« Home | Jim Shooter may have led to DC's trend of replacin... » | How to place the wings on winged humanoids and oth... » | Jean Loring continues to be spat upon in 52 #27, a... » | Incredible Hulk #218: spotlight on a supporting ca... » | They're not admitting it's a mistake if they repla... » | Dissecting more sugary slop about Infinite Crisis » | Rayner-ization » | There's going to be a sequel to the Hulk movie » | "Charity"? Oh, I'll bet » | Lateness: This is what happens when too much is in... » 

Tuesday, November 21, 2006 

An ultra-politicized review

This review of Wonder Woman #203 Vol. 2 from Silver Bullet sure has a bias involved, and it's pretty absurd too:
The book opens with Julia [Kapatelis] storming the Amazon Embassy to discover what happened to her daughter Vanessa, the new Silver Swan. This element of the story and the implications definitely remind one of Seven of Nine from Star Trek Voyager. The twist does however explain why the Purple Ray could not heal her as it definitely could have healed Babs Gordon. I swear. If I see Babs guest-starring in this book, and her guest appearance has nothing to do with successful healing her damn spine, I will give it one silver bullet.

Meanwhile, a D.A. demands for Vanessa to be ejected from Themysciran soil--which the embassy represents--and released to the tender mercies of U.S. custody. At this point the story's premise wobbles because the D.A. defines Vanessa as "a terrorist." That's cute, but it's utterly inaccurate. Seems Mr. Rucka has a beef with the Patriot Act. So do I. So do the majority of Americans, but that's immaterial. The point is that the Patriot Act, which I'm sure John Asscroft drafted the moment he took office could not have passed without the September Eleventh tragedy. So do I again have to point out how the presence of super-heroes negates September Eleventh? I thought not.
Now this is bewildering. Just how exactly do superheroes negate 9-11, and what brought that up all of a sudden? Somehow, I doubt the reviewer's opinion has anything to do with the Spider-Man issue from 2001 that stupidly stuck the MCU into real life. And his assertion that the D.A's definition of Vanessa as a "terrorist" is "cute" sounds offensive.

What's really bizarre here is that the reviewer is politicizing his own review* by claiming that the script for this issue is something that reflects his own political viewpoints. Not helpful, IMO. If the story is meant to be an allegory to anything, I'd say it's Patty Hearst, who was brainwashed by her kidnappers in the late 1970s, as far as I know. So where'd Silver Bullet's reviewer ever get the idea that Rucka's story in WW was an allegory to the Patriot Act?
The scene questioning Vanessa's status allows Mr. Rucka to remove Wonder Woman from the pantheon of jingoistic patriotic heroes. She never was like that, but the general populace equate the colors of her costume with political affiliation, and despite Wonder Woman and Superman voicing strong opinions against the United States government in almost every era save the World War II epoch, the myth persists. In the scenes involving the abuse of The Constitution Wonder Woman almost bears a European attitude, and that works beautifully with Rucka's previous characterization of the Amazon as well as within the pre-Crisis sphere binding her to the United Nations.
Ah, so now the reviewer's stance is totally clear. I may not have read every pre/post-Crisis story with Diana and the Man of Steel, but I can't say that she was ever flat-out opposed to the US government, certainly not in the way the reviewer at Silver Bullet's suggesting. More insults, I'm afraid.

The reviewer's politicizing of the case surrounding Vanessa Kapatelis's being turned into the Silver Swan by Sebastian Ballesteros is insulting. We could sure do without clowns like him writing lame reviews, that's for sure.

* A similar case occured just two years ago, when some leftists tried to "lay claim" to a movie called The Day After Tomorrow by claiming that it was a Blame-Bush movie! One of the stupidest cases of politicizing an entertainment venue and blowing to mammoth proportions.

Labels: , , ,

About me

  • I'm Avi Green
  • From Jerusalem, Israel
  • I was born in Pennsylvania in 1974, and moved to Israel in 1983. I also enjoyed reading a lot of comics when I was young, the first being Fantastic Four. I maintain a strong belief in the public's right to knowledge and accuracy in facts. I like to think of myself as a conservative-style version of Clark Kent. I don't expect to be perfect at the job, but I do my best.
My profile

Archives

Links

  • avigreen2002@yahoo.com
  • Fansites I Created

  • Hawkfan
  • The Greatest Thing on Earth!
  • The Outer Observatory
  • Earth's Mightiest Heroines
  • The Co-Stars Primer
  • Realtime Website Traffic

    Comic book websites (open menu)

    Comic book weblogs (open menu)

    Writers and Artists (open menu)

    Video commentators (open menu)

    Miscellanous links (open menu)

  • W3 Counter stats
  • Bio Link page
  • blog directory Bloggeries Blog Directory View My Stats Blog Directory & Search engine eXTReMe Tracker Locations of visitors to this page  
    Flag Counter Free Hit Counters
    Free Web Counter

    This page is powered by Blogger. Isn't yours?

    make money online blogger templates

Older Posts Newer Posts

The Four Color Media Monitor is powered by Blogspot and Gecko & Fly.
No part of the content or the blog may be reproduced without prior written permission.
Join the Google Adsense program and learn how to make money online.