Injustice 2 Annual #1

[history79]

Comments

[lordultimus]

Oh, so it's not just Diana that's been derailed, it's Steve too.

That makes everything better, except for the fact that it doesn't.

[coldfury]

Well, this is a wrinkle in the premise I'm not sure I like.

The whole core conceit of Injustice was that it was based on a modern DCU where the only difference was that their Superman was tricked into killing Lois Lane by the Joker. This drove Superman into a frenzy, and pushed him over the edge into becoming an authoritarian dictator.

So having Diana's very origin subverted... doesn't really square with that concept.

However, Diana has probably been the character most maligned during the entire Injustice plotline. When even Clark wavered, broken as he was, she was the one who pushed him forward. So it makes *sense* for this to be a Wonder Woman who was inherently different than our own, for her to be so far out of character.

I think this is an interesting patch job. I don't think they intended this for Diana from the outset, I think they just leaned into her "She's a warrior for peace, but still a warrior" aspects a bit and got carried away somewhere along the path to writing the games.

I don't know how I feel about this development, I want to argue that it cheapens the story by cheating the core conceit of the series, but Wonder Woman has been such an anomaly in her character's behavior that you almost need this to explain it away.

[beeyo]

But it's kind of obvious that Supes killing Joker isn't the *only* thing that was different in the Injustice universe, even if the writers meant it to be. Too many heroes act severely out of character, Diana being the worst offender. I'm glad that at least the comics are showing why these aren't exactly the same characters we know and love.

Man, I loved what Netherrealm did with Mortal Kombat's story. But they shit the bed with Injustice.

[thezmage]

That wasn’t the only explicit difference. In the Injustice universe, Lex was never a super villain, too, so it was never meant to be the same DC universe

[jeremyp]

So many of these characters are sad shadows of their traditional heroic depictions.

The Flash is famous for standing up to the Anti-Monitor, shrugging off the power of the psycho pirate, giving his life to save the Universe- and here he follow Injustice Superman without question for way too long.

Hal Jordan is famous for his willpower, and constantly stood up to the Guardians - but here he falls in line behind Superman.

Captain Marvel is supposed to have the wisdom of Solomon, and is often portrayed as being close to Superman in power, yet he follows Superman way too long, and is eventually casually discarded.

Lois Lane and Jimmy Olsen, who epitomize capable, noble, non-super characters are casually discarded.

Of course, there's Injustice Superman, who should be able to deal with the Joker in seconds, getting completely steamrolled.

I will give them credit for giving Plastic Man and Lex Luther some great heroic moments. I've always liked the idea of a heroic Lex Luther, and I like a Plastic Man that is both weird but fundamentally heroic.

[thespis]

The problem is, even as this comic tries to set up Steve's betrayal as being the point of divergence that sets Diana on a dark path, it shoots itself in the foot. Because the very first scene in this story - before she's even met Nazi Steve - is Diana recklessly lashing out during a training session and seriously hurting one of her sisters, and Antiope berating her, telling her that she may be a powerful warrior but that she is callous and lacking in empathy, and no amount of training or study can change that.

So right from the outset, this Diana is explicitly established as lacking the main-universe Wondy's moral compass. Hell, her reason for seeking to retrieve the lasso from the island is so that the Allies can more effectively torture the truth out of German operatives (it's established in the comic that the lasso causes "unimaginable pain" to those who try to resist its power).

Basically what I'm getting from this story is that, even though her descent has been helped along by a number of betrayals and tragedies, the main reason Injustice Diana is a bad person is that... she's just innately a bad person.

[spider_man6]

Wait, if Wonder Woman was this twisted all along, how did she still get on the Justice League?