Comments on: 52/1: Myth and wonder, blood and brothers

By: Vicheron

Vicheron — Fri, 21 Sep 2012 20:06:08 +0000

I don’t think the problem is retreading the same stories but retreading the same story with the same simplistic characters as the myths.

For example, look at how Wonder Woman tricked Poseidon into distracting Hera for her. She told Poseidon that Hera was going to try to take Zeus’s place. Even though Poseidon had never met Wonder Woman before, had no reason to trust or believe her, and she presented zero evidence to support her claim, he got angry enough to want to start a war. Yes, the Greek Gods were this petty and childish in the myths, and they fell for these kinds of tricks all the time. Heck, this kind of thing happens all the time in real life, but it’s still really dumb.

I’m fine with the same stories being retold in different ways but to have the characters behave as unreasonable and lacking in common sense as they were in those old stories gets really annoying really quickly, at least for me. With this first year of Wonder Woman, I’ve had my fill of childish Gods who are complete slaves to their emotions like they were in the myths. If they don’t start developing some common sense, or at least play a smaller role, in the next year, I might drop this series.

By: Gavin Craig

Gavin Craig — Fri, 21 Sep 2012 12:02:00 +0000

In reply to Vicheron.

“The problem with writing a story like a myth is that characters in a myth are pretty simplistic, their personalities are extreme, and they rarely change. They succumb to the same flaws again and again, they almost never learn from their mistakes, and they just don’t have a lot of common sense.” That does sound like a lot of comic books, too, doesn’t it? Batman just never gets over his parents’ deaths, he can’t quite stop the Joker from killing again, and shouldn’t Superman have a fix for Kryptonite by now?

I think you’re right in pointing out a potential danger in comics (and mythology), and why so many can feel warmed-over. There’s a huge difference between a story that works and one that ends up as a stale retread, even though they can both be made from the same stuff. But it’s amazing how much quality mileage we’ve gotten out of the same basic story material over centuries. The same basic ingredients, again and again, infinitely varied.

It could get old, and fast. But after the first year, at least to me, Azzarello’s Wonder Woman still feels like an incredibly fresh take on a superhero comic.

By: wwayne

wwayne — Fri, 21 Sep 2012 11:52:57 +0000

In reply to Gavin Craig. Thank you for your reply! : )

By: Gavin Craig

Gavin Craig — Fri, 21 Sep 2012 11:52:01 +0000

In reply to wwayne. Without giving too much away, you're going to like my final 52/1 post for next week. :)

By: wwayne

wwayne — Fri, 21 Sep 2012 10:39:29 +0000

“I’d put Wonder Woman up as the best title of the New 52”: I like Azzarello, but I’d rather choose Animal Man (Team 7 coming pretty close).
What makes Animal Man so special is the way Lemire deconstructs the superhero mythology. For example:
1) Superheroes tend to monopolize the attention of the reader, while Animal Man is constantly upstaged by the supporting characters of the series.
2) Superhero comics usually don’t give much importance to the private life of their main character (they tend to focus only on the “costume on” part); in Animal Man, on the contrary, the private life of Buddy is the main theme of the series. In fact, it is rather infrequent to see Buddy with his costume on.
3) Buddy is not perfect, and is not perceived as perfect by other people: in fact, in the 11th issue, when he tells his wife “It’s going to be okay”, she replies “Don’t give me anything of that superhero crap, Buddy.” That cut and thrust perfectly enlightens the philosophy of the series.

By: Vicheron

Vicheron — Fri, 21 Sep 2012 03:01:52 +0000

I do like how the story is written like an epic but I think it really should have been as a mini rather than an ongoing.

The problem with writing a story like a myth is that characters in a myth are pretty simplistic, their personalities are extreme, and they rarely change. They succumb to the same flaws again and again, they almost never learn from their mistakes, and they just don’t have a lot of common sense.

I’m already getting tired of how childish and easily fooled the gods are. If every Wonder Woman story is going to be about some god throwing a huge temper tantrum over some easily resolved conflict or misunderstanding, like they do in myths, then it’s going to get really boring.