Young Romance #1 Preview

[Don-Jack]

I think it's just a mistake. Eros' origin was already "wrong" in Batwoman, right?
Poor guy.

[pad]

Diggle has expressed admiration for Azz and Chiang's Wonder Woman run, and these preview pages reference not only Hippolyta's secrets but Wonder Woman being shot with Eros' guns (in WW 8), the First Born (from recent WW issues), the coming god storm (first referenced in WW 1) and a threat to time (WW 13), so I think Diggle is reading Wonder Woman. He just most likely got details of Eros' parentage wrong--and yes, the editors should have caught that--or, just possibly, is hinting at something about Eros that we haven't learned yet.

I haven't read anything about Diggle's admiration for Azz and Chiang's work, so I didn't know that. But still, all of those points mentioned could have been editorial bullet points to plug into the story...but I hope you are right. "It was a mistake" as an explanation can be forgiven.

[Outside_85]

That still wouldn't explain "cousin," assuming the New 52 Aphrodite is Zeus' daughter (as I thought Wonder Woman 13 implied). But it would explain "demigod."

Hephaestus is sometimes thought of as being a child of Zeus and Hera, but some myths say Hera had him on her own because she was angry that Zeus had Athena.
Aphrodite on the other hand is what you get (apparently) when you cut off a certain pair of reproductive organs and throw them into the sea.
(I assume that Aphrodite was simply accompanying her husband at the pool-party...or that they went with more of all the greek-myth-wierdness and make the pair brother and sister)

Both instances can ofc have been changed.

[Gaelforce]

Somethin' like that. I always thought he might turn out to be the "biological" son of Aphrodite's lover War, though raised by Heph as his own. But maybe the real father is a human lover of Aphrodite's.

That still wouldn't explain "cousin," assuming the New 52 Aphrodite is Zeus' daughter (as I thought Wonder Woman 13 implied). But it would explain "demigod."

It wasn't uncommon back in the day to refer to relatives who were more distant in the family tree as 'cousin' as opposed to 'relative' or 'kinsman.' It doesn't necessarily denote an offspring of an aunt or uncle.

[slvn]

Aphrodite on the other hand is what you get (apparently) when you cut off a certain pair of reproductive organs and throw them into the sea.

Not according to all sources, though. Theoi.com lists this alternate tradition about her parentage, attributed to Homer and others:

"ZEUS & DIONE (Homer Iliad 5.370; Euripides Helen 1098; Apollodorus 1.13, Cicero De Natura Deorum 3.21, et al)"
(http://www.theoi.com/Olympios/Aphrodite.html)

Since they were both present at the pool party, I thought Azz was going with this origin and with the "brother and sister weirdness" that you mention.

Gael, true, they could be using "cousin" in the more general sense.

[brettc1]

I prefer Chiang's non-cheesecake rendition of Wonder Woman. But I don't think is a good idea to compare a female character to a stripper just because she's drawn in a sexy outfit on a date--just as it's not a good idea to compare a real-world woman to a stripper just because she decides to wear a sexy outfit on a date. It sounds not just prudish but sexist (which I know you're not, so I'm not reading anything into this--just pointing out how it sounds on the surface.).

No, I'm going to stand fast on this one. I often think our society's complete obsession with sex, furled primarily by people selling stuff, causes a great deal of harm. There has to be a happy medium between a thong and a burqa and I don't think that is it.

.

Anyway, I thought you'd be happy that the lasso seems to be doing some good in this issue.

Finally. Sadly I am not going to pay DC $10 for the priveledge of reading a book that has 12 pages I care about because they have one thing I might enjoy, and a whole lot I won't.

[RandomFalls]

Nevermind.

[slvn]

Finally. Sadly I am not going to pay DC $10 for the priveledge of reading a book that has 12 pages I care about because they have one thing I might enjoy, and a whole lot I won't.

I don't blame you--I should make the same decision, but will probably be weak.

[Outside_85]

Not according to all sources, though. Theoi.com lists this alternate tradition about her parentage, attributed to Homer and others:

"ZEUS & DIONE (Homer Iliad 5.370; Euripides Helen 1098; Apollodorus 1.13, Cicero De Natura Deorum 3.21, et al)"
(http://www.theoi.com/Olympios/Aphrodite.html)

Or she could have been hatched from an egg by doves :D

Since they were both present at the pool party, I thought Azz was going with this origin and with the "brother and sister weirdness" that you mention.

Ah the Olympians...one great, big, feuding, inbreeding family.

[brettc1]

Steve Trevor FTW

[lariatofhestia]

I think there's a simple reason for Diana not being totally crushed by what happened to her and the Amazons in her own book; Zola.

As much as Zola needed Diana first to stay alive, and then to get her kid back. Diana also needs the tasks Zola has provided to think about something else other than her own situation. So instead of focusing on the bad stuff in her own life, she focuses on the mission that wont wait for her and requires that she stays sharp.

This also re-enforces Diana has no friends. She is a very lonely 23 year old imo in her own book who looks after everyone and shows no thought or desires for her own self. Diggle does not have to deal with Zola. Diana is not there to look after Clark as she is Zola in her title. For once it can be about her needs. She can open up and off load how she feels with him. I don't know anyone with problems and family issues who represses them can be okay. At some point you need to talk with someone you can trust and who can understand the burdens of secrets and why you might do what you do and to just listen.

Azz has not dealt with that aspect of her. As far as his writing is focused on is she can get on with business.

I think people relate to the issues of family dysfunction but we can also relate to being vulnerable and feeling lost and alone if you have these problems. To have Diana as this stiff uppper lip person (she's British now so I guess she has to be) is ignoring that.

[Outside_85]

This also re-enforces Diana has no friends.

I don't see how you arrive at that conclusion.
Friends are for her down time, but as long as Zola is around, Diana will be in mission mode.

She is a very lonely 23 year old imo in her own book who looks after everyone and shows no thought or desires for her own self.

I'd say that's just how far her selflessness extends, which is traditionally is a strong vein in superhero characters and is usually what I imagine is preventing them from asking questions like; 'why should I risk my life for this?'.
While I believe Diana has friends outside of what we have seen in the WW book, I think it reasonable to believe Diana doesn't have the over in case Hera or someone else decided to show up and make a mess of them.

Diggle does not have to deal with Zola. Diana is not there to look after Clark as she is Zola in her title. For once it can be about her needs. She can open up and off load how she feels with him. I don't know anyone with problems and family issues who represses them can be okay. At some point you need to talk with someone you can trust and who can understand the burdens of secrets and why you might do what you do and to just listen.

I do agree, and what I've been trying to say. Diana in WW is in 'mission mode' where she cant afford to unwind and deal with her own problems, since her enemies could show up any second. In YR however, I think it's after the Zola-story is over, she is out of the mission mode and can deal with her own problems.

Azz has not dealt with that aspect of her. As far as his writing is focused on is she can get on with business.

I think people relate to the issues of family dysfunction but we can also relate to being vulnerable and feeling lost and alone if you have these problems. To have Diana as this stiff upper lip person (she's British now so I guess she has to be) is ignoring that.

I think that's down to her growing up in a militaristic society and has received training in leading her sisters across a battlefield, where she can't afford to have personal reactions to stuff that happens around her because it could mean she and the others die as a result.
Obviously Diana is not physically on a battlefield in most of the WW book, but she knows she is put against people that could arrive out of nowhere and make the current area into a battlefield...and she cant afford being caught off guard.

[slvn]

This also re-enforces Diana has no friends. She is a very lonely 23 year old imo in her own book who looks after everyone and shows no thought or desires for her own self.

I don't see evidence in Wonder Woman's book that she's lonely (except insofar as she, of course, misses her Amazon family) or that she "has no friends." We're not, after all, seeing her whole life; we're seeing one story that is unfolding within her life. You say she has no friends, but she and Lennox say explicitly that she does have friends--see their conversation at the clinic in #11. If you want to say that these are mere words and not proof that she has friends, that's fine--but, by the same token, the absence of her friends (other than Lennox, Hermes before issue 12, Zola, Heph, Eros to some degree, Persephone to some degree, (at least some of) the Amazons in issues 0 and 2, Ares in 0 before the end of the issue, and now Siracca and Milan) from the story isn't proof that they don't exist. And Zola calls the people at the dance club Diana's "community"; we shouldn't assume that she doesn't talk with them and know them pretty well, just because those conversations don't come into the story. It's true that, for the most part, she puts others ahead of herself--something that we expect of her, right?--but she is certainly shows concerned over her own losses and disappointments at the ends of issues 3, 4, 5 and 7, for example. And in 10 we see her considering her own needs by refusing to be in a marriage without trust.

Diggle does not have to deal with Zola. Diana is not there to look after Clark as she is Zola in her title. For once it can be about her needs. She can open up and off load how she feels with him. I don't know anyone with problems and family issues who represses them can be okay. At some point you need to talk with someone you can trust and who can understand the burdens of secrets and why you might do what you do and to just listen.

She does talk with Zola about her problems; see their excellent conversation in #4. Her relationship with Zola isn't one-sided; Zola, having survived without family for a long time, is able to remind Diana of the importance of family. There's also another example in #5, when they're waiting for Poseidon; Zola understands the less idealistic overtones of LEnnox's story better than Diana does. So Zola has things to offer as a friend. Diana also describes her own problems when talking with Siracca in 14; her aim may be to talk Siracca down, but she's still sharing her problems with someone who can relate to them. Still, I agree with it's nice to see her talking with someone outside her family situation and someone to whom she can relate as a hero with the weight of the world on her shoulders.

To have Diana as this stiff uppper lip person (she's British now so I guess she has to be) is ignoring that.

Her upper lip is practically quivering when she's with Heph in issue 15. She doesn't have to be talkative to show emotion. Sometimes silence is more eloquent.

In YR however, I think it's after the Zola-story is over...

I'm not sure about that--the sirens are predicting the storm/war of the Firstborn, which I think might unfold as part of or an extension of "the Zola-story." They say Diana will "stand alone, allegiance pledged"--I think that this might mean that she alone bears allegiance to Zola and her child, while some are trying to kill the kid and others are trying to use him or her.

Still, I agree with you both that it's nice to see Diana at least take a breather.