Justice League #41 - "Justice Lost, Part 3: Saigon"

[laughing_tree]

'I worry that I’m really not in sync with what is popular and what sells these days, which is probably why I am not offered leading, or A-List titles. A friend told me last week, “Dude, that [Denny O’Neil] era is over.” Man, I really hope not. I loved Cary Bates’ Superman and Flash, But Denny took Superman and grounded him in reality — got rid of Kryptonite and de-powered him, then wrote him introspectively. It should not be zero sum. Grant Morrison’s “JLA” was certainly larger than life and sold a gajillion copies, obliterating my “Justice League Task Force.” So, do I still belong here? I guess that’s for the readers to decide.' - Christopher J. Priest

Comments

[lordultimus]

Not in the scans, but goddammit, DC needs to decide how vulnerable Diana is to bullets and stick with it.

[theflames]

Haven't read it, I assume she took a bullet and was harmed?

Either way... she should be slightly vulnerable to them right? thick skin but not absolute, otherwise, whats the point of her iconic bullet deflecting bracelets?

Then again, making her vulnerable to bullets makes her way less of a challenge to Superman, so I'm not sure what the right answer is.

[lordultimus]

"What's the point of the bracelets then?"

1. Same as Superman's cape. It's a cool visual.

2. She wouldn't just be deflecting, she would be directing where the ricochet would go so it wouldn't hurt any civilians nearby.

3. "If you're bulletproof, why block them?" "Force of habit." ;)

[laughing_tree]

"It's a cool visual."

I'd say coolness is the very reason the bullet vulnerability sticks. It's simply cooler when someone's deflecting bullets to keep them from hitting her than when she's doing it as an unnecessarily flourish or as a bit of showing off. The latter's kind of like revealing Batman only does detective work to keep his mind sharp but actually has a super-computer that can solve his cases for him.

[theflames]

All fair points!!! Especially the last one.

[cygnia]

Leaving this one here...

http://kerrycallen.blogspot.ca/2015/04/bullet-bouncing.html

[joetuss]

Makes sense .

[lbd_nytetrayn]

"Understood."

[theflames]

Oh I forgot about this... I'm happy it's made it's way to me again, thanks !

[caivu]

Not just harmed; it hit her in the neck and almost caused her to bleed to death. Dumb.

[thanekos]

DR 5 for everything but piercing.

[joetuss]

've always looked a Superman, and Wonder Woman as 1A.Supes, and 1B. WW. He outclasses her, but only by a few hairs of a chimpmunck's ass.

[caivu]

Seriously. She blocked a grenade blast with her bare hands in the Rebirth run, and that's not functionally very dissimilar from gunfire.

[laughing_tree]

That same run showed us she decidedly wasn't bulletproof.

https://comicvine.gamespot.com/forums/gen-discussion-1/wonder-woman-is-not-bulletproof-confirmed-1873739/

[caivu]

But they also don't cause her to have life-threatening injuries there.

[laughing_tree]

The bullet in that page goes literally right through her body, out the other side. That's potentially life-threatening, if you get hit in the wrong place.

[caivu]

Yes, but she's also still standing and not apparently in major pain, meaning that bullets can damage her, but not seriously. At least not one at a time.

[laughing_tree]

And if that same bullet powerful enough to go all the way through her body had hit her heart, or her head? That's what I'm trying to say: Anything powerful enough to drill a whole clean through your whole body is powerful enough to threaten your life if you get hit in the wrong spot.

[zylly]

Agreed.

And while I think you're on to something with the "control the ricochet"/intimidation angle; I had heard an interesting suggestion once, for how to handle Diana's invulnerability/toughness and still explain the bullets and bracelets thing.

Basically (and I take no credit for this) is that you run with the idea that Diana is at least several hundred years old, and that among her god given gifts is "protection from all the weapons of man." But because this is x hundred years ago and because magic loves loopholes, this is only applies to weapons (or classes of weapons) that were around then. So she's immune to fists, arrows, swords, etc... but bullets, bombs, lasers, can kill her.

[sisterofbloomerjunior]

Could she deflect bombs and lasers, then?

[zylly]

With the bracelets, definitely.

[dcbanacek]

So she's like the Judge from BtVS?

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=g1xPFxtsHvk

[zylly]

Heh. I guess she is!

[philippos42]

If she isn't bulletproof, that's a return to the classic approach to her power set. Ridiculously fast, impossibly strong, but not literally invulnerable.

[zylly]

Offff. That is one thorny political quagmire the League's found themselves in.

So let me see if I understand it, because it took me a few readings to even get this much.

1) The Wakanda-stand in country the Watchtower crashed in is embroiled in its own refugee crisis.

2) Those refugees have made their way to the crash site, knowing the League would provide them with protection and aid.

3) This upsets the natives, because they see this as taking sides.

4) The natives also want to strip the Watchtower under salvage rights.

...am I anywhere close on this?


And on the Priest quote... isn't the Denny O'Neil era of Superman generally regarded as a pretty low point?

[laughing_tree]

You've basically got it, except I think those refugees only became refugees once they reached the Watchtower crash site. Before that they were natives of mirror-Wakanda too, just natives on the losing side of tribal conflict.

[zylly]

Excellent, thank you. For some reason, it didn't come across clearly to me in my first read through.

[matrix_dragon]

Oh, good. Deathstroke's here to make everyone look like chumps.