Wonder Woman #07 rotting spoilers

[sherkahn]

I have to credit BleedingCool.com for this.


I've touched on the Batman spoilers today, but they start off with the revelations about Diana and her people. It's a new low for DCnU.
It's a doozy and may not sit well with most of you. Heck, the new S_D protocols may even be triggered.

Fair warning, SPOILERS AHOY.



Shouldn't we have a tag for "everything you thought you knew was wrong."?

From the article:

"Paradise Island, has always been portrayed as a preserve of women, with new generations emerging… in an non-specific fashion. Formed from clay, or girls lost at sea transported to the island. The new Wonder Woman does away with any such niceties. The women of Paradise Island now set off on the seas looking for other ships, for seamen… or rather, semen. They have sex with the sailors, and then kill them. The sex may have been consensual, but what happened after certainly issn’t. Later, those that have conceived children give birth, the female children staying, the male children… becoming hellish slaves of the infernal weaponry workshop."


"It’s a nightmarish vision made real by Brian Azzarello and Cliff Chiang, the harshness of the stories of the Gods now made flesh in a much less palatable way. And given light to the thought that somewhere, working at a lithe, forging a mighty sword, unaware of his lineage, is Wonder Woman’s brother…
"

I guess Donna is going to have a say about this other brother, and I am not too fond of this darker, seedy Paradise Island. It honestly sounds like a brothel/labor camp of the gods than an ideal community led by women, made of women, for the women.

Comments

[darkknightjrk]

Hell, this is still lighter than the Greek Myths--as I recalled, the Amazons outright killed the male children. At least here the Amazons gave the males to someone who would take care of them.

[shadowpsykie]

At least here the Amazons gave the males to someone who would take care of them.

actually its totally what came to my mind too.

[icon_uk]

That really doesn't excuse the "Seduce men then murder them in cold blood even if they have done nothing to deserve it" which is already bad enough.

[shadowpsykie]

yeah... again, i don't necissarily hate this interpretation (keep in mind we are only hearing the gods' point of view) it could be true, but to what extent and how exactly the reasons are, we don't know. as they are all stone right now...

while i don't hate it, i don't like it. and it is without a doubt problematic... that said, other than this, I have really loved Brian's run so ia m going to see how this plays out....

[darkknightjrk]

That's definitely a dick move, certainly, I'm just saying that the revelation with the Smith taking the kids in makes this take lighter than the Greek mythos regardless.

[valtyr]

At least here the Amazons gave the males to someone who would take care of them.

"becoming hellish slaves of the infernal weaponry workshop"?

It's still pretty bad.

[icon_uk]

Yeah, that's not what I'd consider "take care of" means.

[valtyr]

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=SUyGG4PmELA

[darkknightjrk]

I got the feeling that what we see at the end gives a bit of a question mark to whether they're truly slaves or not.

[shadowpsykie]

yeah, again. planting seeds that will later sprout. when dealing with gods, i have learned not to take things at face value. its not just what's told, but what we see and what we learn as the story progresses

[akodo_rokku]

Yeah having read the comic in question, that line is completely false. Hephaestus takes the boys in because the Amazons used to just toss them into the ocean -- like his mother did to him. He loves them and they're happy there, where they're artists instead of corpses.

I know a lot about this run has bugged long-time Wondy fans, but I've gotta say, it's by far the most interesting the book and character have been since Rucka.

[valtyr]

So the Amazons do try and murder their sons, it just doesn't work out?

[akodo_rokku]

They used to, then Hephaestus started offering them weapons in trade for the boys.

[valtyr]

So at first they murdered their sons, and then when they got offered stuff, they went for selling them into slavery.

I mean, I'm glad Hephaestus is good to the kids, but the Amazons are presented in a light just about as dark as the myths, which is the point at issue in this thread.

I'm also not terribly impressed at the idea that thank goodness, there's a man handy to save the poor boys those terrible women were murdering.

[philippos42]

Well, I for one kind of like the subversiveness of a male nurturer saving kids from evil Amazons, and DC should be able to do its own version of Deadface or Tales from Myth if they want.

And the Marston estate should be able to take Wondy away from them, too. ;)

[fredneil.livejournal.com]

But the book isn't called "Greek myths," it's called "Wonder Woman," and no matter how much they might draw on Greek mythology, these aren't the Amazons of those myths, they're the Amazons of Wonder Woman mythology, so this should be judged on how well they fit with that history.

[halloweenjack]

This. If DC wants to publish Fucked-Up Shit That People Used To Believe In Illustrated #1, they can run that up the flagpole and see who salutes.

[darkknightjrk]

But Greek myths have been very intrigal to WW since Perez--complaining about using that as their base is like complaining about Batman stories because they're typically mysteries.

[fredneil.livejournal.com]

Not at all. One is a question of what material should be at the root, the other is a question of genre.

Besides, even if they have been integral since Perez, Wonder Woman's own mythos have been integral for decades longer, so they should still take precedence.

[labellementeuse]

But what's also been integral to Wonder Woman & the Amazons is, you know ... them not being heinous villains?

This is like saying that if you took the flagship Batfamily book and made it all about Bruce sexually abusing Robins and also fighting crime, it wouldn't be a travesty because the elements are all there in the original. They are, but it's still a violation of the character. It might be interesting as an Elseworld but it shouldn't be your full-time Batfamily book.

Also, it is sexist bullshit fears around matriarchal societies, as per usual.

[angharad_gov]

in the old myths, the amazons did give the male children to another tribe -- the gagareans. they were an all male tribe and in some of the mythos, that's how the amazons had their children; it was a once a year impregnation festival with the gargarean tribe. when the children were born, the amazons took the girls and the gargareans took the boys.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Gargareans

[darkknightjrk]

To be fair, it's be a little harder to do that aspect of the myth when the Amazons are plopped onto an island all by their lonesome. :P

[angharad_gov]

i realize that and my pointing out that the amazons did this in myth in no way mitigates or lessens what DC has done to the amazons of their universe. sucks all around. :(