Art By: Goran Sudzuka, Kevin Stokes, Igor Lima
Cover Price: $4.99
Release Date: October 22, 2014
Finally I'm In On The Secret
For this issue of Secret Origins we'll be looking at Wonder Woman, Deadman and Sinestro and what I think is the first time I finally see a point to this series. We're getting there people! We're running out of Justice Leaguers and soon we'll have characters who's origins haven't been splattered all over media from before I can even recall. Yeah, I don't have much to say here, they're origin stories that you may or may not know and at least Deadman and Sinestro fit the bill for me. J.M. DeMatteis is giving us a new look at Deadman's beginnings and I never really thought about it before, but I guess I've never wondered about how Sinestro became a Green Lantern, so that's two new ones for me and as far as Wonder Woman goes, I don't read the book but I know her new origins, hopefully this section of the book will offer up something I didn't know before hand. Okay let's check out this issue of Secret Origins.
Explain It!:
Our story begins with me being very confused and a little aroused as Wonder Woman gets really close and intimate looking towards Alexa and telling her that she doesn't want to be a girl. Now this might be juvenile, but fuck it, I'm going with it. It's really odd and maybe I don't understand the relationships that women have with each other, but the whole sparring scene in the beginning seems like it's about to lead to the two making out and really just being a teenage boy's fantasy......... or a 30 something year old boy's. But in actuality, I guess it's all to tell us that Wonder Woman is curious about leaving Paradise Island and being more than what everyone sees her as, clay. Seems like she wants to take that "clay" origin story and use it to mold herself into the woman that she'll become, which I can totally get behind. Now I haven't been to up to date on the Wonder Woman comic in the New 52, I mean I've read the first six issues and a few issues here and there, so I know that the New 52 origin story is that she's now Zeus's daughter, so when I started reading this I was really confused. But if I had some patience I wouldn't of worried about the confusion because we then learn that the clay origin is something that her mother told her and the denizens of Paradise Island, so that Hera would never learn about her husband's infidelity and to not take out her wrath on Diana. After a night of thinking about leaving the island and finding her true self and purpose, Diana is visited by Athena who tells what appears to be a young princess, that she gives her blessing for her to go and find herself. Jump to a "Meanwhile", we see Steve Trevor crash his plane and Diana see's her opportunity to go and see "Man's World". As the story closes we see Athena looking from the trees and we get the impression that she's the one who crashed Steve's plane and set Diana on her course to become Wonder Woman. Now I don't really get if there's a time gap here. The comic never really specifies one, but from the beginning of the story to the end it looks like Diana has aged a lot and all we get is a "Meanwhile" and that doesn't really make me think that time has passed. While for the most part this story was a fun look at Diana, I had a few problems with the dialog. At one point Hippolyta says that if Diana is so interested in Man's World, they would take a weekend and go visit. That doesn't sound like something the Amazons would do and the term weekend here for some reason really bugs me, but not as much as Diana using the word "cool" when talking to Athena. These things just don't seem like words and terms that Amazons would use. Besides that though, it's a fun interesting look at a pre-Wonder Woman.
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| IS IT JUST ME OR DOES THIS SEEM LIKE A PICK UP LINE? |
Deadman's next up in the comic and if you've been reading Justice League Dark lately, you'll know that J.M. DeMatteis has been tweeking Boston Brand's origin a bit. We see that Boston came from a abusive home and when he was old enough to fend for himself and see that his parent's were just big piles of shit, he left home and joined the circus. Eventually though Boston would face the anger and alcoholism that his parents faced even after finding his calling as the acrobatic Deadman. As you know, Deadman was shot and instead of meeting his afterlife, he was given a chance by Rama to redeem himself by helping the living through problems and allowing them to find hope. Eventually though it seems that Rama was a darker entity than she originally appeared to be and Deadman set out on his own, eventually running into Brahma Dass, who like Rama offered the ghost the same opportunity after taking him to Nanda Parbat. Well more accurately he offered Boston the chance for an afterlife, but our hero decided that there was still good that he could do on Earth. I really liked this section to the book, I only wish that we would of had this before the Deadman issues of Justice League Dark. It would of given us a good prelude to those stories since I had no idea who Brahma Dass was and that he was the one behind Deadman's redemption kick. Also I'm kind of interested in what Rama is and how she was manipulating Deadman. I would of loved to see that story, so hopefully in the future Rama will make a reappearance and Deadman can face off against her and I can get some answers.
For the last story we take a look at Sinestro and what made him the agent of Fear that he is. Well it seems that he was a creative child, always building things with his Korugarian Legos and that his parents while loving, weren't really interested in Sinestro if it meant they couldn't do what they wanted to do. That's why I'll never be a parent because I'm greedy and selfish........ and I don't want to raise a Sinestro. That's going to be my response for now on if someone asks me why I don't want children. One day while Sinestro was researching the old ruins of Korugar, he has a very Hal Jordan origin. The Green Lantern of that sector crash lands in a spaceship and has Sinestro use his ring to fight against the Quardian Warrior that was after him. Well he wasn't the greatest Green Lantern at one time for nothing because this rookie ring slinger takes down the warrior, but destroys his planet's ruins in the process. Funny thing though, the Green Lantern apparently would of survived his injuries if Sinestro would of simply given him the ring back, but when does Sinestro shy away from opportunity? So Sinestro goes and does all the Sinestro things that he's famous for. Becomes great, trains Hal, subjugates Korugar, gets banished to the anti-matter universe, comes back with a yellow ring, has Hal possessed by Parallax, builds Sinestro Corps, watches his home destroyed and kills the Guardians. You know the classics. It's like a best of album for Sinestro. In the end we see that Sinestro is thinking back on his life to see how to make sure his empire succeeds where offers before him have fell. I really liked this story as well because whether I knew it or not, I've never really thought about Sinestro's Green Lantern origin. While yes, it's a little Hal Jordany, it was still enjoying and it's funny to me to think about all the spaceships that the Corps apparently was all about back in the day. Yeah, they couldn't pilot for shit, but they loved them spaceships.
That's it for this month's Secret Origins and you know what? They pretty much were Secret Origins, at least to me and I could finally get behind this title. This is what I want every month because up until now, I wasn't really learning anything secret and all I want is what the title promises. See you next month as we dive into a new set of hopefully secret origins in the form of Flash, Huntress and Superboy.............. Superboy? How many goddamn origins are we going to have for this character within the New 52?! I swear if he's given another origin, I'm going to freak the hell out. I've only recently been able to piece his different origins together to kind of make a coherent story in my mind and I really don't need secret information added to it and screwing it up. So see you next month where I might have a an aneurysm.
Bits and Pieces:
This issue really surprised me in the fact that I liked it. I came in with my normal attitude "What are you going to show me that I don't already know DC?" Putting my jerk off attitude aside, it seems they did have something to show me and I like to think that I'm better for the experience. All the artwork worked well for each story. Even Wonder Woman's section, which I didn't like when first viewing, grew on me and I like that they went with the retro style. It all worked well and besides for some issues I had with some of the dialog in the Wonder Woman section, this has got to be the best issue of Secret Origins I've read because.......... Well, there were actually "Secret Origins". Go check it out and see what I mean, I don't think you'll regret it.
8.5/10
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