Wonder Woman writes a book! part 1

[espanolbot]

Issue 195
This being back in the Rucka run, when Diana was an ambassador to the UN amongst other things, and she decides to write a book about her beliefs on politics, feminism etc. so that people won't just think that she's a woman in a swimming costume who just punches people.




The artist's name is "Rayner" by the way.

Superman looked over her manuscript, which makes sense due to his reporting job and due to the fact that he's written two books himself.



Blimey, she's getting all the JLA involved, what's next Aquaman providing octopus ink for the printings? Will Wally West handwrite each copy?

196
The Book is complete, the Greek Pantheon have received advance copies of it and Ares is greatly amused by the content.

Diana and her staff talk about publicity,



Meanwhile, Veronica Cale, an antagonist of Diana's who essentially acts as her Lex Luthor, even though Diana didn't even know she existed prior to midway through this storyline, is trying to look for an angle to use the book to discredit her.

Cale was born to a poor family and had a bad childhood, but, like the current version of Selina Kyle she managed to make herself an independantly wealthy woman through hardwork, grit and determination.

But, while Selina is essentially a good person who abandoned her "Society Owes Me!" attitude prior to the Cooke/Brubaker run of her series, Cale is just as petty and vindictive as Selina can sometimes be but aimed at the wrong people.

For example, while Selina asserted her resentment over her upbringing through stealing from those who had it better to punish them or just for fun (the Mob she targetted a lot for example), Ronnie has turned her attention to Diana, who she loathes for getting everything "just handed to her", beauty, fame, superpowers, royalty etc., while Cale had to work for what she got. So she's dedicated her time to proving that Diana is just as bitter and selfabsorbed as her, even though it isn't true.

For a comparision, take Lex's sometime belief that Superman only does superheroism to showcase how superior he is to regular humans, for example.

Anyway, back to the story,


Mildly weirded out by Wondergirl not being whiny, and Jeph Loeb-era Supergirl in personality.




And Cale's news division's deconstruction of the book begins to work it's magic,


The sad thing is that this kind of parental panic about books isn't exactly something made up just for this comic, and has happened several times recently in real life, though probably not as dramatically.

title: Wonder woman
creator: greg rucka
creator: Drew Johnson
char: veronica cale

Comments

[mullon]

And we never saw any of them ever again.

[akodo_rokku]

Well, Cale's still around. Has her own country even.

[aaron_bourque]

They all died in Star City!!!

. . .

Diana has one of the largest and least used supporting cast in any medium ever. A one-man show of Hamlet wouldn't even come close.

[thebigapricot]

Is it wrong for me to think the first cover for the book, with Diana draped in violet, got somebody fantasizing thinking "Star Sapphire"?

[darkblade]

No it's a perfectly natural reaction.

[aaron_bourque]

And not the only one!

[protogarrett]

Looking forward to part 2. Excellent choices in scans. =)

[seriousfic]

I'm so disappointed we didn't get 22 pages of Wonder Woman sending out query letters and waiting to hear back from literary agents. It would've been money.

[jlroberson]

That would be realism.

[darkknightjrk]

I doubt it--this is Wonder Woman, after all. I doubt most celebrities have to wait for literary agents (I HATE to compare the two, but I'm sure they begged Sarah Palin to do a book), Diana wouldn't be an exception to it.

[sailorlibra]

Now you're making me miss Rucka!Diana...

[darkknightjrk]

Yeah, now I REALLY need to get those Rucka trades. You can hear my wallet sob in the background.

[jlroberson]

False gods? In the DCU they've actually shown up. So where's your messiah now, see?

[lonewolf23k]

More to the point, has anyone told those guys that the Constitution guaranties Freedom of Religion, and Seperation of Church and State?

[majingojira]

They believe that America was founded as a Christian nation for Christianity to flourish in.

They do not understand that Freedom of Religion is also Freedom From Religion.

They do not recognize Separation of Church and State either, hence why many candidates have to prove their religiosity to secure an election.

[jlroberson]

Not their Constitution.

It was on a placemat. Sarah Palin signed it and everything so it must be valid.

[ravenous_raven]

Tell that to people who wanted Harry Potter out of libraries for the "Satanic" witchcraft. Obviously they don't have balanced opinion, so...

[glprime]

More to the point of what's going on in the comic, minors are usually forced into religious practices by their parents (which there isn't any direct law against), and usually only gain true religious freedom after moving out.

[halialkers]

Except the DCU also has the Spectre.......

[jlroberson]

His god doesn't seem that reliable. Haven't you noticed how the Spectre is everyone's bitch now?

[deepspaceartist]

Well, to be fair, Jesus showing up again is supposed to be the start of the ende of the world and all that. If he starts showing up casually like the the greek gods, people would start getting confused.

And there's Spectre, and more recently Radiant, are there as representatives of the Judeo-Christian god, whom Rucka himself says is the top god in the DCU.

[shale]

I've read this three times now and every time as soon as I hit the middle of the second page I completely lose my train of thought because the publishing executive sounds like Londo Mollari in my head.

[dorksidefiker]

Oh gods, now I can't stop hearing it.

[q99]

-
Blimey, she's getting all the JLA involved, what's next Aquaman providing octopus ink for the printings? Will Wally West handwrite each copy?-

Lesse, Rayner's an artist, Clark's a writer, and apparently so is Diana herself.

Is that all for the JLA's creative types?

[kamino_neko]

Bruce was something of an artist before he got all obsessy-grumpy.

Zatanna's a stage magician, as well as a real one.*
John Stewart is an architect.**
Blue Devil was a special effects and stunt man, before getting caught in his suit.**
Nightwing was a member, and Dick is again a member as Batman, and he was an acrobat.*

* These two could be considered 'performers' rather than 'creative types', but they do design/choreograph their performances themselves...well, Dick would have had he made a go of it as an adult.
** And these two could be considered 'technical', but the creative element can't be denied.

[q99]

John gets points because reportedly he's a pretty creative architect :)

[curlyjo1]

He has been shown to be the JSA's go-to guy when the brownstone gets destroyed.

[darkknightjrk]

Bruce definitely is a writer--during Morrison's run, he says that he writes his entries of his nightly activities and unexplained phenomenon in the Black Casebook in "that self-conscious, hard-boiled style Alfred loves to read."

[espanolbot]

Batman cooks steak to relax, does that count?

[bariman]

Are the steaks edible after Bruce gets done with them?

[darkknightjrk]

Two questions:

1. Where's the Supergirl in these? I assume you mean it's from the party scene, but the only teen I can see in there was Cassie.

2. I wonder where they got that photo that the book agency wants them to use at first? They could say Photoshop, but part of me hopes it's not and there's a story in it.

[espanolbot]

Supergirl wasn't in the DCU at this point, I was just saying how Cassie's personality was a lot more cheerful until Kara show and made her all grumpy and whiny (like Loeb's Kara).

And that's a painting made up by the publishers, not a photo. I think that it being in a different art style to the rest of the comic kind of implied it.

Plus Diana isn't the nude photo kind of person, if only because her ambassador job at the time wouldn't have made it appropriate. The nude photo thing was more for Starfire, was actually paid for that kind of stuff,


Note: But this cover is someone impersonating her.

[halloweenjack]

Gar's expression is so funny. If his smile were any wider, he'd be the Grinch.

[glprime]

He's also a bit cross-eyed.

[galateus]

Teeny Titans Prime-Time Cartoons!

Prophetic.

[aaron_bourque]

I'm sort of reminded of Errant Story. "That's not what a no-nudity taboo means!"

[schala_kid]

That cover with Diana lying in the couch looks awful, I'm pretty sure that's the artist's intent but man her body is all anorexic and what's visible of her boobs looks like a tumor...yeeech I'm glad she asked Kyle for that lasso cover!

Also I miss this supporting cast, and Jonah! What a wasted character! I bet Rucka had something good in mind with him but the OMAC, Max Lord and Brother Eye stuff was shoved in and then Infinite Crisis happened... This is another example how comic editors ruin a writer's story.

[halialkers]

I wish that Zeus had struck those guys with lightning for calling him a false god. I mean, this *is* the DCU where he's a physical god there, right? So what's stoppin' 'im?

[aegof]

The Olympians don't seem to like to interfere except with their worshipers.
Everyone else has to deal with their champions.

Also getting into a pissing contest with the Presence is probably a bad idea.

[ik]

Take it to the court room - Zeus should sue for slander!

[philippos42]

I hate the execution of this run so much. At one point Cale kills someone for the crime of being a big Wondy fan. Which I guess is supposed to get the Wondy fans reading the book to root against her, but was a bit too obvious somehow.

[galateus]

If Cale is like Lex Luthor, does that mean Luthor is jealous of Superman's beauty too?

[tesserewhon]

OMG, RUCKA! You are the reason I am into comic books and why can't more writers be like you?

[aaron_bourque]

Well . . . I certainly would flip through a book with that first cover . . .

I would try to hide the cover, though. And maybe the contents, depending on what I saw.

But here's a more serious thought: is that a drawn cover, or did a model pose for the picture? Because if the latter, I'd love a little done-in-one that showed the life of a model who looked like Wonder Woman. I imagine her life is kind of like a celebrity look-alike's.