Ty Talks Comics Reviews: The Snyder Cut

What a strange position to be in.

Initially, when the groundswell of support for the Snyder Cut began, I found myself in full support of a filmmaker that I had been crapping on for his bad movies since the end of Batman V. Superman. I felt sympathy for the reasons that Zack had to leave the original Justice League project and even lightened up my criticism of the aforementioned BvS. Justice League under Joss Whedon turned out to be a mediocre mess of tonal dissonance and try-hard humor from a guy that, in retrospect, should never have been put in the driver seat after his actors’ criticism of him after Age of Ultron. I didn’t expect the Snyder Cut to actually exist, but the sliver of hope was there.

Then one after the other, the actors in the movie began to voice their support and tell of its “existence” and slowly, the sliver of hope became more real. The pressure was on Warner Brothers and then after years of speculation and cries from the fans, we got an announcement. It was vindication. Blog after blog, website after website said that it wasn’t real and that it would never happen. We would finally get Snyder’s original vision – and then he started tweeting and I remembered why I hated the man in the first place: He’s a giant, goddamn, edgelord.

Granted yes, Chris Terrio and David “She Hulk was a Giant Green Porn Star” Goyer, wrote the screenplay for BvS, Snyder still defended the murderous nature of Batman, the Martha moment and in general his love for the flawed Batman of The Dark Knight Returns and there’s a lot of bias coming from me going into this movie, but I tried my best to be as fair as I could and well, here we are.

The Good.

One of the biggest criticisms that came out of the original movie was how underdeveloped and forgettable Cyborg was. He had no arc to speak of clearly the director had no amount of care for the character at all. Thankfully the Snyder Cut vastly improved on Victor, not only as a character, but as an integral part of the team that had a lot to contribute. Watching him struggle with the pain of being mostly a robot and his own issues with his father before coming to terms with his new life and relationships was refreshing to see. Granted, Doom Patrol handled the arc a lot better, Zack Snyder did his best to show what his overall vision for Victor would have been and given how great of a character Cyborg is, it was much appreciated.

I love that Snyder actually made use of the awesome football scene that was a big part of the original movie’s marketing, but never made it into the final theatrical cut as it serves as some of the better character work as we’re able to see what a star football player Victor was. In many ways it reminded me of the animated Justice League War movie where his story played out in much a similar and more explosive way, with both of them acting as the eventual conduits to the defeat of the main villains through their understandings of the Mother Boxes.

Wonder Woman and the Amazons were filmed with an uncomfortable gaze of disrespect and oversexualization in the theatrical cut. Wonder Woman’s opening rescue scene deemphasized her heroics and the invasion of Themyscira portrayed the Amazons as being weak and ineffective when Steppenwolf set foot on the island and just wrecked them without regard. The Snyder Cut allowed all of these women to breathe, be leaders and warriors in every scene that they showed up in and I was much more hyped to see them on screen. If there was one thing that Snyder knew how to do, it was portray historical warriors as buff, badasses that didn’t flinch in the face of danger. The music during the scene was good, the camera shots were always well placed to get the most out of the Amazons and surprisingly the color wasn’t awful! They took the fight to Steppenwolf and Diana even made the final blow in the movie’s climax.

There’s not much I need to say about Superman’s resurrection scene that I haven’t said in the past review of this project. It remains one of the most epic and powerful scenes of Superman in a movie as he just systematically takes out each member of the League. It’s still fun and brutal and sort of sets the stage for how his mind would be susceptible to the Anti-Life Equation that would bring him to Darkseid’s flock if Snyder and Geoff Johns’ terrible sequel ideas ever came to fruition. I also liked the addition of the black suit, though of course he didn’t have a mullet, so this was really nothing more than fanservice.

Finally, the reshot War for Earth was definitely one of the coolest and best scenes of the movie overall as, instead of Steppenwolf getting his ass kicked by the warriors of Atlantis, Themyscira and Humanity, it showed a younger Darkseid (or Uxas as he might have been known then) leading the invasion. This scene worked out well because it showed just how united the armies of Earth were, alongside a surprise Green Lantern while at the same time showing just how viscous and effective Darkseid himself was as a younger conqueror. The battle also looked really good from a filmmaking perspective as well since the CG blended well enough with the color so nothing looked too fake while also looking grand and bombastic. This scene was especially great as Darkseid was allowed to be defeated, giving viewers the idea that he wasn’t completely invulnerable and could be defeated by a powerful enough force.

The Bad.

Oh. There was so much.

One of the biggest criticisms I have with Zack Snyder is that he takes his artistic expression to the nth degree and comes off as an edgelord looking to make all of his works dark and serious. His form of film directing values more style over substance, best exemplified with his version of Watchmen, which mostly stripped away Alan Moore’s criticism of fascism in superhero comics and Cold War era politics. His version placed value on how cool Rorschach was as hero that had a “code” once and then realized the world was too grim for it, as well as how COOL Moore and Dave Gibbon’s heroes were instead of the dark impact their existence had on the world. Granted, I do love his version of Watchmen because I’m capable of having nuanced opinions, but that doesn’t mean it shouldn’t be criticized.

Zack Snyder’s Justice League is dripping with his style and while that style made this movie a lot more cohesive than the theatrical cut, it is still plagued with the same problems that the rest of his movies suffer from, which is artistic over indulgence, awful color grading, and terrible dialogue in some parts (oh we will get to the Knightmare, don’t worry).

First off, I think Sucker Punch is one of the worst movies I have ever seen. It was the film that awakened me to what Zack Snyder wants all of his projects to be like if he were given full creative control of things and it wound up being a confusing mess of interconnected music video moments and Justice League has most of that, but with a tighter focus. There is one scene in particular where a bunch of Icelandic women sing a song of lamentation as Aquaman is leaving their town after providing them with fish for the winter; for someone who proclaims their movie is supposed to be realistic, I don’t think that’s something ANYONE would do out of nowhere and not induce a cringe reaction.

Aside from that, a lot of the scenes that establish characters personalities in the beginning are, as previously stated, just music videos with water splashing, rain falling or something else happening in the background, all in slow motion while melancholic tunes play in the background. While I did manage to enjoy them for what they were, there were around four of these moments and soon wore out their welcome. Very easily these could have been shown as them committing heroic acts, but in Barry’s case (which is coming next), heroism is treated more as a joke than anything else.

Barry’s hot dog scene, second only to the Knightmare, infuriated me to no end. I love Ezra Miller with a passion. He’s a fantastic actor and, for the most part, steals the show in every movie he’s in! However, his Barry Allen is the most annoying, creepy and grating version of the character I have ever seen. He makes me question my tolerance of people with ADHD because he just never stops and his interpersonal skills are almost non-existent as while he’s in the middle of saving who I presume to be Iris West in slow motion, he just stares right into her eyes, almost brushes her skin, steals a hot dog and then proceeds to save her and get back to his job interview. It’s unsettling and that’s on top of his already bad humor during the rest of the movie.

As far as the color grading goes…yeah, it’s a much darker movie than it was before. There are so many scenes that either have their colors washed out or are simply far more shadowed than they need to be, giving the movie a much more bleak tone. One of the clearest examples was Wonder Woman’s first heroic rescue scene in which there was a light layer of blue over everything. I much preferred the colorful nature of the theatrical version given that Diana is one of the more hopeful heroes of the DCU. The color change seemed needless and seemed to want to fit more in line with the look that Snyder favors in his movies. I understand cohesive presentation, but one should also tailor scenes to each individual character and their respective personalities.

That’s not the only instance of this, however, as Snyder somehow manages to get the editor to grade Batman’s trip to Iceland in search of Aquaman to be darker and that takes place in the snow, one of the most reflective and white surfaces possible. The contrast does work well in the end, but it almost has a stubbornness to it, like everything HAS to be darker to be cool. One of the things that I was looking forward to from the original trailers was the bluish tint of night during the final stand against Steppenwolf, but somehow even that gets made EVEN darker and my buddy Matt Dennis of the Fan of Everything Podcast (of course I had to plug him) explained that it might also be because of a Dolby Picture filter that they apply to their movies to give them more of a cinematic quality, but how hard is it to consider the audience that may not have larger TVs or the time to watch the film at night?

And finally, the dialogue of this movie is…something to behold.

I honestly don’t believe the movie got its R-Rating from the violence within the movie itself because it is heavily tame in comparison to move other comic book properties like even the recent Invincible, but rather the R-Rating comes from its three (?) uses of “Fuck.” One when one of the Wonder Women terrorists just uses it to portray an air of “maturity,” another where Victor says “Fuck the world” as he laments his robotic transformation and finally when Batman says “I will fucking kill you,” to the Joker in the Knightmare scene. I love a good fuck every now and again, but either when they have meaning or are as gratuitous as a Share Size of “M and Ms” for one person. Breaking Bad had ONE fuck per season and they made use of it for full effect, The Boys has several fucks in each episode almost as a transition word at this point. The Snyder Cut has three and each of them just made me cringe and recoil with laughter.

From Flash asking Cyborg if Diana would go for a younger guy and Cyborg replying that because she’s 5000 years old, everyone’s a younger guy to Steppenwolf proclaiming that “the Great Darkness begins” there are a number of cheesy and bad lines, but most of them can reasonably be contained to the Knightmare itself.

Not only do I hate Jared Leto, the fact that he’s a cult leader and possibly one of the worst Joker performers I have ever seen only makes me hate the final scene of the movie so much more. From his offering Batman a reach around to not so clever lines alluding to the fact that he murdered Dick Grayson in this universe, Jared Leto hams up his lines so much that it almost feels like he’s part pig. He wants to seem intimidating and crazy, but all that I can see is a cringe mall goth from the height of Marilyn Manson’s popularity. What makes matters even worse is that he even alludes to some of the plot that would have been part of Justice League 2 with Bruce and Lois being a couple after Clark died (remember those pregnancy tests in her drawer next to her Press Pass?)

This whole scene is clouded in a shit brown and Jared Leto is still the biggest piece of shit in it. If you look closely enough, you might be able to see two other turds in the form of Zack Snyder and Geoff Johns as their crap ideas just waft away in the billowing wind.

And there you have it. It has taken me a full week to collect my thoughts and put it to paper for this mediocre mess of a movie. Not everything was bad and it did have some quite enjoyable moments in it. Zack Snyder, Chris Terrio and David “I hate Green Characters, so why did I include Martian Manhunter in the Script” Goyer did manage to pull everything together back from the horrid state that Joss Whedon left it in. They are all talented in their fields and I applaud the crew of the movie for getting those additional shots, the long hours of editing and everything else, but fucking hell this movie was overhyped and underdelivered on both its cringe and possible goodness. Here’s to hoping Snyder and co. move on to better films after this and Johns continues to do well with Star Girl and comic projects…but after Doomsday Clock, who really knows?

Ty Talks Comics Reviews: Wonder Woman: 1984

Directed by Patty Jenkins
Written by Patty Jenkins, Geoff Johns, and Dave Callaham
Starring Gal Gadot, Pedro Pascal, Kristen Wiig and Chris Pine

Introduction

When the first Wonder Woman came out way back in 2017, I was extremely elated to finally see one of my favorite female superheroes make it to the big screen after years and years of failed projects (especially the Adrianne Palicki show on NBC). When I finally did go see it, the movie blew me away and more than met my expectations up until the dreadful slog that was the third act. Overall, it was a fantastic movie that tripped up at the end and left me wanting more. So when this movie was announced, I had some slight fears that WW84 would face much of the same problems.

Even through the pandemic, the delays and 80s fatigue, the movie finally made its way to theaters AND streaming and surprisingly did a great job at continuing DCs recent string of successful comic book movies. My girlfriend and I watched the movie through HBO Max, so that may color some of my opinions as we didn’t get the big screen experience, but hopefully it won’t be too much of a disconnect between the two methods.

The Plot

Wonder Woman: 1984 is, of course, the sequel to Wonder Woman, taking place in everyone’s favorite decade for the last five years; the 1980s! Sixty-six years after Steve Trevor sacrificed his life so that The Germans couldn’t have their deadly gas in World War I, Wonder Woman finds herself secretly fighting crime until a maniacal oil mogul, Maxwell Lord, finds himself with the ability to grant people their deepest desires in the form of wishes. Having accidentally wished Steve Trevor back, Wonder Woman and the love of her life must race against time to stop Lord from causing the collapse of humanity, but at what cost?

In stark contrast to Diana’s humble beginnings and finding her way through man’s world in the first movie, WW84 gives us a Wonder Woman that has lived in America for some time. She’s found her footing, a job she enjoys and occasionally saves the day and makes sure that no one knows that she’s still around from all the way back in 1918. She knows what it means to be a hero and has done her best to move on after Steve’s death, but still has some lessons to learn and I love that about this film.

While Diana’s main thread in the movie is learning how to let go of things and not take the easy route, her main antagonist in Maxwell Lord is just the opposite. His entire motivation in the movie is success by any means necessary in order to make his son proud of him and he takes every opportunity that he can and runs with it, whether he needs to schmooze or seduce, as long as his end goal is met, it doesn’t matter who he has to hurt to get to it. What’s even better about this is that he doesn’t DIRECTLY hurt anyone until the end, but that in itself is only because everything else just keeps escalating to a point where a single snowball leads to an avalanche that almost causes nuclear war.

There’s also a subplot where Barbara Minerva, having also made a wish to become more sexy, confident and strong like Diana, morphs into the villainous Cheetah that probably should have gotten more screen time than she did. Her character arc follows a similar throughline as Electro,Tighten (from Megamind) and Syndrome in that her adoration for the hero of the story turns to hatred as she doesn’t feel appreciated nor does she want to give up the abilities that she’s gained and return to horrid existence she had before as a shy nerd.

While not as strong as the plot of the first movie it does bring on a lot more fun in the character with a few bits of campiness and humor in contrast to the mostly serious and heartfelt nature of the first movie. Even when Max Lord is in the hardest throes of his madness, there’s still a hammy nature that Pedro Pascal brings to his smiling performance that just infects you with how fun it must have been to work on this movie.

Many fans had wondered how Steve Trevor would return for this movie and I think that the way that they did it was inventive, fun and heartbreaking on many levels. Having his return be one of the first anchor points to drive the story was fantastic and the way it resolves makes you want to root for Wonder Woman more especially when you’re near the point of tears after.

Characters

The cast of this movie knocked it out of the park in almost every regard.

For all of the time that I’ve been reading comics, Maxwell Lord has always been this self-serious, anti-superhero telepath who only wants a world where humanity doesn’t have a need for capes, sort of like Amanda Waller, but maybe a bit more radical. Pedro Pascal’s Max Lord is a far cry from that and still finds a way to be compelling and charming as the character. He’s a shyster and it works on a level that I didn’t expect, so much so that I wish this version of the character were in the comics vs. the standard version that reappeared in Mariko Tamaki’s current WW run (even though it has been fun). Lacking in the sheer genius department, Pascal’s Lord relies on his guile to see him through most situations. He’s a fast talker, he has moxie and I feel like Jenkins, Johns and Callaham took their time while writing the screenplay to make him snappy and fun and not an overbearing bad guy.

Even more so than that, he’s a loving father. One of the best things about this Max Lord is that everything he does is for his son as he doesn’t want to be the same kind of bad father that his own dad was and it comes off as very sweet, if a bit misguided, when the ball of madness start rolling. His lack of success in the oil industry has made him desperate for a break and he even turns to magic when literally nothing else works and it’s only his son that’s able to bring him back from the brink.

Gal Gadot herself also brings her DC best as she’s equal parts funny and dramatic, bringing some fantastic personality to the character, not saying that she didn’t in the first one, but it was much easier to believe that she was Wonder Woman this time around. The same thing can be said for the young Lilly Aspell, who played a younger Diana in the first movie and returns for the opening sequence of this sequel. She showed the same kind of drive to succeed that Diana would later show in the future, while also imparting some hard lessons in her childhood that made her become the hero she is.

Cheetah has never been one of my favorite Wonder Woman villains. I chalk this up to her being one of DCs many characters with convoluted histories and mantle switches almost on par with Donna Troy or Hawkman. It wasn’t until DC Rebirth that Barbara Ann Minerva became an insanely compelling character in my opinion in what I consider one of the best Wonder Woman runs ever made. The same can’t quite be said for Kristen Wiig’s Barbara Ann Minerva. While she did the character very well, from the meek personality to the sexy, catlike turn, she never had enough screen time to really breathe life into the role.

Hell, when she finally transformed into Cheetah, she was gone before anyone even noticed and gave some Cats flashbacks in the meantime with the CG effects. I feel like Wiig’s Cheetah needed a movie all to herself because so much of this one was taken up by Lord – depending on what the plot for Wonder Woman 3 will be, I would suggest she return as a puppet of Circe or Doctor Psycho, thus giving fans more emotional reason to be invested in her transformation since the way this movie ended left things a bit unfinished.

Steve Trevor was just a treasure. I don’t know that I’ve seen too many roles where Chris Pine has been able to flex some comedic chops, but the way that he portrayed Steve as being so fascinated with the 80s was unreasonably cute and adorable. His love for Diana also made him stand out as you never wanted him to leave her side, to get in serious danger again and it reminded me of why the first movie felt like such a joy to watch. Their chemistry together is amazing and he doesn’t come off as an incompetent goof, but as a capable guy that loves Diana with everything he has which makes the end of the movie all the more heartbreaking.

Themes

The 80s was a big time for consumerism in America. Brands, celebrities and media had their names slapped on everything from door mats to lunchboxes. Even your TV personalities were everywhere, just think of Letterman being in an issue of the Avengers! Wonder Woman 84 offers up something of a critique of Capitalism and the idea of winning by any means necessary, even if the way they go about it is made shallow by this being a superhero movie made by one of the biggest media conglomerates in Warner Brothers, owned by AT&T who, much like Maxwell Lord, don’t care who they have to fire, sell off or what projects they have to cancel to win the streaming war or get out of their immense debt.

DC Comics is full of corrupt businessmen and women. And despite what anyone says, Bruce Wayne is NOT one of them. When you have people like Veronica Cale or Simon Stagg (guess who has a minor role in this movie?), Wayne is a saint by comparison. Suffice to say, Lord’s actions in this movie are driven by the desire to be the number one oil man in the world to impress his boy. His lust for greed is so nearly insatiable that even in the face of worldwide nuclear war, he doesn’t want to give it up, very similarly to our world today. However, it is through the love of his own son that Lord is able to see the error of his ways, even if it is a far cry from a reality where people won’t even look at those lesser than them as worth a damn.

One thing that I praise this movie for is the opening sequence, something which Patty Jenkins herself has said that WB wanted her to cut from the movie. What made this succeed was that it showed that Diana was at one point willing to cheat to win and that she would never be a true hero that way. So when she has the opportunity to have something for herself, she has to make a decision that could lead to the destruction of humanity or begin the process of saving them all. One of the criticisms I read before writing this was that Wonder Woman would never have to think about the choice, but the difference is that comic Wonder Woman had 80 years to develop that heroism and movie Wonder Woman is still learning. She acts selflessly in the end and completes the arc that the movie set up for her.

Cinematography

I’m not the most qualified to talk about cinematography as I am about writing, but goddamn this movie is gorgeous and shot well.

If I did have any gripes about the first movie aside from the third act, it would have to be that it felt a little colorless. Sitting in line with the murky nature of WWI and producer Zack Snyder’s own predilection for washed out color schemes, there were quite a few scenes in the first film that felt a little dour. While this was definitely a creative choice as Themyscira itself was lush with greens and bright tones, man’s world was depressing and dark. WW84 does the exact opposite by placing more of the action in the daytime astride the many-hued looks of the time.

Bright yellows show up from time to time in regards to characters expressing their greed in regards to Maxwell Lord and Cheetah respectively; in fact, one of the biggest moments in regards to Lord making big moves took place in Bialya where the greedy President of the country accidentally makes a wish that his ancestral lands were returned to him and Lord, in return, takes all of his guards and wealth.

In contrast to that, Wonder Woman’s scenes themselves don’t stick to one particular hue, but allow for a more varied palette similar to Shazam. Her costume itself even seems a bit more saturated in its reds, blues and holds as she seems like an even happier and confident hero, which lends itself well to the tone of the movie itself, even when it’s later moments become standard Zack Snyder fare.

The action scenes are shot fantastically with a faster and frenetic pace in comparison to the slow and dramatic cadence of some of the scenes in the first movie. There are lots of sweeping camera movements as Diana swings and slides into action, jumps from vehicles and even uses her lasso to move from lightning bolt to lightning bolt in some of the BEST “learning to fly” scenes in a superhero movie I have ever seen. There were many moments where I was at the edge of my seat with just how dynamic the movements were.

In terms of intimacy, WW84 did an awesome job of allowing the quieter moments to speak for themselves and the few romantic scenes that Diana got with Steve to fill the heart with joy. Whatever Patty Jenkins asked Gal Gadot to think about, she’s absolutely focused on it because when Diana looks at Steve, she seems lost in him. Like her love is there more than ever, but tinged with the fear of losing him again. And Steve himself looks like a kid in a candy store with the surprise at being alive again. They do excellently with Trevor’s astonishment given that he would almost certainly have been a kid or teenager in the 1890s and shows how he would have viewed the future had he lived to see it initially.

Questionable Things/Negatives

Granted, this entire review has been me fawning over the movie and I won’t deny that. The initial backlash took me aback, so maybe my expectations were lowered than what they could have been initially and somehow, this movie being more than above average sent me over to the “it’s a good movie side.” However, that does not mean that the movie is without its flaws and downsides – what live-action DC movie isn’t?

*SMALL/BIG SPOILERS AHEAD*

Starting off with the biggest possible thing, the sheer amount of calamity that befell the world due to the events of this movie would have to have been taught about in schools and been subject to discussion WELL AFTER their passing. World ending events are par for the course in superhero media of all sorts, but we’re talking about nuclear war, societal collapse, financial rises and crashes the likes of which the world will never see again, destruction of all sorts and, retroactively, nothing in the DC Universe makes sense. We can chalk this up to just brushing things under the rug, but there’s that and then there’s flat out ignoring things or writing oneself into a corner that future directors are going to have to course correct into later on.

This could lead to great future explanations like Batman’s turn to a murderer being because he wished his parents back to life only to have them taken away again; Krypton’s destruction being due to Martha and John Kent’s desire for a son and them not reversing their wish in time; Atlanna and Tom Curry wishing to have more time before the forces of Atlantis come after her; hell, it could be the reason Dr. Sivana is so smart in Shazam and the way that Barry Allen’s lightning bolt found him years later after wishing for a way to solve his mother’s murder. (Remember, just my ideas cause this movie answered NONE of that and Bruce was almost certainly a kid at this point)

One of the potentially weirder aspects was that there’s a strange question of consent in regards to Diana and Steve having sex because the method of Steve’s resurrection was the possession of the body of some random engineer located close to Diana in Washington DC. It’s…strange to say the very least, but if you can get over it, then things are all fine.

There’s also the possible question of racism in regards to the President of Bialya being one of those world leaders who believes that the lands of his people belong only to them and wishing to have all foreigners kicked out and regaining the rights to his claimed land holdings. This wish causes a wall to spring up and trap his people within Bialya’s borders with no escape, incurring the wrath and hatred of his people. There’s also a moment where Wonder Woman swoops in to save some possibly Muslim children when Gal Gadot, a previous Isreali soldier with the Israeli Defense Force, voiced her support for Israeli soldiers in the conflict on the Gaza strip against Hamas. That one’s a bit of a heavy issue especially in regards to one review about a comic book movie, so make what you will with that.

Another potential plot hole that might spring its head would definitely have to be the likelihood that Wonder Woman was seen at any point during the movie and Batman would have known who she was a long time prior to Batman V. Superman. The amount of news coverage that there was in the movie, with her not doing anything to cover her tracks past the first mall robbery scene is BAFFLING to say the very least.

One aspect that I LOVED that I see other hating immensely was the fact that Wonder Woman learned to fly and had the ability to turn things invisible in this movie and never showed those abilities again afterwards. I loved the scene where Diana and Steve Trevor stole a WORKING JET from the SMITHSONIAN AIR MUSEUM with FUEL and WORKING PARTS and she used magic to give fans like me THE INVISIBLE JET. It was so stupid and dumb and non-sensical that my girlfriend and I just laughed at the implausibility and dumb-assery on display. It was AMAZING in every regard. Not to mention that I already talked about how much I enjoyed watching her finally figure out how to fly and testing out her poses.

As previously mentioned, Kristen Wiig’s Cheetah felt like something of a let down in this movie. For what could have been a very feminist villain, she came off as being very toothless when siding with the Lord, who had had a one night stand with her to get the thing that he wanted. If she had shown a little bit of fire after he pumped and dumped and made their relationship a little bit more tense in the, “I’ll kill you if you mess this up for me” kinda way, then she could have come off as a lot more threatening. And, I understand that the fight scene between her and Diana was set in the darkness to cover any flaws in the CGI, but the animation still looked a bit off in the Uncharted for PS3 kinda way. WB is a multibillion dollar company and, much like BvS, still didn’t want to put the money towards better VFX? Shameful.

And that still doesn’t even cover how limp the fight scene was and how we never saw Cheetah’s transformation into the “apex predator” that she wished to be. Her final climactic battle with Diana, where the princess wore the golden armor that we saw in promotional material everywhere, lasted all of maybe three minutes and consisted of Cheetah immediately destroying the armor, Diana using the Lasso of Truth to swing around and Cheetah being electrocuted to end the scene.

Conclusion

For everything that Wonder Woman 1984 does wrong, it does about three or four things well enough to cover its flaws. Whether or not I have to amplify my worry when Wonder Woman 3 hits screens is yet to be known. This movie succeeds in my eyes with a heartfelt story and great funny/dramatic moments, but is let down with a weak secondary villain and a nothing story with insanely high stakes. It’s a mess, but I like messes when they’re fun.

Overall Score: 8.5/10

Best of DC: Week of October 2nd, 2019

Best of this Week: DCeased #5 – Tom Taylor, Trevor Hairsine, Stefano Gaudiano, Rain Beredo, Saida Temofonte

You can almost hear the sound of hope fading away.

After the explosion caused by Captain Atom decimates the cities of Baltimore, Washington and Metropolis, Superman and Wonder Woman are left in shock and horror. They stand in the ruins of Washington, gathering their thoughts on what they’ve just witnessed when they suddenly remember everyone in Metropolis. Clark rushes off to his city, expecting the worst possible outcome, only to find the top half of the Daily Planet safe: protected and saved by a distraught Lex Luthor.

Trevor Hairsine’s art paired with Rain Beredo’s colors create this brutal air of bleakness initially.. The initial few pages are drawn in wide shots, making Superman and Wonder Woman look small amidst the sheer destruction. The pages are colored in a cold grey with a gust of smoke wafting in the distance. The first color we see outside of their costumes is the green from Lex’s protective dome. Green sort of becomes a hopeful motif through the book as it’s presented a few times as the color of saviors.

In the darkest hour, even devils turn to the light.

All things seem amazingly hopeful from that point on. Superman finds his family safe and sound. Damian, Dinah and Ollie enlist the help of Harley Quinn and Poison Ivy in establishing a safe zone for other living people among the newly growing forests of Gotham. The Hall of Justice acts as a refuge for other heroes and regular citizens, they even start making plans for arks to escape the Earth. They destroy everything that’s able to mass broadcast and even make new land on Themyscira.

Throughout all of this, however, you still never get the feeling that everything is all right. While the League are doing harrowing feats to save the planet, backgrounds are still colored in a washed out manner while the colorful heroes are juxtaposed against them. Even the greener backgrounds in the Harley/Ivy scenes have this dark twinge to them despite the green of Ivy’s new forest refuge being so prominent. Beredo likely does this on purpose to slowly sew the idea that not even the goodness of green is guaranteed, this being backed up by an infected Killer Croc showing up during.

Things seem hopeful until they all hear a buzzing in their minds, distracting them just long enough for something invisible to cut Lex in half and scratch The Flash, Barry Allen. Martian Manhunter somehow managed to get infected at some point and through the combined efforts of the heroes, mostly Firestorm, he is killed, but not before Barry is infected and runs away. Superman stops Wallace West from going after him and chooses to stop Barry himself. He knows he’ll never be able to catch Barry, so after confirming with Cyborg that Barry’s dead, Superman runs into him head on, obliterating his body.

Martian Manhunter’s sudden appearance is the exact moment when the motif is betrayed. J’onn is one of the most powerful heroes in all of the DC Universe and he’s almost always seen as a figure of goodness and help. To see him as a monster and the brutal way in which he kills Lex is a shock. The only warning we get is everyone feeling the buzzing before Lex’s torso is removed from his legs. Hope is shattered in an instant.

Barry’s scream of agony, J’onn’s dead eyes of rage and the look of horror on Ollie’s face sells the sheer terror of all that’s happening. They allowed themselves to relax a little and it’s cost them everything.

*SUPER SPOILERIFICS AHEAD*

Unfortunately for Clark, he finds two of Barry’s infected fingers impaled into his abs.

It’s unexpected, distressing and unreasonably cruel as we watch Superman say his final goodbyes before the infection takes him too. He tries to fly away from Earth, but succumbs to the infection when he nears the moon.

*SPOILER SWIM IS OVER*

DCeased does everything that it can to build up the idea that maybe there’s a way out of this situation. The heroes do everything that they possibly can to ensure that the Anti-Life Virus doesn’t spread any further than it already has. It’s decimated the Earth through its initial spread, Captain Atom and there’s no telling how much damage the Flash was able to cause by himself. I had high hopes that maybe Superman, Wonder Woman and Mera could be a beacon of light in this time of utter darkness. Hell, even seeing Harley and Ivy do their part filled me with joy.

But I loved it even more when that sense of hope was ripped right away from us.

I hope there are even more stories like DCeased in the pipeline because even a few one-shots from the perspectives of outer space heroes like Adam Strange or the rest of the Green Lantern Corps at large would be amazing. I know I’ve trashed Marvel Zombies for doing much the same thing in the past, but It’s been a long time since then and we need new zombie media to sate our own rabid appetites.

Best of DC: Week of September 11th, 2019

Runner Up: Wonder Woman #78 – G. Willow Wilson, Tom Derenick, Trevor Scott, Norm Rapmund, Romulo Fajardo Jr. and Pat Brosseau

Love is dead. Cheetah has killed her.

The fallout from Cheetah’s actions continue as Wonder Woman has lost her will to fight and is easily overpowered by her most deadly foe. Things begin in the most bleak way possible as illustrated by Tom Derenick. We cut back and forth from the immediate past to the current present as Cheetah wrests or destroys Wonder Woman’s armaments.

Her sword is cut in half and her shield is demolished after swipes from Cheetah’s new Godkiller sword. Her tiara is broken and sent flying after a solid punch. The Lasso of Truth is snatched away as Cheetah mocks her, asking who is truly worthy. Even the Gauntlets of Submission are absolutely destroyed after being hit with the sword.

Cheetah smiles with absolute glee as Diana is driven before her, helpless and unable to defeat her with her new and powerful weapon. She manages to escape into a nearby river and calls Atlantiades to help her. The demigoddess hears her call and with the help of Steve Trevor, they find Wonder Woman, broken and defeated without love.

Superman is commonly thought of as being the main hope in DC and there is a lot of merit to that, but at the same time, Wonder Woman is just as much of an inspiration to some if not more. She has almost never given up hope, even after killing Maxwell Lord in the past or losing her ability to see, hell even after fighting the Amazons after they invaded Man’s World she wasn’t at all fazed. Losing to Cheetah and feeling the crushing weight of the world on her shoulders now that she doesn’t have the hope of love to keep her head up high. It’s even worse when Steve Trevor is also suffering from this lack of love. Even while giving Diana a soothing bath for her injuries and trying to console her, his eyes are empty of the love they had and she can tell.

Not only is love gone, but so is compassion as we see in a short scene shortly after the bath. A mail carrier on a bike accident hits a car and no one does anything to help him. It’s telling that people just either drive around him or stand idly by seeing no reason to try to walk through traffic. We see even later on that people are far more willing to commit crime, especially after Lex has been offering people gifts and changing how they think, bringing out the darkness inside.

Eventually Wonder Woman is left with no other choice than to ask Veronica Cale for help. Veronica Cale, who has nothing but enmity for Wonder Woman, decides to help her as she doesn’t even remember the feeling of dread that she had when her daughter was trapped in Themyscira and see this as an opportunity to show the Gods that mortals can see what they cannot.

In a way, Cale and Cheetah are similar in that regard. They have nothing but hate for the Gods and Wonder Woman and will do everything they can to tear them down, Cale with wit and guile and Cheetah with pure rage.

G. Willow Wilson is absolute bringing out the bloodlust from Cheetah that we haven’t seen in some time and is making her a pretty credible threat. If her trajectory continues the way that it has, then there’s no doubt in my mind that this entire run of Wonder Woman will end in one of their deaths and that is exciting.

Best of DC: Week of July 24th, 2019

Best of this Week: Wonder Woman #75 – G. Willow Wilson, Xermanico, Jesus Merino, Vicente Cifuentes, Romulo Fajardo Jr. and Pat Brosseau

Ever since the beginning of DC Rebirth, Wonder Woman has been trying to get back home to Themyscira and on this amazing anniversary issue of her book, she’s finally home, but not in the way that she expected.

The book begins with Grail, the daughter of Darkseid, sitting on Hippolyta’s throne. She muses about how boring it was to listen to Ares stories as they were both trapped elsewhere and when he escaped and died, she was freed. The first thing she did? Take the God Killer Sword and take what she believed to be rightfully hers.

Grail has been a thorn in Wonder Woman’s side since her introduction during the Darkseid War (2017). She’s appeared regularly as an enemy of Wonder Woman with her schemes normally involving a way for her to take over Themyscira and it seems as though she’s finally gotten her with. Even more so that a few of the Amazons, including one of Wonder Woman’s most trusted friends, Nubia, is apparently among their ranks.

General Antiope and a few others welcome Wonder Woman back to a realm just outside of Themyscira known as Dimension Chi and they inform her of what has happened. Some Amazons decide to dance to welcome back their beloved princess, but Antiope does not as she worries that they aren’t yet prepared for battle, especially not Maggie, the woman who found Antiope’s sword in a lake. The two decide it’s best to train them all up before the fighting starts.

We get a wonderful training montage of Wonder Woman masterfully teaching her fellow Amazons and Maggie, but she and Antiope still worry that it all might not be enough. Wonder Woman thinks she has an ace up her sleeve as she has Atlantiades, a goddess of love and light that was previously trapped on Earth and who is also in love with Wonder Woman, fitted with armor for the battle.

Grail, having held Hippolyta prisoner, tells the queen to renounce her crown in front of her warriors, but Hippolyta is having none of that. She would rather be drowned in the sea than acquiesce to Grail’s cowardly demands and shames the Amazons that have joined her. Before she could push the Quen into the water, an arrow lands at Grails feet and Wonder Woman Amazons break through the barrier of Dimension Chi and attack Grail and her forces.

Wonder Woman grasps Grail right by the throat as her God Killer Sword suddenly goes missing, but decides to give Darkseid’s daughter a fighting chance. Jesus Merino takes over the art for these pages and the fight itself is pretty damn fantastic. Wonder Woman and Grail look like amazing pillars of strength and beauty surrounded by the clashing swords and spears of the other Amazon Warriors.

Merino has a knack for action scenes as his shots are absolute quality. Grail has absolute fury in her strikes with little to no finesse. Diana, of course is a very defensive and honorable fighter, a fault that Grail makes use of as she trips Diana to run away. On the other page, Antiope and Nubia engage each other in battle and their faces are drawn in warriors anger, Nubia telling Antiope that maybe not all is what it seems after Antiope chastises her for betrayal.

Maggie tries to make a break to the cave where Hippolyta has been moved to, but Grail takes a knife and makes a mad dash herself, knocking Maggie out of the fight before Wonder Woman follows suit after a distraction by the radiant Atlantiades. Wonder Woman corners Grail who reveals her best leverage – Isadore, the daughter of Wonder Woman’s arch enemy Veronica Cale who hasn’t been seen since the early days of this Wonder Woman run. Wonder Woman drops her weapons in order to see the girl unhurt, but, of course, Grail is a snake and attempts to slit her throat before an arrow catches in her hamstring. Nubia betrays Grail, saving Isadore and Hippolyta and ends this book with Grail back in chains and a hug between mother and daughter… until a new Offer is made involving the God Killer Sword and a certain feline villain.

G. Willow Wilson took the ball and ran with it when she took over Wonder Woman. Her run, so far, has been action packed, funny and heartwarming. It took her time to find footing, but this has been mostly great. I’m certain she’s going to continue, hopefully to issue #100 and I’m glad because she’s found an effective way to build upon Wonder Woman’s relationships and her mythology. Now that she’s back in Themyscira, for however long it lasts, I wonder what kind of stories Wilson will be able to tell, especially with Year of the Villain going on.

Best of DC: Week of July 17th, 2019

Runner Up: Wonder Woman: Come Back to Me #1 – Amanda Conner, Jimmy Palmiotti, Chad Hardin, Alex Sinclair and Travis Lanham

After all of the Doom and gloom, sometimes it’s nice to get back to something simple.

As part of the Walmart Exclusive 100 Page Giants that DC published, each giant gets 15 pages of original story content and two of those have been published in this fun book. Where Tom King’s Superman was dreary, overbearingly awful and melancholy, Brian Michael Bendis’ Batman was interesting and fun, Conner and Palmiotti’s Wonder Woman is awe-inspiring and badass.

Before the book starts, we’re treated to a title page that’s just a splash of Wonder Woman posing like a badass, goddess of muscle and beauty. It showcases Hardin’s talent for shots of nice landscapes and backgrounds, but also an understanding of what Diana is all about; regality, strength and a love/respect of nature.

We begin with Diana and Steve Trevor enjoying a day at the beach. Within just a few panels we see just how much these two love each other with both of them making cute quips and Steve preparing their picnic lunch. Steve tells her that he’s going to be testing an experimental aircraft that he’d been working on, but he wishes that he had more time off with her. Steve drops her off at her house after a good swim and the two make out before he has to leave.

She and Etta Candy, who’s living in Diana’s house until her apartment gets repaired, watch the news and get word of a huge fire that’s trapped several firefighters and animals. Wonder Woman races off to save the day and in an epic shot, stuns the firefighters who were starting to get very distressed. Floating above them all, Wonder Woman looks amazing, a beacon of light in a dark situation, ready to help in any way that she can!

After making plans on how to get everyone safe, she displays an ability that has either been long forgotten or is new from Conner and Palmiotti as she talks to the animals to calm them down. I don’t actually know that she’s talking to them or if she’s just able to tell what they’re thinking by looking at them, but it’s an absolutely amazing ability that I hope gets used in the normal continuity of books too. The backgrounds in most of these shots looks great though. The harshness of the fire contrasted with the hopefulness of Wonder Woman’s presence gives me a warm feeling. The sight of the trees burning and the embers wafting away almost makes it feel like it could be touched.

Wonder Woman uses an entire tree to slap her way through the forest with the firefighters strapped to the backs of moose and bears. After extinguishing the flames she celebrates with the firefighters that she’s saved with drink before heading back home. Once she arrives, Etta tells her that Steve’s plane was lost somewhere near the Bermuda and it’s up to the two of them to save him.

The latter half of the book involves them being sucked into a weird storm that destroys the Invisible Jet and leaves Wonder Woman without most of her powers. They arrive on a strange island where some of the animals talk back and others are HUGE masses of death.

While not featuring the world ending stories of Year of the Villain or City of Bane, it’s nice to take a step back to simple rescue missions. Whether it’s saving the man that she loves or an entire department of firefighters, Wonder Woman does what she can for everyone. She gets along with everyone, everything and definitely comes off as the most compassionate of the Trinity. Conner and Palmiotti wrote this simply enough, but also injected their brand of comedy to give things a bit of levity, especially when Etta wakes up and finds that she can talk to crabs.

Chad Hardin deserves a ton of credit for his art too. His lines are thick, his focus on anatomy is apparent and his faces are very expressive, showing all manner of sadness, joy and shock. With Alex Sinclair’s coloring, things are given a lot of depth. This helps a lot in seeing how bad the forest fire is, how far Etta and Diana fall after the jet breaks and most importantly, how jacked Wonder Woman is.

Of all of these reprints, this might be the one I’m looking forward to the most. High recommend!