Review: Superman/Wonder Woman #1

This post was adapted and expanded from some tweets I tweeted earlier. It is also getting cross-posted to Tumblr.

There was a guy at the comic book shop this evening when I went to pick up my comics. He's often there. He's kinda cool. I like him. We talked. He convinced me to buy a comic book that I would never in a million years have picked up otherwise. Superman/Wonder Woman #1. 

Disclaimer #1: This is the first DC book I've bought in forever. I can't even remember the last time I bought a DC book. 

Disclaimer #2: I have zero interest in Superman and Wonder Woman as a couple. The idea does nothing for me. In fact, when it was first announced, I found it kind of revolting and it left a bad taste in my mouth. 

Disclaimer #3: I hate Tony Daniel's art. 

Disclaimer #4: I expected to hate this in every way imaginable. But the dude was so enthusiastic about it. He said it was his favourite single issue of the year and he's a huge Wonder Woman fan and he was skeptical about the whole super-couple thing, too, and as far as I can tell, he's a discerning comic reader with a fine taste. So I thought, sure, why not?

Anyway, I read it. And it was... kinda meh? The art is exactly as bad as I expected it to be, but I kind of enjoyed the characters voices. Both of them. I think Charles Soule is a good writer and he has a pretty good grasp of these characters. As much as I can tell from a first issue anyway. He makes the super-couple idea work better than thought possible. I could almost buy the idea if I tried to forget that it's so completely unnecessary.

But where it fell apart for me was the panels where Superman and Wonder Woman kinda almost but not really have sex in silhouette with the red background, superimposed on the fight with Doomsday. There are at least three things wrong with just those two pages:

1. The silhouette thing is just cheesy and awful, not to mention that Tony Daniel apparently doesn't understand how silhouettes work. Like, he doesn't get the concept of characters being lit from behind? It would have been easy enough to set the scene in front of a window or by candle light or something, but no, they're actually lying on the bed and they're wearing clothes and the clothes are lit normally but their skin is pitch black for some reason? I don't even know if I'm explaining this properly but it makes NO SENSE.

2. It's just unnecessary. Like, yeah, we get it. They're a couple. They're dating. That implies that they're probably being intimate with each other in one way or another. If they had given us some gratuitous money shot, that would've been something. It would have been an awful thing, but still at thing. But this tacky softcore mildly suggestive interrupted coitus scene just adds nothing.

3. The whole cutting back and forth between violence and a (non-)sex scene... I've seen it before and I'm tired of it.

Aside from that, it was an okay issue with some decent writing and some mediocre-to-bad art. Also, Dooomsday, who is the most boring villain ever. 

Something I had forgotten about DC Comics that I really dislike: Those colour-coded captions for the interior monologues with the character logos. Like, yeah, I get it, it's Superman's thoughts. You didn't have to make it that obvious, I could've figured it out on my own. 

Also, I guess people still hate the Justice League in the New 52. Like civilians, I mean. Normal people inside the fictional universe. They hate super-heroes. Probably because super-heroes in the New 52 are jerks. That was something I really hated about the reboot but I figured it would have changed by now. Apparently not.

The more I think about this, the more I regret buying this comic. I also realize now that some part of me was genuinely (and almost secretly) hoping that this comic would surprise me and win me over. I really miss these characters. I haven't touched DC's books for ages but I wanted to read this and find out that I'd been missing something. I wanted DC to prove me wrong. But no, not reading DC comics was absolutely the right decision to make.

In a way, the fact that this comic book didn't turn out that bad in spite of everything is almost worst. If it had been a truly horrible comic with no redeeming qualities whatsoever, I'd just be like, whatever, DC sucks. But this was almost halfway decent. I could at least see that there was some potential there, but that just ends up being a total bummer because it's dragged down by the sheer DC-ness of it, by which I mean everything that I've come to associate with DC Comics since the New 52, like what a grim and depressing world it is and how awful and unhappy all the characters seem to be and the shitty Jim Lee clone art that's so dreary it makes you want to never look at a comic book again.

Ugh. Don't read the New 52, kids. It's depressing.

Review: Batman #700

BATMAN #700
Written by Grant Morrison. Art by Tony Daniel, David Finch, Andy Kubert, Frank Quitely.

Although there are many awesome things about this issue, it ends up being a disappointment for a number of reasons:

1. The price. I think 4$ books are a rip off most of the time, because the extra pages are rarely worth the extra dollar. So when you price something at 5$, I expect it to have something very special in it, or at least make up for it with a longer story – quality or quantity. Although the cover claims this is a "giant-sized anniversary issue," there are only 31 pages of story inside, followed by a pin-up gallery of mostly recycled promotional images that have been floating around on the internet for a while. As a 4$ book, this would be a great value, but I don't see anything here to justify the extra dollar. Let's get something straight: "bonus" material isn't really a "bonus" if you make people pay extra for it!

2. The high expectations. Part of this comes simply from the landmark number. Part of it comes from all the hype, including stuff Grant Morrison said in interviews, features on DC's blog, and all the buzz and chatter on message boards. With all this excitement, it becomes very difficult for any comic book to hit a home run.

3. The art. The idea of having four different artists, each handling a specific time period that the epic story is set in, was good. Unfortunately, Frank Quitely (my favourite of the four artists) wasn't able to finish his section. (I've read some comments online about health problems being the reason for this, but I don't know where fans get that information or if there's any truth to it. Let's hope he's doing okay.) Quitely has a very unique style, so rather than to try to imitate it, Scott Kolins draws the remaining pages of the section in his own style. The shift becomes even more jarring because there's a different colorist working with each artist, and it occurs smack in the middle of the section, with no in-story justification for it. It's very distracting and it ruins the intended effect of having each time period in its distinct visual style.

Still, the few pages we do get from Quitely are amazing. The way he choreographs action scenes always brings a smile to my face. You're never quite sure if they're fighting or dancing a ballet, and while that might sound like negative criticism, I mean it as the highest form of praise:



Meanwhile, Tony Daniel, Andy Kubert and David Finch are all competent artists and they handle their sections well, if less spectacularly (at least for my tastes). Even Scott Kolins is pretty good, and if it weren't for the fact that I can't help looking at those pages while asking myself what they would have looked like if Quitely had drawn them, I would probably be able to enjoy them on their own merit.

As for the story, I didn't like it on my first read, but as often happens with Grant Morrison's work, it got a lot better the second time around. This is probably because of the way I read comics as much as it is because of the way he writes them. I tend to go through the book quickly, eager to find out what happens next and how it all comes together in the end. Even when I don't quite understand what's going on or the significance of certain details, I tend to just move on, expecting things to get become clear eventually. Once I get that out of the way, a second read-through allows me to savour the details and catch whatever subtleties I might have missed.

So the story is fine, and there are lots of very cool little character moments, as well as plenty of references to Batman history (past, present and future). As a regular, appropriately priced issue, I would rate this highly. As an overpriced anniversary issue, it falls a bit short of the mark, but is still a fun read once you forget about your initial expectations.