Podcast Ten: The Wonder Woman

Posted on November 27, 2011 by Wolverina

Join Zoe and Chris as they celebrate their 10th episode by discussing the problem of Wonder Woman and her confused role in popular culture. We also discuss the latest comics-related news, and what we’ve been reading.

Shownotes:
The news includes the mention of Anne McCaffrey passing away (via The Mary Sue), a Wonder Woman kickstarter project, an excellent gender-swapped digital mockup of a Nolan-verse Batwoman (again via The Mary Sue). We also comment on rumours of further DCnU changes with Gail Simone leaving Fury of Firestorms.

Chris continues to not read any further literature other than for his assignments and the new 52, where Firestorm, Green Lantern – New Guardians, Batman, and Nightwing #3 are discussed, as well as Bunker’s introduction in Teen Titans #3. Zoe discusses her continuing obsession with reading anything written by Warren Ellis (this week Global Frequency and JLA: Classifed Maps of Hell) Novelwise she braved YA fiction with Black Ice, and fell in love with the steampunk fiction Palimpsest.

This Wonder Woman special includes discussion of Wonder Woman’s portrayals in various media, as well as her origins, including:

Her position in the DCU and DCnU relative to other characters and positions in other stories
Greg Rucka’s run on v2 of the Wonder Woman serial. Includes single issues #195-226, GNs Down to Earth, Bitter Rivals, Eyes of Gorgon, Land of the Dead and Mission’s End.
Rucka’s standalone project Wonder Woman: The Hiketeia (2002)
Simone’s run on Wonder Woman v2 #14 though to44 and v1 #600, GNs The Circle, Ends of the Earth, Rise of the Olympian, Warkiller, Contagion
J. Michael Straczynski’s run. Singles v1 #601 to#614 in 2010. To be fair we didn’t read much of these and went off reviews because it was so terrible.
The DCnU run, Wonder Woman v4 by Brian Azzarello and Cliff Chiang
Wonder Woman, the original TV show (we watched the pilot).
The failed 2011 Wonder Woman pilot, what went wrong?
Xena the Warrior Princess, Wonder Woman of the 90s?
A brief mention of the fan-created radio play Wonder Woman: Champion of Themyscira available for free on itunes by Pendant Productions which wasn’t helped by Zoe completely forgetting its name.

… And finally, we love feedback and news tips! To give us your opinions, feel free to leave us a comment, either on this blog or our facebook page. You can twit to @thewolverina or email thewolverina@gmail.com. If you enjoyed the podcast, leave a comment on our itunes page for us to gain greater exposure. You can also receive notifications for all our podcast updates via all these options.

Thanks guys!

Rating the DCnU

Posted on October 3, 2011 by Wolverina

I’ve finally finished reading most of the new DC titles that I was interested in. I could wank on and on about my opinions, but honestly, you’ll hear most of it anyway if you listen to the podcast, and the internet is already full of opinions. Instead, I’m just going to rate them in order from most enjoyable to least. I’ve added some detail with the following key:

* – I’ll keep reading or buy the GN when it comes out (as I remain annoyed by buying singles).
B – Boring and pointless
S – Slow start but has potential
C – Confusing
GA – Great art
WTFFUCKEDUPSHIT – Insanely terrible content that editorial people should be shot over allowing into such a high profile event without realising how bad it makes comics look as a medium and genre

Most at the top:

Diana managing to land herself on top of the shitheap otherwise known as DCnU

*Wonder Woman – GA
*Batman
Justice League Dark
*Batgirl
Demon Knights
*Nightwing – S, GA
Fury of Firestorm – C, S
Batwoman – C, GA
Birds of Prey – C, S
Superboy – S
Supergirl – S
*Teen Titans – C
Static Shock – S
Stormwatch – C
Deathstroke – S
Green Lantern New Guardians – B, C
Mr Terrific – C, B
Swamp Thing – C, B
Superman – B
Justice League – B
Suicide Squad – B, WTFFUCKEDUPSHIT
Catwoman – WTFFUCKEDUPSHIT
Voodoo – WTFFUCKEDUPSHIT
Red Hood and The Outlaws – WTFFUCKEDUPSHIT

It’s funny, titles mostly wound up at the bottom of this list for being either horribly offensive or just really boring. It’s also quite difficult to rate these things. I mean, there’s plenty of average but decent-enough books that are pretty meh, but how do you rate that against a book that seems incredibly uneven, with terrible plots next to some cute lines or character interactions? Also, introductions that are also entertaining stories on their own are hard to do well when you basically already know everything about the character. Most of the characters haven’t really changed that much outside of the WTF group.

I’ll probably keep reading Teen Titans, less because it seemed that good: Kid Flash looks awful, though Cassie is at least being given more personality than the girl who crushes on Superboy. I can’t stop laughing at Tim’s swan wings. Seriously? Aside from that, while I can appreciate great artwork on a book, I’m a character-and-plot kind of person, so while terrible art might put me off a book, great art won’t necessarily sell it to me, unless it’s doing something unusual in the comics medium.

It’s pretty awesome seeing Wonder Woman at the top of this list. It’s amazing to see that DC has got at least one thing right, and put her where she belongs. Shame she doesn’t have a lot to compete with.

Podcast Episode Seven

Posted on September 28, 2011 by Wolverina

Our most recent podcast went up yesterday on iTunes. I was in a rush to get to work, so I didn’t have time to write a proper post.

Chris and I discuss the most recent news, DCnU titles and compare The Unknown Soldier: Haunted House with Kinetic.

In an attempt at more detailed shownotes, all links below are for further information that informed our opinions.

News: Gotham Imposters closed beta invites, DCUO going f2p and the new website for the old comic trekker.

DCnU news: We cover our thoughts on Bunker, the new Teen Titan; the already changing DCnU author roster on Static Shock and Green Arrow; we look at Laura Hudson’s excellent article as well as Shortpacked‘s excellent summary of Red Hood and the Outlaws #1; Nightwing #1 is also discussed, where Chris embarrasses Zoe about her want for more gratuitous Grayson arse. Also Wonder Woman #1, Supergirl #1 and which of the New 52 we consider to be the best so far.

Reading: Zoe has read a lot of Ursula Le Guin, wanks on about her new computer and about finishing the rest of Secret Six. Chris talks about The Pro, House of Mystery and other books from the New 52.

Finally, in our comparison of the week, we compare Vertigo’s Vol. 1 of The Unknown Soldier and the DC Focus title, Kinetic.

We love feedback. To give us your opinions, feel free to leave us a comment, either on this blog or our facebook page. You can twitter @thewolverina and if you enjoyed the podcast, leave a comment on our itunes page! You can also receive notifications for all our podcast updates via these sources.

Thank you and enjoy!