On this episode of Peace Bound and Down: A Wonder Woman Podcast, Sean is joined by Jarrod Alberich, the Yard Sale Artist, to discuss Wonder Woman Vol. 2, Issue 18! Diana’s trip to modern Greece continues and grows bloody as Circe’s were-creatures attack. Is this the end of Vanessa?!
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- Promos:
- The Longbox Crusade
Bringing a little peace to man’s world each month.
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Jason Isaacs would have been the best Bond. Hands freaking down, son!
Great episode, Sean, until that final minute when your announcement killed the buzz.
Aside from that, though, it was delightful to hear you and Jarrod discuss… anything and everything really. I thought about the James Bond secret question and the “problem” that Idris Elba and Henry Cavill are too old for the part now. That’s only the case, though, if we expect them to be James Bond for four movies over the next ten or twelve years. That’s a self-imposed limitation. Why not cast a new 007 every movie now? It frees up so many more casting and storytelling choices.
I really hadn’t done much looking into Pre-Crisis Circe, and see she had a good number of appearances. Not Lex Luthor or Joker numbers, but respectable and far from a one-and-done, putting far ahead of Pre-Crisis Silver Swan. However, like the Swan, she also had some significant appearances in Wonder Woman Volume 1 in the 300s, making her a relatively current figure, and an interesting choice for Perez to focus on. But her history is a great fit for this Diana’s strong link to Greek mythology, so it makes tons of sense. I also love the serendipity that the Huntress Podcast (plugging for a Wright On Network show as I do), has been covering some of those issues of Wonder Woman volume 1 for the backups, but I read the whole issue when I can, so I got to see a pre-Crisis Circe just months ago! Plus, I just love the word “serendipity,” but I digress.
Perez continues to show why he’s the best penciller in comics. Every character has so much life and distinction, even throwaway ones like the spy-slash-lovers. I would almost wonder if George drew the originals on larger-than-usual size pages to fit in such detail, but there’s no way that would work in the comics production process. So the fact that he can physically fit all of that detail on the same sheets of paper as other artists is remarkable!
Did the math of Julia’s age come up in the show? If not, please indulge me. On page 10, it’s stated Julia’s brother died in 1944 at the age of 18. Based on the childhood photo, I’m going to guess she’s 10 years younger than her brother, putting her birth year at 1936. With this comic being in 1988, that makes Julia 52 years old. Vanessa is 13, so she was born in 1975, and means Julia was 39 at the time. Not an unheard of age to be pregnant. (my wife was 36 when our twins were born, but we did have fertility treatments.)
So let’s circle back. Does Julia look 52 from George’s artwork? A couple of thoughts I have: people did age noticeably faster in the 80s, George was excellent at modelling after real people, and even today, people in their 40s can look older than people in the 50s because there’s so much variability how that works in each person. My wife often is assumed to be much younger than she actually is. It happens to me, too. (But not as much as it used to. ) There’s no big point to this, just something I wanted to pursue, and would love to hear your thoughts on Julia’s numeric age versus her depiction. Honestly, I feel like Julia gives an Aunt May vibe, not Ditko Aunt May, more modern Aunt May after she lost the hair bun.
Another great episode, Sean and Jarrod!
Great show! I enjoyed this issue quite a bit, especially the scene with Grandpa Kapatelis looking Diana over and saying, “Oh if I were 40 years younger” and Grandma Kapatelis responding “You’d still be twice her age, you old goat!”
Regarding James Bonds, I remember an article from the 1980s in (I think) People Magazine that listed possible Bonds and a few were just a bit of a stretch. Two of them were Ted Danson and Burt Reynolds.
As far as a 1980s Wonder Woman, Jarrod mentioned Erin Gray and she might be my choice. Give her the dark hair from her Silver Spoons role and the personality of Col. Wilma Deering from Buck Rogers. Also, I’m not a fan, but Cher would probably get a look if you were casting the part at that time.
And my condolences regarding your family members, Sean. May their memory be a blessing.
Shoot, I completely forgot to pass on my condolences, too, thanks Super-Captain. All the best to you and yours, Sean.
Thanks for another great listen Sean, and a top guest in Jarrod. Rereading this issue I find I have a lot less patience with all the talk than I originally did – 22 pages to play with and it’s only in the final quarter that Diana go into action. I’m all for characterisation and a bit of debate around religion and the portrayal of women who don’t fit into the patriarchal ideal, but this is a superhero comic, make a big fight the centre of things; you can chat while you’re bashing noses.
And more of nude Mikos, that would’ve been nice.
Sean, I think you misunderstood or misremembered what Mon-El seeding the planets of the universe was about, he wasn’t The Shagger From The Stars. As revealed in (looks it up) the 5YL Legion of Super-Heroes Annual #2, Mon-El rescued dozens, if not hundreds, of humans who had been experimented on by the Dominators. Some returned to Earth but others joined a programme whereby they colonised planets that would become ‘buffer worlds’ between Dominion capital Elia and Earth, which they kept trying to conquer; the powers were the result of sparked metagenes and genetic engineering rather than Daxam ‘super-sperm’. By the time of the 30th century whole populaces had been produced with the powers of the tweaked Earthlings. Because, comics.
Favourite cover artist of all time? It has to be Ed Hannigan. Or Nick Cardy.
Impulse only ever lived with the Garricks for the last half dozen or so issues of his series, otherwise it was Max Mercury and his daughter Helen all the way.
I loved Power of the Atom, it was a blessed relief after those stories with the little yellow people – what’s the point of a shrinking hero who loves with people who are pre-shrunk? And a loincloth over his costume trunks, that’s just bragging.
The number of countries I’ve visited stands at 39, so far as I can recall.
And if I take one thing away from them episode, it’s Jarrod’s Ladder of Assumptions, that great. Even though I know most people spend most of their time thinking about me…
Hahahahah, thank you Martin, I was coming to see that Mr Ross was particularly dirty this episode. I guess it was for all the pee-pees seen in Italy! He took the seeding to heart and Mon-El´s pee-pee got caught in it (sorry, couldn´t help myself).
Another awesome episode Sean. Jarrod was a great guest. Circe is such an interesting character, and to see this version compared to the pre-crisis version (let alone the Marvel version) always fascinates me.
Fictional universe creation? In comics, the most impactful surely is the conceit of parallel worlds. Think about how publishing history would be different if we never had “Flash of Two Worlds”. In movies, I would go with The Matrix. We forget today but when that came out in 1999 (I think) it was pretty mindblowing. Not the first virtual world but certainly the one that pushed that concept into the mainstream.
Love story that inspires me? That’s a little harder. I too was not a fan of “One More Day” and that makes it hard for me to pick Peter and MJ in comics, especially since if she lived, I think he would have ended up with Gwen. Clark and Lois is the obvious choice, but if I had to say “inspired” I might go with Ralph and Sue Dibney. Just something about how they interacted felt real. On TV, my favorite love was the father-son relationship with Ben and Jake Sisko on DS9. Again, it felt real, and so many TV shows, even when the leads have charisma, it still feels like a show.
I don’t know much about this villain circe I think shows on justice league unlimited and forces Batam to sing I remember I cause Wonder Woman is turned in to pig and the crimson avengers in that one .