Blackest Night: Wonder Woman #1

[xdoop.insanejournal.com]

BLACKEST NIGHT: WONDER WOMAN #1
Written by Greg Rucka
Art by Nicola Scott
Cover by Greg Horn
Variant cover by Ryan Sook

Fan-favorite writer Greg Rucka returns to chronicle the adventures of the Amazing Amazon in the DC Universe's darkest hour! Black Lantern Maxwell Lord has risen and he seeks revenge and retribution for his murder at the hands of Diana. Look for unexpected changes to await Wonder Woman in the course of this series as she plays a major role in the War of Light against the Blackest Night.

Retailers please note: This issue will ship with two covers. For every 25 copies of the Standard Edition (with a cover by Greg Horn), retailers may order one copy of the Variant Edition (with a cover by Ryan Sook). Please see the Previews Order Form for more information.

On sale December 2 - 1 of 3 - 32 pg, FC, $2.99 US

Comments

[zordboy.insanejournal.com]

"And how far would that be? It was demonstrated earlier in the issue that Supes could fly halfway to the sun and still be under Max's control. As soon as Max wakes up, the thing starts again."

Follow me here.

Diana is a trained Amazon princess. She's been scoring A+ in hand-to-hand combat since she was 14. Take away her gods-given powers, and she could still go three rounds with Bruce in the dojo without breaking a sweat.

But she can't knock someone unconscious?

"She had to kill Max!" means Diana's an idiot. Which is why that shit doesn't fly. It just doesn't.

"He would've woken up!" Yes, and by that point (and the fact Diana is fast enough to play tag with Flashes, and has direct line to Oracle -- and thusly, has a direct line to pretty much half of Planet Earth and beyond) he's (a) in the Phantom Zone, (b) in a psi-shielded cell, like Hector Hammond or Grodd or every other evil telepath the JLA has dealt with, (c) in a teleport loop, (d) in the speed force, (e) had his metagene removed thanks to science/magic/whoever, (f) is facing down with Athena since Diana had her on speed-dial, (g) is listening to "!srewop erom on droL llewxaM", (h) is listening to JJ and his genie wishing his powers away. Hell, what about (i) "So Clark, you can make it from here to Pluto in thirty seconds. Be there. J'Onn and Captain Marvel will come and get you when we've sorted this out".

*sigh*

I actually could go on. Gimme half an hour, I'll have twenty more solutions for you. I did this once before and I could do it again. The point is, all of those options end the situation effectively with no execution of Lord (and the JLA have someone to interrogate over the mess! What a great idea people being taken as prisoners can be sometimes, eh?).

So don't sit there and shout, "But she had no other option!" She did. A metric tonne of them that all would've worked. Anything else is a bald-faced lie.

[scottyquick.insanejournal.com]

Yes, but you have the luxury of that half an hour. Diana had to think on her feet something that would stop innocent people from being at risk. When she used the truth, the answer was to kill Max.

[zordboy.insanejournal.com]

Those first ten, took me seconds to think of. And I don't throwdown with Gorgons every Wednesday.

And the second people resort to, "The lasso told her she had to kill him!" as an excuse, I point out that it's lasso of truth, not the lasso of omniscience. Killing someone *is* a good way of stopping someone, but so are all those other things.

[colonel_green.insanejournal.com]

The lasso didn't tell her, that Max under the influence of it did.

There are other things that would seem like they would have worked, of course, but within the context of the story it's clearly meant to be a black and white choice, so I think it has to be taken in that context.

[zordboy.insanejournal.com]

It's just infuriating, that's all.

I mean, a character who has super-duper speed (which we know that Diana possesses) *does* have the luxury of time when a non-speedster opponent is forcing them to make a tough decision. Diana could've done *millions* of things to him in the nanosecond it took a single synapse in Lord's brain to fire. Thought only moves at about 100 metres per second, I think. That's fast, but Diana can do multiple laps of Earth in the blink of an eye. That's faster.

The story was crap from start to finish and this is where it gets us. Thanks DC. But I do confess that this fires me up like crazy.

[scottyquick.insanejournal.com]

So basically she should have knocked him out, flown him to the Phantom Zone, and found an anti-psych chamber? If he woke up for a millisecond, then thousands of lives would be at risk. Diana wouldn't take that risk. She used the lasso of truth to ask him how to stop him. If there were another way, he would have said so.

The entire point of the story was that she didn't have a choice.

[zordboy.insanejournal.com]

"So basically she should have knocked him out, flown him to the Phantom Zone, and found an anti-psych chamber? If he woke up for a millisecond..."

... with Diana's speed, that millisecond would allow her *hours* (from her perspective) of time to do something. Grabbing him, dragging him to a teleporter or to the Watchtower and stucking him in a teleport loop or in front of a phantom zone projector or *anything* would've taken a lot *less* time than a millisecond. Because Diana is that skilled, and that fast.

"The entire point of the story was that she didn't have a choice."

Then the entire point of the story was bullshit. You don't need the lasso around you to come to that conclusion.

[scottyquick.insanejournal.com]

If Diana flew him that fast, he would be dead.

[sailorlibra.insanejournal.com]

Why is it bad that she killed him instead of merely disabling him? Yes, there were other viable solutions and I'm sure Batman or a similar hero would have taken advantage of the solutions. And things might have gone wrong, people might have died, etc., but Batman would have taken the choice he felt to be morally correct.
Diana, however, felt and feels differently about killing people and as such, took the safest route. I'm sure she could have chosen a solution that didn't involve Max's death, but she decided that killing Maxwell Lord was the only way to stop him forever.
I don't see how her making that choice is out of character. She killed people before that story and has continued to do so afterwards. If you're pissed off at the story because she didn't make the traditional choice, then perhaps Wonder Woman isn't really the hero for you.

[kingrockwell]

Yeah, this. You can argue about the story all you like, and I could agree that it would've been the wrong choice if it were Bruce or Clark in the situation, but the issue people are taking here isn't with the story, it's with Diana. And it's not like killing him was the easy option either, since she ended up sacrificing her reputation for it, but the lives of the potential victims far outweighed Max's to her, consequences be damned.

No one ever complains about Diana killing Medousa, but they'll get up in arms about Max. The only difference between those situation is that Max didn't look like a monster, and that was the point of the story, not that she had no other option. In fact, she'd probably have had more nonlethal options against Medousa than Max, if not for the nature of the challenge.

Problem with that?

[nefrekeptah.insanejournal.com]

What if he breaks out of his psy-cell? And he would break out, eventually, because that's what happens in comics. And I think that Diana is genre-savvy enough to realize "You know how our villains constantly break out of the prisons we design for them, and escape from the interdimentional vortexes that are supposed to be inescapable? If that ever happens with Max Lord, then we're immediately back at square one, so do I really want to take that chance?"

What if it turns out that trapping him in the speed force or the Phantom Zone doesn't affect his psychic bond with Superman? It would be a small risk, to be sure, but once again, is it a chance you're willing to take when your mistake results in Superman killing you? Removing his powers might have the smallest margin for error, but what if he gets them back? Because that's also something that happens quite a lot in the DC-verse. Hell, Lord was bragging about how he had been digging around in Superman's head for years; what if it turns out that Max had brainwashed poor Supes so completely that Lord really didn't need his powers to control him?

Sure, Diana had other means at her disposal, but "just snap his damn neck" was the most obvious one, the most permanent one, and by far the most practical one.

Re: Problem with that?

[greenmask.insanejournal.com]

Plus, a lot of those other options place Mr Lord in pretty bleedin' horrible situations. Diana's not cruel or gratuitous. When the choice is death/fate worse than death, I don't think she'll be looking to be vindictive.

[(Anonymous)]

To be fair, only one of those solutions is somewhat viable, but that's still argueable.