I don't even have the words.

[bluefall]

You know what? Fuck everything. Everything.










I'm sorry. I don't even have a rant for this. I don't even...

Jesus fucking Christ.

Comments

[bluefall]

Like Jaime's "death", the fact that this won't stick doesn't make it any less insulting, really. This is comics, ultimately almost nothing sticks in the long-term. Why is it permissible to put Diana in a position where nothing that happens in her title will matter when the story is over in the first place? What does it say that it's okay for any version of Diana, no matter how temporary, to be portrayed this way? This is supposed to be the same woman with a different past, after all. This is a statement that even the Real Diana, given the right situation, would be this easily overawed by the Right Man, would be this indifferent to and unmoved by the heroism of her own culture and her own sisters.

Also, if the intent, as we've been told, is to integrate some of this new dumb shit with the old Diana, then this very much is an issue even for the real version of the character.

[julian]

I had conflicting readings on that -- did they state more explicitly than JMS's first interviews that parts of New Diana'll be integrated once the storyline ends?

[bluefall]

I believe Hester's also said as much. Really, though, they almost have to at this point. It's become a cognitive dissonance thing; the amount of time, effort and PR they've put into this story would make it very difficult for an editor to say "okay, now that it's over, just toss it all like so much Elseworlds." They need to give it repercussions and echoes in actual continuity, or else how do they justify doing it at all?

[julian]

Hester's said as much? I SIGH.

They have no damn justification for the damn story to begin with, but er, did I have a point?

Oh. Just. Yeah. That's my main worry with it a) going on awhile and b) it showing up in other books.

I mean, similar sorts of things happened in Heroes Reborn and Age of Apocalypse (or I guess House of M but I didn't read that), but the thing is both of those were situations when the entirety of the continuity was changed and/or the changed characters weren't interacting with the unchanged ones. But they did have echoes in the main continuity, and the thing with Wonder Woman's cast is that... well, it's not a broad tapestry like the X-Universe, it's focused on /her/. So (to state the obvious) the changes have to /involve/ her. And the changes make her... not her.

Glarg.

[nezchan]

If they just give her a love of pants and leave it at that, that'd be plenty of justification. Then they could happily jettison the rest.

[kenn_el]

...or she could wind up in a wheelchair and we'd be stuck with her forever.

[bariman]

*Diana get stuck back into her spangly costume*

"All I want is pants! A decent pair of pants!"

[nezchan]

"I'm cold, dammit!"

[perletwo]

t's become a cognitive dissonance thing; the amount of time, effort and PR they've put into this story would make it very difficult for an editor to say "okay, now that it's over, just toss it all like so much Elseworlds." They need to give it repercussions and echoes in actual continuity, or else how do they justify doing it at all?

One word: Countdown.

[bluefall]

Exactly.

Evil Mary; Trickster's death; Tim's inherited condom-head costume; potty-mouth Donna; Manchild Prime; Dead New Gods; Silver Age Jimmy Olsen, up to and including bloody Turtle Boy.

With a legacy like that to inherit, who knows what horrors this nuDiana will leave in her wake.

[ravenous_raven]

Waitwait, Jaime? That's...just wrong on so many levels...

[ian_karkull]

I can sympathize to some extent, out-of-characterness is surpremely annoying to everyone, particularly if you feel strongly about a character. But personally, I think I'm just too jaded to respond to nonsense like the above scene with anything other than an annoyed eye-roll and a moving on, let alone full on rage. The nature of comic books is so circular that I can't see any benefit from anger other than momentary gratification. Eventually, another writer will come along with completely different ideas and the cycle will begin anew.
Though I must admit, it's a little offputting that nobody apparently has a strong enough handle on Diana anymore that they thought she needed a new origin in the first place.

As for any of this sticking, I don't buy it for one second. Hester may have vaguely alluded to that, but even the Comic book business is governed by a certain modicum of politeness (as much as it may seem otherwise sometimes) that I think he, being in the position that he is in, just couldn't have come right out and said "This was crap, we're really sorry and are changing it momentarily.", even though both fans and critics universally agreed that it was.
I think they're simply paying lip service to cover their bases until JMS is firmly out of the door. If the rest of this issue is any indication, backpedalling hard from the mess he left them is exactly what his successors are doing right now. They're just too nice to say it out loud.