’m excited for more DC titles than I’ve been in a long time, I think they’ve made more of a mess of continuity than they had before, which is probably going to be off-putting to many new readers (and some old readers, too).

    Comic Book Resources has been doing a series where they have new or lapsed readers take a look at that week’s releases and give their thoughts and say if they would come back for more. It didn’t turn out so well. Sure those are individual people’s opinions, but I’ve seen other people have similar discussions around the web.

    I hope this doesn’t seem like I’m being condescending or trying to start an argument or something. If it does seem that way, I apologize, as that’s not my intention. This is just something I’m interested in, so I like to discuss it with other people and I tend to get pretty into it.

  • Anonymous

    No apology needed.  We’re fans and we want the best from our comics.

    I agree that DC took some liberties when it came to the re-launch.  Their reasoning for keeping Batman and Green Lantern the same is because they were the most financially successful of the DC books before this re-launch.  Admittedly an odd reason, but a reason nonetheless.

    Ultimately, I’m not so much hooked on making sure my books have anything unique or revolutionary overall.  Long as the story is executed well, then that works for me.  Continuity can be great as well and really show off the big picture, but it can take away from the overall enjoyment of the story if you try to read too much into it.  Comics (and most mediums) are always going to have this problem no matter how many times you re-launch a line.  Enjoy what you like and pass the word to others.

  • http://captainbloggington.wordpress.com Wade Christian

    I just know that, in an online world devoid of tone of voice, I sometimes come across like a jerk when I don’t intend to. It’s happened over on my site a couple of times, so I try to be wary of it.

    As for the comics, I agree that there is certainly something to be said for someone consistently writing solid comics, even if they aren’t pushing the medium into new directions (if I wanted all revolutionary, all the time, I probably would read a lot fewer mainstream superhero comics), but I guess I feel like, if you’re going to tell a story that we’ve seen dozens of times by this point in time, you should try to do something different with it. Maybe I’m just using some sort of double standard or something, but it’s how I feel.