cleheny's review against another edition
1.0
This is not a great run for our Amazon heroine.
Let me get one thing out the way: I really don’t like the way Diana is drawn. A lot of that is probably due to a general dislike for the 90s style of drawing superheroes, including the billowing hair that grows longer or shorter, depending on how much room there is in the frame. But there’s something weird to me about Diana’s face—her lips are overlarge for her face, and she ends up looking slightly shifty in several panels. She is also highly sexualized.
Byrne’s characterization starts off shaky. Diana has relocated to Gateway City, a place that seems down on its luck, and it appears that she’s going to be more like a Batman-type vigilante—intervening in street battles between thugs and cops. That in itself is weird, as that is not how Diana saw herself or her mission. Then, when one of the thugs won’t talk, she carries him off from police custody and coerces him using her lasso. The scene felt like one of those ones where Batman threatens a thug with physical harm in order to get information. Then she does a little “undercover” work in an underworld bar (she’s in plainclothes but doesn’t hesitate to use her supernatural strength), and rescues a cop who is himself undercover. As she moves to reveal the release for a hidden vault, the bartender, from about a foot away, pulls out a shotgun. Instead of having Diana disarm him, as she could easily do, Byrne has the cop shoot the bartender. Diana thanks the officer, saying that she didn’t think she could have blocked the bullets with her bracelets (?), and then just ignores the bartender, who is lying either dead or wounded behind the bar. This is NOT Diana.
Byrne launches into a story of Darkseid invading Themiscyra, which goes nowhere. We learn a new, if somewhat unclear, origin for the Olympian gods, the same energy that destroyed the old gods, resulting in the creation of the New Gods, New Genesis, and Apokolips, created the Olympians (or altered humans in a way that permitted their descendants to obtain god-like powers—I think that’s the upshot of the revision, but it wasn’t all that clear). So Darkseid tries to torture Diana for the Olympian’s location and, when that doesn’t work, invades Themiscyra. Why does he want to know? We never find out. And the battle doesn’t go anywhere. Diana arrives to find the capitol city in ruins, no Amazons in sight. She then slaughters most of Darkseid’s troopers, while he just stands around doing nothing. Then the Amazons appear, Darkseid summons an armada of heavily armed flying ships, and there’s a lot more death and destruction. Byrne’s narration suggests that Themiscyra is being completely devastated, but, in fact, it’s a stalemate. And then Darkseid leaves. And that’s pretty much that.
Oh, and we learn the name of the officer, about 3 issues in. He’s Mike Schorr, and he’s just not that interesting. He is given the most conventional things to say (for example, when Darkseid and Desaad are torturing Diana, he tells them to torture him, instead, and calls them “creeps”). And Darkseid decides he’s amusing and doesn’t immediately crush him like a bug. So bad characterization on the part of a new character results in bad characterization on the part of an established one, all because, otherwise, Byrne would have to kill off someone no one has any allegiance to and come up with a more interesting character.
There’s a story about Morgan Le Fay trying to make herself immortal, and another about an AI that doesn’t realize that it’s affecting reality. The latter storyline is an excuse to have Diana fight heroes and villains (Flash, Sinestro, Doomsday) without any consequences. It’s lazy writing—it does nothing to advance the character.
Probably Byrne’s most lasting contribution to the WW legacy is the introduction of Cassandra Sandsmark, who, eventually, becomes the new Wonder Girl. I’ve liked how the older Cassie is portrayed (in the Gods of Gotham and Rise of the Olympian arcs, for example), but, here, I just find her irritating. She’s the plucky 14 year old who is weirdly drawn (way too short in comparison to the adults, her face is sometimes drawn like a boy’s and sometimes like she’s much older than she is), and is far too overconfident (she always wants to run off and join Diana in whatever monumental battle WW is engaged in). And what’s bizarre is that Diana encourages this. Diana was always protective of Vanessa Kapatelis, and she appreciated the maternal concerns and fears shown by Julia, so it makes no sense to me that she’d let Cassie try out the sandals of Hermes without getting Helena’s permission or advocate to Helena that Cassie should be trained as a warrior.
This is a disappointing run on a great character. I guess some things eventually paid off in the hands of other writers, but this isn’t worth reading for its own sake.
Let me get one thing out the way: I really don’t like the way Diana is drawn. A lot of that is probably due to a general dislike for the 90s style of drawing superheroes, including the billowing hair that grows longer or shorter, depending on how much room there is in the frame. But there’s something weird to me about Diana’s face—her lips are overlarge for her face, and she ends up looking slightly shifty in several panels. She is also highly sexualized.
Byrne’s characterization starts off shaky. Diana has relocated to Gateway City, a place that seems down on its luck, and it appears that she’s going to be more like a Batman-type vigilante—intervening in street battles between thugs and cops. That in itself is weird, as that is not how Diana saw herself or her mission. Then, when one of the thugs won’t talk, she carries him off from police custody and coerces him using her lasso. The scene felt like one of those ones where Batman threatens a thug with physical harm in order to get information. Then she does a little “undercover” work in an underworld bar (she’s in plainclothes but doesn’t hesitate to use her supernatural strength), and rescues a cop who is himself undercover. As she moves to reveal the release for a hidden vault, the bartender, from about a foot away, pulls out a shotgun. Instead of having Diana disarm him, as she could easily do, Byrne has the cop shoot the bartender. Diana thanks the officer, saying that she didn’t think she could have blocked the bullets with her bracelets (?), and then just ignores the bartender, who is lying either dead or wounded behind the bar. This is NOT Diana.
Byrne launches into a story of Darkseid invading Themiscyra, which goes nowhere. We learn a new, if somewhat unclear, origin for the Olympian gods, the same energy that destroyed the old gods, resulting in the creation of the New Gods, New Genesis, and Apokolips, created the Olympians (or altered humans in a way that permitted their descendants to obtain god-like powers—I think that’s the upshot of the revision, but it wasn’t all that clear). So Darkseid tries to torture Diana for the Olympian’s location and, when that doesn’t work, invades Themiscyra. Why does he want to know? We never find out. And the battle doesn’t go anywhere. Diana arrives to find the capitol city in ruins, no Amazons in sight. She then slaughters most of Darkseid’s troopers, while he just stands around doing nothing. Then the Amazons appear, Darkseid summons an armada of heavily armed flying ships, and there’s a lot more death and destruction. Byrne’s narration suggests that Themiscyra is being completely devastated, but, in fact, it’s a stalemate. And then Darkseid leaves. And that’s pretty much that.
Oh, and we learn the name of the officer, about 3 issues in. He’s Mike Schorr, and he’s just not that interesting. He is given the most conventional things to say (for example, when Darkseid and Desaad are torturing Diana, he tells them to torture him, instead, and calls them “creeps”). And Darkseid decides he’s amusing and doesn’t immediately crush him like a bug. So bad characterization on the part of a new character results in bad characterization on the part of an established one, all because, otherwise, Byrne would have to kill off someone no one has any allegiance to and come up with a more interesting character.
There’s a story about Morgan Le Fay trying to make herself immortal, and another about an AI that doesn’t realize that it’s affecting reality. The latter storyline is an excuse to have Diana fight heroes and villains (Flash, Sinestro, Doomsday) without any consequences. It’s lazy writing—it does nothing to advance the character.
Probably Byrne’s most lasting contribution to the WW legacy is the introduction of Cassandra Sandsmark, who, eventually, becomes the new Wonder Girl. I’ve liked how the older Cassie is portrayed (in the Gods of Gotham and Rise of the Olympian arcs, for example), but, here, I just find her irritating. She’s the plucky 14 year old who is weirdly drawn (way too short in comparison to the adults, her face is sometimes drawn like a boy’s and sometimes like she’s much older than she is), and is far too overconfident (she always wants to run off and join Diana in whatever monumental battle WW is engaged in). And what’s bizarre is that Diana encourages this. Diana was always protective of Vanessa Kapatelis, and she appreciated the maternal concerns and fears shown by Julia, so it makes no sense to me that she’d let Cassie try out the sandals of Hermes without getting Helena’s permission or advocate to Helena that Cassie should be trained as a warrior.
This is a disappointing run on a great character. I guess some things eventually paid off in the hands of other writers, but this isn’t worth reading for its own sake.
apageinthestacks's review against another edition
3.0
As far as I am aware this is my first John Byrne. And...it was okay.
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