All-Star Wonder Woman

[history79]

from ASBAR #5

Comments

[steverequin]

I remember a time when such writing would have been called "Parody".

And yet, I find there's a refreshing side to it.

Da fuq did I just read!?

[7dialsmystery]

You mean it isn't a parody?

Re: Da fuq did I just read!?

[filthysize]

It's very purposefully tongue-in-cheek and meant to be humorous. I'm not sure why so many people refuse to see it as such.

Re: Da fuq did I just read!?

[lordultimus]

Because Frank Miller went on to write Holy Terror, which everything is exactly like ASBAR only played entirely straight and with eye gouge worthy artwork.

Re: Da fuq did I just read!?

[locuatico]

i am of the opinion that it is, it's just that Frank Miller is unaware of it.

[beardedjellybean]

Millar pretty much went to town in flanderizing Wonder Woman into a feminazi. I feel that he has to been taking the piss at some point in this comic with the characterizations.

[lyricalswagger]

Miller, not Millar.

[beardedjellybean]

Thank you Mr Grammar Nazi (Nazi's EVERYWHERE!!!!)

[arilou_skiff]

Not really a grammar-nazi issue: Frank MillER and Mark MIllAr are both comics-creators but they're actually two different people.

[beardedjellybean]

I know man, it's a joke.

[beardedjellybean]

And I did mean Miller, I apologise it was a honest mistake.

[lyricalswagger]

That's Ms Grammar Nazi to you, sperm bank.

[beardedjellybean]

Yes ma'am, whatever you say ma'am.

[captainbellman]

It would be nice to see Perez-era Wondy unmask this imposter as some kind of foul parody created by the gods to torment her.

[miramira]

"Torment" implies some kind of actual threat. I think she'd just raise an eyebrow and laugh.

[captainbellman]

You don't think she'd be offended at her reputation being horribly besmirched?

[miramira]

I think she'd be offended at her colleagues falling for it, except I'm not convinced these are her real colleagues either.

[thanekos]

I'd love to see All-Star Plastic Man vs All-Star Batman; the former doesn't have a weakness that the latter could cartoonishly exploit.

[mrstatham]

Frank actually has them face-off briefly in DKSA; Batman just punches him in the face once while he screams insanely.

[mrstatham]

So she spends pages ranting about men and how they lie and are super-awful, but then complains because the League aren't acting like men?

Frank really was laughing all the way to the bank on this one, wasn't he?

[icon_uk]

And I suspect he was the only one who was....

[sanctaphrax]

I can't believe that they actually went with that cover.

[leoboiko]

To be fair, the cover is an accurate characterization of Miller's work as regarding women.

[lordultimus]

In fairness it's technically an alternate cover. Still surprising though.

[walkingthroughforest]

I love this so much. Frank getting so many people ruffled.

[alicemacher]

While agreeing this is total WTF territory (as is pretty much the rest of the series), I've always found "Out of my way, sperm bank" so over the top in its distortion of feminist thinking that I can't help but laugh.

That said, the kiss scene, more than anything else, grinds my gears because I see it as an example of the "all a 'man-hating' feminist needs is a good man to 'tame' her" attitude.

[sagrada]

The problem with Mr. Miller claiming this is a parody(which is right up there with "It's satire!" for really silly and pointless ways to try and defend something) is that it's nigh-impossible to tell where he's being ironically silly and what he intends to be serious coming off silly. In context with everything else the comic has going on, this not even remotely the stupidest thing that happens in it, or the most off-character moment.

Though this is really funny in hindsight, given how she started off in the New 52's Justice League. All the seeds were there, all the foundation was already rotted. It just needed the original structure to be formally removed to let the poisonous tree grow.

[lego_joker]

Does anyone else run with my interpretation that this was Miller mocking DC for treating DKR as the Holy Bible of Batman stories? Y'know, in a, "Oh, you guys wanna ride off my coattails so much, well try slavishly copying THIS, motherfucker!" way?

[bruinsfan]

Honestly, my impression of Miller doesn't include the sense of humor and level of self-awareness that would be required for this to be a joking portrayal rather than a sincere one.

[candyangelo]

Diana's attitude reminds me of the ideal Tumblr feminist.

[stubbleupdate]

Do go on...

[jekylls_salvation]

I bow to your culture filter. I live in a place known for its MC shielding and even the most selective among us have been positively saturated in the tale of the Tumblr feminist at one point.

The Tumblr feminist is categorized by a certain anger, often blind or unbridled. It's all rather unhealthy and counterintuitive and just generally unfortunate. They tend to be the type to combat a fire by burning things (where one might presume the goal should have been to put the fire out), so there's an element of shortsightedness and inefficiency that makes the whole situation rather discouraging.

[candyangelo]

Not to mention unintentionally hilarious and really embarrassing.

[stubbleupdate]

In what way?

[candyangelo]

I'm guessing that my last comment came across as confusing or fully unexplained.

Someone else already explained it better than I ever would, but my point is that these "feminism" movements make matters worse by pinning blame on male dominance along with, "all men are pigs, they make society worse blah blah blah" and so forth. Upon with making these statements no supporting facts are fully given and often twisted around to make everyone else look bad.

They get called out on it, and then take full advantage to over victimize themselves further.

Their only motive is to belittle masculinity while trying to make themselves appear better, which is ironic.

Upon coming across this post, the way Diana is written just reminded me of this whole "tumblr feminist man-hating movement" even if it's a parody, and an awkward one at that.

[jekylls_salvation]

It's certainly weak characterization. Amazon = hate = Wonder Woman is one of the worst formulas for Wonder Woman. This is essentially what a Red Lantern Wonder Woman would be like. Even its opposite extreme on the spectrum, Star Sapphire Wonder Woman-- while a little wonky-- seemed more appropriate a characterization than this.

http://www.shortboxpodcast.com/wp-content/uploads/2013/04/1116087-wonder_4.jpg

[stubbleupdate]

what, you all wear tinfoil hats?

[jekylls_salvation]

Lol they guard themselves against mainstream culture. This is how The Game is played. If you don't know who the hot new popstar is, for example (Ariande Grande? That's a thing right now, right?), you get points. If you don't know what Glee is, points. You wouldn't dare watch a Marvel movie. I can't even describe to you the competition of not knowing during whatever happened in Baltimore. We all went online in the morning, immediately recognized it as bovine sensationalism, then went outside and told each other about how it was all stupid people doing stupid things that didn't matter and we just couldn't possibly care. If you've built up a solid enough defense against the mainstream, you can propel yourself to the Zarathustrian echelons of cultural elitism.

I watched an episode of SHIELD once. Set me back about 4 years.

[stubbleupdate]

I can't tell if you're joking or an idiot

[jekylls_salvation]

I'm being cynical. That's how people are where I live. One of my neighbors is so hip she doesn't even know what Tumblr is, let alone Tumblr feminists. Anyway, I don't think the Amazons even have access to Tumblr. Wait. Right?

[mesmiranda]

Ah yes, the Tumblr feminist. I mean, Tumblr has between 30 to 50 million users and the history of feminism spans hundreds of years across the world, but, you know, you can just tell, right?

(Normally I stick to lurking and liking comics here, but this one irks me. People come out of the woodwork without fail to defend Reddit and 4chan sending rape and death threats, but Tumblr? Shrieky and hysterical, the lot of them.)

[jekylls_salvation]

#notalltumblrfeminists

Best to avoid the imbroglio entirely but if we won't refrain we must discern. There's the Tumblr feminist, and then there's the rest of us, everyday people who are of course feminist and happen to peruse Tumblr.

[mesmiranda]

No, I'm just fairly certain there's just people. People who are young, people who are old, people who are learning, people who've got this stuff down. Like any other big movement and social media site, really.

(What is the metric for 'Tumblr feminist', even? Someone who doesn't agree? Someone who gets mad? Someone who's a teenage girl? Help me out here.)

[jekylls_salvation]

Yeah it definitely seems to be primarily the frequency at which one exhibits the above mentioned characteristics that seperates them from anyone else. I don't disagree, I think it's just an unfortunate phenomenon where a few bad apples make the whole tree look bad. They're sort of the Red Lanterns of the feminist spectrum.

[jekylls_salvation]

Wait that's not bad! I'm going to stop calling them Tumblr feminists. It lumps all feminists who use Tumblr in with bellicose maniacs. I'm going to start calling them the Red Feminists.

I assume we're all somewhere between Green and Violet on the spectrum... But what are Orange Feminists are like?

[candyangelo]

Holy Serenity, that is a GENIUS idea.

[mesmiranda]

Yeah it definitely seems to be primarily the frequency at which one exhibits the above mentioned characteristics that seperates them from anyone else.

So... just to clarify your position here, someone who doesn't agree with you/is upset or mad about a situation/a teenage girl = bellicose maniac.

Are you actually engaging with any content on Tumblr, or are you just making cutesy little Green Lantern analogies?

[jekylls_salvation]

Ah no, it's not not agreeing, there's not a lot of actual not agreeing happening at all, it's the wrath. Sorry when I said above mentioned I meant my above mentioned, not yours. This:

"The Tumblr feminist is categorized by a certain anger, often blind or unbridled. It's all rather unhealthy and counterintuitive and just generally unfortunate. They tend to be the type to combat a fire by burning things (where one might presume the goal should have been to put the fire out), so there's an element of shortsightedness and inefficiency that makes the whole situation rather discouraging."

A prevalence of that, or the frequency at which this is exhibited is what really sets them apart. But you bring up a good point, it does often seem to indicate the lack of emotional maturity characteristic of an angry teenager. We can probably chalk a lot of it up to misguided youth.

I do use Tumblr, but it's easy to spot toxic people and avoid them.