Wonder Woman #3 - "World's Finest, Part 1"

[laughing_tree]

I did a mission statement for Wonder Woman. First time I've done that in any comic. It was a bunch of things. It was like, no sword, all lasso. Stuff like that. I have a 12-year-old daughter who wore Wonder Woman costumes and had a Wonder Woman rope and I just looked at her and [thought], "What does she love about this character?" I wrote all that stuff down. -- Tom King

Comments

[beyondthefringe]

Can we please get more of -this- Tom King, and less of the cynical, noir, deconstructionist, depressing Tom King?

[dan_ingram]

Haha!

No.

[nyadnar17]

I gwafauwed.

[shakalooloo]

This Wonder Robin backup series is getting a TPB release, so that's something!

[zachbeacon]

I wish they'd stop removing the backups from the trades so they can sell them separately. Trinity seems like the only thing in this run that has the overall fandom excited .

[shakalooloo]

Well , this way you're not forced to pay extra to buy the bit you don't want.

Also, the issues don't line up with the main story, starting in issue 3.

[laughing_tree]

The positive response to these back-ups is exhibit A in the argument that most Tom King criticism really just boils down to "He has bad things happen to the characters," even if folks try to dress it up as something more.

[beyondthefringe]

If it was just a matter of "bad things happen to the characters," that would be one thing. Bad things need to happen to characters in order to drive plots. Heroes need to overcome challenges.

King, however, has a rather specific brand of, as I noted above, bleak, cynical, deconstructive storytelling that often leads to readers (i.e. myself) feel bad even when it's over and they've triumphed. It's a noirish take, and one he's clearly good at. Again, I'm not arguing against that. Noir has its place. Batman is extremely well-suited for noir. The Human Target is well-suited for noir. But noir set against brightly-colored heroes can be a bad fit. And King will, in my opinion, hammer characters into specific roles to fit the scenario in a way that doesn't always fit them. The portrayal of the Justice League in the Human Target series is one such example. The way he treated many of the characters in Heroes in Crisis is another. The way he's handling the Jenny Sparks series is yet one more.

To me, this leads to scenarios where you see a talented writer, and you acknowledge their talent and the highlights of their work -- but at the same time, you have to recognize their faults and the specific quirks which seep into their work at inopportune times. When they're good, they're very good; when they're bad, they're horrid.

And lest you think I'm picking on King specifically, rest assured I can also talk about the highs and lows of many a good writer-- Claremont, Hickman, PAD, Ewing, etc. I just wish we could see more of King's joyful and fun writing.

[laughing_tree]

Well, a bunch of what you're describing I'd say does boil down to bad stuff happening. What you're describing as the noir feel, for example, comes down to the characters facing helplessness, defeat, and moral compromise, I'd argue.

But also, I'm not saying there's not stuff to criticize. I made sure to say "most Tom King criticism," not all. Hell, I don't even think there's anything wrong with disliking a story because of the bad stuff happening to characters. I just wish there was more honesty about it.

For example, there was someone whose complaint was that the army attacking Wonder Woman is stupid because they should know she could just escape from the fight at superspeed. But you could apply this exact argument to every non-speedy enemy that attacks her, or that attacks the Flash, Superman, etc. So this can't be the person's actual complaint. They should be honest with themselves and just admit the government hunting her is just too gloomy and oppressive for their tastes, which is perfectly fine opinion to have. Instead of contorting themselves into knots arguing it's somehow out of character for the U.S. government to undertake a conflict it can't win.

[shakalooloo]

My takeaway from the out of context Tom King quote this time:

His daughter likes it when Wonder Woman eats rats?