Wonder Woman 8: Diana Prepares For Hell

[espanolbot]

Two Pages

Comments

[kenwyn89]

The classicist in me asks why is Hephaestus purple? I am kinda digging the armour though.

[mrstatham]

Surely you should also be asking why Hephy also has molten rock arms and calipers?

Also, I'm genuinely surprised I've seen no-one make a joke about the title of a certain KISS album when it comes to Eros and his choice in weaponry.

[espanolbot]

Well the things on his legs are presumably as he was meant to be a disabled god, while the rock hands are because he handles molten metal all of the time.

I think that he's meant to kind of look like a bald Morlock, which kind of makes sense considering they both live underground and make things for privileged idiots who live on the surface. Don't think that 'Phestus ever ate anyone though.

[icon_uk]

The calipers will be because Haephestus is using them to walk. According to myth despite being the son of Zeus and Hera, he was a sickly child (As a god of fire it was held that a great fire starts from a tiny spark), and either because Hera threw him from Olympus for being so weak, or Zeus did much the same for later siding with Hera against him in an argument, his legs were permanently injured from the fall and he was... and I'm trying very hard to think of a synonym for "lame" here, though it is meant in it's literal rather than perjorative sense for the rest of his existence.

He's sometimes shown just as having malformed legs, sometimes using a crutch, sometimes using a leg brace.

[skemono]

Calipers? Do those show up on a different page, or am I just not seeing them in the scans?

[icon_uk]

Calipers are leg braces, and they show up in the first and second scans (First page, main panel / second page third scan)

[skemono]

Really? Huh. I wasn't familiar with that definition. I only knew them as the tool used to measure the distance/length of an object. Y'know, these things:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/File:OutsideCalipers.jpg

[icon_uk]

Oh indeed, calipers is a term I haven't heard used in a while (and it's apparently a British term). I think most people just say leg braces these days.

[mrstatham]

I'm British, so yeah, Calipers is the term I've used for a while.

[icon_uk]

Second page third PANEL, sorry.

[icon_uk]

also has molten rock arms

Oh, and that'll be because, Haephestus is the god of fire.

[halloweenjack]

Eh, Love Gun wasn't that good--the most notable song on it was "Shock Me", both because they let Ace sing and because it was based on a real incident in which Ace was almost electrocuted on stage. I liked it OK when I was a teenager, but now "Christine Sixteen" just seems skeevy (as does Gene generally) and it's certainly no Destroyer.

[mrstatham]

I only got into Kiss about.. Ten years ago? And I still only own the first eight albums, plus the two first Alive! ones. And Love Gun's probably where they start going downhill, even just from reading the liner notes it's obvious something's off. But I still like it. I Stole Your Love (creepiness of the title and some lyrics aside) and Love Gun are great songs, Ace singing is a highlight as you point out. But as you also suggest - when is Gene Simmons not skeevy? I personally find Plaster Caster worse than Christine Sixteen, although both are pretty dumb, really. But to be honest, there's actually more songs I genuinely like on Dynasty, as much as it's the Disco album, than Love Gun. Charisma with Gene is just hilarious.

[feyandstrange]

I don't know from KISS, but the first thing my brain did after absorbing that Eros had guns was to start playing "Shot through the heart, and you're to blame, you give love a bad name".

[blueprintstyles]

I think they were going for a rock/mole person.

[citygod]

Very, very picky question: 3rd last panel - why is the emphasis on "be" rather than "here"?

[icon_uk]

Stress on any of the three words conveys the same message, just with a different emphasis.

"We'll be here!" - We are confident in our ability to be all that is needed.

"We'll be here!" - You can absolutely rely on us not to leave this place, no matter how long it takes.

"We'll be here!" - This is the place we have chosen to remain until this matter is sorted.

[citygod]

wellllllll...... sorta. But I'd prefer option #1 as in "despite his protestation's, I'll make sure we'll both be here"
It's not big deal, it's just that word emphasis in comics text can be so odd and random, I'm sometimes unsure if I'm missing something.
(Actually, I'd like to see a 4th option - the Chandler Bing reading: "Could we BE more here?")

[biod]

"We'll" does seem the most appropriate here.

[bradygirl_12]

Gorgeous armor.

[icon_uk]

Agreed.

[md84]

Fairly practical too.

[citygod]

yup - and Chang is a beast.

[halloweenjack]

I haven't been that happy with Chiang's art for this series overall, and it's still a little weird how he's drawing most women's eyes so huge (as he does for Diana here), but this does seem like an improvement.

[biod]

I dig the art and the design (Somewhat practical assymetry!? WHAT MADNESS IS THIS!?), but the color coordination could use some work. I think the blue battle skirt is throwing me off the most.

[thespis]

I may hate almost everything else about the rebooted Wonder Woman, but goddamn that is some gorgeous art. I love her armour.

Don't quite get what good Eros' guns would do, though. Assuming they're an updated take on his arrows, surely all they'd do is make anybody they shoot horny?

[bruinsfan]

I can see how making opponents in the underworld feel love could defuse all sorts of hostile situations.

[silicondream]

Traditionally he could inspire both desire and repulsion, so he could set person A chasing person B and person B fleeing from person A. One can imagine various crowd-control tactics and social manipulation feats (e.g. messing with Hades' and Persephone's marriage) he could pull off by abusing that power.

[darkblade]

A marriage based on kidnapping can't be that strong to begin with.

[swatkat]

My heartbreak over the last issue notwithstanding, how is Chiang's Diana so pretty?*stares*

[his_spiffynesss]

You know, if Hephaestus had the rocks all over his body, he'd look just like the Thing.

[maxisanacorn]

Oh shit that's gorgeous.

Funny Eros has heterochromia iridis, wonder what the point of that is?

[espanolbot]

The point being they're cool?

[halloweenjack]

I'm thinking "inspired by Bowie"; Bowie doesn't really have different-colored eyes, but they have that effect due to one having a permanently-dilated pupil.

[kenwyn89]

He looks like Bowie in the 90s when it comes down to style, too.

[feyandstrange]

Love is blind?

[feyandstrange]

OMG a Wonder Woman costume that doesn't suck. Okay, the skirt is weird and should have the rest of its tines or whatever put back on, but the armor is both not completely impractical and sexy, and her hair is up for once. Yay!

[beoweasel]

I dunno, I'm kind of torn about the skirt. If there were straps, instead of being so sparse, I'd be okay with it. As it stands, I think it looks goofy.

[eyz]

Ah, here comes the new variation on Diana's battle armor.
I like it!

[jlbarnett]

I've dropped the book after the reveal of the Amazon heritage, but I have fianlly thought of a way to fix their history without a massive retcon.

I wouldn't have minded the whole thing being a lie, because I don't mind the gods not being affected by the lasso. But then how do you explain the Amazons? It occured to me after a while it had been a long time since Diana had been to THemiscrya, so they could be fake.

Some of the history would have to be real, but it could be a Potemkin Village sort of thing to get Diana to go along with some godly succession crisis without realizing it.

[cypherfdp]

"Thanks for the armor, Hellboy!"
"Hephaestus."
"That's what I said."

[cypherfdp]

Also, Abe

[liara_shadowsong]

Oooh, I love Diana's outfit here. I mean, her skirt panels are a little sparse, and I think that the left shoulder should also have a whatchamacallit too (not the long gauntlet, just the shoulder piece), but otherwise this is awesome. I love that she's wearing actual, reasonably practical-looking armor (not a chainmail bikini), and that rocking updo.