One of These Characters Is Not Like the Others

[billroper]

Superman, Batman, Wonder Woman. Infinite Crisis.

Ok, first, you've surely heard of Infinite Crisis if you read DC comics. We've been leading up to it for months now, following Identity Crisis, and we already know that following the events of the miniseries, there will be a one-year gap in the continuity of all of the DC titles as we jump forward in time. That gap will be plugged by a weekly maxi-series called 52.

A few weeks ago in his column at CBR, Rich Johnston posted a rumor that one of DC's "big three" characters above would die. Specifically, Bruce Wayne, with Dick Grayson taking over as Batman following the one-year gap.

Now, I believe that Bruce will be out of uniform for a while and Dick will be in the Batsuit. But I don't believe for a moment that this is permanent, because we've just had the successful movie, Batman Begins. Batman isn't ending, thank you very much.

Similarly, everybody knows that Superman is Clark Kent. He's not getting replaced.

So I've guessed that Wonder Woman is toast, especially since the arguably-more-powerful Donna Troy has just been brought back to life and can easily be dropped into the existing costume. And, of course, since Donna was created from a fragment of Diana's soul (in the latest retcon), we'll always have Diana with us. Also, Diana crossed the line -- correctly, in my opinion -- when she recently killed Max Lord to free Superman from his mental control.

This particular Wonder Woman is toast. Or well-charred clay, perhaps. And this moves another character from the original Teen Titans up into the Justice League, which is an excellent generational play.

And Rich Johnston reports today that the Wonder Woman title will be restarting with issue #1 again, just like it did after Crisis on Infinite Earths.

I can't imagine why. (Well, yes, I can...)

Comments

You probably won't believe I have this take on it, but...

[filkertom.livejournal.com]

I just read WW #220, specifically to catch the fallout. I must say, I'm annoyed -- not at Wonder Woman, or even at Superman or Batman, but at DC for writing themselves into a corner and then jumping over the paint and laughing mockingly at everyone.

By making the killing of Max Lord the only alternative to having him sending Superman on constant destructive rampages, they gave Diana no choice but to kill him. By having Superman and Batman go through their standard how-could-you-every-life-is-precious riffs, DC basically sided with the concept that letting a psychopath unleash a damn near unstoppable engine of destruction was preferable to stopping the psychopath by any means necessary before many lives were lost.

Any cop in the world would've taken the shot, and been praised as a hero for doing so. And, yes, I know, "superheroes" are supposed to be better than that. But that's what happens when the grays of the real world infiltrate the four-color "funnies".

Prediction: Infinite Crisis is going to 3B: Bite Beyond Belief.

Re: You probably won't believe I have this take on it, but...

[billroper]

I'm not sure that's how Infinite Crisis is going to play out though, relative to the rightness or wrongness of Diana's decision to kill Max Lord. Remember that Geoff Johns is writing it and consider how he's handled Atom Smasher in JSA.

But we'll see.