Meddling Progress: Wonder Woman #43

The following is my review of Wonder Woman #43, which was posted on PopMatters.com.

If there’s one thing that the success of HGTV has taught us, it’s that society has a weakness for reclamation projects. In the same way certain women can’t help but fall for the bad boys in hope of saving them, there’s a kind of broken character that draws us in. Like Pamela Anderson at a hair band reunion tour, we can’t help but embrace these characters. As it stands, Donna Troy is the comic book equivalent of a burned out 80s rock star that just got out of rehab.

Her introduction to the post-Flashpoint era might as well have come with a bad handicap and adamantium shackles. She entered the world as a pawn, which is somehow worse than being another illegitimate offspring of Zeus. Her first act was the textbook definition of a war crime. Even the ancient Mongols would’ve raised an eyebrow at slaughtering an entire population of men that happened to be brothers of the Amazons. While she wasn’t completely control of her faculties at the time, she still has to live with that burden the same way Hallie Berry has to live with her role in the Catwoman movie.

The aftermath of this atrocity has served as the foundation of a new era for Wonder Woman. She’s now the acting God of War, Queen of the Amazons, and an active member of the Justice League. Even Hillary Clinton would call her an overachiever at this point. But while she’s trying to shoulder the burden of all these responsibilities, she still hasn’t come up with a way to deal with Donna Troy. It’s a story that has been set up and teased. Now, in Wonder Woman #43, that story finally starts to unfold.

It’s a story that follows many of the same themes that Wonder Woman has been exploring since the New 52 reboot. It has mischievous gods whose idea of entertainment is tormenting mortals and frustrating Wonder Woman. It has colorful characters with god-like powers who are essentially parodies of classic mythology, but not in the Weird Al tradition. And Wonder Woman is expected to manage this chaos while fighting the injustices of a patriarchal world. The demands on her couldn’t be more unreasonable without asking her to coach the Oakland Raiders.

Yet for all her power and responsibilities, Wonder Woman is largely powerless to help Donna Troy in this story. While Wonder Woman spends most of her time just looking for her, Donna’s story is an ongoing tragedy. However, that’s still an upgrade over being the catalyst for an outright war crime. What makes that tragedy compelling is that she understands the scope and scale of her crimes. She doesn’t try to hide from it. She doesn’t try to justify it. She actually tries to deal with it, which is more than most war criminals ever try to do. And none of these criminals can claim they were being controlled by black magic, except for maybe Kim Jong Ill.

It’s here where we’re also reminded that in addition to being guilty of an atrocity, Donna Troy is still a child. She’s basically an infant in a teenage girl’s body. She has no life experiences, let alone emotional maturity. A teenage mind is barely equipped to cope with calculus exams. This girl has to cope with being guilty of a war crime. It might be the first time a teenage girl’s melodramatic lamentation is completely warranted.

And being so emotionally immature, Donna’s first inclination is to seek an immature solution. She tries to end her life. Being an Amazon, she can’t exactly use Kurt Cobain’s approach. So she seeks out the mythological Sisters of Fate. However, they claim they can’t give her what she wants and not because suicidal teenagers have a tendency to not think things through. Despite being god-like beings, they can’t end her life because her fate isn’t set.

In some respects, it’s an appropriate metaphor for any teenager not guilty of war crimes. They may think that their life will always be defined by one bad day at high school, one day at work, or one bad relationship. That’s not how life works. The universe’s attention span isn’t as big as we make it out to be, especially for those whose experiences are so limited. And for Donna, her experiences couldn’t possibly be more limited without having been born in the lower decks of the Titanic.

Her frustration and self-hatred is the greatest strength of this story. It helps make her character endearing, notwithstanding the war crimes she’s still quite guilty of. The problem is her story is somewhat truncated. Another critical part of this story involves Wonder Woman searching for Donna. This leads to a few ambiguous twists involving someone attacking the Sisters of Fate and a surprise attack by Aegeus. It’s presented as a mystery, but ambiguity makes it come off as bland movie trailer.

Beyond the conflict, Wonder Woman doesn’t give the impression she has a plan for Donna. She doesn’t even indicate she can help her in any way other than bringing her back to Olympus, a place where gods torment mortals whenever they get bored. She still talks about helping Donna forgive herself and accept the weight of her crimes. That’s all well and good from a Dr. Phil perspective, but it’s insufficient for a character whose only life experiences involve being a pawn to war atrocities.

There is still some intrigue to this mystery, but its lacking in substance. It makes the overall narrative in Wonder Woman #43 uneven. It’s worth following to see the story of Donna Troy evolve beyond the grim circumstances of her creation. Beyond that, it’s mostly a generic conflict among gods with too much power, too much free time, and no Netflix.

There is still hope for Donna Troy as a character. Her journey is one that has the potential to be something unique and intriguing. She just has to find out how to circumvent self-hatred and meddling gods. If she can do that, she can be an inspiration for melodramatic teenagers everywhere. And in this day and age, there can never be too many of those.

Final Score: 6 out of 10

Hollow Redemption: Wonder Woman Annual #1

The following is my review of Wonder Woman Annual #1, which was posted on PopMatters.com.

Having the moral high ground is a lot like having Monopoly money. It's value is mostly symbolic and rarely, if ever, pragmatic in a meaningful way. For many years, the Amazons could claim without question that they had the moral high ground. They were warriors that embodied the highest values. They fought in the name of love, compassion, and justice. They're the kinds of values that only tyrants and internet trolls could oppose. Even if those values were symbolic, it made them more noble.

That nobility helped mask the fine print of the Amazons' principles for many years. That fine print contains clauses like the provisions in an Apple user agreement that specifies how all the love and compassion is not applicable to men. They'll love and cherish one another as sisters. They'll fight the good fight against aliens, gods, and Lex Luthor. But when it comes to the male population as a whole, they come off as more petty than young Madonna.

That caveat was easy to overlook in some respects because the history of the Amazons was tied to the atrocities they suffered in the past. What gave them the moral high ground in the first place was their ability to rise above these atrocities as a society. Then, the New 52 brought about some inglorious details that highlighted other parts of that fine print.

They already lost a big part of the moral high ground when it was revealed how they slaughtered men after seducing them to produce more Amazons. They did manage to keep a sliver of it when they chose not to go full-on Spartan with discarding male babies. But with the creation of Donna Troy, the Amazons let it get even more inglorious. And if there's any moral high ground left to retain, it has to be salvaged in Wonder Woman Annual #1. In the end, however, they only managed to salvage a portion.

The culmination of the conflict between Wonder Woman and Donna Troy had been hyped up like a title fight over the course of multiple issues. And Wonder Woman had to go into this fight somewhat handicapped because she had been dealing with another conflict that unfolded from the fallout of her battle with the First Born. Both of these conflicts were pretty disconnected, so much so that Wonder Woman is essentially a victim of circumstance. And no matter how powerful a man or woman might be, circumstance will find a way to screw them over.

Wonder Woman really couldn't do anything about Donna Troy because she was caught up in something else. It comes off as underhanded in some respects, her having to be distracted for this conflict within the Amazons to manifest. It's like Wonder Woman is being punished for trying to do too much. However, the conflict involving the fallout from the First Born actually establishes something important for the struggle against Donna Troy. Even if she is trying to do too much, Wonder Woman's heart is always in the right place. Not many people since the death of Mr. Rogers can say that.

By resolving the conflict with the trapped aliens who had been awakened by the First Born's defeat, Wonder Woman made an important statement. First, she showed the value of not resorting to the Dick Cheney approach to dealing with problems, finding a peaceful resolution first. Second, she maintained her claim on the moral high ground. That made her battle against Donna Troy more meaningful because it makes clear that she's the only remaining Amazon who can claim the moral high ground. And unlike Mr. Rogers, she's willing to fight to maintain that claim.

When the battle against Wonder Woman and Donna Troy finally unfolds, all the right emotions are in place. The artistic detail provided by David Finch highlights all the visceral details of this title fight between two Amazon heavyweights. And unlike the Mayweather/Pacquiao fight, it's much more satisfying. It's also much cheaper than an overpriced pay-per-view package. But even if it is more satisfying, the aftermath is somewhat mixed.

At the very least, nobody can complain they got ripped off. However, the impact of Wonder Woman's fellow Amazons feels a bit too muted. Under Donna Troy, they committed an atrocity that's as much a war crime in the 21st century as it was in the 1st century. They just stormed a village full of innocent, unarmed men and slaughtered them without mercy or provocation. On top of that, these men were their brothers and they had fought beside them in the battle against the First Born. It's the kind of family treachery that would disgust even Game of Thrones fans.

However, Donna Troy's defeat doesn't really deal with this crime in a satisfying way. Sure, Donna is deposed and the Amazons involved are punished, but the lack of impact on the Amazons as a whole is troubling. They really don't seem to mourn the loss of their Amazon brothers. They react the same way most people react when they find out that they overpaid for a Prius. Wonder Woman is the only one who sheds a tear. Sure, one of her sisters is nice enough to kill the old woman who pulled the strings from behind the scenes. But the rest don't even apologize for doing absolutely squat when they had a chance.

The Amazons haven't just lost the moral high ground. They crumpled it up, threw it on the ground, and spit on it. Now only Wonder Woman still has this symbolic claim. The problem is it really doesn't seem to matter much to her sisters. She can do the right thing all she wants. She can be the paragon of Amazon values until the end of time. Her sisters aren't going to apologize for the glaring inconsistencies in their philosophy. Like debating creationists on a message board, Wonder Woman is dooming herself to frustration by trying to inspire her sisters to be better.

This incomplete resolution makes Wonder Woman Annual #1 feel disheartening in too many ways. The Amazons still come off as thugs more than warriors. Other than Wonder Woman herself, the emotions in this story might as well have come from Kristen Stewart. The Amazons are in need of redemption. But by all accounts, they're a long ways from getting it and their efforts in achieving it are haphazard at best. And for the tribe that birthed Wonder Woman, they deserve better.

Final Score: 6 out of 10

A Royal Struggle: Wonder Woman #38

The following is my review of Wonder Woman #38, which was posted on PopMatters.com.

There's a reason why the royal family is regular fodder for British tabloids. It's the same reason the Kim Kardashians and Donald Trumps of the world are fodder for American tabloids. There's this eerie fascination with high society, be it royal or rich. These people live in a world so different and so detached from reality that, like the wreckage of a derailed freight train, we just can't look away. It's not something most people are proud of, but it's an industry that still has a fertile market.

If Wonder Woman and Themyscira existed in real life, she would certainly have her share of tabloid headlines. These are the same publications that regularly report that aliens have placed chips in the brains of every President since Lincoln. But when real gods and goddesses are involved, it has a special level of intrigue. So much so that the affairs of Wonder Woman's world would probably require its own TV network. If Oprah has one, then Wonder Woman could certainly manage.

It's this world that has become so chaotic and so disorganized that it's several steps beyond a train wreck. And Wonder Woman, the feminine ideal who is supposed to be able to have it all in that classic feminist mentality, has been struggling to manage it. She's the God of War, the Queen of Themyscira, a member of the Justice League, and Superman's lover. That's a lot of responsibilities to juggle, even for a demigod. And in Wonder Woman #38, even the embodiment of feminine strength struggles with it.

The core of this part of Wonder Woman's story isn't built around one major struggle. It's a series of smaller struggles that are overwhelming her. It's death by a thousand paper-cuts rather than death by guillotine. Granted, a smaller struggle by her standard still involves being a god and dealing with infighting on an island of immortal warriors, but these struggles still come off as real and genuine. Her fears and insecurities manifest in a very real, albeit not entirely literal, way that makes her relatable in a way usually reserved for shows that rip-off Dawson's Creek.

It's jarring in some ways. Wonder Woman isn't supposed to be vulnerable. This is the same woman who can battle the entire Olympian pantheon on Monday and still have enough strength to fight off an invasion by Darkseid on Thursday. However, Wonder Woman really doesn't do much battling in this story. In fact, she does next to none. On paper, that sounds like it shouldn't make for a good Wonder Woman story. But in practice, it's still a story worth telling in the sense that it's probably the easiest story to overlook.

For Wonder Woman and the many characters like her, male and female, there plenty of stories about them fighting epic battles and winning with varying degrees of style. But there aren't quite as many stories about how they manage their lives in between battles. Wonder Woman battles the First Born, becomes both the God of War and Queen of the Amazons in the process, and somehow finds time to be a member of the Justice League in between. How does she cope with that? This story offers some insight into that question. In terms of an answer, at best it leaves room for improvement.

Wonder Woman confides in her insecurities, but she's not crippled by them. She's still Wonder Woman. She's not going to curl up into a fetal position and whine about it. She understands that being the God of War and being the Queen of the Amazons carries with it some heavy responsibilities. To her credit, she attempts to imbue her own values of compassion and understanding to these tasks. But in the same mold as "Mr. Smith Goes To Washington," these ideal values clash with the same fodder that keep tabloids in business.

The gods of Olympus still plot against her. The Amazons she's supposed to rule don't care for all these new changes, as kind as they might be. Compassion and understanding just aren't enough in a world where people need to get upset about something and trolling message boards just aren't enough. Wonder Woman can do all the right things for all the right reasons, but it's still a struggle and that's what makes her story so compelling.

But as compelling as it is, the story itself moves along at a painfully slow place. In addition to not doing much fighting, the other ongoing plots surrounding the newly-introduced Donna Troy and the the Justice League don't make much progress. There is some, but it comes off more as a movie trailer at times. It helps that there is still plenty of character depth to compensate for this lack of progress. It's just not as balanced as it could be.

If this part of the story were a tabloid story, then it probably wouldn't get many people worked up. There aren't any scandalous affairs. There are no hookers or drugs involved. There aren't even any embarrassing photos of bad hangovers or botched botox. But there is a power struggle in both Themyscira and among the Olympians. Power struggles may not get the same headlines as scandalous affairs, but they do feed into the public's fascination. Even if the details are mostly teasers, there's still a story worth following in Wonder Woman #38.

Wonder Woman's humanity and vulnerabilities take center stage in this story, but there are still conflicts unfolding all around her. And if the ending is any hint, she'll have to share that stage with Donna Troy. The pressure is building for Wonder Woman. There's only so much that even the world's strongest woman can handle. At some point, she has to confront her limits. That doesn't make her less a feminine ideal. It just makes her someone who can keep fighting, despite tabloid-level scrutiny.

Final Score: 7 out of 10