Daydreamer

firstly, when we see mel in her flashback, she’s already wearing her significant white/gold, but tempered with blue—noticeably missing her mother’s greys and reds, even then, showing her idealogical differences

then in piltover, we see mel as her own self-actualization—all white and gold and black, colors connected to power, and with an elegant cut that still places her slightly apart from piltover fashion. it shows her place as a non-combatant (long skirt) and someone privileged (the pure white) and wealthy (the gold. so much gold.). this is mel medarda at the pinnacle she’s worked so hard to achieve—it’s elegant because she is elegant

which of course becomes subverted when we do see the gold accessories taken away and the white dirtied when she’s kidnapped by the black rose—this is the first and only time we see mel in actual disarray, and it shows how vulnerable she is when she’s outside the political sphere

and after her transformation, we have this costume change, where aside from the increased gold (now representing magical ability instead of just wealth), we have mel in a a skin-tight catsuit style getup, allowing for greater movement, and her hair done in micro-braids in a style that won’t affect her center of gravity. at first, when i was watching, i was confused (especially about the hair), but then i realized—

this isn’t mel dressing herself to reflect a change, this is leblanc’s vision of mel, where power is swiftness and she is markedly different than others in a way that is now impossible to ignore

and she tries to return to her previous sense of self with the white hood, going back to a trademark of her style, but notably this is an outfit worn to conceal, not reveal and show off like her previous iconic dress, and her change is visibly with even just the hood off

and when mel accepts black rose’s help and betrays them and her mother dies, the white hood disappears—try as she might, she cannot go back to who she was, and she stands before noxians as a mage and mother-killer and a wolf, something dangerous

and then, when we see mel leaving piltover, she’s wearing nothing of her original self, but a combination of black rose’s getup and her mother’s colors. there is almost nothing of “mel” in this outfit, as if she’s been subsumed by these two identities—noxian and mage

even her makeup has shifted, with the red line under her eyes and the gold in her lower lip directly copying her mother

this isn’t a mel who’s realized herself in a new identity. this is a mel who, when faced with the enormous loss of her brother, mother, lover and former identity, has fallen into the definitions and roles that were presented to her, and who is now primed to continue the cycles started by her predecessors

But Mel didn't need that to be badass, embrace her powers, and cut off the head of the dragon even though it happened to be her mother - her mother who thought she was so weak just because she wasn't brutal.

She is the wolf but only out of necessity. She can make the hard calls. She can even deliver death, but she won't without trying everything else first.

That's a leader. She's a leader her mother could never fathom, and now she has her army.

Because, um.

The photino birds are the overall antagonists of the Xeelee Cycle. While we get very little interaction with the Xeelee or the photino birds, they're the prime motivators of the plot. The Xeelee are the pinnacle of baryonic life; they live in and/or are part of the event horizons of black holes; they have utilized closed timelike curves (time travel) to modify their own evolution, having created an "anti-Xeelee", an intelligence which moves backwards in time in order to coordinate their work (it's not "anti" as in "opposed" by "anti" as in "opposite", like electrons and positrons).

The Xeelee are at war with these creatures which are referred to as "photino birds". These creatures are composed of photinos - dark matter - and exist independent of time as we know it. While the Xeelee regularly use time travel, the photino birds just are. While Xeelee live in the event horizons of black holes, the photino birds exist in the gravity wells of much smaller stars. They are intelligent and in order to prevent things like supernovae which would destroy the environment they prefer, they instead use various means to dampen nuclear fusion and knock stars off main sequence - their goal is to create a universe of red dwarf stars, which is anathemic to life like ours (we need main sequence stars) and also to the Xeelee who need supermassive black holes.

Now, the photino birds, being dark matter, are basically immune to most forces which can be brought to bear against them, the sole exception being gravity. However, they also don't experience TIME as we understand it, not even in the "timelike curve within a Riemann Manifold" was the Xeelee do, which means it's basically impossible to outmanuever them. It's also impossible to distinguish between them, so it's possible that every photino bird is the same individual having used what we'd call time travel for duplication (this is a real theory about certain subatomic particles, that there's actually only one existing in every time and place where it can be found).

 Wonder Woman Stories to Read!

Did you just get back from the Wonder Woman movie, love it, and want to read more, but have no idea where to start? Have no fear, your resident comics nerd is here!

In order of story pictured, here are some recs to get you started:

The Legend of Wonder Woman, by Renae De Liz and Rey Dillon

The Legend of Wonder Woman is a technically out-of-continuity all-ages story that’s a sort of revisit/retelling of Diana’s Golden Age/pre-Crisis on Infinite Earths origin, but slightly updated for the modern reader; it has gorgeous art and a flowing narrative, and captures the very best of Wonder Woman, in my opinion. It was written last year for Diana’s 75th anniversary. If you loved the movie, this is the comic for you; it’s her origin story all over again, but deals with the mythology much better and provides a more in-depth look at Diana’s childhood on Themiscyra and her relationships with multiple characters like Etta Candy and Steve Trevor (also Steve is just as much a babe in this as he is in the movie, so never fear! You are not walking into ‘well-meaning but kinda jerkass!Steve’ territory’).  It’s basically an exploration of Diana’s childhood and early days as Wonder Woman, as per her (mostly) Golden Age backstory.

“Diana, born of light and hope, hailing from clays of Earth…despite the darkness of the world, you have ever chosen to love it, protecting all with compassion and might. You have become a beacon of truth in the darkness…you have become Wonder Woman.”

It’s a really accessible and beautiful way to get into WW. It’s got absolutely beautiful artwork, the story is well-written, and the characters are delightful. Also, World War II, so that’s always fun. Here’s the trailer for the series.

Wonder Woman by George Perez (including the Gods and Mortals and Challenge of the Gods storylines)

George Perez’s run on Wonder Woman in the 80s (Vol 2, #1-64) is still looked at as the gold standard of revitalizing and rebooting a character today. After nearly three decades of more or less aimless storytelling, the Wonder Woman mythos was rebooted and completely revamped after Crisis on Infinite Earths, and Perez is the one that made it happen. This is where the Wonder Woman mythos became more tied to the Greek Gods and the time period some of her best stories were penned, including the original landmark ‘Gods and Mortals’ arc as well as the ‘Challenge of the Gods’ arc. Basically, Perez’s run is amazing and is absolutely required reading for any Wonder Woman fan. General warning for explicit sexual assault in the Amazons’ backstory and occasionally dated depictions of various social issues.

The Hiketeia, by Greg Rucka

 A one-shot story by Rucka, written before his actual run. Tbh, there’s no real synopsis I can give that’s better than the official one: “Wonder Woman: The Hiketeia is a modern Greek tragedy of duty and vengeance. When Wonder Woman partakes in an ancient ritual called the Hiketeia, she is honor-bound to eternally protect and care for a young woman named Danielle Wellys. But when Wonder Woman learns that Danielle has killed the sex-slavers/drug dealers who murdered her sister, she suddenly finds herself in battle with Batman, who is searching for the fugitive. Caught in a no-win situation, Wonder Woman must choose between breaking a sacred oath and turning her back on justice.”

tl;dr: a beautifully written modern Greek tragedy, and also Wonder Woman beats up Batman

Down to Earth, Greg Rucka

Honestly I’m down to recommend Greg Rucka’s entire run on Wonder Woman (Vol. 2 #195-226, including the ‘Down to Earth’, ‘Bitter Rivals’, ‘Eyes of the Gorgon’, ‘Land of the Dead’, and ‘Mission’s End’ arcs), because his whole run is absolutely brilliant, but I’m going to recommend two of his arcs specifically, Down to Earth being one of them.

In Down to Earth, Diana is about to publish a book she’s written that’s a bunch of short essays about her philosophy and ideals. She struggles with both praise and backlash from it, and faces one of her most personal battles of all time as she confronts attacks on all levels, from Veronica Cale to Dr. Psycho to Silver Swan and even the War God Ares. This is a story that is philosophy and dialogue heavy as opposed to battle-heavy, and it is a really interesting story to read even if you don’t agree with everything said in it.

Eyes of the Gorgon and Land of the Dead, Greg Rucka

Frankly I think this two-parter is the pinnacle of Wonder Woman storytelling and I’m not afraid to say it. This is one of my absolute favorite Wonder Woman stories of all time. Literally Iconic™ in every way.

In Eyes, in one of the most memorable Wonder Woman moments in all of DC history (so far), Diana challenges Medusa in one-on-one combat after she kills the child of one of her diplomatic staffers. But this is no ordinary Gladiator-style battle–nearly forty million lives hang in the balance if Wonder Woman cannot defeat Medusa and prevent her from showing her face on television. Diana, being the smart woman she is, fights Medusa blindfolded. A grisly, intense battle ensues, resulting in Diana getting stabbed and having her blindfold ripped off.

Having been compromised and reminding herself that “[even] one mortal life is worth more”, she blinds herself using the venom of one of Medusa’s hair snakes in order to continue fighting and save the world:

In Land of the Dead, the now-blinded Diana (no, her eyesight isn’t just magically cured!) is re-learning how to navigate the world and the crimefighting arena. Just as she’s started adjusting, her old nemesis Cheetah returns. Also features a fab team-up with Wally West’s Flash as they both take on Cheetah and Zoom. The second half of the story sees Diana take on an incredibly dangerous quest to the Underworld at Athena’s request, accompanied by Wonder Girl and a Minotaur. Again, this two-parter is amazing and I highly recommend it. 

The Circle, Gail Simone

The Circle is the first arc of Gail Simone’s run on Wonder Woman, and delves into Diana’s origins, the culture that birthed her, and the women who raised her. Featuring Hippolyta, four renegade Amazons who saw Diana not as a gift but as a threat, and Nazis, along with another story where Diana goes along with a Green Lantern to deal with an extraterrestrial genocidal conflict, it’s a wild ride of an arc. It’s incredible, and features one of my absolute favorite WW scenes of all time, where Diana refuses to raise a hand to a Green Lantern that is beating her up because it would endanger the peace and still extends her hand in friendship afterwards. It also contains one of my favorite quotes about the Amazons/Diana of all time:

“We have a saying, my people. ‘Don’t kill if you can wound, don’t wound if you can subdue, don’t subdue if you can pacify, and don’t raise your hand at all until you’ve first extended it.’“ -Diana

Truly a work of art. 10/10 would recommend. Most of Simone’s run (including Ends of the Earth, Rise of an Olympian, and Contagion) are all good; this is just the highlight of her run, in my opinion. Simone’s Diana does take a bit of getting used to, as she depicts her as more of a ‘normal human’, but the story overrides any quibbles I have with some of the dialogue.

Spirit of Truth, Paul Dini

“This story reveals the hardships and obstacles that Wonder Woman must face due to public perception based on her appearance and womanhood.” Basically, Diana faces off against a variety of threats, physical and otherwise, and tries to reconcile the fact that she is both human and not, that she is an Amazon and a demigoddess but also identifies with humanity and truly wants to make the world a better place. Stunning artwork, but general warning for some uncomfortable white feminism/white savior vibes.

Trinity, Matt Wagner

An Eisner Award-winning story revolving around the first meeting and team-up of Batman, Superman, and Wonder Woman. A really fascinating look at all three heroes and how they reconcile their differences in philosophy and tactics to become the most iconic trio of superheroes to ever exist.

JLA: League of One, Christopher Moeller

A standalone graphic novel exploring Diana’s character when she has to make a choice between betraying her teammates and saving their lives. She decides to sacrifice her own life for her teammates to beat a dragon prophesized to end the entire Justice League, so she individually takes out every member of the League and goes to fight the dragon herself.

It’s also where this famous panel comes from, by the way:

tl;dr: a lovely character study and also Wonder Woman beats up the entire Justice League and then a dragon.

Greg Rucka’s Wonder Woman Rebirth (with ‘The Lies’ and ‘Year One’)

Greg Rucka miraculously returned to DC Comics last year (which I still want to know how DC pulled off, since Rucka specifically stated he would never work for DC again at one point; I have bets on him reading Azzarello’s and the Finches’ Wonder Woman runs and going, “Oh no. No no no. No, I have to fix this.”) to write Wonder Woman: Rebirth and the currently ongoing Wonder Woman series. 

It’s really delightful; one storyline is set in the present as Diana is re-establishing her mission as Earth’s protector and champion while ‘Year One’ gives the new origin story for Diana and details Steve’s crash-landing on Themiscyra and her early days as Wonder Woman. From the official synopsis of Year One: “The team of writer Greg Rucka and artist Nicola Scott weave the definitive and shocking tale of Diana’s first year as Earth’s protector. Paradise has been breached, Ares stirs and the Amazons must answer with a champion of their own…one who is willing to sacrifice her home among her sisters to save a world she has never seen.” Year One is the current origin story for Diana, so it’s also good for those of you who loved the movie and want to see more of that kind of story.

Honorable mention: DC’s Bombshells

DC Bombshells features loads of female heroes in a WWII-era alternate universe where the women are the “big” heroes instead of the men. A wide variety of female heroes have spotlight issues, including characters that are very minor in the main universe, but Diana gets quite a bit of screentime. It is important to note that this is completely out-of-continuity, and various events, character relationships, and other things that happen in the Bombshells-verse are not canon in the main universe. That being said, it’s a really charming series with beautiful artwork and a focus on the ladies. Also features some absolutely beautiful Diana/Steve scenes.

Also notable: the animated movie:

A lot of people are surprised when I tell them that Diana already had a movie before Gal Gadot graced our screens. The screenplay was written by Gail Simone and features a semi-modern update of Diana’s origin story. It’s a good, solid movie; it’s not great and it has a lot of issues, but it is a solid movie that has some fun action sequences and features a fairly decent depiction of the Amazons and Greek mythology. Ever since I’ve started reading comics though, I’ve been a little disappointed by Steve’s characterization in this movie. He’s well-intentioned but makes a lot of jerkass/fuckboy comments at times and I just don’t know where Simone pulled his characterization from, tbh. Anyway, solid, fun movie that you should definitely see if you like Wonder Woman!

Mabel Pines didn’t get the summer romance she was looking for but in the end she was okay with that because she learned to love herself.

Mabel Pines thinks that every woman she meets is beautiful, including herself, and if you don’t understand how radical that is you’ve never been a twelve-year-old-girl.

Mabel Pines met a creature she idolized and it told her she wasn’t good enough and she punched it right in its smug stupid face.

Mabel Pines was terrified of growing up because of everything she might lose, and the narrative didn’t blame her or break her for feeling that way.

Mabel Pines cared more about friends and family than magic and mysteries and not only did the narrative validate that, her scrapbook ended up being the most important object in the show.

Mabel Pines is glitter and sweaters and cheesy pop songs and blurry group selfies and the biggest smile in the crowd and she’s also so, so, so much more.

I do think they interacted before! Thanks for the question =D (and sorry for the delay in responding), But that was something that stood out to me on one of my re-reads. (Sorry, putting in scans for this one because I love ES21 so so much and this needed illustrations.)

Admittedly, it's just a feeling and nothing I have solid evidence on, but I think the way she confronts Hiruma here is more of a "culmination" of battles, and not the start of one. I think they probably clashed a lot when they were First Years. Mamori isn't the kind of person who would stand by when Hiruma was bullying people, so I think she probably tried to stop him before and never succeeded. The way she says lists the others who have given up but emphasizes "today I'll stop you" just seems to me like someone who has tried to stop him before, but now (with her "little brother" at stake) she's really motivated not to hold back.

On review, I also think the follow-up interaction you mentioned is really intriguing. There's an implication here that Mamori knew the real threat wasn't disbanding the Club, it was disqualifying them from the tournament that *really* mattered to Hiruma, which suggests she knew him enough to understand what would hurt.

And him putting the threat notebook down is so fascinating!! Because I think it means he knows he lost this battle-- he's not going to risk not being able to play at the Christmas Bowl. The only reason why Mamori backs down is because *Sena* says he wants to stay-- which means that she did ultimately best Hiruma (for about five seconds). Which I think adds an interesting layer to those two.

At any rate, I always just really liked the idea that Mamori and Hiruma were enemies (the protector vs the devil) before Sena came along and they were put in a situation of working together/understanding each other. They have such a fascinating relationship! Which is probably why they’ve always been one of my favorite ships.

who cooks normally?: Mamori, but actually if Hiruma /really/ tries he can actually do it since cooking is nothing but mere instructions for him but it was too much trouble cause Amefuto is no. 1!!! and he’s really picky about his food which makes it even more worse so having Mamori making bentos for everyone is really helping him a lot.

how often do they fight?: They don’t really fight intensely as much when there’s only two of them (BUT THEY STILL DO A LOT) , just stupid silly domestic fighting like put your cup back when you’re done drinking coffee or something but it’s another matter when they’re in front of others. Hiruma’s teasing intensifies more than 120% in front of everyone else (cause let’s face it he has this severe case of an elementary school kid in love) and in turns that makes Mamori’s annoyed 120% as well and boom – warzone.

what do they do when they’re away from each other?: THEY’RE NEVER AWAY FROM EACH OTHER, nope jk, Mamori would use that time to have some ladies day out with Ako and Sara since she felt sorry to them that she spend so much time with Amefuto club and she would have trouble explaining that no, no she’s not dating Hiruma. Hiruma would do all the shady things in the world when she’s not around like adding more points into his threat books or watch NFL games on TV where he would spend hours analyzing each players skills and gameplay (sheesh Hiruma, get a rest!”

nicknames for each other?: Aww, this is obvious. Hiruma calls Mamori (his) fucking manager and Mamori calls him, Hiruma-kun. I’m pretty sure if they get to the next step of the relationship, Hiruma would call her his fucking girlfriend/wife but there’s gonna be an occasional Mamoris (like his occasional Anezakis) and Mamori would call him, Youichi-kun.

who is more likely to pay for dinner?: Hiruma! That man is LOADED. But, Mamori would have none of it, “it’s not fair for you, Hiruma-kun” and they end splitting it 50-50 after fighting about it and making the restaurant owner nervous cause the guy is holding a rifle oh god, but yeah, Hiruma is whipped so he grudgingly let her pays half. And the next time they went for dinner, Hiruma basically races her to the counter and pays it all off and the next dinner, Mamori pretends that she needs to go to the toilet to fix her makeup and pays it all off so then they basically come to an understanding that 50-50 is good.

who steals the covers at night?: Mamori and Hiruma has never been happier to tease her about it. She buys him another cover as a sorry gift and he looks at her incredulously, “I can’t believe you, woman. I can’t.”

what would they get each other for gifts?: Oh this one is tough, but Hiruma would buy expensive gifts when they’re dating/married only for Mamori to freak out like “return it back! return it back!” but he would never return it back so Mamori just needs to live with it and during their high school in denial days he bought her a lot of cleaning supplies and Mamori would buy him something practical that he would be embarrassed to wear or use like fountain pen with key chains during their high school days and it’s even worse when they’re dating/married she would buy pajamas, “you don’t have enough pjs. t-shirt is not comfortable to sleep in.”

who remembers things?: BOTH. There’s never a problem of not remembering things, Hiruma would definitely remember more though.

who cusses more?: Hiruma for obvious reasons!!!

what would they do if the other one was hurt?: Can you believe that there’s a chapter about this AND SOME PEOPLE STILL DON’T THINK THEY’RE CANON?! Okay since we know how Mamori reacts, Hiruma is the type to worry about her quietly, he would never blatantly show it but if she’s sick during a practice session (and she would never tell anyone about this but but Hiruma would notice) he would make stupid excuses for her to go back home.

who kissed who first?: Hiruma, but it’s frustrating for her cause it’s taking him so long?! Like she could just get it over with and kiss him but she knows that his pride would get hurt so she waits patiently. But after the first kiss, she usually would be the first to start cause she’s full of affection and we’re talking about this man she loves like she needs to give good morning kiss, going out kiss, watching tv kiss, goodnight kiss and Hiruma would be like can’t believe you’re so aggressive and they would fight a little bit and kiss! Because there’s a need for fighting kiss!

who made the first move?: Mamori, she would be waiting for really long cause she knows he knows but he didn’t do anything?? And Mamori would be okay guess what I’m going to start, so she starts to lean in more at him when discussing and do this little touches when they sit/stand besides each other and Hiruma was okay, that’s the okay signal and then he would reciprocate her signals.

who started the relationship?: Hiruma because Mamori does all the skinship flirting anyways so to save his pride, Mamori lets him get the final say to start on their relationship. I always imagined it to be like their elephant in the room and Hiruma would be very awkward at it. For example, he wants to invite her to watch a movie and it will go like this: