A Tiny Comic Rant

As a professional writer and editor, I feel the most embarrassment when a stupid mistake makes it through the writing and editing cycles and is given to the readers. While Justice League of America has been growing more and more stale, with Hal Jordan pronouncing what appears to be the death knell of the series in this latest issue, #31. Clearly author Dwayne McDuffie has a direction he wants to go in, and admittedly, DC has left him a pretty gigantic task—a Justice League without Superman, Batman, or Wonder Woman. Black Canary even invokes the dreaded Justice League Detroit as she considers the power levels of her League, but it is pretty indicting when one of the main characters announces that the current incarnation has "done nothing."

This is all well and good, but while nothing seems to happen in the current issue either, except that a lot of people leave, the first page contains a single error that is just unfathomable. Zatanna is talking to a character who is clearly Wonder Woman (a gold tiara with a centered red star is something of a giveaway) and refers to her as "Dinah" repeatedly. Wonder Woman's name is Diana Prince and no one has referred to her as Diana when she is in costume for quite some time. And the words that Wonder Woman speaks in response clearly belong to Black Canary, Dinah Lance. Granted it's a tiny thing, but it's disconcerting enough that I had to read the first three pages a number of times before deciding it was a mistake. And while I think the editor listed in the credits of the comic do much more than copy-edit the book, such a gaffe makes me wonder if anyone copy-edited at all. They want me to care about the book, the story, and the characters, but once again they make it difficult to do when it's not apparent that they care.

DC, please see this as an official offer to copy-edit your books. Granted, I've reached pre-middle age and thus am crotchety about the silly things in this world I can't control or fix, but I take a great deal of pride in the slightest of words in my writing. Why can't you? I expect an offer in the comments section pretty soon.