Episode 62 Wonder Woman: Earth One by Grant Morrison

This week we're chatting about Wonder Woman: Earth One by Grant Morrison.

Next week! Winter Soldier by Ed Brubaker   

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Transcript

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Hey all, welcome to Comic Books Beyond. This show is all about demystifying comics and looking at books from a new reader-friendly perspective. You can really start reading comics anywhere, but there's better places to start than others. Alright everybody, I'm your host Vic today, and I am here all by myself because it's actually really late at night and uh funny story. I forgot I was traveling this coming weekend, so I'm recording this like two days after last episode. So again, if like the world blows up or something and uh we don't know about it, that's kinda why I so you at least you'll have this podcast to listen to in the apocalypse. I hope that didn't happen though. Alright, before we get any farther. Friend of the show, Mr. John Klein III, the Johnster Monster, the host of Shadow and Flame with Magic, recently launched a Patreon. He's got three tiers of support out there. Podcasting does cost a little bit of money, and funds from the Patreon are going back into the show. He's not paywalling anything on the main feed, which I really appreciate. Alright, so today we're going to be talking about Wonder Woman Earth 1. And I have some thoughts on this book, so we're just going to get into the episode. I'm sorry if this sounds a little bit reedy. Uh, I just wanted to get like pretty clear thoughts as best I could, and you know, we'll just have a little bit of fun with this best we can. Wonder Woman Earth 1 was written by Grant Morrison with art by Yannick Piquette, colors by Nathan Fairbairn, and letters by Todd Klein. The Compact Edition collects all three volumes of this graphic novel series. These were never printed in floppy format, and they were first printed in a standard hardcover size, originally published between 2016 to 2021. Uh the compact was collected in 2024. Now, I wanted to review the compact proper. Unfortunately, none of my local comic stores had one. Um, so I I apologize. Uh I wish I could have done this. I actually just read this on the app. I do actually have all three hardcovers of this. I just tucked away somewhere and I don't know where they are. I think they've been tucked away since before I moved. So, well, I really wish I could just read the actual version of the compact. The story is so available in different places. Like, I think I saw one uh one version of this for like five bucks at Ollie's a couple weeks ago. Uh, and I know uh one of the comic book stores around here usually has a set of the hardcovers in bat in collected or uh on the shelves. And honestly, our focus here is on the stories. I never want you to feel like you need to buy anything. You can get this stuff on Hoopla usually, uh DC Infinite, great option there. It's just good value for the money. I'm not trying to chill for DC or anything, but uh just a good deal's a good deal as long as you're okay with digital. And you know, use market. These things are heavily printed. You can usually find them pretty cheap or borrow them from a friend. So let's talk about what Earth1 is. Now, DC has a multiverse. Uh at the time when this was created, there were 52 parallel earths. Our main earth, I think, was called Earth Zero or Prime Earth. I'm honestly unclear about this, don't worry about it too much. Earth One, the general conceit of these books was that these were, I think, like it was considered a young Earth or a newer Earth. I forget the exact phrasing they used in the publication at the time. Uh, but the idea was that you didn't have the complicated backstories and you could do a stripped-down core version of the characters and tell good stories there. Now, if that reminds you anything, that's kind of the conceit of the absolute line. Now, to my knowledge, the Earth One series hasn't had a book in I think five or six years. Uh, I didn't read this one. I think this one might have actually been one of the last one published, the third volume of it. Uh now, I I I read almost everything. I didn't read the second volume of Teen Titans, and I never read Green Lantern, but I read all the other ones. And well, I wouldn't say this is the best one. Uh it's uh the books just overall are not very good. They're edgy in ways that I don't like, and they add they introduce things into the characters that I just think is dumb. Uh, if you you're familiar with Military Alfred, um, that's kind of where he comes from, from the Batman line of books. And I think I've described uh if you want to read Batman That Sucks, that's that's that's the one, the Earth one. Uh Superman had some like edgier, darker stuff, and Teen Titans was Jeff Lemur, and I normally love Jeff Lemur, but uh that was just like not super well written, and yeah, it it wasn't great. And this one I do have some things to say about. Like these books are honestly proto-absolute verse. Uh now I didn't read Green Lantern, and by what I've been told, that's the one I should have read. So maybe I'll pop on the app and read that one. So I do try to be positive on the show. So let's see if we can give Wonder Woman Earth 1 its fair share or fair say. So disclaimers. Wonder Woman Earth 1 features discussions of racial inequality, patriarchal oppression, gender inequality, and depictions of bondage in BDSM lifestyle. I guess I should say not greatly accurate depictions of bondage and BDSM lifestyle. There's no nudity or anything in this. This is still, for the most part, teen rated appropriate. I have some issues with some of the art that we'll talk about later. First impression, I don't think I really buried the lead here. Originally I didn't like this book that much. Today I feel a little bit differently. I still don't love it, and I honestly do find it, you know, misguided, but I think there are some actual good ideas in this book. The general concept of this story specifically follows uh Wonder Woman Diana on a journey of discovery into man's world. She was, as normally raised in uh the island of Thamescara by uh all women. Uh Steve Trevor comes to the island, bad shit's happening in the world, she follows him to help. She kind of has this weird infatuation with Steve Trevor, which kind of bothers me. Not that he's not a good dude, it's just like it to quote Omni Man, it's like, you know, the way you love a pet. That's kind of how it comes off to me. Uh so this book it attempts to pay tribute to Diana's character created by William Moulton Marsden, who was a psychologist who actually invented the lie detector. It might have been specifically the polygraph. Uh, I'm not 100% clear on what the difference between a polygraph and a lie detector is, if there is any. Uh, he and his partners, whom I believe he was polyamorous, uh, at least for a portion of his life he was, uh, practiced uh BDSM lifestyle. And elements of these things are rooted in Diana's character through the lasso of truth. You know, lasso of truth makes you tell the truth, i.e., lie detector, bondage lifestyle, lasso ties you up. Uh, one of the weaknesses of an Amazon is having her hands bound by a man makes her go weak. Diana was originally created as a counterpoint to violent masculine heroes. She's a symbol of not only female empowerment, but also love and nonviolence. This book really plays up those ideas, and I'm a strong believer in honestly, all of that. Uh, I really hate the patriarchy. I've shit all over it. I mean, I'm a dude, I'd benefit from the patriarchy, in quotes, but patriarchy is really just a system of oppression to shit all over everybody who isn't, you know, in the top one percent. I'm also a believer in strong and appropriate erotic storytelling. I would honestly rather see more stories told from a uh idea of sexuality and love, because that's a natural part of life, as opposed to violence. And I'm not gonna sit here and say violence isn't cool as shit to watch. Like, I mean, go watch an action movie, it looks awesome. But really, when you think about it, it's just downright gross that we glorify violence. But you show a boob or a wiener on TV and oh god, the world falls apart. Uh, and you know, obviously, I don't really want children exposed to or I I don't want children exposed to, you know, any of that. I think uh it's just inappropriate for their age to be exposed to high levels of sexuality or violence, just your brain isn't developed and exposure to that just isn't appropriate for you to handle. Uh now I'm no bondage expert. Uh I have had the privilege of being some friends with some people who were involved in that lifestyle and you know, like 18, 20 years ago back in college. Uh, I'm not in touch with them anymore, but I had some really good conversations back in the day, and they very clearly all said that, you know, BDSM, it's not only about sex. I mean, it is it is about sex in a way, uh, a good part of it is, but uh, it's also just a lifestyle. Specifically, the lifestyle they will always talk to me about was it's about respect, consent, and boundaries, uh, you know, boundaries with your bondagery. And I I don't think Diana ever really crosses any lines into assault here. I do have some issues with the way she's kind of pushing her will on others. She just seems pushy about willful submission, which by definition, willful submission can't be pushy. Like if you're trying to get someone interested in what you're interested in, the appropriate way to do it uh is to say, hey, I have this thing I like, I want to share it with you. Are you willing to listen? Communication is really key here, not you need to do this, my way is my way or the highway. No, it's just wrong. And like I thought her character arc would be more about getting over this, and to an extent it might be. The final book of this is just so goddamn hard to fucking follow. Um, this story follows her mostly rebelling against her own people to save man's world from war and violence and help instill a female leadership. I'm all for instilling female leadership. I can think of a few women who uh, you know, should be in charge and they are not. And I can think of a few who uh I'm really hoping do end up in charge. And yeah. Uh so the first book in this series is kind of purely set up and it really dials up the bondage aspects in a misguided way, like I've stated. This book I originally didn't love, and I still don't like it. Like it. I think there is some good action, good ideas in here. And like it's the messaging that I can get behind. It's just the execution just seems uh weird. I do like the idea of a rebellious Diana going against her own people, which I believe that is pretty true to character. She's not going against her own people, she's going against antiquated ideas, and that's what she's doing here. I did find her character be character to be a little too prone to violence at times. And I've talked about Diana being, you know, a non-violent character. And I I in my mind, Diana is a character who will do uh anything to uh prevent a fight. There's the great Gail Simone quote. Uh here it's from uh Wonder Woman 600, I believe. I'm reading this one off Goodreads. We have a saying, my people, don't kill if you can wound, don't wound if you can subdue, don't subdue if you can pacify, and don't raise your hand at all until you first extended it. And that's not what we're getting here. We're kind of getting a, well, time to fight. And don't get me wrong, like I've said before, it's cool to watch some good action. And I still think Wonder Woman is great for some good action. There's another quote from Batman that I can never find where he does say, you know, Clark's hits hard, but uh I love watching Diana fight because her people are trained warriors who train battle and hope they never have to use it. Uh if anyone knows that exact quote or where that comes from, let me know. I'd I'd love to read it again and credit it appropriately. Um, so like when Wonder Woman is actually forced to throw down, it's cool, but I don't think we're ever really getting uh that here. Like it's not as reason, like the the reasons aren't as clearly laid out. It just seems more like we're just jumping into it. The second book in this I find to be the best in the series. However, there are a lot of plot threads that are just kind of all over the place. The bondage aspect is actually reined in a bit here. And for the first two books, for all their faults, they do a lot of things right, especially for Grant Morrison. Now, Grant Morrison is one of my favorite writers of all time. I appreciate nearly all of their work. Unfortunately, from time to time their work becomes less than coherent. And in book three, we really start seeing it uh Morrisoning up the place. Everything feels like it's just, you know, falling all over with quick unearned solutions, some kind of cringy dialogue that just seems like more almost a parody of itself in a way. And it just, I feel like he was just trying to dial up uh the aspects of you know female empowerment in a way where it just comes off more disingenuous than it it than they meant it to. Uh, I I do want to be clear that I appreciate the messaging in this book. It's just the execution is sloppy and rushed, and there's plot points that are just kind of downright weird. And I've used the phrase misguided to describe this uh a few times, and I still stand by that. I do like the attempt that there is a focus or that there's an attempt to, you know, pay tribute to the origins of the bondage aspects and you know, focus on the core of the character. Morrison's interpretation is just a little different than what I would have come up with. And you know, I didn't write it, so they are within their uh right to write something like that. So I want to talk about the characters, you know, a little bit more. I can't really name every one of them. The one issue with this book is or and I mean it's three books really, but there's a ton of characters. There's there's named characters all over the place. Uh so let's just I'm gonna focus on more the protagonists and supporting cast here. Uh Diana, she's simply just too violent. I I've already brought this up several times, but I I want to just make a quick comparison to the current version of Wonder Woman we have, written by Kelly Thompson with art by Hayden Sherman. Absolute Wonder Woman carries a sword that's like six foot tall and rides a dead horse. That book looks freaking metal as hell. She's less violent than this version of Wonder Woman. Uh now, Etta Candy, who is one of Wonder Woman's longtime supporting cast members. I get a lot of joy out of her comedic lines. There's something in the line that's it's a little cringy, but she says something like, Wait, you tell me you're from an island of lesbians with a side of bondage, sign me up. And I mean that's just fun, but I know it's just not the best take. In a way, she reminds me of Pam from Archer. Like, in not only in the way she's drawn, but the cadence of her lines just remind me of something Pam would say. If you're not familiar with that uh character, just go watch a couple episodes of Archer from the first couple seasons. And if you read this book, tell me if you see it, because I it's probably the art really doing some of the talking, but it's just I couldn't unsee it once I saw it. And like I think this character could have been a lot more uh nuanced because she just seems to be comedy relief with good one-liners, like just not a lot of depth here. And if like it was rained back a little bit, just like 20%, I think she would have been great. Now we have Steve Trevor in this book, and he's the love interest of Diana, and he serves some other plot reasons. I just didn't find a lot of depth or interest to his character, and I really wanted to, because he he he kind of comes off as an audience surrogate and just a plot device throughout the book. And just when you can see the treadmill of the story, that's where I start to have some issues with the character design. Uh, there are, you know, just overall a ton of characters in this book. The the one other thing I I don't want to spoil this for anyone, and I don't know if I've ever talked about this on the show. Uh, at least when we do media adaptations from book to, say, movie, I hate when they take two characters and combine them into one. I understand why they do this. It's to, you know, streamline a story, but it always just bothers me because, like in the Superman movie from last summer, mild spoilers, they compare, they mix Bizarro and Ultraman. I get it, but in the same token, now I don't ever get an Ultraman movie and I don't get a Bizarro movie. I get Bizarre Bazultraman or whatever they want to call it. Uh, and I know it was just Ultraman, but uh yeah, there there's a character they do that here, and I actually kind of liked it because it just worked well. And I'm not gonna spoil what two characters they combine, and it's villains. There's a lot of villains in these books, but there's also, you know, three of them. Which one thing I think that bothered me more in this time when I read it, I mean, I did chain the old books back to back, but just having them separated it helped me divorce the story from one another. Reading it all in like one shot over three days, it uh it just really got everything really messy together. So this might be one you want to um spend a little more time with. But this book does read pretty fast. It's it's fairly decompressed, and there's just honestly not a ton of words in the art. It's it's nice to look at, but I just don't focus on art too much. Uh the art is really, really good in this book, and we're about to go into it uh very shortly. But yeah, I'm I'm not I'm not gonna spoil what two characters are combined. I just happen to like it. Uh, so let's talk about my pretentious three-part harmony of storytelling. The right theme for the right character for the right story makes for good storytelling. And I think we're actually getting about two out of three here. We have themes of love, compassion, kindness, female empowerment, bondage, and self-discovery, which is all appropriate for Diana, especially this early young version of Diana. These are the core ideas of her character. Regardless of my thoughts on the execution, those are all appropriate things for Diana to be doing. However, the story, it's not bad. It's just the it's just so poorly executed throughout. And I'm not even going to touch on how they mess with her origin story in this one. They knew 52 it up a little bit, and they changed Diana's origin story from being made solely out of clay to um uh I I think she was actually the daughter of Zeus and uh Hippolyta in New 52, and here they kind of do it both ways, which is just cowardice. That's the nicest way I can put it. You're you're trying to double dip and it just it doesn't work, sorry guys. So I think the overall execution of this story, it's just causing the dissonance for me. So let's talk about the art. And I've already you know alluded to this. The art in this book is utterly amazing. Like Yannick Piquet is oh my god, his art is absolutely beautiful, the colors are vibrant. I love everything about the art. The lettering is really, really good in this book. Like presentation, perfect. That being said, um, there's some oh but but before I go into criticisms, um, there is like the paneling in this book. Like instead of just your standard white gutter that separates the panels, a lot of the frames have these ornamental designs, or in some cases, it's even the lasso of truth. Uh like weaving in and out of the panels. It looks awesome. It is a labor of love, and I love it. Uh, there's other stuff that's plot relevant that I'm just not going to spoil to you. They put some effort into the art in this one. However, on the other side of the coin, there's some kind of problems with the art. I talk about, I'm usually okay with any art until it's like, you know, quasi-porn or ridiculous posy or just completely inappropriate or laughably, anatomically weird stuff that you saw in the early 90s at Marvel or whatever. And there's a lot of panels in this book where the Amazons are just kind of arched back nudity in ways that is just kind of male gazy. Now there's art of uh Amazon's bathing, which that I found less distracting than some of the battle poses with their chests like pushed out. And you know, I very much am attracted to women. But when it comes to like drawn art like this, when it's drawn for me, when you realize it's drawn for the audience, it's distracting to the story. It should be a natural part of the story. Hell, if you want to just draw a bunch of boobs and butts and naked people, maybe I don't know, put them in a position where it's plot relevant and you know appropriate for the story. One of the most alluring pictures that I can think of in all of comics is a scene of Catwoman trying to seduce Bruce. Plot relevant, looks great, no complaints. This people with just in battle their chests shoving out. Nope, that's just stupid. Alright, so this is the new section we're s we're trying out, calling that I'm calling the point counterpoint, things I like, things I don't like that are kind of related. And I think I've already touched on a lot of these points, so we're gonna go super quick. The book is fun. Like there's a lot of great ideas, it's a quick, fast, entertaining read, but it's chaotic and towards the end of the second book and for the last part of the third, it's just hard to follow, and it it gets really Morrison up in this shit. Uh, I did mention the art already, I just mentioned that, but I like the art so much, aside from the issues with it, I just have to mention it again, but those issues are there. I actually think it gets better throughout, and maybe they took some of that that criticism to heart, but just everything about the otherwise presentation is so goddamn good. And you know, I I would still kind of call this like your more traditional comic booky art as opposed to something like Dustin Nguyen or um uh I don't have another good example off the top of my head that looks or like Cliff Chang, where it looks like really painted or exaggerated. This is still very standard housey style art, and it's um it's just really some of my favorite, and I would like to see more from Yannick Biquette. I actually can't think of anything else I've seen him draw. Now, I really do like the idea of a soft reboot take on the character. And of all the books I read, this might be the one that's truest to character that didn't bother me that much. Like the the the ideas they're trying to do here, it's closer than what I would say I would want from like a Batman or a Superman. Because those books were just I just don't think they were very good books. This one at least has an attempt at a soul. It just doesn't work for me that much. Uh, I and again, I love the messaging in this. It's just the tonality of the messaging is just comes off as disingenuous, where when you dial up saying the same thing over and over and over and over and over and over and over again, it just kind of gets to be, you know, like you're joking about it rather than actually meaning it. There's uh one scene that I really do want to talk about a little bit. Now there's some philosophical debates throughout this. I'm kind of piggybacking off there. And like I agree with a lot of the points that are being made, but the way the points are being made, they kind of come off as condescending, and there is plot reasons for that, but it just it it could have you could have actually had those conversations with characters that were not trying to be manipulative and evil, and I think it would have worked a little bit better where you could have then maybe had a similar conversation with someone who is also evil, and you can see Diana compare and contrast different ideas coming from different people to learn about manipulation, just it it felt like it missed the mark, and overall it was just a little problematic. So, as far as if this book makes me want to read anymore, so I don't want to read any more of this series, and thankfully there is no more. Everything's wrapped up, it's a complete story. Cool. This actually raised my desire to read a little more Wonder Woman. Thank god I have absolute Wonder Woman right now. Strangely, I have this weird desire to go back and read the Marston Molten Marston stuff. Or I I gotta make sure I'm saying his name correctly. William Moulton Marston. At least I believe I'm uh pronouncing that correctly. Uh strangely, I saw in person two of the golden age omnibi, uh, the first two volumes, and I wish I picked them up. I just I didn't have I I could have, and I just figured they'd be in print because it's DC and they're usually in print. Now, the big show time. My overall rating and recommendation as far as new reader friendliness. While I find this to be a very approachable book, it just doesn't have my highest recommendation. It's actually a pretty decent place to start with Wonder Woman, just for the fact that the concept and themes are kind of appropriate for the character. And the compact is probably gonna be available pretty cheap. And also I imagine the compact drives down the cost of the other books, so they're probably pretty approachable. I overall still would recommend starting with Absolute Wonder Woman because it is seminal, amazing work. Overall, this story is very new reader-friendly. You're not gonna be confused, it's approachable. The only real issues are what we've you know talked about of you know, tonality and execution. And I think if you honestly just wanted to read the first book or first two books, I don't think you're gonna get hurt by not reading the third book if you didn't want to, because of how hard I was on that one specifically. Now, if you're interested from more from Grant Morrison, if you're new to comics, not the best place to start. However, you know, you can be reading comics for 20 years and still be a new reader to something. So if you just happen to have not read a lot of Wonder Woman and that's what you're here for, or just you know, you you want to try more from this Grant Mel uh Grant Morrison person, uh I always recommend Arkham Asylum, which is a self-contained horror-based story of uh Batman. It's one of my favorites, and we'll definitely be talking about it. It's on the wheel of causality for uh the the uh compacts, and oh boy, I'm not looking forward to reading that in that compact version. I'll tell you that right now. Uh I also would recommend the JLA run they did. There's some I I really like that book, and it's that really might send you on a DC rabbit hole. It is not very new reader friendly, but I think it it explains itself decently enough where you'll be okay. There was some stuff where even I was lost, to be honest with you. And finally, their Batman run. It's a little high concept, but it is actually one of my favorites, and it's really good. I I there's some ideas in there that I don't think aged very well, and there's some characters that are kind of stereotypical. Uh, I never actually finished their X-Men work. I believe the book was new X-Men, but what I read was really good, and the I I feel the X-Men, the call to the void of the X-Men is pulling me in. So that is something I'm gonna try to read, oh, maybe next year. Alright, so we are about to spin the wheel of causality. Alright, listeners. Now we're focusing on reviewing the DC Compacts and the Marvel Premiere Edition stories. We're primarily looking at the story and art of these. I think these are great products, even if they're not perfect. I'll do my best to get a copy and read it or at least page through it if I can. However, I think all of these are available on DC Infinite and Unlimited. I have a few of these stories removed because they're reserved for just some guests down the line. I'm also giving I'm also not giving any free press to any creators who I find to be a total piece of shit. I'll add future releases to the wheel. And if you ever have a specific request for these, just let us know and I'll do my best to prioritize. As the anime's would say, Wheel of Causality, spin, spin, spin, give us a book and we'll dive in. Now, through the magic of editing, and uh I was rushed, uh, we're gonna do Captain America Winter Soldier next next time. Uh, I already looked for a copy of that. I don't think I can find it, but it is on uh DC or uh Marvel Unlimited. So we're just gonna go from that there. Well, it's time to close the book on today's episode. If you're a comic book creator and you have something for me to review or would like to interview a guest on the show, please send me an email at comicbooksbeyond at gmail.com. This offer is also available to fellow comic journalists. If you're a listener and you want to submit a question, I'd happily read it on the show. Please just let me if it let me know if it's okay to read and how you'd like to be created credited. If you'd like to get a hold of me otherwise, I'm at Comic Books Beyond on Blue Sky Instagram, TikTok, and YouTube, but I mostly use Blue Sky. Uh I am trying to use uh Instagram a little bit more though. If you'd like to show support for the show, please consider leaving a rating, review, or comment. I ask for honest reviews only, and I'm always looking for ways to improve the quality and content of the show. Alright, everyone, be good to each other and stick around for some gratitude and thanks. Comic Books Beyond would like to thank John Burkle and the crew of the Talking Comics Podcast, Brandon McNulty, Lisa and Bradford from Comic Book Couples Counseling, Alex Jaffey, Jeremy Whitley, Jimmy Gasparo and the crew of Comic Book Yeti, John Clyde III of Shadow and Flames with Magic Podcast, David Pepos, and all of our listeners and co hosts.