POBB September 21, 2023

Pick of the Brown Bag

September 21, 2023

by

Ray Tate

Welcome to a wonderful Pick of the Brown Bag with your host and creator Ray Tate.  As you might have guessed from the description, the subject is the newest number one of Wonder Woman.  

Yes.  Under normal circumstances, a new number one would be redundant, but what're you gonna do? ...Comic books...

First a brief recap of what happened before... 

In 1941, United States Air Force pilot Steve Trevor crashes on the isle of the Amazons.  

 

After consulting the Greek Gods, Queen Hippolyta determines that an Amazon must go to Man's World to return Steve Trevor to the armed forces. 

More to the point, one Amazon must stay in Man's World to battle the Nazis and tip the balance in the Allies' favor.  

This envoy will be determined by an Amazon Olympics that culminates in Bullets and Bracelets.

Princess Diana cared for Steve on the Isle and fell in love with him.  

Disobeying her mother, Diana dons a mask and competes in the contests.  Naturally, she wins.  She becomes Wonder Woman.

The story hasn't drastically changed and neither has Wonder Woman.  

Her stability is just when considering her contextual immortality.

In this latest issue of Wonder Woman, a group of idiots accost an Amazon.  She defends herself.  Events escalate.

Alas.  The United States, instead of investigating the alleged crime and granting the Amazon due process, goes apeshit.  

The government singles out Amazons, ships them back to Paradise Island or, preferred, murders them.

Heading these efforts.  Perennial asshole Sarge Steel whom I last saw as President Reagan's attache in a nineties Superman Annual.  

To be fair, he never started out a sphincter.  He's also not the first detective to turn secret agent.  

Homicide detective Captain Amos Burke of Burke's Law jumped the shark by becoming a government agent in the final season of his otherwise entertaining series.

Naturally anything concerning Amazons, concerns Wonder Woman, and when she comes to the stage, she elegantly shoves Sarge Steel's vaunted metal hand up his colon. 

It may seem that I've broken one of the cardinal, subjective rules of the POBB.  Honestly, though.  I haven't really spoiled a thing.

Wonder Woman is actually a very deep and pertinent book.  I'd expect nothing less from writer Tom King.  His story is about bigotry, plain and simple.

Because an Amazon committed the crime, she's labeled a terrorist, rather than a criminal.  Personally I hate the word terrorist.  It's a word loaded with xenophobia.  The consequences of that word often lead to generalizations that get innocent people killed.

I prefer to think of habitual lawbreakers as criminals.  No matter their country of origin.  Donald Trump is a criminal.  So is Putin.  One of those criminals admires the other one.  I'll not say who.

Much like other innocent global citizens, all Amazons suffer the accusal because of their marginal association with the fugitive.

Hypocritical members of Congress are eager to get their hands dirty, in secret.  An interview with the average Joe indicates a deep-seated hatred of the Amazons.

He excepts Wonder Woman either because he doesn't realize she is an Amazon, or he counts her as a reformed Amazon.

You can also read in his dialogue an inherent fear and loathing of women who choose to pursue an untraditional lifestyle.  

He further exemplifies the mirror argument of racists.  

Because I hate you, you must hate me.  You're no better than me.  Therefore, this is a matter of survival.  Yeah.  That's total rubbish.  

When unfair laws governing Amazons on American soil pass, the government plummets into fascism.  

Sergeant Steel and his AXE Squad, perhaps purposely named after the masculine body spray, transform readily into the Gestapo.  

Honestly, I think the original Sarge Steel from Charlton Comics would be horrified by this guy and punch him in the mouth.

Sarge Steel and his AXE Squad likewise reflect the Ku Klux Klan of the eighties and nineties who tried to present a softer image.  The Dunce Caps hawked an alternative to exterminating black people; they just wanted to ship them back to Africa.  

It's very easy to transfer this argument to DACA.  Dreamers arrived here as children.  They don't know the countries from whence they came.  Some of them don't even speak the language.  Even if not born here, they grew up here.  They are more American than some sphincters in Congress.

Yeah.  That's right.  Looking at you.  You putz.

Steel and his AXE Squad demonstrate some success due to technologically advanced armament that overwhelms any of the Amazons living in America.  

Why Amazons would stay in the USA isn't explained very well.  The Amazon fugitive visited the continent to do charitable work.  Others have family, but I'm not sold on the idea of raising a child in America being better than raising a child on Themyscira.  So let's just call this a conceit to better the metaphor.

The Ameri-Nazis aren't above aiming an assault weapon at children, who will be removed from the Amazon families.

Separating children from the parents of illegal immigrants, by the way, is a Trump initiative.  However, it's a practice patterned after Russian and Nazi tactics.  Indeed the Nazis suborned Paula Von Gunther, who became Wonder Woman's archenemy, by holding her daughter hostage.

Wonder Woman later fights on Paula's 

behalf in a court of law.  That's right.  Diana is perfect.

If you object to how quickly America descends into autocracy in Wonder Woman.  You haven't been paying attention.  

If Donald Trump wins the election against President Joe Biden, this country as you know it will cease to exist.  Democracy dies if Trump is reinstalled in the White House.  He will not leave.  There will be no more elections.

Ah, but Wonder Woman is a comic book.  Just a simple comic book.  It's really about wish fulfillment.  We don't have a Wonder Woman, but if we did...

Steel and AXE arrogantly attempt to murder Wonder Woman.  I mean they've got improved armament, right? What can possibly go wrong.

There's so much delicious artwork by Daniel Sampere and Tomeu Morey to feast upon.  

The illustration throughout is glorious.  When Wonder Woman resists being murdered--the nerve of her--it's just panel after panel of history in motion.  

Everything you remember about Wonder Woman plays out in these final scenes.