The Four Color Media Monitor

Entertainment Weekly's told that in Justice League #12, the Man of Steel and Amazon Princess are going to develop another love affair, but not in a very good way:

The comic, which goes on sale Aug. 29, culminates months of flirty foreshadowing. Writer Geoff Johns hints that some event — possibly tragic — will impact every member of the Justice League, and cause Superman and Wonder Woman to seek solace in each other and move from super-powered colleagues to power couple. This is no one-issue stunt: “This is the new status quo,” says Johns, adding that the relationship will have a seismic impact on all the heroes and villains in the DC universe.

And if there's something nasty in store, it'll have quite the impact on fans too, discouraging them further from bothering about what once would've been seen as enjoyable, but under a writer as contemptuous as Johns could only amount to a botch job under his increasingly frustrating storytelling. And how many members of the League are there now? I'm sure it hasn't grown very big since the uninspiring revelation of their limited membership a few months ago.

The creative team believes the heroes are right for each other. She’s a mythic Amazonian warrior; he’s a veritable demigod. Both have huge hearts for mankind, yet also feel estranged from humanity. Relationships with civilians are tricky for caped crusaders, even liabilities. Usually, they choose to mask their full, true identities and hide their secret, high-risk do-gooding from their lovers to protect them. At least together, Superman and Wonder Woman can be themselves.

And that's not a very challenging way to write a superhero book. This just reeks of more insularity, signaling they'd rather have the hero and heroine pair up with each other than take the more creative and challenging route of depicting their relationships with Lois Lane and Steve Trevor or whoever else WW had as a boyfriend since 1987, or introducing new paramours for the two. "Being themselves" is also laughable, because it's not like they couldn't be under past writing efforts, like when George Perez did away with WW's secret ID in the reboot, or when Lois eventually did learn Superman was Clark Kent in the early 90s. What they're citing here is merely the shallow direction they're taking with the New 52, which clearly turns them ludicrously into outcasts instead of being part of the human race.

This isn’t to say that fans will understand or support the hook-up. In fact, Johns and Lee expect some outcry and certainly some debate. Actually, they’re counting on it. ”Hopefully this will raise a lot of eyebrows,” Lee says. “We welcome the watercooler chatter.”

That's just an open signal this'll be another publicity sales stunt, but the only outcry and debate that needs to be raised is why the new romance between Superman and Wonder Woman needs to stem from a terrible incident, and not develop organically. Superman and Wonder Woman may be right for each other, but Johns and company are not the right writers and editors suited to handle their affair at all.

Labels: dc comics, dreadful writers, Justice League of America, msm propaganda, Superman, Wonder Woman