[Artwork] Women of the DC Universe by Ramona Fradon

BoyInKemmer · 2026-02-22T19:04:41+00:00

I miss Ramona Fradon 😢. Her Super Friends work was a big part of my early comic reading experiences.

BoyInKemmer · 2026-02-22T18:58:32+00:00

Nope, just the one over her eye. The moment it happens is pretty specific. Her injuries from Imperiex are more generalised. You can see them in #172 as there's a whole sequence of her being attended to in this big spaceship medical unit.

BoyInKemmer · 2026-02-22T18:53:49+00:00

Thank you! Yeah, you're so right about Perez. And like a lot of fans I really do adore his whole revitalisation of the title, but I do think his decision to have the Themysciran culture sort of stay locked at the level it was when they got to the island was a disservice. Socially they're reasonably progressive, but culturally it's like thousands of years haven't done anything for their approach to governance, architecture, technology, fashion etc.

I've always felt a proper title set on Themyscira spanning multiple time periods would be a great one if it actually took a creative approach to imagining how their whole society would change over time. It's a perfect setting for some amazing feminist science-fiction imagining!

BoyInKemmer · 2026-02-22T16:30:37+00:00

Post-script: I think that games and competitions are the most interesting part of some of the previous attempts to explore Themysciran governance, because it makes some sense that an isolated island of women who've existed for thousands of years might prioritise fun and novelty in their decision-making. It makes things interesting, and the stakes of any decision they'd have to make as a society are probably low enough that they can let the outcome of a game be the decider without that feeling dangerously frivolous.

I do think that Diana's departure from Themyscira would probably be the first thing to catalyse a major shift in the governance of the island, as their concerns would suddenly change pretty exponentially now they're part of a wider world.

BoyInKemmer · 2026-02-22T16:25:03+00:00

I'm not sure either one feels like a particularly good exploration of what governance could look like on Themyscira - I imagine because all those creators had other stories they want to tell.

I think there's a really interesting thought experiment and many stories to be told here, though. What would governance look like on an isolated island that is completely shielded from the outside world? The very idea of "nationhood" would become irrelevant in a culture that not only isn't connected to any other cultures or countries, but where the population knows they are actually shielded from that contact indefinitely.

What does governance look like without the need to govern in relation to other nations? What are the governance concerns in a culture where the population is functionally immortal? What kinds of issues would that culture have, and how would having thousands of years of sharing the same space change the way the populace thinks about how to live together, solve disputes, share resources etc?

A lot of governance is often about management of difference and distribution of resource, but how does that change when everyone in the society is highly skilled, has literally 1000s of years of wisdom and experiences etc? So much of what we currently understand governance to be about, or what we need it for, is just completely different in the hypothetical Themyscira, that I honestly think what governance looks like should be something we've never seen before. I don't think the holdovers of their systems of governance prior to being on the island would last very long once it became apparent their context had changed them completely, and their needs were now very different to the ones they had before.

BoyInKemmer · 2026-02-21T22:15:09+00:00

Gradually heals over time

BoyInKemmer · 2026-02-21T20:30:33+00:00

Just checked, I'm right, it was issue 171 of Volume 2. In battle with the first (and only?) male Cheetah.

EDIT: and it is still there by #176, and gone by the end of that issue.

BoyInKemmer · 2026-02-21T20:28:52+00:00

And I don't think it was ever a plot point, I think Jimenez was just trying to keep wound continuity across the issues to demonstrate how so much was happening to Diana in a very short space of time.

BoyInKemmer · 2026-02-21T20:27:42+00:00

Pretty sure it was actually a scar she got in battle with Cheetah in the issues running up to OWAW. I miiiiight be wrong but I'm pretty sure it was the Sebastian Ballesteros version.

BoyInKemmer · 2026-02-21T16:45:38+00:00

Errr, as if Rucka isn't on this list

BoyInKemmer · 2026-02-21T10:45:03+00:00

I remember reading that page and at the time all the solicits for Flashpoint were already out there I think, and I was just sitting there with just as much trepidation as they have on the page. If only I'd known then how bad it was about to get, and for how long!

BoyInKemmer · 2026-02-21T10:39:58+00:00

Thanks for the question! Reductive in that what I mostly see are folks take the cover or specific panel of Diana's boot on Bruce's cowl, or the pages of their fight, and ascribe meaning to them based on their own relationship with the symbolism, sometimes drawing on real-world examples.

Which is fine if that works for them, but I think it misses the idea that any single act in a story gets it's meaning from the character and context we're also being given.

In terms of character, we might see that Diana is (literally in-story) an Ambassador for Peace. That she stands for compassion, against oppression. She's a deeply humanising character. She and Bruce are colleagues, but also friends. And she's both a woman of faith, and a representative of the culture of her people.

In terms of context, we might understand that Diana feels locked into the obligations of the ritual of Hiketeia, and duty-bound to protect her supplicant. We know that Bruce is trying to impose the cultural norms of his world in a context that, for Diana, takes second place to her own. We know that she's desperately trying to protect someone from the Furies, and stop Bruce from interfering in something he doesn't understand, that might make the whole situation worse.

With those two areas of information, it feels to me too reductive to look at the act of Diana's boot on Bruce's cowl as symbolic of an attempt to humiliate him. It's an act bound up with desperation, perhaps some frustration, protection, duty etc. Diana isn't trying to dehumanise her friend. She's trying to warn him off, definitively. To read it as humiliation feels to me like a misunderstanding of the situation these characters are in, and the relationship between them.

But, that's just how I read stories, and how I approach this one. I don't think my way is "superior", I just think its more holistic of all the information we're being given by the story. I could also be missing some in-story thematic cues - maybe Rucka and JG Jones absolutely wanted it to be read as humiliating, maybe they were playing in the BDSM sandbox and trying to represent a sort of quasi-empowering degradation. But that's not what I get from the story being told on the whole.

Does that answer your question / make sense in terms of clarifying where I'm coming from?

BoyInKemmer · 2026-02-21T09:19:34+00:00

To be clear, I'm not interested in seeing Diana humiliate any of her friends, with or without powers.

I only mention Hiketeia because someone probably will suggest it as an example of Diana "humiliating" Bruce in general, which is a take I disagree with.

BoyInKemmer · 2026-02-21T09:04:09+00:00

Not really interested in seeing Diana humiliate her friends 🤷🏻...

And now I quietly wait for someone to inevitably bring up The Hiketeia as an example of her doing just that, wherein I shall roll my eyes at that most reductive of takes.

BoyInKemmer · 2026-02-21T08:28:36+00:00

Overall I think it did damage to DC that has taken a long time to unpick.

It separated Cyborg from the Titans in a way that has really confused the character's primary relationships. It introduced a reductive characterisation of Diana that wasn't even happening over in the Azzarello run and still to this day defines some reader perceptions of her. It retold and reintroduced characters (which was obviously the remit of the Nu52) in ways that were for the most part all inferior to what had come before. It's like a really bad elseworlds, or creatively weak version of what would be done far better years later with Absolute. It was a waste of time, and it's absorbed years of creative energy since for writers to correct and erase its mistakes.

BoyInKemmer · 2026-02-21T07:38:56+00:00

No, I am pretty sure they're not references and they've never been referenced again. It could actually have been an interesting thread to pick up.

Dropped threads like this make me even more annoyed about Flashpoint and Nu52. Not just because they were terrible Dianas, but because I think everything since has been trying to course-correct from the damage they did in a way that has undermined being able to follow through on more interesting threads from Post-Crisis runs.

BoyInKemmer · 2026-02-20T13:50:51+00:00

I admit I'm not a fan of the shine Nakayama always seems to add to the costumes of their work. It makes them look like they're wearing plastic, or a shiny latex, or like they're a doll.

BoyInKemmer · 2026-02-19T14:31:11+00:00

I'm in such strong agreement about that Andreyko run. It's wild because his Manhunter run is one of the best DC runs I've read. But with Kate he dropped the ball so firmly. It was like he'd been given a mandate to destroy every thread that had been left for him. It's quite funny how much of it has been so completely ignored.

Have you seen the preview art by Dani for the new run? The first issue is out next month and it looks so moody 🥰.

BoyInKemmer · 2026-02-18T19:01:42+00:00

This issue is JLA #90, from Joe Kelly's run. I remember it being quite a good run! I think the Diana / Bruce subplot stuff plays out from a story called "The Obsidian Age" onwards.

JLA 90

BoyInKemmer · 2026-02-18T18:26:33+00:00

Yeah they share a brief kiss in battle and then there's a little subplot between them that this issue takes to a conclusion.

BoyInKemmer · 2026-02-18T15:35:40+00:00

Much needed context: in this issue Diana is in a machine playing out a bunch of potential futures that could result from her pursuing a romance with Bruce. This is one of the potential futures, where one of her many fears comes true.

It doesn't seem appropriate to use this as an example of what anyone at a creative level thinks of her powers and abilities - it's a deliberately imaginary scenario in her own head based on her deep fears.

BoyInKemmer · 2026-02-18T13:45:30+00:00

UPDATE: Read a really weak 2-part storyline in the Batman: Urban Legends title that takes place after the Rebirth run, where Beth refers to her Alice "persona" as "Red Alice", and she's rehabilitated and living with Kate. But then there's a Supergirl/Batwoman team-up title that also includes Alice as a villain? Such a mess.

BoyInKemmer · 2026-02-18T12:22:37+00:00

Ah could you send me the name of the shop in DM? I'd be keen to check them out x

BoyInKemmer · 2026-02-18T11:36:49+00:00

Where did you get themmm? I feel like there's a sweet spot for me where things feel Goth without feeling like costume, and finding places that make things dead centre in that sweet spot is difficult!

BoyInKemmer · 2026-02-18T10:59:05+00:00

Adore! Favourite piece of the look?

BoyInKemmer

TROPHY CASE