July comics, part 1

[meganbmoore]

Amazons Attack #4, Wonder Woman #11, Teen Titans #49

We begin with the sheer pain that has become Wonder Woman and connected titles(Amazons Attack and, currently, Teen Titans) of late..Have I mentioned how much I truly LOATHE the “news reports” in Amazons Attack  If I haven’t I do.  100% designed to ignite the male oriented patriotic spirit(only men are referred to positively and in defense of the US, the only women referred to are the villains, painted in the worst possible light) and only vaguely resembling anything that could be called a “news report.”  Diana and Hippolyta still only vaguely resemble themselves, physically, speech and actions(and if it weren’t for the cut of their outfits, I’d think they were crossdressers, based on those arms) and Cassie and Kara, supposedly trying to be the voices of reason and trying to resolve, are shown engaging in terrorist activities.  And, oh yeah, the fail miserably while they’re at it, and are screwed until Superman shows up, when it’s all “Thank God,” and his oh-so-mighty presence stops the Evil Amazons in their track and his mighty reasoning gets through to them.  The ONLY ones shown in a positive light are, of course, the male superheroes.  Oh yeah, and the little “this is Circe, she’s everyone’s enemy and she’s supposed to be dead but she’s not” is beyond pointless WHEN SHE’S BEEN RUNNING AROUND THE WHOLE SERIES SO FAR SO EVERYONE ALREADY KNOWS SHE’S THERE AND INVOLVED!!!  In contrast to Amazons Attack, Wonder Woman was just bad(and, ultimately, pointless, as most of it was already covered in Amazons Attack) as opposed to bad AND offensive(beyond the way the entire event is offensive to me, that is.)  Teen Titans was, if anything, worse than Wonder Woman.  Bad dialogue, bad storytelling, etc.  Does anyone really want me to get into how ludicrous it is for an amazon(especially Artemis) to get offended at the idea of women being detained because they’re being a threat.  Or another amazon whining that Supergirl should be on their side, then contradicting herself by saying that friends shouldn’t take sides>  And Robin/Cassie?  Sigh…I’m not opposed to the pairing, but the last few pages were stupid and corny beyond reason.

Why oh why couldn’t this be like most Marvel “events”  where I couldn’t care less about to major players and had no real interest in the stories, and as such, was spared the bulk of the pain?

Witchblade #108-109

This, my friends, is what Witchblade should be. Sara. Dani. (Ok, Dani isn’t a necessity, but unlike someone else, she works well with the book, and with Sara.)  Good villain.  Action. Witchblade history backup (we never see nearly enough of the Witchblade’s history, IMO.)  Not a parasite in sight.  Celestine is probably the most interesting villain the title has had aside from Irons and Tora (I’ve never really counted Ian as a villain, he’s more an ally or antagonist, depending on who’s writing.  Only Marz has ever treated him as a villain) and it was the arc that introduced her that sold me on Marz and the book.  She’s lost her obsessive need to balance good and evil, which was a lot of her appeal, but is still pretty interesting.  I also continue to grow fonder and fonder of Dani (and while reading this, I had the bizarre thought that Dani and Jackie would work well together) which is interesting, as we’re supposed to love the parasite but I don’t know of anyone who likes him, but I’ve never had the feeling that we were supposed to like Dani very much, and the only people I’ve encountered who don’t like her seem to mostly be afraid she’s “taking” the book from Sara(far greater chance of the parasite doing that.)  I’ve always thought that Marz makes this book more what it should be than any other writer has, except for when he insists on involving the parasite, and this is proof.  If only it were always like this…