Voices From Krypton

BULLETS & BRACELETS: WONDER WRITER GAIL SIMONE

by Raffy Arcega
Wonderfans have so much to be happy about nowadays.
   Not only do we have an amazing writer on the Wonder Woman comic book series, but we have one who has proven herself to be one of the most enthusiastic, most exciting writers ever to handle this assignment.
   I’m talking about the one and only Ms. Gail Simone !
    Our Wonder Woman journey with Gail began with the story arc called “The Circle” (WW Vol. 3, Issue #14), which provides as aspect to Diana’s origin that we never knew before — that Hippolyte once had a royal guard comprised of excessively fanatical Amazons intent on trying to kill the infant Princess Diana on the eve of her birth. To make matters worse, there is a conspiracy within the Secret Society of Super-Villains to not only destroy Diana, but take control of Paradise Island as well by utilizing an old Captain Marvel villain — Captain Nazi and his army of superhumanly enhanced Neo Nazi Storm Troopers. Just awesome! Nazis are always the best villains and this aspect of the story pays homage to Diana’s Golden Age stories.
   Fans have always said that to showcase Diana's prestige as Wonder Woman, she needs to have Super-Villains and stories that are worthy of her mettle. And any challenge a hero can win despite overwhelming odds makes her a Wonder Woman indeed.
   From the inception of the current series, the notion of a non-superpowered Diana Prince was brought back into the mix as a means of providing some vulnerability for Wonder Woman. This element was no doubt inspired by the Lynda Carter WW TV series where “in the persona of Diana Prince…she is vulnerable.” But the current comics version under Gail Simone did the TV show one better — as Diana Prince she continues to have her martial arts skills and remains an excellent hand-to-hand combatant. In one scene of this story arc, we see Agent Prince pinned to the wall by the Metahuman, Captain Nazi. Refusing to allow herself to be beaten, she uses the element of surprise and Judo throws Captain Nazi while launching a smoke bomb that cleverly hides her long enough to transform into Wonder Woman (ala Lynda Carter, of course). 
   Why does this scene work? Because it demonstrates that with or without powers, Diana of Themyscira is a genuine Wonder Woman and this particular vulnerability prevents her from being too Kryptonian-like. Admittedly when this element (the result of a curse from the witch Circe) was introduced, it seemed underwhelming, but Gail made it work from the start and continues to do so.
   The story arc also explores the professional life of Diana Prince, Special Agent for the Department of Metahuman Affairs, where she works under the command of Sarge Steel and an old friend, Etta Candy. Also introduced are a group of Albino Super-Gorillas from Gorilla City, who begin as Diana’s foes, but through her nobility, bravery and compassion have become unlikely allies (some going so far as to live on Paradise Island as Queen Hippolyte’s protectors). As a result, we’re provided a double-dose of superheroic action without sacrificing characterization or the character’s overall direction.
   Speaking of direction, the coming months will explore what happened to the Amazons, where the Olympian Gods went, the ramifications of Diana’s allegiance to Polynesian god Kane Milohai, the courtship of Tom Tresser, an exploration for the Black Horizon and the reasons that Diana must ally herself with Beowulf and Claw the Unconquered. Additionally, we’ll learn why the magic lasso is one of the deadliest weapons, the location of her invisible jet, why the Secret Society is collecting soil samples from locations around the world where genocide was committed and, most importantly, the identity of Genocide.
   Without spoiling too much for those who haven’t read Wonder Woman under Gail Simone’s run, this series can’t be recommended highly enough. If your association with the character is purely based on the live action series or such animated fare as Superfriends or Justice League Unlimited, you’re going to be pleasantly surprised.
   It all began with Wonder Woman (third series) Issue #14 to the present Issue #23 and beyond. The series is written by Gail Simone and illustrated by fan favorites Terry Dodson and Aaron Lopresti. For brief descriptions of the Black Horizon story arc, visit
http://phoenixmarvel2002.tripod.com
   Thanks for listening Wonderfriends.

SPEED ZONE: WEEKLY ROUNDUP IN A FLASH

Hello. My name is Kelson Vibber. I've run a Flash reference site, Flash: Those Who Ride the Lightning, since the mid-1990s, and a few months ago I started up a blog featuring Flash news and commentary: Speed Force. I've been invited to do a weekly round-up of Flash news here at Voices From Krypton. This first one's a bit late due to the holiday weekend.
   First, Dan didio and Ethan van Sciver discussed next year's Flash: Rebirth at Fan Expo last weekend. CBR has write-ups of the DC Nation and DC: A Guide to Your Universe panels, as well as a brief chat with Dan Didio and an interview with Ethan van Sciver. There are more hints that Bart Allen will return, but the main thing EVS wanted to tlak about was why now was the time to bring Barry back.
    The biggest splash, though, was Dan Didio saying at DC Nation that he realizes that DC "reboot[s] the characters too much." he goes on to add, "what we should be doing is leet it sit for a while and then come back with a good strong story with what's going on. That's what Geoff [Johns] does." And Geoff Johns is, of course, the writing half of the Flash: Rebirth team.
   Also this past week, Final Crisis: Rogues' Revenge #2 came out. Response to the Geoff Johns/Scott Kolins miniseries continues to be largely favorable, and you can see my review elsewhere on Voices From Krypton.
   As for the monthly Flash series, Speed Force interviewed Tom Peyer about the 6-issue run he just finished on the book.
   Finally, a fifth volume of The Flash Archives has been spotted on Amazon. This would most likely cover Flash #133-140 (1962-1963), bringing the full-color Archives line up to the same point as the black-and-white newsprint Showcase Presents... series.
   — Kelson Vibber, Speed Force

SPEED ZONE: FINAL CRISIS — ROGUES' REVENGE #2 IN REVIEW

Another incredible issue from Geoff Johns and Scott Kolins that really makes you root for the bad guys. Most of Final Crisis: Rogues' Revenge #2 is taken up by a savage battle between the Rogues and a younger group of "New Rogues" who first appeared in Gotham Underground. The New Rogues have no idea what they''re  getting into, and the book shows just how dangerous characters with names like Captain Cold, Heat Wave and Weather Wizard can be.
   Meanwhile, Zoom and Inertia get along about as well as you might expect. Which is to say: not very.
   The timeline is starting to fall into place. The first issue takes place during Final Crisis #2, this one takes place during Final Crisis #3, and the whole of it takes place after the stories currently appearing in the monthly series. The Flash Family meeting in Final Crisis #3 actually continues in this issue, though either scene stands on its own.
   Several story threads from early in Geoff Johns' run on The Flash get followed up on here, including his retelling of Captain Cold's origin. There's also a nice explanation of why the Rogues kept going back to their tailor, Paul Gambi, which fits well with one of the stories from Grant Morrison's brief run on the book back in 1998. (In that story, Gambi created "the ultimate super costume".)
   I'm beginning to wonder just how much this story changed as it became tied into Final Crisis. As originally describd, it sounded like the Flash was actually going to be involved. Instead, the whole thing is set when Wally is off on a mission, before Barry comes back.
   I did have a problem with the art. Normally I like Scott Kolins' work, but it seemed a bit too heavy. I don't remember thinking that with issue #1, but it may simply have not bothered me as much. I also thought the coloring was too muted, but both could be a function of printing.

SPOILERS AHEAD

5

4

3

2

1

The best moment of last issue was the brief appearance of Iris Allen with lightning and a disembodied voice calling her name. The best moment of this issue was Heat Wave vs. Burn. In Greg Keyes' Kingdoms of Thorn and Bone quartet of novels, a fencing master explains to his charge that knights don't fence; they hack at each other with their swords until they find out who has the better armor. That's what hapens here: They blast each other with flame until they find out who has the better insulation.
   As for that final page, I can't help but wonder whether Libra is still barking up the wrong tree with his hostage choices. Last I looked, Weather Wizard's interest in his son was purely scientific. I guess we can assume Iris' efforts to adopt Josh fell through, given that no one at the family gathering seems concerned about him being missing.
   The one thing that really rang false for me was the repeated references to Bart as "Kid Flash" at the time of his murder. DC went to a lot of trouble to establish him as the Flash, and every reference to the murder of the past year in Countdown, Salvation Run, etc., referred to him that way.
   It's going to be very hard to wait until mid-October for the conclusion of this series.
   — Kelson Vibber
        www.hyperborea.org - SpeedForce.org

FROM THE WATCHTOWER: JLA #24 IN REVIEW

“The Second Coming Part III of III: The Blood-Dimmed Tide”"

The three part “The Second Coming” arc comes to an explosive conclusion as the team faces off against the newer, deadlier Amazo in a story that highlights writer Dwayne McDuffie’s strengths and his weaknesses as he continues to find his rhythm on this title.
   As far as action goes, this issue has it all — explosions, bloodied noses, a grueling hand to hand sequence between Amazo and Wonder Woman, and collateral damage galore.  The scenes are packed with exquisite details by artist Allan Goldman that manage to convey both terrifying danger and moments of hope and heroism at the same time.  Amazo’s defeat is truly a team effort, as it takes a scheming Batman and Steel, canary cries, trick arrows, magic maces, backwards spells, and the sheer power of Wonder Woman, who stands toe to toe with an enemy that just shredded most of the League, to trap the deadly android in orbit around a red sun, where its copied elements of Superman’s physiology should keep it from regenerating and returning for another round for some time.
  Where McDuffie gets it right is in his utilization of traditionally lesser used characters, while at the same time allowing for innovative uses of their powers.  A stand-out example from this issue is when Zatanna, having had her mouth removed with a taste of her own medicine when Amazo mimicked her powers last issue, uses her own blood to write a spell on the ground to get back into the action.  Black Canary, made Chairperson of the League by Meltzer, had been criticized by many fans as to her seeming lack of credentials, her role in Birds of Prey notwithstanding.  However, McDuffie is doing a good job of showing that she more than has what it takes as she uses her cry to temporarily take off Amazo’s head.
   He also does a good job of focusing on the teamwork aspect of the book.  Gone are the days it seems when the rest of the League gets a few shots in only to have one of the big guns do the mop up duty.  McDuffie likes to spotlight different characters, the likes of which typically got lost in the shadows of heroes like Superman and Batman in times past, and has at long last given Red Tornado a body again. As a result, we don’t have to see the self-deprecating computer image of recent months.
   However, where McDuffie lacks is in maintaining a proper balance in the action in terms of the utilization of the entire roster.  While he gives some more prominence to those characters whose turn in the spotlight has been long overdo as opposed to using those who have perhaps been used too much, the latter are often somewhat relegated to wallflowers.  Superman and Batman, two-thirds of the Trinity, appeared in barely more than a dozen pages in the last two issues combined, with Superman only making appearances to be a punching bag, an all too common role during McDuffie’s run for the Man of Steel.
   McDuffie’s run has been uneven at best, but to his defense, it has been somewhat lacking in rhythm due to other DC events such as Salvation Run breaking up the run.  With a new arc set to kick off finally resolving the issues of Vixen’s powers, we will see if McDuffie can find that balance between the overuse of some of the big names like Superman and Batman that were prominent in Morrison’s turn on the book, and what we have seen thus far in the current run.  He’s starting to get the hang of it, but he’s not quite there just yet.
   Overall, the issue had enough action to make any Michael Bay fan excited, and featured a mostly strong script by McDuffie, with crisp art by Goldman, and provided a nice setup for the upcoming adventure.  For the action, and the Wonder Woman vs. Amazo bout alone, the book earns a 3 ½ out of 5 star rating.
   -Charles J. Baserap

FROM THE WATCHTOWER

The big news about the Justice League movie -- actually, the only real news about the Justice League movie -- is that the production may be moving from Australia to either New Zealand or Canada due to Australia's Film Finance Corporation deciding that the production would not meet the standards of being issued a significant tax rebate because it's not Australian enough (which is likely the reason that the title was changed from Justice League of America to the dopey Justice League: Mortal).
   "Babe wasn't an Australian story, Happy Feet is not an Australian story, Moulin Rouge is not an Australian story," Miller told the media. "That kind of thinking dooms us to make very, very msall films that not even Australians want to see. You need the gravitational pull of these big blockbusters to sustain production, to build the talent pool. A once-in-a-lifetime opportunity for the Australian film industry is being frittered away because of very lazy thinking. If that's going to be the final decision, they're throwing away hundreds of millions of dollars of investment that the rest of the world is competing for and, much more significantly, highly skilled creative jobs. It feels to me like I'm not fighting for this film. I'm fighting for the Australian film industry."
   Australia's The Advertiser has its own theory: "He could be fighting for his own job with rumours he was hired partly because of his ability to deliver the rebate. If so, his head could be on the chopping block along with the rest of the B-list cast."

EXCLUSIVE: ALAN BURNETT ON THE FINAL EPISODE OF "THE BATMAN"

Throughout this past season, The Batman has had the Dark Knight teaming up with different members of the Justice League. Tomorrow, in what will mark the final episode of The Batman, the entire team is being brought together for one last adventure. Where the DC Tooniverse goes from here, of course, is anyone's guess, although the rumors are flying that there will be a Brave & The Bold series with Batman teaming up with different DC heroes in every episode. In the following exclusive interview with supervising producer Alan Burnett, just as he's done all season with VFK, he previews the new episode of The Batman.

Click To Play

THIS WEEK ON THE BATMAN... WITH ALAN BURNETT

WONDER WOMAN & BATMAN CAST?

According to aint-it-cool-news.com, the previously rumored Megan Gale has been 100% cast as Wonder Woman in the Justice League movie. There's no way to be sure, of course, but at least this seems like a positive indication that the project is still moving forward. Given the Writer's strike and all of those (sometimes ridiculous) rumors that had flooded the net, there was concern that the project had been aborted. Hopefully further word will be coming soon from Warners.
   Over at iesb.net came word that actor Armie Hammer had been cast in the role of Batman/Bruce Wayne. Most of his previous acting credits have been as a guest starring actor in a number of network TV series, among them Arrested Development, Veronica Mars and Desperate Housewives. One confusing aspect of his casting is the fact that the approach was supposedly going to be that the members of the Justice League had been teaming up for several years by the  time the adventure of the film takes place. Hammer, however, is only 20 years old -- younger than the character was in Batman Begins. As with Megan Gale, the studio has had no comment.

FROM THE WATCHTOWER

The rumor making the rounds for weeks was that Warner Bros. would be making an official announcement of the cast for Justice League this past weekend. As has been the case with most of the rumors that have been associated with the film, this proved to be false as well.
   Last week it was supposedly confirmed -- though not through the studio -- that Adam Brody has been cast as one of the characters called The Flash (supposedly the Barry Allen version of the character is killed, only to be replaced by Wally West as the speedster), the rapper Common is the John Stewart version of Green Lantern and actress Teresa Palmer as Talia al Ghul, the daughter of Batman enemy Ra's al Ghul. If the latter character is indeed part of the film, it will confirm the rumor that at least part of the plotline will deal with Talia seeking vengeance against Batman for the death of her father as revealed in Batman Begins, thus creating continuity between the two films.
   The most substantial Justice League news to come out was the interview www.comicscontinuum.com conducted with Friday Night Lights actor Scott Porter, who had been rumored to be cast as Superman as far back as mid-October, though in the past few days other sites have made it sound like this is news that has just broken. In that interview, Porter revealed, "When I tested, I tested for the role of The Flash, which I lost to Adam Brody. At this point, Superman is purely rumor and speculation as far as I'm concerned, although I do want to buy a Superman shirt today and wear it to mess with people." Of the audition process itself, he added, "There were about 32 of us, and [George Miller] just said, 'We're having a test.' I don't know if he had a specific role until we got there. None of us knew the specific role until we got there. The Flash was written next to my name when I was there, so that's what I was under the assumption I was auditioning for, although they did say that it was kind of a blanket test. There was one scene and everybody did the same scene, so we could have been auditioning for any role." To read the rest of this interview, please click HERE.

THE JUSTICE LEAGUE GOES ON

Just last week Variety was raising a concern that without the ability for rewrites due to the Writer's Strike, the movie version of Justice League would have to be postponded. According to a report that surfaced today at iesb.net, that's not the case at all.  "The WGA is not slowing down the WB and its plan to get Justice League on track," notes the site. "WB sources tell IESB that the cast will be announced this week. They tell the IESB that unlike the story ran by the trades, casting is 100% locked. The cast has been chosen and sworn to secrecy, but official confirmation will happen sometime this week. There have been many names associated with the Justice League throughout the last few months that it would make anybody's head spin.  Looks like this will all come to an end by the end of this weeknd. "