I love Gail's writing, and (obviously) love BC and the rest of the BoP, but I was really underwhelmed by this issue. The art was definitely distracting. Even if both artists are good, their visual/narrative styles just don't mesh well.
Even the pacing/writing of the story left me a little cold. I agree that Dinah's abrupt decision to leave and Oracle's relatively nonchalant response doesn't ring true, especially after the 100+ issues we have building their relationship and mutual understanding. I know Gail wants to set up the White Canary as a "big bad" for them, but 5 issues in we're still dealing with this new, and, frankly, relatively flat character. She should have moved on and built her up over time through various arcs interspersed by other storylines. As it stands, I feel like she's trying to make us care rather than successfully building a character that organically intrigues the readership.
I really liked the first arc, but I felt like it was a major miscalculation to make the first arc so dependent on the previous run and knowledge that your average reader simply doesn't have. I'm not surprised if some folks felt alienated by what was essentially a sequel to previous (if awesome) arc.
Totally agree about the Huntress in this issue; she was the high point.
@crusader8463: Well, seeing as there isn't a long legacy of institutionalized racism or sexism against white men, the kind of "discrimination" we face is different. But carry on with your flawed sociological analysis.
As for GL and Flash being more recognizable, that's pretty insane, since most non-comic readers have little or no clue who they are whereas WW is one of the few characters that has broad-based and international recognition. Wonder Woman merchandising has been a high-profit industry for decades, and continues to be so despite the comic's relatively low sales. A thoughtful analysis would ask "huh, why does her merchandising do so well but the comic has disproportionately low sales?" Of course, it suggests a broad-based appeal even for those who think comic books are lame, as well as an interest in the character but a lack of satisfaction with how that character is dealt with in comic books. wonder Woman is a cultural touchstone. Flash and Green Lantern are popular comic book characters.
@Son_of_Magnus: True, but that is a pretty recent development. GL and Flash used to have pretty crappy sales, which is why a 75th anniversary logo shouldn't be based off the last few years of sales, but rather the 75-year history of a company that has made tons of $$ off WW merchandising.
Just because someone is sympathetic to minorities or wouldn't be described as bigoted under normal circumstances doesn't mean they didn't say something a little bigoted or poorly thought through.
Regardless of which character he was talking about (Renee Montoya? Batwoman?), his comments show a basic lack of knowledge about the history of those characters. This Batwoman is a different legacy character, as is the new Question. Where was his outrage about the Silver Age legacy characters that rebooted classic golden age archetypes? He loves those well enough, but they represent clear departures from the characters as originally conceived.
More importantly, to refer to the Question or Batwoman as timeless or beloved characters is absurd, particularly in the case of Batwoman. It's a character that had a very limited history, and was the object of scorn and ridicule for the *decades* she was absent from comic books. As for Renee Montoya, what kind of major changes were at work? Renee Montoya barely had a private life to speak of before Gotham Central. It's not like there was a long history of heterosexuality to speak of before she was thoughtfully, carefully, and systematically revealed to be gay. It would behoove Cooke to have more working knowledge of the characters to which he was (apparently) referring.
Darwyn Cooke is a great artist, and a decent writer. But his comments were sloppy.
Nice review! That said, it's definitely Aphrodite she's talking to, not her mother. The conversation clearly signals WW's frustration with the apparent abandonment of the Amazon's by the gods ("So you're saying you're just like every other god..."). The rancor really wouldn't make sense if she was speaking to Hippolyta.
I really liked this issue, but I'm as of yet unconvinced that the individual characters were selected with much care. Outside of Deadman, that is.
I really hope that it pulls together *logically* by the end of the series. I fear it will feel more like "there were all these discrete characters or concepts we wanted to bring bag (Aquaman/Aqualad, Hawkworld, the Hawks, etc.) and so we jury-rigged their return in this big grab bag that we'll pretend hangs together logically."
I like Johns, and I think he's great at writing entertaining stories that lead to big, pretty splash pages, but I don't think he's much of a narrative craftsman.
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