Friday, January 16, 2009

Wonder Woman is part of DC's Trinity. Sure thing, right? Obvious? Doesn't fee like it to me.

Let's go to the videotape, shall we?

Feature movies - Superman (at least 5), Batman (7), Wonder Woman ( NONE)
Animated series- Superman (2, at least), Batman (4), not counting Superfriends, Wonder Woman (0)
Animated features - Superman (2), Batman (at least 4), Wonder Woman (1 that has yet to be released)
Live action TV series - Superman (3 at least), Batman (1), Wonder Woman (1)
Comics - Superman and Batman have supported 2 series that have never ceased publishing since the GOLDEN AGE. They've had multiple others. In the 90s I recall Bruce and Clark supporting 4 titles. The only other character to do that ever is Spider-Man. Wonder Woman doesn't have a single series that has seen continuous publication. She has never been able to support 2 series at the same time. DC has never even put that to the test. Except for a brief hiatus in the 50s. Oh, I think Wolverine is probably the next character who might be able to support 4 series. I think he's effectively supporting three since Marvel seems to release a Wolverine one shot every 3 weeks along with "Wolverine" and "Wolverine: Origins."

Great stories that everybody knows:
Superman - Man Who Has Everything, Red Son, Whatever Happened to the Man of Tomorrow?, Man for All Seasons,

Batman - DKR, Killing Joke, Death In The Family, Long Halloween, Hush really too many to name. No character's catalogue of amazing stories is in the same ballpark. DKR, KJ have been constantly in print and get special absolute editions as did Hush and LH.

Wonder Woman - There are great Wonder Woman stories out there - but it's telling that i don't see any of her definitive stories in HC, Absolute, Authoritative or Omnibus type editions. Why? The market won't support it.

HC collecting many of the great Superman covers? Check.
HC collecting many of the great Batman covers? Check.
HC collecting many of the great Wonder Woman covers? Try again.
HC collecting many of the great covers featuring DC's heroines? Check.

What does this all mean? We're told that Wonder Woman is part of DC's Trinity. Methinks the emperor has no clothes. In most cases just because you keep saying it doesn't make it so; the proof is in the pudding.

This isn't a rant about Wonder Woman not being a great character; she is. It means something that she's survived for 70 years; though I think Black Canary can claim the same thing and appeared first.

Thursday, January 15, 2009

Of Litotes and Apophasis

I mentioned to someone that there's a rhetorical tool which is where you bring up something by not bringing it up, e.g. "Your Honor, The People do not have any interest in speaking about the defendant's past record of alleged sex abuse."

The fundamental word for "mentioning by not mentioning" is apophasis. There are many types of apophasis and wiki has, to me, a fascinating article. I am most fond of praeterito and I get all proslepsitic on people's a$$es about Batman!

Praeterito: Drawing attention to something while pretending to pass it over - The more common name for praeterito is paralipsis.

Proslepsis: An extreme form of paralipsis in which the speaker provides great detail while feigning to pass over a topic.

Litotes: Emphasizing the magnitude of a statement by denying its opposite, e.g. "she's not an unattractive girl."

Having read all this, I wish I was smarter. Not in a wistful way, but in a wouldn't it be cool if I was as strong as Captain America way? Wouldn't it be cool if I was 10th level intelletc? Of course this leads to another ramble:

21st century Earth's entirety of knowledge constitutes a 6th level intellect (DC Universe). Brainiac 5 of the Legion of Super-Heroes has a 12th level intellect. 31st century Earth is supposed to have a 9th level intellect.

There's a great two lines in the series finale of JLU where Metron says to Luthor "only a 12th level intellect can survive crossing into the Source Wall.""well in that case, I'm overqualified!'OH SNAP. No he didn't INTERROBANG Yes, I think he did. Damn.