“Is this your first time reading the George Pérez run?”
Nope – as I said, I read this first chunk of it fairly recently from a digital trade I got a while back. I think I read up to issue #14 from that one. Read these issues again to refamiliarize myself with these issues.
“How familiar are you with Wonder Woman?”
I’d say fairly familiar – I think I’ve read the most of the sort of mid/post Infinite Crisis era, from Rucka to Simone to Azzarello and Rucka again, with a few bits and pieces of other runs before, during and after.
“What parts of this reimagining are your favorite and which characters stood out positively and negatively?”
There’s a pretty good chunk of stuff I like from this reimagining, with a few things that I’m not too into.
On the positive end, I pretty much like the history of the Amazons as shown here. Diana is a strong character, and like someone mentioned on the WW Year One discussion from last week’s general book club, I like that it takes a little bit longer for her to grok English, the way it’s done in YO feels like a bit of a cheat.
Stuff that I don’t like from this take is how they place this story on the timeline and how it places Steve Trevor. The choice to make this story happen at the present day, so as to make Diana a novice hero alongside the experienced peers like Superman and Batman is just…odd. Diana should be a founding member of the Justice League, IMO.
As for Trevor, while I like him as a character here, I think removing him as Diana’s romantic interest messes up both characters in both the long and short term. I can understand the thought process that they felt it would give the book a different perception if it kept the romantic element, but I think it makes Steve feel somewhat superfluous, and it hurt things in the long run, because after Perez, every writer tried to make up their own half-baked Trevor clone to be her love interest and none of them ever worked out that well.
“Is Ares a good villain?”
He’s…okay. I like that he is beaten not through violence, but from seeing reason; and that he’s actually the one who gives Diana her overall mission of spreading peace between Man’s World and Themyskira. Outside of that, for 90% of the story, he’s really just a raving lunatic in an admittedly badass set of armor.
• JUSTICE LEAGUE DARK (2018-) #1
“How do you feel about Wonder Woman being in this team? Is she a good fit?”
As someone who read the initial run of Justice League Dark, I was thinking a lot of the same things other characters say in this issue – that Diana is too strong both physically and ethically to be in a group that’s previously been known for being more in shades of grey. This issue and the topsy-turvy status quo of magic at this time does prove that while she may not have been a good team member then, she is absolutely what the world of magic needs now.
“Which JLD member is your favorite going into the series?”
Zatanna is always a fave just in general. And considering that one of the big highlights of Tynion’s run on Detective Comics was his addition of Clayface into the team, I think his addition of Man-Bat to this one could have similar results.
“Thoughts on the art in both Wonder Woman '87 and JLD?”
Both accomplish what is set out to do. Perez is a master of the intricate and the crazy, thus really showing the magical world of Themyskira right. Martinez is very dark and moody. Both can do great work with both the over the top moments of action and the more subdued character moments. That said, it’s hard to not be more drawn to Perez, because…come on, it’s George freaking Perez! I’m sure even Martinez himself would say the same thing.
