Wonder Woman in Blackest Night: one panel summary

[thebigapricot]

Comics Alliance has put up what I think is a pretty accurate (and funny) 60 second overview of Blackest Night. My favorite is Wonder Woman.


And for legality, Wonder Woman and her "crush" in the Hiketeia


Tags:
char: wonder woman/diana of themyscira, char: batman/bruce wayne, title: blackest night

Comments

[thebigapricot]

I thought Diana was removed from the founding of the League due to the timing issue of the Perez reboot and the timeline of JLA Year One? Canary seemed to me to be a reasonable replacement given that she had replaced Diana in the League. Did you not like the selection of Canary or just the whole issue of them replacing Diana?

[bluefall]

Well, the removal of her to begin with was pretty problematic - seniority is a big deal in any organization, but with comics it's especially an issue, and robbing Diana of hers was a serious bit of disrespect and a mistake on DC's part, IMO - but the selection of Dinah to replace her sticks in my craw on its own as well.

It's basically like, well, what part does Diana play in the JLA? As a superhero, she's a tactical nuke - she brings bullet-racing speed, plane-throwing power, hard vacuum-resistant durability, and an unbreakable rope to the team. As a character in a web of relationships, she's a counselor/advice-giving type, kind of a dignified team mom and the one everybody looks up to. And, on a purely meta level, she's the token female.

And what part does Dinah play in the JLA (or at least, did had she played at the time)? As a superhero, she was a street-level martial artist. She provided a moderately useful AoE and some detective talent. As a character in a web of relationships, she was the prom queen who everybody flirted or fought with, the instigator of love triangles and the wild outspoken feminist to be tamed. And, on a purely meta level, she's the token female.

The only place where they overlap at all is that they're the two women with the strongest history with the team. If you actually go back and look at the stories, try to replace Diana in any given panel with Dinah, it absolutely does not work on any level. None of the fights can go the way they went, because Dinah's powerset is completely unlike Diana's. None of the relationships or interactions between characters can go the way they went, because Dinah's relationships with the other Leaguers are completely unlike Diana's. There's absolutely no consideration for who the two characters are as characters or how they fit into the story in that decision, it's just "quick, we need a girl, how about Canary." It's defining both of them by their ovaries before anything else about them.

I would rather have had an all-male Justice League with, say, Captain Marvel in Diana's place. It's not like it'd make the 'original' team any more hostile to female readers then you already are by pulling Diana to begin with, and at least that way you're pretending that you realize she brought something to the team dynamic other than her tits.

[thebigapricot]

So they either do as they did and use a female character that is a pale comparison of Diana or they say "We admit it, the only character than can equal Wonder Woman is a guy." The way you've laid it out here I have to agree with you, the latter scenario pisses me off the least.