Batman vs Superman: Dawn of Justice (a.k.a. The Rise of WonderBat)

Superman (Henry Cavill), Wonder Woman (Gal Gadot) and Batman (Ben Affleck) at BvS

So I watched this highly-anticipated movie last night: Batman vs Superman: Dawn of Justice. Tho I feel like I want to post the last summary of LOCH 1982, but I will defer it until tonight cos I want to get this one out of my head first. Not a lot of spoilers; more of character discussion. And remember: this is a DC movie. This is NOT a Marvel movie.

Now, BvS (Batman vs Superman: Dawn of Justice) has been a long-anticipated movie and it’s always been the case of “whether DC will outdo Marvel” this time. To me, it’s never been about that. It’s about whether Warner Bros finally got it right to set up the DC Extended Universe (DCEU) for there are so many stories to tell from DC (and I mean the pre-new 52 DC which has our lovely Trinity acting as themselves, not the current hoohaa in the new 52 that I cannot recognise (okay, I love Azzarello’s Wonder Woman despite many of you not liking that version, but I hate the Finch’s WW to the core. The Finches just don’t get Diana). So when I came to the cinema, I tried not to hope that I would see a Marvel movie. The premiere goers have stated that this is a DC movie, not a Marvel movie, so I wasn’t expecting a lot of humour.  However, I was indeed hoping for a movie that stays true to the core characters of Batman, Superman and Wonder Woman, and lo and behold, I wasn’t disappointed.

Phil Jimenez on BMWW

Gotta love this fan art work by Theva!

DC hasn’t catered to BMWW lately (as in, almost none at all), but for many BMWW fans, the sparks are still there. And when a writer the caliber of Phil Jimenez professed his undying love to BMWW (well, at least their friendship, if not romance), a BMWW fan cannot help but swoon and drool. Special thanks to my friend DaisyJane at www.batmanwonderwoman.com for posting the original article.

Phil Jimenez was actually responding to a post on the Nu 52 Wonder Woman (that I’ve never read due to limited comic access and my anger on DC’s treatment to Diana). Laura Sneddon wrote the post; some people responded to it, including Phil and artist Mindy Newell. The whole interaction can be found here. But I have two things I’d like to highlight in this post. First, is Phil’s description of Wonder Woman, which I think encompasses it all:

Ray Tate's "The Importance Of Being Brave And Bold: Wonder Woman"

The Brave and the Bold 158

I noticed something recently: that my blog hit increases rather amazingly for a tangent, personal blog. Such that I felt the need to install ClustrMap just to let myself (and readers) know who visits here. Internal statistics of Blogger will do, but ClustrMap allows my visitors (you, my dear friends) to take a peek as well. 

Several reasons made the blog hit increased. Prior to the end of August 2012, I think the readers mostly wanted to read about Nicky Wu Qilong's 'Li Hou Zhu' series, which isn't available in English sub. But after 29 August 2012, I think the increased readership can be attributed to the sickening Superman-Wonder Woman pseudo-romance that DC has been force-feeding us.

Don't even get me started on that. I love Superman, I love Wonder Woman. But I can't see how the two are meant to be together, when (quoting a friend in the BatmanWonderWoman.com, 'their only common denominator was the colour of their costume'). So true! What, are all we high school students here that go all colour-coordinated?!

But, as I said, I won't go there. Too many sites already discussed the stupidity and utter idiocy of SMWW pairing. Doing it again here will waste my time. Instead, I will point out why Batman-Wonder Woman pairing is a much better option than SMWW!

Yes, my dearest friend! I have Batman-Wonder Woman leading the hit of my blog since last month. Get the stat: from 4 Sept to 3 Oct 2012, I have 161 hits for this entry. The same entry receives all-time highest hit of 4,108 hits (May 2008 to October 2012), 150% higher than the hit for 'Li Hou Zhu' (2,581). Another BMWW post received 1,847 hits of all time, by the way.

The all-time winning entry of my blog (The Bat, the Cat, and the Amazon) talks about the love triangle between Batman, Catwoman and Wonder Woman. Notice that I didn't bash Selina Kyle there. Nope, I still respect and love that character. Without WW's presence, I would actually choose BMCW easily as my foremost DC ship. 

Too Beautiful for Words…

How do I start? How do I tell you how Blackest Night Wonder Woman # 3 wraps itself so beautifully that my heart is filled with the warm glow of love? Maybe by saying thank you (again) to Greg Rucka (story), Nicola Scott (art), Jonathan Glapion (ink) and Nei Ruffino (colour).

The first pages said it all: Wonder Woman’s love to all creation is her greatest asset. Star Sapphire Carol Ferris delivered the truth, that although Diana was the only hero possessed by a black ring when the violet ring searched for her, Diana could break through and reach out. “Enough of you remained that the violet could reach you, and that you could do what no one else could do… and reach back. That’s never happened before.”

The Spiritual Kiss

I still have the Kiss shared by Batman and Wonder Woman in Blackest Night Wonder Woman #2 (now officially a holy book for Batwondy fans!) lingering in my mind, despite it took place in a virtual reality created by Lady Aphrodite to contain a rampaging Black Lantern WW (see the previous post to make sense of it). Hence, this post.

And I promise you that this post will still be confusing for non DC comic readers or JL Animated cartoon watchers. Heck, it’s likely to confuse my fellow Batwondy fans, even! But I need to address this. I need to share with you why I see the kiss as beyond physical. Why I see it as reaching a spiritual level as well.

To do so, I need to make some disclaimers:

1. I don’t see anything wrong with seeing the kiss as very sexy. God, it IS very sexy. Alluring. Seducing. Nicola Scott really knows how to draw a sexy yet poetic kiss. I’m glad she’s with DC now.

2. Some references I shall make here will confuse many readers, particularly those unaccustomed with Vedic tradition, a very generic tradition I’m about to source. It’s not that these examples can only be found in Vedic books; I am certain that other traditions have some similar examples as well. I shall try my best to explain with my understanding that stems out of love.

3. As I will use these references in love, I shall disagree with fellow Vedic followers who might think of this post as a sacrilege or blasphemy, for trying to link human love with divine love. For… ah… where is the line, actually? Our true, pure, unconditional human love is basically a divine love as well, and a divine love can only be understood if we humans have experienced human love.

Enough of confusing you, now let’s start.

In Darkness, Love must Triumph

Okay. My regular readers will not understand why I branch out to comic book this time, but if you read my first (and the only entry so far) about this topic here, you will begin to understand. Or so I hope. Anyway. Doesn’t matter. For I am ECSTATIC!!! Thank you so much, Greg Rucka! God bless you!

Okay. Ahem. Get back on trail. I’ve been on high like this since yesterday, since I picked up my Wonder Woman #39 and Blackest Night WW#2 from my local comic shop. I belatedly read WW#39 because I was away for a month, but still… I salute thee, Gail Simone, for wrapping the gigantic Warkiller arc magnificently. Thank you.

Enters Blackest Night Wonder Woman #2. I started this arc, superbly written by Greg Rucka and beautifully penciled by Nicola Scott, with no intention to read the main Blackest Night stories, for it just gives me headache. Thank God for Wikipedia. But I was, still am, more than willing to read the WW tie-ins, for… hey, it’s Wonder Woman! Plus, Greg Rucka was a respected WW writer, clearly still in love with Diana, and he’s been communicating with Gail Simone as well, so the characterization fits in. Blackest Night WW#1 – where Diana fought against the resurrected Maxwell Lord whom she killed to save a mind-controlled Superman – was amazing. I don’t have the book with me, but it just reaffirms my belief in Wonder Woman. In Diana, in her faith in Love.

The Bat, the Cat, and the Amazon

I have some epiphanies recently about the lack of BatWondy romance in DC comics and also animated version (naturally). Seems that, although the last two years have been GREAT for Wonder Woman fans with Gail Simone on board, but BatWondy fans are left low and dry. And now with the convoluted Batman RIP arcs, we have Heart of the Hush with Batman-Catwoman romance as the central theme.

Had I learned about this HoH three years ago, I would be very agitated and annoyed with that. Now... I'm a bit down because - again - DC has ditched away the potentials of BatWondy stories, understandably from editorial and historical POV. But I also realise that in another story, there's Trinity and the obvious special bonds between Bruce Wayne/Batman and Diana/Wonder Woman. It might not be romance per Bruce/Selina now, but the bonds are there, the trust is there.