Warrior Princess Exchange!

[frayadjacent]

chaila and I recently did a Warrior Princess Exchange: she gave me some Wonder Woman comics to read and I suggested some Xena episodes for her to watch! My Xena suggestions were "One Against an Army" -- an obvious choice, IMO, for the the competence porn and the Xena and Gab being awesome and having an amazing relationship -- and "When Fates Collide". The second one seemed a little counter-intuitive but I still think it was a good choice for chaila, and for showcasing how awesome the characters can be. Also I re-watched the episode for Research and OMG so much fanservice. It was delightful

Chaila gave me The Hiketeia, which I devoured pretty quickly (well, after I figured out how to get Simple Comic to work right). It was a great story with some awesome Wonder Woman action and two great women characters.

I was surprised a little by how Diana claimed she didn't care what Danielle had done, to the point of kinda cutting off the conversation. It was an interesting ethical dilemma where I didn't really agree with anyone. I mean, I am fine with what Danielle did, but only because of the reason why she did it, which Diana claimed to not care about. (Though it seemed like she did care about it, since she was contemplating how she'd have felt if it were her sisters.) But honoring the Hiketeia was the major motivator for her, which I obviously don't identify with but it was pretty interesting nonetheless.

It definitely made me want to read more, and I imagine that if/when I do read more WW, I'll go back to the story and read it with a new level of emotional/intellectual engagement with the characters and stories.

I also thought the art was quite pretty, though I do predictably dislike the way women are drawn. It's not as bad as many comics but the contorted-torso-butt-and-boob poses were definitely there. But I liked how it conveyed the action.

The only thing I really wished was different was that it had spent more time on Diana and Danielle's relationship. I wish I had gotten to see them spending time together, to see how Danielle got good at her job instead of just having Diana tell me. But I wouldn't have wanted that at the expense of anything else, so I'd have wanted the book to be longer. :)

Comments

Re: tl;dr like always

[frayadjacent]

Sorry to be so slow to reply properly to this lovely comment, and now it's not even that good of a reply. I like your take on this a lot! And I read your full post and it was awesome and very helpful.

I fully admit that part of the reason I love The Hiketeia is for Diana thoroughly whipping Batman TWICE

Ah, that was fabulous. I steer as clear as I can from all things Batman, but even with my relative ignorance that was pretty damn satisfying.

And I love to do more exchanges! I wouldn't have gotten through 6 seasons of Xena on my own. I only watched it all because I did so with a friend, with wine and popcorn, about once a week for over a year. I honestly didn't get really into it until sometime in Season 4 (I'm a big fan of the Rome arc that sanguinity mentioned above) and didn't really fall for it till S6 when it goes full on texty. But now I love the earlier seasons much more in retrospect. (But even with that, there is a lot of filler material I have no interest in rewatching.)