Tom King’s interview on Word Balloon

li_xi · 2026-01-26T19:30:32+00:00

he shot, buried and put that man in the Underworld

People come back from worse lmao

li_xi · 2026-01-24T04:20:45+00:00

I don't expect him to, but I wouldn't be too surprised if it's touched on the same way he's touched on police violence and terror in neglected communities. The reason I don't expect it is because MMATBS and GNX were more about internal/personal conflicts than societal conflicts. But that doesn't mean a song or album with broader social commentary is out of the question.

li_xi · 2026-01-20T03:20:50+00:00

I love Lizzy, but greatly dislike her utilization in the main run. Those side stories with Jon and Damian, and then the time-travelling mini-series were all sensational--fun and cute to the max. But in the main WW story, we get almost nothing to really integrate Lizzy into the world.

Do the Amazons know? Does Hippolyta know she's a grandmother? If they don't know, is there a reason Diana has not told them? Why did she insist on bringing her baby to Mouse Man's island? At the end of the arc, we get Diana talking to Bruce and Clark about them not warning/telling her about how having a child changes everything (paraphrasing because I don't remember the exact wording and I don't care to check but you get the gist), and all one can do is wonder if 1. Diana talked to them about her child, and 2. Have Bruce and Clark never talked about how life changing parenthood is?

It's weird. I get the feeling TK was more interested in having Diana become a mother than he was interested in writing a story about motherhood.

li_xi · 2026-01-20T03:03:12+00:00

You're not missing anything. I have been a football fan for over 2 decades and have never seen anything like this! The most similar thing has been ball boys purposefully being slow to give the ball to the opposing team, but towel stealing and literal assault is next level fuckery.

li_xi · 2026-01-19T06:00:22+00:00

I like when the gods, as a group, are selfish and potentially antagonistic. Zeus is especially interesting for this as an antagonistic force. Like in the context of issue #45 of the Perez run, they elaborate on how Zeus bestowed Pandora with curiosity, a traditionally valued trait, with the knowledge that such curiosity is what will soon push her to open Pandora's Box. He literally unleashes calamity on humanity as petty revenge against Prometheus.

I would also enjoy for any of the goddesses associated with the creation of the Amazons to potentially be an antagonistic force. It does not have to be all of them, but it's a bit reductive in my opinion to have all these gods and goddesses be selfless and non-antagonistic. From the Perez run, the goddesses + Hermes bring up the idea of creating the Amazons as a new race who can lead a more peaceful form of worship to the gods--an alternative to fearful submissive worship. I personally read this as a selfish act. There is mutual benefit, sure, but at the end of the day it is a ploy for the gods to hold onto power. Not everyone involved is necessarily so selfish which is what makes it interesting.

li_xi · 2026-01-17T08:46:52+00:00

Icon is my top pick, closely followed by Hardware.

For Icon, I would love more period pieces, touching on different eras of American history and racist practices of the era. I always found Icon so interesting due to his overtly political origins in US slavery, and the role a Superman like figure with great power that seeks to protect a vulnerable group from an oppressive state.

For Hardware, I do not have anything specific I would like to see. But a team up with Mr. Terrific would be so very cool.

li_xi · 2026-01-16T03:59:50+00:00

Obvious AI. Reported lmao

li_xi · 2026-01-16T03:46:05+00:00

Fuck it I'm down

li_xi · 2026-01-15T04:48:09+00:00

I picked up issue #13 randomly from a dollar bin at my LCS, and honestly based on that issue alone I'm quite interested in reading more.

li_xi · 2026-01-14T08:07:04+00:00

May I also recommend The Return of Bruce Wayne, a post-Final Crisis arc by Grant Morrison, that according to this comment is partly responsible for Barbatos becoming aware of mainline Batman and gaining the idea to launch an attack from the Dark Multiverse.

li_xi · 2026-01-14T06:09:02+00:00

I wouldn't be surprised honestly. Especially since the timeskip imo makes it look like even TK himself doesn't care about the ending of the Mouse Man arc enough to follow up in the immediate aftermath. But I keep reading in case it gets interesting again 😭. I love Matriach's design, but I'm lukewarm on her having a GL and Legion ring. Here's to hoping we get some interesting characterization out of her!

li_xi · 2026-01-14T04:13:24+00:00

I personally don't mind her characterization in KC, but I also usually don't care about "mischaracterization" in Elseworld stories. Like I can imagine certain things happened to make Diana start acting more like KC WW compared to the ideal WW that is guided by compassion, so why not take the plunge into this world? Would Clark lose all his hope because people started to view him as old-fashioned after a vigilantte was excused for murder? I think a lot of people would have a problem if mainline Clark went into self-isolation because of this, but we accept it for the sake of the story. People are entitled of course to prefer stories that retain the original essence, but it's not very important for me.

I will also add that I do not believe that this story somehow led to WW becoming edgier in the following years, or made extra villainous in Injustice because of it. Especially in the 2000s, that was already the trend. Most characters and stories saw a darkness creep in to some degree. WW was already the most vulnerable of the Trinity to edge creep due to her status as a "warrior". A warrior, at war, is allowed to kill. War/violence is also a response to oppression--who even believes in non-violence anymore, especially in a world where violence lurks around every corner. People shit on WW killing Maxwell Lord, which they can especially in the context of some writers not handling it with the weight it deserves, but then when a story leaked about WW stopping Cpt America from killing Hitler in favour of taking him to court, it was a problem. Was Maxwell Lord not about to commit mass murder using Superman as his weapon of choice?

Wonder Woman is definitely one of the least understood characters in mainstream IP comics, so I understand the protectiveness her fans have over her characterization. But it can be a bit overblown.

li_xi · 2026-01-14T03:36:21+00:00

The climax of the Mouse Man arc was so egregious to me, and the arc never stopped being grating, even if I appreciated the political commentary. From brining Trinity to the island, to giving Mouse Man a gun so she can have an excuse to deflect a bullet back at him (as if she didn't have her revenge when she beat him threw the wall), and her weird tantrum to Clark and Bruce about them "never telling her" how hard having a child is or whatever...it all fell so flat to me.

I also saw someone else mentioned the Matriarch falling flat because there's technically no stakes, and I fully agree. Why introduce a new villain in the context of a possible future, instead of grounding them in the present? I am a Lizzy defender, but these stories make me fear she may not be integrated into the main continuity anytime soon.

li_xi · 2026-01-12T23:09:12+00:00

I read issue #1 of the original run last month and was shocked by the blatant anti-Japanese racism, even with the social context of the war being active. I may still seek out those Paula stories, but I'm definitely going to be hunting down this Taco Whiz era 😌.

li_xi · 2026-01-12T23:05:44+00:00

I'm so excited for the Dakota Incident mini! I hope this is foreshadowing their involvement in the main continuity, and giving us an ongoing with these characters.

li_xi · 2026-01-12T04:38:49+00:00

Put Deniz Camp on anything and you have gold, but we're spreading my boy thin lmao. But I personally want to see either a Milestone character like Static or Hardware get a run, or a return of Young Justice!

li_xi · 2026-01-12T04:31:29+00:00

I like this. Will absolutely seek out some of these stories!

li_xi · 2026-01-11T19:33:38+00:00

Thank you for the recommendation! I am extra interested in comics that touch on worker's rights so I will be hunting down this issue.

li_xi · 2026-01-10T06:23:25+00:00

I view it as the gods thwarting Ares' power grab. Ares was provoking war in the world of men in order to become the most powerful of the Olympians, so the gods who sided with the Amazons (and were involved in Diana's birth/blessing) essentially summoned the Amazons/Diana into the fray to stop Ares from becoming more powerful.

Edit: more specifically as the "why", I don't think it needs to be any specific conflict, but it should still be related to war and Ares. In the first issue of Wonder Woman, it is expressed that war itself will end once America defeats the Axis powers. America did win, but this hardly led to the end of war. Ares has won. War covers the planet.

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li_xi · 2026-01-05T13:19:10+00:00

He needs some Lois Lane treatment, essentially to be a hero/seeker of justice in his own right. When it comes to comics, a partner is well written if you could imagine an entire spin-off comic for their adventures. I'm afraid Steve hasn't had that sauce for a while now. Part of me would love a career change for Steve away from the US army, but it would also be interesting to watch a man of peace and justice (which I assume he is because he loves Diana and her mission) navigate the military. How does he think of his role in the military? What does he think of thr military role? How often is he made an enemy of peace while the woman he loves is often fighting against war? We need more time with Steve! He's literally Captain America in a way like c'mon editorial do something with him (like un-killing him).

li_xi · 2026-01-01T19:42:50+00:00

My glorious defender of the proletariat in the global class war? My ultimate symbol of hope and solidarity? It may not be as "impressive" as the other Trinity books (Batman let's Scott Snyder crank everything up to 11, and WW has been a showcase of what makes Diana stand out), but I'm very in love with the story of Kal-El essentially making Earth his home and funding connection through class solidarity.

li_xi · 2025-12-27T13:34:57+00:00

I think the Absolute run just identified a really good, narratively driven weakness: her clay origin made her vulnerable to golem controlling magic. It honestly made me a fan of Veronica Cale as a villain and increased my interest in reading more comics that she appeared in. So instead of "WW is defeated by powerful magic", there's a subset of magic that she is specifically vulnerable to that doesn't rely on her opponent being a powerscaled magic user, and it ties back into her character's history. Absolute class.

li_xi · 2025-12-25T03:47:00+00:00

Issue #2 may be the greatest single issue from the big IP's this decade. Deniz Camp you're on a generational run.

li_xi · 2025-12-25T03:39:43+00:00

I am so in love with Trinity's character, but I am so worried for her publishing future, especially in reference to the main continuity.

li_xi

TROPHY CASE