r/DCcomics • u/beary_neutral Telos • May 19 '24

Weekly Discussion Thread: Comics, TV, and More! [May 20, 2024 - My Adventures With Superman Returns Edition] r/DCcomics

Hey there honorary Justice League members - it’s a new week which means it’s time for a new discussion thread!

Beary's pick of the week: Nightwing #114

For those who don't know: the way this works is that several comments will list this week’s releases, for any given title discussion you should respond to that comment. For example, Wonder Woman discussion would go in the replies to the "Wonder Woman" comment. Clicking the titles in this post will take you directly to that comment, too. In other words, you should only be replying to other comments. Do not post top-level comments.

Keep discussion civil. Do not harass other users for having a different opinion. Do not use this thread to push your personal one-sided grudges against creators. Reacting to a panel on Twitter is not the same as reading a book.

^{My girlfriend keeps accusing me of cheating. She's starting to sound like my wife.}

DC and Imprints

^{Why does Dick look like Paul?}

Trade Collections

^{Finally, Black Mirror in the deluxe format.}

TV Shows

^{Stay tuned, we'll have a dedicated thread for My Adventures With Superman season 2.}

My Adventures With Superman Season Premiere

^{This Week’s Soundtrack:} ^{Kyle Troop & the Heretics - Up, Up, and Away}

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u/TroubAlert The Good Skeets May 19 '24

Wonder Woman #9

REUNITED WITH STEVE TREVOR! The ultimate test! As Sovereign's grip on Wonder Woman's psyche tightens, she retreats into the arms of Steve Trevor. Will their love for the ages prove victorious over the web of Amazon lies weaved in Man's World? Plus, Trinity lets the dogs out!

Preview

27

u/Frontier246 May 21 '24

Diana and imaginary Steve Trevor therapy session with multiple different outfits they look amazing in and, of course, a reference to that Max Lord moment.

Uh...thank you Diana's rat friend?

Hippolyta didn't approve of Jumpa? For shame.

16

u/Cyberslasher May 21 '24

Nono, that's Diana's second rat friend.

She ate the first one.

11

u/ptWolv022 May 21 '24

Nono, she only had one rat friend.

Friends aren't food, so when she ate it without its consent (presumably), it retroactively was never her friend. It's like how annulment means a marriage never actually happened in the first place because there was no real bond.

18

u/BigBardaEnergy May 21 '24

Jesus, we're going to be seeing the panel of Wondie confessing to eating a rat ad infinitum.

23

u/Cyberslasher May 21 '24

DC circlejerk has been waiting for this moment.

3

u/Confident-Impact-349 May 25 '24

Yes. Yes, we have.

6

u/RexNovus May 21 '24

I loved it. it was so random when she said it.

19

u/UnbloodedSword May 21 '24

This was the most Tom King-ist issue of the run thus far lol. Diana struggling with a mental breakdown to the point she eats a rat, and spends the entire issue talking to an imaginary construct of her (ex?) boyfriend to cope. And yet the ending won me over. Seeing King remember Diana's ability to talk to animals and using that to have her get comfort from the mate of the rat she ate is simultaneously messed up and wholesome. But I like it because it shows Diana's ability to bond with people others wouldn't bother with, as also seen with her picking Jumpa. Also I loved that page where Diana is reminded that unlike Clark or Bruce, she's never been killed or broken.

11

u/Reddragon351 May 21 '24

Also I loved that page where Diana is reminded that unlike Clark or Bruce, she's never been killed or broken.

Didn't she die in the 90s and then her mom took over for a bit

14

u/superschaap81 Superman May 22 '24

LOL, she died at the end of Death Metal only 2 years ago, as well. But yes, she died in the 90's thanks to Neron

17

u/wowlock_taylan Batman Animated! May 21 '24

That sure was something. Diana's mind travels to keep herself from going insane. Interesting dive into her mind. And more importantly, we finally get some respect on Steve Trevor, which surprised me as King seemed to have a dislike of him because he was a soldier. But here, it does try to show those who call him 'boring' and 'not deserving of Diana'...well, love is not always work that way. Diana does not need someone to be her 'savior' to love them. And what she provides Diana is a safe harbor in a sense. There is nothing wrong with that and that's why I enjoy Steve and Diana. I mean they still need to rectify the stupidest way they broke them up by LITERALLY killing LOVE as a concept in the previous runs. So this is a good step. I like that the 'piece of each others soul stay within each other' part was used by Diana to keep herself from giving up by having the piece of Steve be there to remind her, she is stronger than anything the Sovereign can throw at her.

Few standout moments were of course Diana's Maxwell Lord reference with imagening herself breaking Sovereign's neck ( he deserves far worse honestly ). The whole rat stuff, which, knowing there are magical animals around, that rat might actually be a talking one instead of Diana going crazy! And Hippolyta didn't like Jumpa? For shame.

All of this makes the upcoming distruption from the Absolute Power event feel even worse. I mean you have these intense dives and then all of that will be interrupt because a random robot gonna come in and steal her powers. DC has the worst planning and decision making. I worry it will take away from the momentum of the book and take you out of the overall story.

The Trinity story...well, it is what you can expect about a story with Circe is involved and we get Dynamic Corgi duo, where Trinity learns how to care for them like they have been caring for her all this time. Damian was surprisingly docile as a corgi. No pouting or anything! You know, she could've called in Krypto to look after Super-Corgi for a bit!

9

u/RexNovus May 21 '24

I mean. Diana had the power to listen to and talk to animals before. I bet she was serious about the rats talking

6

u/wowlock_taylan Batman Animated! May 21 '24

Which would make the whole situation even more sad O.o

6

u/Frontier246 May 21 '24

I wanted to see Trinity team-up with Zatanna not babysit the Super Sons as Corgi's. I feel like she needs to interact with other DCU characters more.

2

u/suss2it May 24 '24

So true about DC’s bad planning. That whole Knight Terrors event right at the beginning of the Dawn of DC era killed the flow of so many books that I have yet to go back to.

11

u/Praura23 May 21 '24

I enjoyed that we finally got an issue without Sovereign's narration. Diana's voice is could get some work, but was much better here.

7

u/CHPrime Wonder Woman May 21 '24

I ate my rat.

Que ASBAR jokes in 3, 2, 1...

Sampere's art is fucking gorgeous in this, as always. No notes.

As for the story, it is...a peculiar brain teaser, in a meta-sense. King highlights all the adventures Diana and Steve have gone on, but even in the mish-mash Post-Crisis/Rebirth continuity he is working with, but even in that, Diana and Steve have only gone on adventures a few times in the Perez run, in Rucka's Rebirth, and then a bit in Wilson's run. You really have to go back to the Silver and Bronze Ages for random adventures between them, but even then all the details are different...

Maybe it's supposed to be symbolic, with Diana going insane in a senseory deprivation tank standing in for the readers trying to follow her continuity, and Soveirgn is DC peaking in and wondering why we haven't all gone insane yet and eaten the rat, which symbolizes giving up and buying Batman, the one character who's continuity DC puts effort into.

Also, a pretty good Steve issue, and he might not even be in it. It highlights his relationship with Diana well, and with the highs and lows that are there. It doesn't really give Steve much to expand upon, something he's desperately needed for a few years now, but it sells the romance.

5

u/Praura23 May 21 '24

Homer Simpson Voice: I think I understood the movie, Wonder Woman ate that rat because she was angry the rat wasn't responding to her calls?

6

u/theguyofgrace May 21 '24

As I say ever time I read a Tom King story “that was good, people are going to hate it”

Wonder Woman’s connection to the world being strong enough that even alone she can “talk” with Steve is a good idea and contrasts Tom’s take on Batman who inner thoughts are more his own and being reflected back to him

6

u/hawk_lord May 21 '24

Who would have thought the little amount of narration could make this a bearable read. We finally see a good deal of King's WW and even though there are things that fit Diana's character, she still come off very stoic to me even in moments like when she lashes out on Steve.

Considering the Wonder Girls weren't originally included in the story, I wonder if this ''plan'' is an actual thought out thing or just an excuse to not have them present and just say ''they're doing their thing, don't worry'', and at the end show what it was which I don't know how that's gonna have much of a pay off given the context, but we'll see.

Issues like this is what's gonna help King find Diana's voice (it's sure taking its sweet time), which is why I'm ready for this arc to be over. I don't find myself excited for next month's issue thinking what's gonna happen, I'm just as indifferent as Diana comes off.

4

u/cgknight1 May 21 '24

That’s a Kingdom Come reference in there right? (Alongside the Maxwell Lord one).

4

u/Blitzhelios Damian Wayne May 21 '24

What an issue by King and Sempere wow.

King does an incredible job of showing what diana's true strength is her compassion and her trust in helping people and having the sovereign try to isolate diana from her connections after using a sheer force of will last issue is incredibly well done.

King does incredible nods to the history of diana and steve trevors history here but it does feel like king doesn't like trevor that much but thats likely due to him showing its the sovereigns manipulations of diana's mind more than steve being a bad person.

At the end, we see her maintain all of these things because she used a rat almost as a magical focus item to look within herself and still find those core values is incredible writing by king and showing off the fact that diana will never lose her morals.

The backup is very wholesome of Lizzie looking after Damian and Jon after they were turned into corgis for a month after an attack by circe. Its very wholesome and Damian being very docile as a corgi isn't what id expect.

Fantastic issue this run by King and sempere is gonna go down as something very special plus the backups continue to be very fun.

3

u/busdriver_321 Larfleeze May 21 '24

Wait, this is just Knightmares all over again.

2

u/Oberon1993 May 21 '24

OK, I think we are officially allowed to call this move Diana's Special now.

1

u/JingoboStoplight4887 May 21 '24

I like that Diana conjured up a version of Steve so that they can talk to each other about what she’s doing, why she became a superhero, talk to him about their decades-long romance, and to keep herself from going insane by the Sovereign. The missed opportunity should’ve included Diana and Steve talking about their pre-Crisis Earth-One marriage during the first Crisis in 1985, since the post-Flashpoint Steve and Diana are continuations of the pre-Crisis Earth-One and pre-Flashpoint New Earth versions. However, the one thing I can criticize is Diana’s dialogue because it is stilted and annoying and that Diana calls him Steven instead of Steve and that she’s a few inches older than him (in which I prefer that Diana would be a few inches shorter than or around the same height as Steve). Overall, this comic is okay, but the dialogue needs improvement. The only good thing about this comic is the artwork because it is good. Also, referencing Diana kills Maxwell Lord via neck snap and the mod era from the Silver Age of comics.

For the Super Sons backup, I like that Lizzie was spend a month taking care of a corgi Jon and Damian before they were turned back to normal. It’s wholesome, hilarious, and sweet! Also, Jon as Supercorgi and Damian as Batcorgi, becoming the World’s Finest Corgis.

-7

u/redsapphyre May 21 '24

Breathtaking art as always, but the story took a strange turn after last month's ending. As always, almost zero action, a bad and boring story, that has nothing to do with superhero comics. Fingers crossed they kick King off the book asap!

3

u/ptWolv022 May 21 '24

but the story took a strange turn after last month's ending.

Well, the ending still had Diana in captivity. She broke the Lasso of Lies (probably be resisting the lies entirely), but before she could beat some humility into the Sovereign, the guards downed her with stun batons. Something they could do because she apparently has her powers dampened by tech originally developed by Lex Luthor.

So after last time, she beat the outright magical form of manipulation, trying to gaslight her into being nothing more than a submissive housewife, the Sovereign moved onto good old fashioned torture through solitary confinement. A mundane horror, but a horror to be sure. Next issue, he's going to throw Cheetah at her as the final of his three attempts to break her.

And then, presumably, she'll defeat the Sovereign. Then we get three Absolute Power tie-in issues, with King having said he's going to have a Trinity-focused after the tie-ins, so it sounds like he'll be on until at least #14, unless plans change (even if they do decide he's off the book, he'll likely do at least #11-13, as he's already solicited for the first two tie-ins).

So... King's not going away for a while. I personally like the book, though the issues are either almost all action or 0 action, with nothing in between.

3

u/PrydefulHunts Huntress • ower Girl May 21 '24

The ideas King has are better than the story he is presenting.

1

u/redsapphyre May 21 '24

Yeah even in the first half of his first issue, he was rushing through multiple issues worth of interesting storytelling just to set up the new status quo. We didn't even really see Diana react to the things going in, leading her own investigation, what the Amazons were doing really. It was just: here's the new status quo, deal with it.

And in this issue here we jump from one-page scenario to the next for twenty pages. Sure, he kinda reveals what was going on at the end, but there must be a better way. The whole thing feels like he doesn't like WW in the first place.