Tim Drake is pretty darn cool

Not only is he pretty:

He has good music taste:

He has his comic filled with moments like these:

Admit it.  You wish you were him.

Wonder Woman bust

So, I'm a member of the AFB message board, where we generally geek out about action figures and suchlike.

One of the posters, sinigang, has recently produced a Wonder Woman bust (based on the Alex Ross Wondy) and I just had to share some pics with y'all.

Isn't that just beautiful?  She's got a personality.  I love how the lighting in the last picture gives her a different sense of emotion and character.  25 of these are getting made and will be sold in Australia later this year (I believe).  You can view work in progress pictures here on the AFB board, and view sinigang's website here.  He's got some other amazing Hulk and Superman pieces too.

Superman - Sacrifice

Warning: this is quite a long post and includes spoilers for the Superman: Sacrifice trade and Green Arrow #2.

Sacrifice collects Superman 218, 219, 220, Adventures of Superman 442 + 443, Action Comics 829 and Wonder Woman 219 + 220.

The cover to Wonder Woman 219, and the cover to the trade.  An interesting choice as it depicts Diana as the emotional aggressor and Superman as the calm one one defending himself.  This is at complete odds with the content of the book.

I've been thinking about this new dark age of superheroes that people keep saying DC is in.  I've felt that I've not really understood this complaint as I am not that well read in DCU history.  I've read a few titles extensively, but not really that many and most of them have been post Crisis.  Recently However i purchased JLA Showcase 4 from a local charity shop.  I was very pleasantly surprised to discover how much fun it was.  there was tongue in cheek teasing and banter between the main heroes.   There was also some silly exposition and convoluted plots but there was also character development and a sense of awareness of itself.  Hal Jordan got hit on the head a lot.  But mostly, the creators seemed like they were having fun with it.

Well, pretty soon after reading JLA Showcase 4, I read Superman: Sacrifice.  While I do really really like Sacrifice, for the first time it struck me how dark it is, and how full of misery the DCU has become.

Sacrifice collects a number of issues, but starts with Superman #218.  We open with a tabloid television programme exploring what would happen if Superman were to turn his powers against the people of Earth.  What follows is a fight between Superman and the new keeper of the Blackrock, and results in the citizens of Metropolis fleeing in fear from Superman.  I'm not sure I buy this extreme reaction after just one fight, but lets put our disbelief aside for a moment.  The issue ends with Jimmy Olsen contemplating Superman's thoughts and actions.

Superman #219 is next and is a fight between Superman and Brainiac, where Lana, Perry, Jimmy and Olsen die.  It ends with a confused Superman wondering who the blood on his hands belongs to, and a very pissed off JLA glowering at him.

We next move onto Action Comics 289 with prominent members of the JLA and JSA watching over Clark's loved ones - it is evident that the deaths in the previous issue didn't really happen.  Clark is forced to account for his actions on the satellite and this time his recollection is of fighting Darkseid who was holding Lois captive, then killed her.  Superman loses his rag completely at this and attempts to kill Darkseid.  This sequence of events is more violent, more monstrous, than the Brainiac one.

I think it is at this point that we realise how much the DCU has changed.  Superman doesn't kill.  Not for anyone or anything.  If he is moving to murder someone, out of rage, despair and hatred then something fundamental has changed.  In the older comics his close friends and allies weren't killed either - not like this, and not in such a manner.

When the riddle of Superman's memory is solved (adventure Comics #642) we discover that he has been fighting Batman and Wonder Woman, and he nearly killed Batman.  It is revealed that Max Lord has been controlling Superman, and is also responsible for the OMACs going wild, and Ted Kord's death.

My biggest exposure to Max Lord was in the JLA/JLE issues of the 80s.  He struck me as a bit of a con man,a smooth talker and not someone you'd trust, but not in any way evil.  Yet by the end of this book he is a monster, holding Superman captive and truthfully promising to never relinquish his grip.  It is for this reason that Wonder Woman breaks Lord's neck.

By this point we have already seen Superman and Wonder Woman fight, and have read a particularly dramatic scene where he uses his laser vision to burn her face:

The reason Lord did what he did is jealousy.  He argued that the heroes are Gods and if they were to ever turn against humanity we'd be fucked.  His logic that if he could control Superman, anyone could, therefore he has a moral duty to try to control Superman, I find more than a little warped, but then again, he is by now a villain.  I don't have to understand his motives as he has become something truly horrendous.

In the old JLA comics, of the Showcase era, this situation is completely unheard of.  I wonder if maybe the creators are conflating fun/light hearted/entertaining with lack of quality.

But, I am still glad that this story was told.  It demonstrates an important difference in the Trinity.
Wonder Woman is a warrior.  She was a member of a trained army and is combat ready.  She is not against all killing, just unnecessary killing.  She regrets the need for her actions, but she does not regret the actions (Wonder Woman 220).  Superman and Batman, on the other hand, are against killing in all it's forms - in any circumstances.

As such, they cannot understand or forgive Diana for what she has done.  In my eyes, it was a combat situation and there was no other option.  Diana has always been a warrior.  This is not some retconning of her origin, but I suspect that Superman and Batman may not have fully appreciated what this means.

Clark comments that he sees no remorse in her eyes.  Well, she is not remorseful.  She shed no tears for her actions.  It was not a decision taken lightly, and she didn't start the fight intending to kill Max.  However there was no other way to end it, and no one else would have been able to stop Superman.  She didn't enjoy it, she doesn't like killing, but that doesn't mean she regrets the decision.  We expect soldiers in war to make tough decisions and Wonder Woman shouldn't be any different.

There may be an argument for Diana knocking Max out and keeping him in stasis (or similar) until they could find a way to break his control, but tampering with people's minds and keeping them drugged up and immobile is not a more ethical course of action than killing them.  Max knew what he was doing and he knew what could happen if he got caught.  He started a war and under the influence of the lasso he gave Wonder Woman her only option.  He couldn't be made to stand trial as he promised that every moment he was awake he would make Superman suffer.

The other aspect to this book that I liked was the comparison that can be drawn between Superman's killing spree and Wonder Woman's one murder.  Superman's visions get increasingly more violent and by the last vision he was killing out of rage, despair and hate.  He was killing the guilty as well as the innocent and he was out for violent bloody vengeance,  The visions may not have been real but his reactions and moods were.  To my mind this makes Kal-El/Clark far more dangerous and far more worthy of shame than Diana.  Her actions were rational and considered.  His were visceral and immediate.  Of course, this is also one of the points made in the book, and is something both Bruce and Clark ponder on.

So, given that we have got to this point, and given that this is *so* different from Silver Age comics, I can understand people's protestations.

I am myself getting a little tired of the endless misery and death.  We are allegedly in this new brightest Day, and on the one hand we have the white rings exhorting the revived to live life to the full, and on the other hand we have Green arrow getting shot in the head at the end of his second issue.  Where's the joy?  Where's the hook?  I know that Ollie isn't dead but I don't particularly care why.  It would be easier to bear if the art was good - at least Sacrifice brought us some truly iconic panels - but the art in Green Arrow is rubbish.

I want books filled with fun that are also well written.  I want books with darkness within that adds to a character's story and builds on their history.  I want my books to be important (because of the quality of the tale, not because an editor says they are important) and a worthy addition to DCU history.  I don;t want death to be used as an easy shock device.  It's not shocking.

Remember the first rule

People never remember the first rule.

They also don't know a lot about yetis.

(If you get the reference let me know in the comments!)

This week's comics!

See I CAN do it on time (sometimes!).  No spoilers.

Superman #702.  Shit cover.  He looks like he's wearing a nappy - where's the creases and folds?  Why are his pants so bulky?  And it's boring as anything.  I think they may have been going for iconic, but it;s just rubbish.
And inside, Superman is a massive knob.  He wants to get in on humanity and ordinary people but he just comes off as a patronising, interfering, self righteous jerk.  Am not impressed.

Batgirl #13.  Better.  Proxy (Wendy) gets some screen time and Steph does her usual dive-right-in-and-ignore-subtlety kind of heroing.  I've worked out what's been annoying me about this comic.  It's the slang.  It's calling Babs 'O' and saying gross or ewww.  I don't like it.  I also think the art could do with more definition - more lines on the faces and the costumes.  But then again, this comic always seems much better on the re-read, so it can't be that big a problem.

Green Lantern: Emerald Warriors #1:  Someone tell me why Guy was never an earth cop, and was instead a PE teacher.  He loves being in charge I'd have thought he'd tried out to be an ordinary copper.  This has promise.  Black/Red/Multicoloured Lantern promise.

Antique Bakery vol 1:  It's a yaoi title, by the same lady that wrote the The Moon and Sandals.  there's no sex in this one.  I feel cheated.  But I guess the story was alright.  It was very funny in places.

Robin backissues - I got 20 back issues of Robin for £12.99 a couple of weeks back.  Am now reading them (and only one is a duplicate of an issue I already have, hurrah!) and realising how good they are.  Look out for a post on General Ulysses.

Bugger.

I completely missed Lughnasa.  It happened on 1st August and completely bypassed me, due to several life things hapenning and also, my wonky brain.

Anyway Lughnasa is the season of ripening, the start of the harvest and the start of the abundance that we should have before Winter kicks in.  Read some stuff about it here and here.

Link time!

Because I haven't had a chance to write anything.

Campaign to keep our NHS public.  Because the government (and I put the blame squarely on the Conseratives here) are wanting to cut everything, and we're all fucked if they do.  I don't know who's set up the campaign, or how effcetive it will be, but ii looks like you have to pay to join it.  I'm not sure about that, but go have a look anyway.


A 101 Wankers.  New tumblr chronicling the abuse one London cyclist gets, complete with reguallry update dmap of wankers!

Read Comics in Public Day!  August 28th.

The ten greatest all nude fight scenes in comics.  For your voyueristic pleasure.

Enjoy!

I did a review for Prism Comics!

And they published it :D.
It's the Secret Six: 6 degrees of separation book.  You can read the review here.  I had fun writing it up and I hope to submit more reviews to them in the future.  They're a great site - they basically promote all sorts of comics with LGBT themes or characters.

Readers with good memories might notice I also reviewed the book for New readers... a while ago.  Being totally honest, I put together the Prism comics review from the New readers... one but tried to give it a different slant as it's for a different audience.  I hope it worked.

Well, my weekly reading just got a whole lot more interesting!

(Not really spoilery)

Well!  In Brightest Day #7 we found out what the White Lantern's missions are which means the story will really pick up the pace.  Hurrah.  I really liked the artists for Dawn and Boston Brand in the diner.  Whoever it was seemed to have a really good feel for Dove.  The pencils for J'onn J'onzz and M'gan M'orzz seemed a little undefined, but they ARE shapeshifters so blurry features aren't really a problem.  Sheira in the cage was also drawn really well.

In Red Robin #15we see Tim developing a clever ruse to put Vicki Vale off the scent of his secret identity.  Gosh.  It's quite an extreme ruse.  This *will* be interesting.

Secret Six #24 sees the Six in what I presume is a past life, which seems to be a Western where Scandal is a sheriff.  It was great!

AND I got The Question: the 5 books of blood which I should have read by the time this is posted, and I haven't even started the assorted bag of 20 Robin comics that I got last week.  As there are no job applications for me to do this week I foresee a lot of comic reading going on!  And mayhap some blogging and reviewing.  If you're really lucky.

Transphobic crap strikes again

Crossposted from A.E.Brain's blog:
-----------------
 From the UK Equality Act 2010 :

Equality Act 2010 (c. 15)
Schedule 3 — Services and public functions: exceptions
Part 7 — Separate and single services

Gender reassignment
28
(1) A person does not contravene section 29, so far as relating to gender reassignment discrimination, only because of anything done in relation to a matter within sub-paragraph (2) if the conduct in question is a proportionate means of achieving a legitimate aim.

(2) The matters are—
(a) the provision of separate services for persons of each sex;
(b) the provision of separate services differently for persons of each sex;
(c) the provision of a service only to persons of one sex.

Equality Act 2010 (c. 15)
Schedule 9 — Work: exceptions
Part 1 — Occupational requirements
(3) The references in sub-paragraph (1) to a requirement to have a protected
characteristic are to be read—
(a) in the case of gender reassignment, as references to a requirement not to be a transsexual person (and section 7(3) is accordingly to be ignored);

So what does that mean? It means that there is one "protected" class where protection is explicitly removed, not granted. It means that a gender recognition certificate is not worth the paper it's printed on. Rather than being a recognition that they are of the target gender, it's a nullity, as the law states that they're not, not really. This is made clear in the explanatory notes.:

Gender reassignment: paragraph 28

749. This paragraph replaces a similar provision in the Sex Discrimination Act
1975.
Example
A group counselling session is provided for female victims of sexual assault. The organisers do not allow transsexual people to attend as they judge that the clients who attend the group session are unlikely to do so if a male-to-female transsexual person was also there. This would be lawful.
...
Schedule 9: Work: exceptions
Part 1: Occupational requirements

A counsellor working with victims of rape might have to be a woman and not a transsexual person, even if she has a gender recognition certificate, in order to avoid causing them further distress.

The provisions of the Gender Recognition Act 2004 that over-rode that 1975 act have now been repealed. There is a distinction between "women" and "transsexual persons with (or without) gender recognition certificates" now.

Now of course, who could reasonably object to a councellor whose appearance might be upsetting to a rape survivor? In such cases, we cannot afford to be too precious about rights of employment, we must consider the victims first and foremost.

But it's not about appearance. It's not about the victims and their feelings. It's about transphobic prejudice. It's now legitimate to refuse help to victims who are "transsexual persons" because of the transphobia of others. There are other consequences too.

Good	Bad
Noted "Womyn born Womyn" Female At Birth founder of the New Radical Lesbian Feminist Front, dedicated to keeping Trans women out of women's space, including rape crisis centers. A "real" woman who it is illegal to discriminate against.	Not a woman, but a transsexual person. Someone who it is explicitly legal to discriminate against as their presence - either as councellor or as victim - may be too upsetting to other rape victims.

As for those women transsexual persons with gender recognition certificates who have been raped... I guess they're out of luck. The "Equality Act" is anything but.
----------------------------------------------
From The F Word's coverage:


So apparently, even though I have a full GRC, and all my other documentation shows my gender correctly, I will no longer legally be a woman when this Act comes into force in October; I’ll be a “transsexual person” and that means I can forget it if I think I can count on UK law for any protection of my civil and human rights.


I’m already seeing a groundswell of outrage and anger amongst some of my trans sisters online; I think it’s entirely understandable, even justifiable. Because, when you get right down to it, cis society is transphobic, by default and to its core; there is precious little respite for trans people and, like most humans, repeatedly backing us into a corner isn’t going to put us in the best of humours.

But anti-trans prejudice is so deeply embedded in cis society that all the legislation in the world is never going to change anything for the better, least of all the attitudes of cis people. There’s no logic, no acceptance and certainly no justice. There never really was - all this legislation will do is formalise a state of affairs which already exists.

Cis people may, rightly, feel aggrieved about the low proportion of reported rapes that end in a successful prosecution - but has anyone ever seen statistics for reported rapes of trans people? Has anyone ever heard of even one trans person who’s seen a successful prosecution? And there may well be too few rape crisis centres available to cis women - but how many of them will even let a trans woman through the door, let alone offer help and support?

The fact is that the law - like many other aspects of society which the majority of cis people take for granted - is simply not accessible to us. Trans people are routinely dehumanised and demonised, excluded and harassed, attacked and even murdered with impunity by cis people from across the entire class spectrum - and, be honest, would you trust a system in which nearly everyone you meet treats you as less than human?

As the old joke goes: it doesn’t matter which way you vote, the government still gets in. And as far as I’m concerned, with this legislation, the government looks set to do a far better job of morally mandating people like me out of existence than Janice Raymond could ever dream of.

---------------------------

I don't care which goverment was responsible for this, it's bullshit.  And calling it Equality?  They've got a bloody cheek.

Things I have enjoyed in comics these last 2 weeks

• The art in Wonder Woman 601
• The Diana in Wonder Woman 601.  I don't care how she's dressed or what she remembers.  Thsi Diana, brimming with anger is who I want to read about.
• Green Arrow creating rope contraptions and battering rams out of tree trunks.
• Jason Firestorm asking what the atomic structure of mouthwash (and everything else is)
• Then vomiting over his rescuee.
• Supergirl being an all round great book.  Particularly the artwork.
• Les Luthor being a cruel arsehole
• The answer to Star City's mystery forest turning up in Gotham City Sirens.

They'll break your face!!

Stolen from DCwomenkickingass:

Go Dinah and Babs!

(Blogging will be short and to the point, if at all.  I have another job app to do this week).

Fawcett society to take government to court over unlawful budget

This is hilarious!  (Hilarious because someone needs to give that ridiculous government a kick in the arse, I fully support this).  Taken direct from the press release:
-------------

FAWCETT SOCIETY TO TAKE GOV'T TO COURT OVER 'UNLAWFUL BUDGET'

The Fawcett Society has filed papers with the High Court seeking a
Judicial Review of the government's recent emergency budget. (1)

Under equality laws, we believe the government should have assessed
whether its budget proposals would increase or reduce inequality between
women and men. Despite repeated requests, the Treasury have not
provided any evidence that any such assessment took place. (2)

Even a top line assessment of the budget measures show 72 per cent of
cuts will be met from women's income as opposed to 28 per cent from
men's. This is because many of the cuts are to the benefits that more
women than men rely on, and the changes to the the tax system will
benefit far more men than women. (3)

Ceri Goddard, Chief Executive of the Fawcett Society, said:

"Successive governments have failed to give enough consideration to how
their policies will impact on equality between men and women, but this
budget shows a whole new level of disregard for the importance of
equality law and everyday women's lives.

"The blatant unfairness and the sheer scale of the impact this budget
could have on women have left us little choice but to resort to the
courts for action.

"In times of economic crisis it becomes more not less important to
consider women's basic rights, and observe the laws put there to
safeguard them. We know action is needed to cut the deficit but such
critical decisions - especially such eye-watering cuts to public
spending - should not have been made without considering the impact on
women.

"It's ironic that a budget that in many other ways was the most
transparent for decades seems to have failed to consider and publish its
impact on half the population. We are sure that many MPs would think
twice about these measures had they realised the basic questions hadn't
been looked at.

"Women already earn less, own less, and have less control over their
finances than men. Yet some £5.8 billion of the £8 billion of cuts
contained in the budget will be taken from women, who will also be worst
affected by the coming cuts to public services - 65 per cent of public
sector workers are women.

"We are calling on the government to look again at the budget, and to
ensure that all government departments undertake a robust and
transparent gender equality impact assessment of proposals being
discussed in the current spending review before final decisions are made.

"If they believe women should bear a greater burden of cutting the
deficit they should come out and say so."

The Fawcett Society's solicitor, Samantha Mangwana, of Russell Jones &
Walker solicitors, said:

"Although public authorities have been subject to the gender equality
duty for several years now, there is widespread ignorance not only about
how strong these laws actually are, but also what specific steps are
required to be undertaken. However, the case law is crystal clear in
spelling this out. Firstly, an equality impact assessment must be
conducted before policy decisions are taken.

"Secondly, where an assessment reveals a risk of discrimination, urgent
action must be taken to address those risks. Clearly, if the equality
impact is not even assessed as a starting point, a public authority
cannot start to consider what steps to take to mitigate any inequality ."

ENDS

Notes to Editors:

(1) A permission hearing will be held to determine whether the judicial
review is granted. No date has yet been set.

(2) In not assessing the way in which the budget will impact differently
on women and men, we believe the Treasury has not met the requirements
of the Gender Equality Duty, under sections 76A and 76B of the Sex
Discrimination Act 1975.

(3) More on the impact of the budget on women and men can be found in
the Women's Budget Group's response to the emergency budget, the recent
House of Commons Library gender audit of the budget, and the Fawcett
Society's initial response to the budget. All are available on our
website: http://www.fawcetts ociety.org. uk/index. asp?PageID= 9

(4) A written background briefing (also available on our website) and /
or a legal briefing about the case are available.

Please call 07767 297 812 or email
Charlie.woodworth@ fawcettsociety. org.uk
Charlie.woodworth@ fawcettsociety. org.uk> for further information.

------------------------

Oh Gods I hope they win.  I don't think they will, but I really hope they do!

Dering Employment Services in administration

News found here.

Dering provided employment support to anyone in the UK with a hearing loss of difficulty, e.g. Deaf, hard of hearing and Deafblind folks.  And now they've gone into administration.  Rumours are flying around about cashflow problems forcing them to close, but who knows what the full story is.

I have had the privilege to meet some of Dering's staff and I can assure you that they delivered a superb service that was well respected and held in high esteem by their service users.  Now the (mostly Deaf) staff are on garden leave and out of a job.  That's a horrible situation to be in.
Now that Dering itself is closed their Ddeaf clients are gonna have a lot more difficulty finding jobs, because mainstream employment support provision is simply not good enough for most Deaf people.

At The Rim has also covered this, and I expect by the time of posting this will be all over the Deaf Read bloglist.

This is a sad day.

Nicola Scott on Teen Titans

heartbart has a preview page up of Nicola Scott's artwork for Teen Titans.

Ahh I don't really care if the writing's crap, the art is gorgeous!  Such a lovely Bart, and such a square bodied Con!  Oh I am so looking forward to this.

And you can buy this page!!  Be still my swooning (skint) heart.

30 days of Buffy! Day 30!

Day 30: What You Think Made Buffy So Great

And so we come to the end of this meme.  I feel like I should go out with a bang here and write a long essay about the greatness of Buffy the Vampire Slayer.  But I don't think I will.  Instead, here's my short reasoning as to why it's so great:

Women characters on screen, not just talking about boys, in a show that wasn't a romcom.  Kicking ass and not being guilty about it.  There was nothing else like this before Buffy came on our screens.  Combine that with awesome dialogue, some really good character development and wonderful relationships and I was sold.  The fact that the characters were women wasn't important.  It was a sci -fi magic monster beat em up comedy drama tragedy apocalypse end of the world saving the world heart wrenching life affirming wonderful wonderful show.

Thanks for reading this everyone.  I'd like to invite you to leave your thoughts on what made Buffy great, in the comments section.

Ben Caldwell Wonder Woman pitch

Ben Caldwell did the Wonder Woman strip in Wednesday Comics.  That, next to the Supergirl strip, was one of my favourites of the whole thing.  Caldwell has put a pitch to DC for a manga Wonder Woman.  Usually this would annoy me as I'm not really a fan of manga versions of American books, but his work is so lovely I'm quite excited about the idea.

Here is some artwork and pitch info he has posted:

Steve Trevor's looking rather hot!

If DC ever get serious and decide to start marketing their comics to girls, they should start with Wonder Woman.  As someone (can't remember who tho) on Twitter said recently, Wonder Woman is a warrior princess.  She should be easy to sell to a certain age bracket of girls.  She's got a well developed history, a great supporting cast, lots of interesting mythological stuff and the purity of a hero.  DC could make a lot of cash out of this, and produce some great comics at the same time.

I wish they'd get on with it.

You can see the (nearly full) pitch here and some character sketches here.

30 Days of Buffy!! Days 28 and 29

Day 28: Character You Love To Hate
Angel.  spit spit bleurgh. Horrible self centred man.

Day 29: Episode You Hate That Everyone Else Loves
Innocence.


Last Day of Buffy coming up soon folks.  I'll have to think of actual blog topics. Eek!

30 Days of Buffy!! Days 26 and 27

Day 26: Favorite Scooby Moment

What does this even mean?  Favourite team work?   Favourite group scene?  The scoobies at their dore don't mean a lot to me.  Buffy/Willow/Xander are not the most interesting characters to me.  Giles is awesome, of course, Oz is great. Cordelia and Wes have their moments.  But when I look back over the show my favourite seasons and my favourite chars are those from later in the programme's life - Anya, Spike (reformed), Tara, the potentials, Dawn, Joyce, Faith.  All those on the peripheries who were really important to the show but weren't at the heart of the Scooby gang.

So, I have nothing for favourite Scooby moment, because the core group of 3 are not the most interesting.

Day 27: Cutest Moment
Preparing for Joyce's funeral.  I know that may seem odd, but take cute as to mean something that makes you feel warmth for the chars, and I reckon it would be Willow despairing of not having grown up clothes and Anya despairing of how humans cope with death.

I don't really like 'cute' things.

There's so much stuff I should be doing right now

Namely, job applications, but fuck it, I'm gonna talk about comics instead.  Y'see, I got a second hand copy of JLA Showcase volume 4 the other week.  I expected it to be rubbish but entertaining, but it's actually turned out to be good!

For example, (I was going to start the sentence with 'like', but then common sense got the better of me), there's characterisation!  And nearly poetry!

JLA #68: Neverwas - The Chaos Maker!  The narrative starts thusly:

Look through the eyes of Neverwas!  Look upon a bleak landscape through eyes which see no colour...perceive with a mind that does not think!


You are Neverwas!  You are not human...rather you are a freak of nature!  A one celled animal mutated, grown huge, possessed of a dim, formless intelligence...


In your world, there is peril, Neverwas!  For you life in an age undreamt of eons past..when the earth is young and cruel!


Flee, Neverwas!  Find that the material of your body can assume many shapes!  Fell it now becoming wings to lift you free of danger...


Fear, Neverwas!  Realize you have trapped yourself.  That death is only cold instants away...

Isn't that lush prose?  It's got a feeling of the early 20th century sci fi novel about it.  There's still dodgy science and some bad prose (dialogue) within the book, but there's far more awareness and effort put into the issues than I had anticipated.
---------------------
Batman: That reminds me.. I've been meaning to draw plans for a Batsubmarine!
Aquaman: Hey, Batman!  When you eat dinenr do you eat Batfood?  And at night do you Batdream?   And..
---------------------

Some of the art is just gorgeous, especially in black and white.  There are some wonderful depictions of Aquaman, Wonder Woman and Superman within the book.  Just beautiful portraits of each of them, with character and sternness, and strength in them.

In an earlier part of the book Wonder Woman got hacked off with the state of JLA HQ and promptly started taking charge of the cleaning - by ordering Superman to move the furniture and Green Lantern to paint the walls.   Again, the art is wonderful.

This a damn good buy and I can't wait to read the rest of it.