Friday, June 14, 2019

Aw, I was hoping Tex drew this one.


Still, he wasn't the only selling point here: from 2000, Legends of the DC Universe #30-#32, "The 18th Letter" Written by Christopher Priest, pencils by Pablo Raimondi and Karl Waller, inks by Mark McKenna and Jason Baumgartner, covers by Mark Texeira.

An ethnic war is probably complicated enough, but as Wonder Woman tries to stop this one more and more tangles appear. World War II heroine Fury returns, claiming to be Diana's sister. The head of one of the factions, General Lysander, offers a truce: he'll stop the war, if Diana will spend the night with him. Not like that, although that's what everyone thinks, including seemingly her JLA teammate Superman. Batman also makes an appearance to offer some counsel and behind-the-scenes help; but also to underline a theme of this story: if Wonder Woman's primary mission was to teach man's world about peace, it did not seem to be taking root. (Bats, for example, had known Diana for years, but was still a crabby, distrustful bastard.)

Moreover, 'Lysander' isn't what he seems, and had organized this entire war just to get close to Diana: he's really Alcmaeon, a deep-cut from Greek mythology. Accounts vary, but they seem to agree he had committed matricide and possibly polygamy; he's portrayed as supposedly charming but I don't know if I see it. (I feel like the research for this one would've been a lot tougher than the Google search I just did, though.) Similarly, Fury had a mission and a purpose and a completely unrelated insanity. This wasn't bad at all, but just didn't quite make it to really good.

Still, there's a very nice Lois and Clark line in the second chapter, and while momentarily it seemed like Superman is possessed or something in the third, it may just be he's possessive. There's a germ of an idea there: Supes tries to be supportive but can't trust Diana's decision, while Batman may completely disagree with everything but he'll still back her play. At least that's how I read it this evening: Priest leaves enough grey that you could feel differently reading it later, which isn't nothing.

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