Short, Sweet, and Not So Sweet

52 47
Wow. Intergang seems to have figured out Cain could be Kane. Buddy might be having serious marital issues now that's he's supposedly dead and all, John Henry and Nat have a new enterprise, and it looks like Renee and Nightwing will team up to find Kate. And Diana got some advice and Bruce is well, probably still Bruce. Yowza. It's gonna be a fun finish.

Blue Beetle 13
Sometimes, you just need to remember you can't trust aliens, except Superman because he's American. Gosh darn it, I love this book. If you love fun comics and you're not reading this, why the hell not?

Catwoman 65
Another gorgeous Adam Hughes cover. And there was the conclusion of the paperweight story inside, but things took a turn into maybe another story at the end, but next ish, we get back to Holly. I loved when Supes told Selina to get out of his town. What a super bully. I love this book.

Hawkgirl 62
Why am I still reading this? Oh, yeah, I want to support books starring female characters. I wish this was more deserving. Art's better, but the story didn't do it for me and there were a lot of ass shots in this, some that seemed gratuitous. I'll stick with this through the upcoming Hath-Set story, then reevaluate my reading commitment to this book.

JSA Classified 24
Enough with the vampire stories already. Okay, not quite vampires, but close. I read other books specifically with vampire characters or themes. I don't need that in regular superhero books, too. At least, not when the story bores me the way this did.

Wonder Woman 6
I really wanted to love this. I'd settle for like. What I am, however, is unsure. Maybe not every novelist is cut out to write comics like Brad Meltzer (yeah, I like his comics). I don't think it's as bad as other comics bloggers have said (I should've made note so I could provide links, sorry), but I don't think it's wonderful, either. I can see how some of the bits in the beginning could be taken as unrealistic, but there was some playful poking at media in general that I didn't mind and the whole "is Wonder Woman cool" played into the idea of Diana's issues with her self-image and identity. Even the woman Diana rescues who gushes over her can be forgiven as people often say odd things when under duress and in the throes of an adrenalin rush. But...

Why are we getting this whole Diana questioning her identity and role in the human world? Why does every author who tackles WW feel the need to reinvent the wheel? Why can't we get the Wonder Woman of Infinite Crisis and the new Justice League? You know her. The one who's confident and in control, who understands her destiny and place in the world. She guested in Manhunter not all that long ago. I like her. I'm not sure I like this Wonder Woman.

And while it was nice that Diana compared herself to Bruce who disguises himself as Batman, she missed that Superman disguises himself as Clark, same as she's doing. She's not unique there and Kal is an alien among humans, which isn't all that much different than Diana's situation, except for the gender issues.

I appreciate that Jodi Picoult wants to get to the heart of the character, make her her own, or whatever. I've read a few interviews with her and when she said such things, I took heart, but this is a rather poor execution so far because she's writing Diana almost as if she's first come to the US. So maybe this version of Wonder Woman never lost her powers. All the retconning that went on after Crisis on Infinite Earths confuses me at times because I can't keep track of who has what history now. But clearly, Diana is no babe in the human world. She shouldn't at this stage in her life act like one. And Nemesis, who previously was interesting, was just plain annoying in this.

I hope this gets better, but I fear I'll be hoping Picoult's run is brief and her replacement will write Diana the way she's meant to be, an independent, confident woman who makes mistakes because no one's perfect, but is still a leader in the world. Just because she's assumed a human identity doesn't mean she has to be a wimp or unsure of herself.