As you may have heard/read/seen last week, Wonder Woman had her 600th issue. Yes, she's been around since 1941 so, her comic number is up there, considering all the reboots. Wonder Woman was created not by a comic writer but by William Moulton Marston (under the name Charles Moulton) he was a psychologist, lawyer, prison reformer and the inventor of the world famous lie detector test--the obvious inspiration for Wonder Woman's magic lasso that makes people bound by it to tell the truth. No other superhero has a Creator with that much background and influence in crime solving. She was created to bring balance to violent comics by showing compassion, love and only using force when necessary. As well as a role model for not just girls but boys--Marston believed it was boys who needed to learn compassion the most. How the character has changed over the years leading to this 600th issue and the panic...
...but it's not her history, or 600th issue that has everyone in a panic, it's over another reboot of her origin in this issue, which changes her look from this...
...to this urbanized version and alters her past origin story into a modern street smart not so amazon background...
...now, if you paid any attention last week on the blog you can guess that I'm not a fan of the new look. And most of the country seems to be in agreement that this is not a good look for her. But you have to understand that this is a reboot, which they've done to her and every other character before. Remember Superman's death in the 90s? Batman's just last year? Superman's long hair and electric phases? These things happen all the time to generate interest and sales. It's also a marketing ploy to get publicity--which it has. Last week Wonder Woman was on every kind of media. Google, yahoo and AOL all featured articles about the new look. Bloggers were blogging. E! news, Fox news, the Washington Post, New York Times and USA Today also covered the story and had photos, slide shows and polls. With suggestions this is a ploy to strip her of her American flag ties to appeal to international audiences for a future movie (they've been kicking around various scripts for 15 years.) Along with the usual "changing with the times" and "updating to current trends" suggestions. First off, about the making her neutral for international audiences---um, you can go on youtube and watch the opening credits of the 70s Wonder Woman TV show in just about every language (i just watched it in french) so, it's safe to say they already know she has allegiance to America. They're not dumb, she's been around since 1941, they've seen her before, they know what she looks like, they know she's an American made superhero and they're fine with it. Nobody is suggesting they change Captain America's look (or name for that matter) for his movie (which is in production) to "El Captain International." So, that puts the "the rest of the world hates us and they won't go see a movie with an American flag uniform hero" BS to rest. Second, if this look is supposed to represent the current trend---then they're way off. Most people have described this new look as "generic Marvel comics female hero---from the 1990's!) And it's bad--functional yes, but bad. And the reality is Wonder Woman has drastically changed her look before...
...that look on the far left in white was a periods of a few years beginning in the late 1960s, where she gave up her amazonian powers and basically became a female James Bond/Emma Peel Avengers rip off/spy. She fought as Diana Prince in mission impossible style adventures...
...Until, the early 1970s when feminist Gloria Steinem (who sites Wonder Woman as having a great influence on her and other feminists) wanted to put Wonder Woman on her first cover of the feminist "Ms." magazine and was shocked to find out what the DC publishers had turned Wonder Woman in to. She had to twist their arm to get Wonder Woman in her star spangled uniform on her magazine cover and in the reprinted comic stories inside the magazine. And wrote about what an inspiring icon Wonder Woman is, what she symbolizes and she means to millions. And Gloria let her readers know the sad state Wonder was currently in and the readers wrote DC and put pressure on them to change her back into the amazon super heroine that we all know. Feminists (I repeat feminists) demanded she be put unashamed back into her tight amazonian athletic star spangled uniform. Proud of her body and not trying to cover it up. And so over night Wonder Woman was back...
...Wonder Woman moved into the modern age, and very soon she was on TV in all her glory on the Superfriends and later in the decade on TV as played by Lynda Carter. And since then she has changed and evolved with each reboot of the 80s, 90s and 00s...
...The problem with Wonder Woman in recent years has been bad writing and bad artists. She has had a few who did her proud, George Perez, Phil Jimenez and Gail Simone all did fantastic jobs. But too many other writers went in wrong directions with her and a ridiculous amount of artists turned her into a "tits and ass show"---reducing her to a sex object. Something they never do to the men in comics. I have yet to see a cover of Superman with his crotch bulge as the cover, just as an example. She fell into the wrong hands. But as for issue 600, they scraped together many of the talented people mentioned above and did short stories and art inside that paid respect to the character. Showing that they can represent her properly when they want to, as the most famous female superhero on the planet that she is. Lynda Carter does a forward to the 600th issue that is written so well (thanks to the complete understanding she has for the character she played for 3 years and spent the majority of her life being connected to--Hell, college students have sent her their thesis that they've written about Wonder Woman and her cultural impact) that some people are saying Lynda should write for the comic. As she "gets" the history, strength and importance of the character then the vast majority of Wonder's writers have. Also, the new look is only seen in the last 10 pages of the mag. On the pages before there is a brief almost dream like chase scene of Wonder Woman chasing a younger version of herself into a light, with a voice saying "Diana is far too undervalued by this world. This must change. Let the Odyssey of Wonder Woman begin." My take on that is, that DC knows they've neglected Wonder Woman for years, and in order to fix it they've got to remind the public of her importance by tearing her down, in order to build her back up. By removing the hero we know and replacing it with one that gives into a modernized urban version that some wanted to see, and see how this version fits or not with the current comic world. And after a year or so, change her right back again. This has been a great marketing move, they've gain massive attention for the new look and I won't be surprised when they bring her back to her original form when this phase/reboot turns out to be all a dream. So, I'm not too alarmed about this new look. I think she'll be back to true form again. If not, (as Gloria Steinem once said) "let her publishers know, because Wonder Woman belongs to you." She ours, not theirs. And we're the ones with the power. Make sure they know it :)
4 comments:
Perfect post!!!
Thanks Hilly :)
Wow, you are...totally inspirational. I love this post and how you went over woman's importance from angles I never considered.
She has always been one of my fav characters. And when DC shows her as she should be she's amazing but when they make her lame...oh how lame she can be.
I've always seen the issue as the warrior Diana vs. the Peacemaker (which I think is more authentic). The idea is she's both but often they want her to be neither and its eyecandy woman who has no valuable input.
Sadness.
But I still love and support the character.
Thanks Jubell. Many feel Wonder Woman is without a doubt the most famous female superhero of all time. But, so rarely is she treated that way. She isn't a female version of a male hero like...Batgirl, Hawkgirl, Supergirl, Namorita, She-hulk, Spider-woman, etc. She's in a class by herself. She is (as you pointed out) both an amazon warrior but a peacemaker--which is exactly what she was created to be---strong and tough but also wise and compassionate. Her original 1940's comics had many examples of how she inspired other characters in her adventures to be more then they thought they ever could. To learn from one another and bad experiences, to stand up for yourself and others, and to be a better human being. Showing criminals the truth, with many of them (by story's end) ashamed of what they did and ready to go to jail for it. As Wonder turns crooks over to the police, it was common to read lines like "You're right Wonder Woman, how could I have been so greedy and stupid--I'll never do this again" and Wonder Woman responding "If I changed your mind today to never going back to your evil ways--then you're the real winner." Cheesy?--a little. But also very honest, and ultimately what makes her a true hero. One of my favorite lines from that era comes from a some college girls who got involved in a crime gang but soon realize (thanks to Wonder Woman, that)the thugs in the gang don't care about them at all--only what the girls can steal for them. And so the girls help rescue Wonder Woman so she can stop the gang and rescue the girls from their life of crime. Afterward, one of the girls says to Wonder "Oh Wonder Woman, you saved us." and Wonder Woman replys back "No, you saved yourselves. I only showed you that you could." To me, that line sums up best who and what Wonder Woman is, and stands for. Leading by example, not full of herself and that she cares about humanity. Now, if only her handlers would write and draw her with the same care and respect. But like you, I still love and support the character. She lives on in my mind and heart, always at her best. :)
Post a Comment