I've been a Wonder Woman (and Batman) fan forever but haven't really read the series regularly since I was fifteen (?) Imagine my surprise in seeing the latest Wonder Woman ... written by Jodi Picoult!?!? I simply had to read it. First of all, Wonder Woman has gotten a lot, um, bulkier since my day. In many of the frames she looks seriously like a weight-lifter in need of a steroid intervention. Even her bosoms, always generous in the past, seem so large that they might knock over objects in her way. The suit has changed as well, now being so hi-cut that one is grateful for bikini waxes -- although a bit of butt-cheek is clearly visible when our hero is viewed from the rear (pun intended). None of these modifications were improvements, IMHO, but the storyline was ... interesting. The combo of Jodi Picoult and Wonder Woman was not as odd as one might think. The award-winning Ms. Picoult layers her women in all the complexity that we carry and clearly likes a strong feminine ideal. She brings to Wonder Woman that struggle -- how to be a woman with desires yet be a person with more responsibility (aka duty) than she cares for. In Jodi's own words (there is a nice introduction) this is a Wonder Woman who feels, and questions, and wants. Adding in the obligatory mother-angst of a Picoult novel (the author claims she gets along with her mom very well...yeah, right...) and you get a super-hero that thinks as much as they fight (and sometimes does both at the same time). Personally, I liked it. Kind of like the Highlander TV show, where they have philosophical musings about the meaning of life for a good half-hour before they chop someone's head off, this is a story for the long-haul. How does Wonder Woman continue being Wonder Woman when the "woman" inside her is conflicted? With a good dose of dry, ironic humor, I found this an easy read and a nice addition to the Wonder Woman lore. With a killer cliff-hangar (pun sort-of intended) there is lots of fodder for the next book. Who will write that one? Dan Brown? Judy Blume? James Patterson? (he writes everything under the sun anyway) In any case, it was a nice return after a long absence.
Tuesday, January 03, 2012
"Wonder Woman: Love and Murder" by Jodi Picoult, et al
I've been a Wonder Woman (and Batman) fan forever but haven't really read the series regularly since I was fifteen (?) Imagine my surprise in seeing the latest Wonder Woman ... written by Jodi Picoult!?!? I simply had to read it. First of all, Wonder Woman has gotten a lot, um, bulkier since my day. In many of the frames she looks seriously like a weight-lifter in need of a steroid intervention. Even her bosoms, always generous in the past, seem so large that they might knock over objects in her way. The suit has changed as well, now being so hi-cut that one is grateful for bikini waxes -- although a bit of butt-cheek is clearly visible when our hero is viewed from the rear (pun intended). None of these modifications were improvements, IMHO, but the storyline was ... interesting. The combo of Jodi Picoult and Wonder Woman was not as odd as one might think. The award-winning Ms. Picoult layers her women in all the complexity that we carry and clearly likes a strong feminine ideal. She brings to Wonder Woman that struggle -- how to be a woman with desires yet be a person with more responsibility (aka duty) than she cares for. In Jodi's own words (there is a nice introduction) this is a Wonder Woman who feels, and questions, and wants. Adding in the obligatory mother-angst of a Picoult novel (the author claims she gets along with her mom very well...yeah, right...) and you get a super-hero that thinks as much as they fight (and sometimes does both at the same time). Personally, I liked it. Kind of like the Highlander TV show, where they have philosophical musings about the meaning of life for a good half-hour before they chop someone's head off, this is a story for the long-haul. How does Wonder Woman continue being Wonder Woman when the "woman" inside her is conflicted? With a good dose of dry, ironic humor, I found this an easy read and a nice addition to the Wonder Woman lore. With a killer cliff-hangar (pun sort-of intended) there is lots of fodder for the next book. Who will write that one? Dan Brown? Judy Blume? James Patterson? (he writes everything under the sun anyway) In any case, it was a nice return after a long absence.
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