By Rob Bricken in
Comics
Tuesday, Dec. 8 2009 @ 3:05PM
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You can read more about War of the Supermen at DC's Source blog and at Time's Techland, but all it really is is Superman editor Matt Idelson saying over and over that the event will build upon years of Superman backstories (including the New Krypton hoohah) but also be perfectly accessible to new readers, as if those weren't almost mutually exclusive. As for Wonder Woman, it's the result of a poll by Dan Didio who said that he'd make the WW numbering change if he got 600 postcards asking him to; he received 712.
So... 712 people care enough about Wonder Woman to send in a 42-cent postcard? I guess that's about right.
39 comments
Comments
Drew said:
I hate crossover events but damn if that isn't one fascinating title.
Dave said:
712 people care about Wonder Woman comcis? Man, that's almost 10 times the number virgins promised to a Muslim martyr.
Bill said:
Superman looks scrawny on that cover. That, and he looks like he's constipated. I don't like it.
Big Blues replied to Bill:
Now, now. Let's be fair here. They ALL look constipated in that pic. Perhaps they got a group rate on the bean burritos and it's coming back to bite them on (in?) their supernatural asses.
Geoff said:
I like Wonder Woman, but I didn't think the numbering made a difference. Certainly not enough to pay for a stamp.
I think it's perfectly possible to tell an accessible story that still draws on years of history. Shit, for all the griping that Identity Crisis got from whiny internet posters, it sold very well at bookstores and was very well received by mainstream readers, and that dwelt on something like 20 years' worth of history.
Hell, Watchmen made up its own history, is as dense as any comic out there, and still is praised. Readers are smarter than snobby online commenters give them credit for, and they'll generally go along with the story on a surface level as long as it's compelling and not get turned off by the presence of a backstory.
Arsenal said:
The War of the Supermen thing shouldn't be that big of a deal. we all knew the krytonians were going to attack earth at some point and time. And the attack should last all of 30 min. I mean you get Lex Luthor, Batman, Shazam, Cpt Atom, metemorpho and any space green lantern, they would tak down a planent of krytonians with out blinking. Between magic and kytonite rings, and the fact that Atom, metamorpho and GL can make krptonite the fight would be really short and boring.
Really, Arsenal? You think just because a handful of people living on Earth have Kryptonite and magic there would be almost no threat posed by an invasion force of 100,000 superpeople? By that logic, I could totally take down an army of trained soldiers by myself if I had a gun, because guns can totally kill people.
Arsenal replied to Josh:
That logic is flawed, if you had some sort of sure traning sure, but just give a guy a gun he won't take down a army, give someone like Rambo a butter knife and there is an empty villiage.
It doesn't matter if there is a million krytonians, start firing off red sun radiation, magic and krytonite bullets, gas whatever they are going down.
Also Lex loses to superman, because he tries to humble superman, not just kill him. Don't think that Superman/girl/boy are going to be on the same side as the krytonians, there is no way in DC comics that skrytonians are a threat. Not talking Superboy prime krytonians, these are just normal shlubs that haven't spent their entire life (more or less) with powers, they have had them for what a year. The only way anyone will have trouble int hat series is poor writing.
You seem to be forgetting that Superman is constantly pulling his punches. These are not 100,000 Supermans filled with compassion and respect for human life and fighting fair. All it would really take would be one Kryptonian firing their heat vision full blast from half a galaxy away right into Earth's core to blow us all up.
Arsenal replied to Josh:
The other thing you are forgetting is that these other krytonians are not that strong. The comics last time I checked are not like the cartoon where red sun light is a off switch and yellow is an on switch, krytonians have to store up years upon years of yellow sunlight to get to the level where superman is. They have maybe a years worth of sunlight stored up. That should only put them at the same level as the animate3d superman where electricity hurts him. If it was 100,000 earth prime or even earth one supermen I would be worried, but 100,000 of one year powered krytonians? I think blue Devil and Detective Chimp are going to be able to take a majority of them out.
I'm pretty sure 100,000 of even the animated series Superman (who was ridiculously weak) would still be at least as powerful as one Earth one Superman or Earth prime Superboy. They wouldn't need to get anywhere near Earth to do serious damage. Just think what one combined effort of heat vision or superbreath would do from that many Kryptonians at once. Either that, or, knowing which people on Earth would be the greatest threats, take them out first. Lex Luthor, Batman, or Captain Atom, regardless of how useful they could be in this war, wouldn't be able to take out a horde of Kryptonians at once.
Arsenal replied to Josh:
Well if they actually had a plan I am sure they would have no problem. But we are talking about a DC cross over event, there will be little or no planning and after a bunch of pointless battles they will lose because of the leaders (Zod?) hubris. And in reality the only reason superboy prime did any damage what so ever is because he was invulnerable to both magic and this universe's Krytonite. These 100K don't have that luxury to be immune to anything but logic. It is not going to be as simple as I am stating because who would buy a book where Lex Luthor, and a few others kill 100K supermen (other then me) because of the writing, but logically that would not be anything to worry about at all. Hell I think Lois Lanes dad has a military base full of things in case this happens.
I'm not saying that New Krypton would automatically win. I'm just saying that they wouldn't automatically lose even without the constraints of story telling. Sure, there are all kinds of eventualities in place to take down Superman if he ever went rogue. But this isn't just Superman. This is an entire planet full of Supermen and Superwomen. I don't think either side could win in half an hour (your original argument), regardless of how well prepared they are. It would be a costly war for both sides.
Arsenal replied to Josh:
OK maybe 30 min is pushing it a bit. It would take at least an hour to get everyone in contact, another hour to convince the villains to join up with the heroes. Then about 5 min per krytonian, and about 2 hours to stop Zod. Mind you an hour and a half of that is Zod talking.
Hmm that is pushing it at close to a year. And in comic time this is going to take between a week and a month I am thinking so. Looks like they will be taking them out faster then 5 min per guy.
If I had to guess i could probably put the entire plot out as a guess right now, but in the end there will be no one but Superman/Girl/Boy left and no heroes will die this time around. But really thats just my opinion that there shouldn't be any problems taking out the krytonians. I wonder inf Zantanna can just say SNAINOTPYRK EROM ON and we are done in one issue.
and to clear things up I actually do like superman, i just think the direction his comics have gone in is crap, and this whole War is just another excuse to have him cry, whine and look no where near super. And that krytonians in general have been nerfed like no ones business.
theBRUCE replied to Arsenal:
I'm gonna have to agree with Arsenal here. They don't have any of the level of Yellow sunlight build up that Kal has. And if you recall the last time multiple Kryptonians invaded earth Last Son I believe they were taken out by Lex, Metallo, Bizarro, Superman, and Parasite. This is gonna be a disappointment. This story does not need to be told as a major cross over event. It coulda progressed in the pages of New Krypton
Anonymous replied to theBRUCE:
Well, the Kryptonians could shoot some of their population into or close proximity to the Sun. They'd get super-charged from that. It may kill them from overloading their cells, but for a while they would be Super-Supermen & Women.
mrm1138 replied to Arsenal:
Is there any particular reason you keep spelling "Krypton" (and variations) without the P? The fact that you keep doing it with--the exception of when you spell it backwards--seems like it's on purpose rather than a typo, so I'm confused.
Arsenal replied to mrm1138:
I was typing on my lap top while playing KOTOR, so spelling was no where near the top of my to do list.
Lex Luthor couldn't kill Superman in 80 years, methinks he'd have issues with doing so 100,000 times in the space of a week.
Anonymous replied to Arsenal:
Let me post a link to sum up this argument...
http://www.penny-arcade.com/comic/2009/11/2/
So we have a group of pissed off Kryptonians coming to attack, what do we do to fend them off?
- Magic.
Right, they're vulnerable to magic, but there are 100,000 of the...
- Magic!
No, I got that, but what if......
- MAGIC!!!!!
Bill replied to Anonymous:
To quote Xena: "Wizard!"
Stephens said:
712? Really?! I wonder if it was the same twelve people just repeatedly mailing postcards...
"Starman" Matt Morrison said:
the event will build upon years of Superman backstories (including the New Krypton hoohah) but also be perfectly accessible to new readers, as if those weren't almost mutually exclusive
Somebody tell Dan Slott, James Robinson, Mark Waid and Geoff Johns that they're doing the impossible or at least the mutually exclusive.
Brion said:
Want to make Wonder Woman interesting again? Make her a lesbian. Sales through the roof.
Kevin said:
The Superman comic book cover looks stupid as hell.
Kaeli said:
It's a sad state of affairs when comic readers are ridiculed on a site aimed specifically at nerdy types.
That said - 712 postcards is pretty pathetic. I'm disappointed, but I guess not really surprised. Even comic fans seems to not care about Wonder Woman, despite the fact that since Gail Simone's been writing her, it's been one of the best DC books. I'm not sure how well it sells, I don't keep up with such things - I just read them :)
WW's selling the same as always - a solid mid-level book, but not amongst the top DC titles like JLA, Batman, Superman or the Titans.
That's all Wonder Woman ever will sell, no matter how good a writer or artist is on the title. 'Twas the same during Perez, during Rucka, and now during Simone.
Not that there's anything wrong with being a solid mid-level book, but the way the Wonder Woman crazies online act, you'd think that if the numbering returned it would instantly be amongst DC's big books, and there's no indication whatsoever of that. Wonder Woman's great to have around as an icon, and probably will make a good movie if they ever get around to casting it right (once again: GINA CARANO), but its sales have never been anything special.
Kaeli replied to Geoff:
Yeah, I like the new numbering just because I feel it's "right" somehow, since their other icon books (Supes / Action / Bats / 'Tec) are in the 800's - I didn't expect a sudden jump in sales (though I figure #600 itself will probably spike a bit)...
But you're right of course, there's nothing at all wrong with being a solid mid-level book, and that's honestly a little better than I figured given the 712 postcard response. :)
AdamJ said:
The dude in the bottom left looks like he's just realised he's not 'super' after all.
"Wait a minute - fuuuuuu......!"
Morgenstern said:
I thought the point of Superman was that he was the last of his race?
cocacolaoso replied to Morgenstern:
Yes, I thought the same. Maybe after this event Superman is all alone again...yes, another bloothbat is coming to the joyfull DCU!
Anonymous replied to cocacolaoso:
Unless... its a build-up to when DC loose the rights to the character & they kill him off within the story. Just a thought.
Capsulesn'Coffee said:
terrible cover
Karma said:
I prefer my Superman covers without cactus shitting expressions plastered upon the Man of Steel's grill, thank you very much.
And also... regarding the Wonder Woman postcard blitz: You know that one, tired old joke which isn't funny, that everyone uses to insult a fanbase? Y'know... the one that always refers to "both of it's fans."?
This is like a graduated version of that joke. Only instead of "both of them", we can just say "All 712 of them." Officially.
Fun Fact: 712 is just a little over 699. There is no connection to this fact and anything else.
Soylent Robot said:
hehhehe, look at them all.
RAAAAAAARG
cocacolaoso said:
Speaking about the tepid 712 postcards to get Wonder Woman 600, as a huge WW fan, I couldn't care less about the numbering.
DC editorial has been screwing up Diana royally since the mediocre Heinberg re launch, and the craptacular "Amazon Attacks", and no 600 or One Million number will going to change that.
The quality of the Wonder Woman comics is mediocre since Didio pull out Rucka from the title. Gail Simone was on the right track till the ending of "Rise of the Olympian" when the writing started to lose focus, and in the present "War Killer" storyline, everyone in it is acting out of character, plots and characters come and goes without logic, and Diana is all emo and doesn't do anything heroic anymore just whines. Suddenly La Simone was replaced by a FFF writer! (but without all the kinky sex). No end in sight.
So I suppose there are 712 souls that still have hope that things will improve for Diana. But it seems they are only 712 who still cares.
Shadowtag said:
Actually, it looks like Bats is coming back, DC's reporting. But it is being drawn by a Kubert so add a year or two...
John said:
712 postcards does seem very, very low. Did more people vote online or was the offer good only if the DC office received postcards?
On the other hand, who mails postcards nowadays, when everything is done online?
On the other, other hand, couldn't the renumbering-committee organize themselves a little better than to send in 712 postcards?
However, I think all of this will be moot when they relaunch Wonder Woman (yet again) in the next few years with an "all-new direction" #1 issue, if for no other reason than to put out a new #1 "collector's issue".
