by Sam (@retconning)

Warning: spoilers for Justice League #12.

Single sentence review: Justice League 12 managed not only to weave together the two main arcs from the previous year – which had seemed very disjointed to me before – but also make me interested in the future of the title. And, oh yeah, there was that kiss.

When news broke that Superman and Wonder Woman would start dating, I immediately decided that I… didn’t really care. I haven’t been heavily involved in the DCnU, for a wide variety of reasons, and I have never been a into the Justice League (unless it’s the animated Justice League). While I was unemployed, I decided to not keep up with comics in general, and nothing I had read in the first two months of the DCnU had really convinced me to stretch my budget to cover the read. But I’ve always been a fan of DC in general, and I have always loved Superman and Wonder Woman.

This is to say that I think I went into this with considerably more of an open mind than I was seeing around the internet. I enjoyed the Superman/Wonder Woman pairing in Kingdom Come, and I think he’s a better match for her than Batman. If you have to match her, which of course you don’t.

And then I actually read Justice League 1-11 in preparation for today’s release. I wanted to see if this just came out of nowhere. You can read my catch up on issues 1-6 here and 7-11 here. I wasn’t impressed with the story arcs, but basically, no… the kiss didn’t come out of nowhere. This has absolutely been set up, and there are definite signs in there as early as Wonder Woman’s first interaction with Superman. But more than that, when you look at this from a story perspective, it not only makes sense, but is sort of a classic romance story. Whether it lasts or not, I dunno. But from their first meet cute to Steve’s disappearance/torture/reappearance, there have been threads of a romance woven into the main narrative. They just survived an encounter in which phantoms tried to steal their souls (or… something) by tricking them into feeling less alone, and letting their guard down. Batman’s parents came back, Cyborg saw his “whole” self, and Diana saw Steve. Then the phantoms were defeated, and they were left feeling alone. Then Diana – in what I think is a classic superhero move – distanced herself from the non-powered Steve in order to protect him. Leaving her feeling alone.

So you have two very powerful, very vulnerable people who feel like no one in the world is like them. And then they realize that, well, they’re kind of like each other. I can see that. I have seen it, in plenty of stories, comic or otherwise. I can buy it. I was actually satisfied when they finally kissed, because that’s what you do when you feel alone: you reach out and hope you find someone who’s like you reaching back. I could relate. A lot.

Of course, I can’t look at this just from the perspective of the story. This disconnect between the “in universe” narrative and the effect pop culture has in the broader world is why I get so annoyed when lesbians on TV kiss dudes. Even if it makes sense inside the story, we exist in a world where lesbians are very rarely portrayed well on TV. Progress comes slowly, and dude-kissing lesbians seems like a step back (and don’t even get me started on the issue of bisexuality on television). So I get that I can’t just say “the story made sense” and wave the rest away.

I mean, I will be the first in line to say that the in-air kissing cover is sort of silly. Then again, covers are supposed to sell comics. When I was a kid, I bought my very first superhero comic (Flash vol. 2 #34) based on the cover. Maybe it’s appealing to an audience we don’t want. Like people who read romance novels. Who are predominantly women. Or people who go on match.com, a site which helped DC market this issue. Those people are predominantly women also. Or the people who watch Good Morning America (there are a lot of them, GMA beats the Today show in the ratings… a lot), which talked about it on national morning television the other day. A lot of people who watch that show are women.

All of this seems, I don’t know, kind of good to me. Marketing to potential new readers, hooking them with big name draws, and aiming that marketing at a female audience… I’m sorry, but I’m not going to call that a bad move by DC.

Now, if this came at the cost of storytelling, I might have a problem. But Justice League 12 was actually the best issue of the title so far. And, let me just say this right now: I am absolutely on board with comic companies changing the narrative of their universe. I was disappointed with DC when Bruce Wayne didn’t stay dead, because the Batman title was at its most interesting with Dick in the cowl. I was disappointed with Marvel for bringing Steve back, because Bucky was super interesting as a Captain America attempting to make up for being a Soviet assassin. One of the main reasons I checked out of the DCnU was because I didn’t feel as though they really did much to change up the status quo. So while I may agree that Lois & Clark are an iconic couple, I’m not going to spend a lot of time mourning it. I’m going to keep reading. You never know what could happen in the future. I’m a soap fan, and soap fans know that no relationship lasts forever, and that every relationship comes back around again.