Tiring Of The Unfinished Feel of Bryan Azzarello's Wonder Woman

[LoneNecromancer]

You won't make friends here saying this, but you're right. There is a Vertigo house style of storytelling, and it isn't a good fit for superheroes. I always avoided the imprint, generally. My impression was that most Vertigo books tended to be dark and bleak in theme; and slow-moving in pace, written for the trade rather than as monthly serials, because the label was encouraging the writers to aim for Art rather than serial storytelling.

You clearly never read Sandman, one of the best things Vertigo put out which was heavily episodic.

The imprint seemed to have a general disdain for superheroes.

Prove it. Garth Ennis isn't what every Vertigo writer was like.

Karen Berger wanted the label to be "different, smarter, edgier": for 'smarter' read 'pretentious', for 'edgier' read 'dark and weird'.

What a load of garbage. Though since any comic that makes you think is qualified as "pretentious" to you, I'm not surprised.

No, let's just keep writing stuff that even an eight year old would get bored off. Big villain comes along, hero beats up the villain, perfectly black & white world and it's done with in another issue to be rinsed and repeated for years.

Writers coming from that background are not discouraged from having disdain for traditional superheroes,

Why should they be? It's no one's business other than their own.

And again, Garth Ennis is not the rule. And he even he likes Superman.

Hey, let's look at the current DC writers who are also doing Vertigo projects. Jeff Lemire, Scott Snyder, Paul Cornell? Uh, gee, none of them look like guys who hate superheroes.

and don't learn what works and doesn't work in the genre.

Really? Cos it seems to me that it's more often the fanboy writers are the ones who drag the genre down by just rehashing stuff rather than taking anything new from what they've learned from writing in other areas.

With the 'cuffs' business, Azzarello invalidated each of the few fight scenes he had written before that issue. You don't have your hero have her fundament handed to her over and over, and then reveal that she knew all along that she had powers that could have won those fights for her. A real superhero writer would have seen a problem there.

Because the idea of a superhero writer bringing out new or secret abilities at the last minute is completely unheard of.

His run has sought to degrade and darken the contributions of every previous writer of Wonder Woman, and continues to impress me as an elaborate gesture of contempt for everything that she and her world have ever been. I call it vandalism.

What was that about Vertigo being pretentious? Look at how you're acting about how important the former history of WW is. Pretentious in a nutshell.

And besides that, it is, as you note, underwritten and boring, and if you just ignore the wordplay, you can get the gist of every issue in thirty seconds of browsing.

WOW. YOU MEAN TO TELL ME, YOU CAN GET THE GIST OF A TWENTY PAGE COMIC'S STORY JUST BY FLICKING THROUGH IT? HOW COMPLETELY UNHEARD OF. IT DOESN'T SOUND LIKE SOMETHING PEOPLE HAVE BEEN DOING AT COMIC BOOK STORES FOR YEARS.

You see the world he's failed to build, and I remember the world he's tried to destroy.

I remember it too, in my nightmares.

[carabas]

Because the idea of a superhero writer bringing out new or secret abilities at the last minute is completely unheard of.

Or just simply decides he's not going to play nice anymore...

[Mr. Holmes]

Grant Morrison hates superheroes guys. Did you see how he pissed all over them in Animal Man.

[Mark_S]

As someone who's never read a Vertigo title I have to say I don't mind this pace for Wonder Woman. I don't think that it would work with Superman, but I like it here.

[The Man From Room X]

*wall of text responding to and refuting Steve's unfounded claims about Vertigo*

You might as well be banging your head against a brick wall.

Grant Morrison hates superheroes guys. Did you see how he pissed all over them in Animal Man.

Man did you see how Garth Ennis pissed all over Superman in his Hitman run?

[fanboiii]

As someone who's never read a Vertigo title I have to say I don't mind this pace for Wonder Woman. I don't think that it would work with Superman, but I like it here.

Azzarello stated from the very beginning the story is intended to feel like an odyssey. Odysseys are long and drawn-out. He also said he'll be on the title for a while. There will always be some fans, usually the same ones, who will go out of their way to find a bone to pick for whatever reason.

[Superdog]

Until someone can prove to me that every DC character isn't a serial rapist, I'm dropping all my DC books.

[klinton]

If we didn't have her fighting Cheetah over in Justice League and popping up in other corners of the DCU, I might agree with the OP.

As it stands, I'm enjoying the current run for what it is: just another take on Diana in a long history of divergent concepts. I'm more than happy to let him spin his story.

And, really, if it's not for you...just wait and she'll be completely reinvented by the next writer. Such is Wonder Woman. It always has been.

[fanboiii]

Until someone can prove to me that every DC character isn't a serial rapist, I'm dropping all my DC books.

Sounds like something a serial rapist would say.

[Outside_85]

Or just simply decides he's not going to play nice anymore...

Funny you should mention him, didn't Daken just push to that point in that last issue of UXF?

[brettc1]

Or just simply decides he's not going to play nice anymore...

I bought this issue when it came out.

Just sayin'

[Gaelforce]

I bought this issue when it came out.

Just sayin'

I go back to issue 2 of the original series, so there :p

[brettc1]

I go back to issue 2 of the original series, so there :p

Not issue 1?

Fail.

[Gaelforce]

Not issue 1?

Fail.

Believe me, I feel the pain of that fail every day ;)

Not as much as missin' Avengers 4, tho' :(

[gwangung]

Azzarello stated from the very beginning the story is intended to feel like an odyssey. Odysseys are long and drawn-out. He also said he'll be on the title for a while. There will always be some fans, usually the same ones, who will go out of their way to find a bone to pick for whatever reason.

No, the reason's clear; they don't like this style of storytelling. That's fine, but a lot of folks do like this style of storytelling. It's a valid approach.