In the spirit of rejecting that red ring that's been hovering...

[bluefall]

... some pages from Blackest Night Wondy #3 that don't make me want to vomit.


Cool moment as Diana muses over the feel of wearing a ring:



The idea of Diana seeing Ares as Rage!Guy's patron, and being completely sanguine about that (pun intended, sorry), really tickles me.

Also, best reaction ever to getting blood barfed on one's face:



And my favorite, a two-page spread, with dialog so good it almost starts to make up for having to see that abhorrent costume:



And then she neatly cocoons him, shatters him and moves on, and that's all there is to it. I think it's a seriously wasted opportunity that we didn't see any of Diana's dead in this mini - Myndi would have been awesome - but I like how Max only mattered in the first one and is really just an afterthought in this ish.

... not that I can say I care for what he's an afterthought to, but again. Won't get into it. Fightin' off that red ring.


Oh, and as per ravenous_raven's suggestions here, a modified Wondersapphire uniform:



Feel free to mentally insert in the scene above to assist your sanity.

Comments

[ravenous_raven]

what does she say after "I'm not a girl, Max"? Is it "I'm a woman. Wonder Woman"? (Sadly, that was the first thing that popped into my head)

[bluefall]

Nothing. The "I'm a woman," it seems, goes without saying. (Hell yeah it does.)

(Actually after months of Gail's Wondy posturing all over the place, a single completely dialogless page in which Diana wordlessly, smilingly disassembles Max, not a hint of bravado, just calmly and confidently doing her job, was like a balm on my Wondy-lovin' soul.

Obviously a pretty temporary one. >.<)

[queenanthai]

I'm the only one who went to "I AM A MAN!" after that panel, aren't I?

[jlbarnett]

funny thing is that she shouldn't know that Guy has a red ring, so she just naturally assumes that's the case.

[foxhack]

Or maybe she said that 'cause she knows Guy well enough to see that Ares would probably be keeping an eye on him. :p

[majingojira]

I'd blame editorial first and foremost in this case.

Though, without reading it in full, do you feel the other characters could be fit in without extending it beyond the issues given to it or would they need more?

But, yeah, the push on Maxwell Lords sounds like someone else's idea from where I'm sitting.

[bluefall]

The most likely thing to me seems like a combination of Rucka wanting to finish his storyline a bit, and both Rucka and Editorial being of the position that people actually know who Max is and he's therefore a better story point than someone like Myndi or Diana Rockwell or even, like, Antiope (how fucking awesome would that have been, srsly), whose stories aren't well known or even in some cases available outside piracy or ebay.

[shanejayell]

WOW is that a stripperiffic costume.

[ravenous_raven]

agreed.
-solid costume purple between the W-collar and Star-girdle
-solid cloth over her kneecaps so no one tries to bust her knees...
-ditto to the glove-thingies so that way they extend all the way to the flared collar.
-make the bracers gold *ducks* it just makes color-matching sense!

in the end, the only skin would be 1. thighs and 2. slight cleavage window. I think I can deal with that.


though apparently I completely change nearly every costume a female superhero reads...

[aaron_bourque]

Amazingly, the way it's presented in the two-pager? The way she's standing, the look on her face?

It doesn't look stripperiffic or sexy, or only to provide t&a. It just looks like a very graceful woman wearing clothes.

Aaron "The Mad Whitaker" Bourque; not much clothes, admittedly, but still, she somehow manages to carry it off.

[unicornicopia]

The thing is, that outfit wouldn't work on anyone but it's especially perplexing on Wonder Woman.

I actually drew my vision of an alternative here, haha.

[kingrockwell]

You know what we need? A "brightsiding" tag.
But yeah, I was really looking forward to seeing Myndi. I can't even put words on the way this mini went from massive anticipation to deep disappointment.

[bluefall]

"Theme: silver lining"?

I can't even put words on the way this mini went from massive anticipation to deep disappointment.

"Like Huntress:Y1 for Wondy fans."

[thebigapricot]

Motto on Myndi. I thought when she got mentioned in the main book she was a lock to come back. And not only is this mini a major disappointment it also robs me of my happy place of "oh, if only they hadn't taken Rucka off the book, everything would be perfect and rainbows and candy canes with Wonder Woman." Instead I find out he may have put Bats and Wondy in a relationship.

"Disappointment?"

[nefrekeptah]

How was this mini, in any way, disappointing? It had good art - so good that the Wondy-Saphire outfit looked tolerable for once, and had Greg-freakn' Rukia on writing duties! Plus, it used the Blackest Night setting to tell some interesting stories, as opposed to the "Oh, look Insert Dead Guy Here is back, what a shocker" plot all the other books seemed to use.

Hah, my optimism has finally gotten to you!

[bluejaybirdie]

...where is Diana's bellybutton? The bit pubic star-thing looks like it could possibly cover it, but it's a bit low. Is Diana a pod-person now in this scary post-ICk world? I wouldn't be surprised. (Yes, I'm focusing on the lack of bellybutton in that atrocious costume. Typing out all its flaws would take an essay, and I've already written three today).

I love that "I'm not a girl, Max" line.

Re: Hah, my optimism has finally gotten to you!

[jlbarnett]

I think the point of the star is meant to cover it.

[mad]

It's really a testament to Nicola Scott that I'm not completely cringing at that costume as much as I should.

Looking at these panels, what I don't get is why she needed a ring in the first place. Is she really using the ring all that much that it's actually necessary? I suppose the idea is that you need a ring to beat Black Lantern...but, all Jaime and Booster needed was one of Ted's old light guns, IIRC.

[mystery]

Because Nicola Scott...? People have a lot to say about Huntress belly-baring suit. I haven't hear that much feedback about WW being moved from a bathing suit to... this.

I'm cringing, myself. It's a huge, diminishing change!

[jelly_ace]

No. Liberation.

Can I say that was kinda brilliant?

[ravenous_raven]

exactly.

but a little against the expectations of the dirtier-minded folks of s_d, isn't it? ;)

[mystery]

Why are you fighting the red ring? I'm not even as big a fan of WW overall and I'm having a really hard time not being a little/lot... upset. Over this. It's diminishing. She doesn't deserve it. It's wrong. This would never happen to any male character I know of.

These are the thoughts that come to mind as I read the issue.

[mystery]

I'm not even as big a fan of WW overall.
By which I mean, her characterizations, over time, have made her at times, hard to follow. IMO. But she's never been written like this. Thank god.

[leikomgwtfbbq]

Even though the art is super-gorgeous, I still hate Wondersapphire's outfit. D: Especially the weird boots and the disco collar.

Mera puking the rage-blood-fire-stuff into Wondersapphire's face was kind of hilarious, though.

[darkblade]

I thought the boots were the closed thing to a redeeming feature this costume had.

[warpedhand]

I agree it's absolutely ridiculous.

On another note, though, I was thinking the other day, and realized how the only real obstacles to Bruce being a champion of Athena would be 1) He's an atheist, and 2) He's about as manipulative and forward planning as she is.

[bluefall]

Also, have you seen him try to weave a tapestry? It ain't pretty. Literally.

[shadowpsykie]

I don't have an issue about the neckline, its the belly hole that makes me cringe, and i have to say even witht he belly hole, nicola actually made it look not vomitworthy.

also, LOVED Max's line and Diana's response, because thats true, (initially she was about bondage) but she is about Liberation (especially conscidering Gail's first arch)

[v_various]

"I thought you were into bondage?"
"No, MAKING BABIES"

I know, I should let that go but it is what I thought of when you mentioned Gail.

[sistermagpie]

It really is hard to get by any of the premises here, be they the costume or the whole concept of WW being a Star Sapphires. (And that's even if you get past the existance of the SS themselves.) We shouldn't have to appreciate that at least this artist drawing the wildly stripperific, silly costume didn't focus on cleavage.

[mystery]

THIS.

[jlbarnett]

you know this is part of the reason Diana can't get a love interest. It's not allowed to affect her.

No SS?

[nefrekeptah]

There were problems with Wondy becoming a Star Sapphire? Besides the really stupid costume design?

Why? The two rings that Diana was most likely to get was either Love or Compassion, and it can be argued that her compassion for all things stems from her love of all things, so what's the problem? Other than the outfit, of course.