And I Wonder Wonder Wonder Who (Who) Who Wrote The Book Of Wonder Woman
Wonder Woman.
Wonder Woman.
Princess Diana (sometimes Prince or Trevor, sometimes not) of Themyscira.
Wonder Woman is sort of tricky to pin down. Unlike Superman or Batman, Wonder Woman actually had a meta-reason for existence. Well, several. She was meant to be a strong, independent female role-model in a medium dominated by strong, independent male role-models who were as often bad examples to follow. She was meant to be a sexy female to attract boys into reading her stories (10-year-old boys, the most common demographics for super hero comics, are still often stuck in the "girls have cooties" stage of development, but are also starting to develop physical and emotional attraction to those cootie-having girls). She was meant to be a piece of pro-sado-masochistic propaganda, convincing the reader that if men willingly agreed to "loving submission" as administered by strong women, the world would be a better place.
Well, I dunno about that. My kinks sort of swing the other way, and I don't think any single sexual identity can save the world. That requires less pillow talk and more people threatening each other with global annihilation. But that's me.
Wonder Woman.
Wonder Woman.
Wonder Woman. She was rather different in many ways. First, there was the gender. Sure, there were other super heroines before here, but most of them existed just to titillate a male-dominated audience. And few were anywhere near as powerful as her (even though, at first, her super powers weren't all that impressive, especially as compared to her powers now). There was also her origin: there are some people who consider comics to be a sort of modern mythology, forgetting that myths were often about individuals who were worshiped, and while plenty of fans have created shrines dedicated to their favorite characters, few if any have created religions based on them. Anyway, Wonder Woman's origins are tied directly to ancient--particularly Greco-Roman--mythology. She's literally a daughter of the legendary Amazons, the warrior women of Ancient Grecian myths, who despite their strength in combat are nevertheless always beaten by men for getting too uppity (ancient Greeks were almost comical in their blind misogyny). Turns out, the Greek goddesses sent the Amazons to an island where they could live forever in peace and enlightenment (because those are highly prized by warrior cultures) thousands of years ago after the rape of their queen by Heracles (or Hercules, or totally not Gilgamesh, y'all) and the entire culture's enslavement. Now, if you think about it, there are a couple (or more) unfortunate implication here: a race of slaves, sent to live alone on an island . . . yeah, someone obviously meant well (something you should be repeating to yourself throughout much of this article), but didn't think things through (something else you should be repeating).
So time passes and the Amazons are magically able to not age due to magic (in the form of their island itself as well as the Golden Girdle of Hippolyta--an actual mythological artifact). On their island, they developed their own society of women, and created a paradise . . . for Amazons. They had several scientific achievements, including telepathic radio and invisibility, and rode around on animals called "Kangas"--essentially scaled-up kangaroos. They were perfect, and were so perfect, that they had, through training alone, surpassed the human physical ideal. Like, say, Captain America. And the pinnacle of that pinnacle was Princess Diana, (sculpted from clay and granted life by the Greek goddesses). Anyway, there's a pilot crashes on the island, he's nursed back to health, the Amazons are told by Aphrodite (their main goddess at the time) they need to return to Man's World to help with WWII, which was building up, and so they decide to have a contest and send the winner. Alone. Without much backup. To fight in WWII. What?
So Diana wins, she goes out to man's world, and immediately, other differences are apparent.
1) Diana has little interest in just catching crooks. She tries to reform many of them. In fact, there's an island off the coast of Paradise Island called "Transformation Island" for this explicit purpose. One of her first attempts, the villainess Cheetah--a fursuiter who's turned to a life of crime (I KNEW IT!)--works for most of the Golden Age of comics.
2) Diana is actually a patriotic hero, in the sense that she is steeped in nationalistic iconography (red white and blue--and yellow--swimsuit, and a starfield skirt) and is there to help the Allies and America, specifically, win WWII.
3) Diana's romantic life was rather healthy. Oh, sure, there was the standard soap-opery-ness because of her secret identity: Diana Prince (secret ID of Wonder Woman) was always trying to attract Steve Trevor (love interest to Wonder Woman) but he only had eyes for Wonder Woman (Wonder Woman). Steve was rather competent as both an army pilot and an intelligence agent. He was a bit hard-headed and insular, but it was intended to show a strong, vital man as a match for the strong, vital Wonder Woman. And he was excited and almost worshipful of Wonder Woman, and Wonder Woman was always there for him. Steve was also always respectful of Diana Prince . . . although he did have a tendency to not realize that the "other woman" probably doesn't have much interest in hearing the guy talk about how amazing his girlfriend is. In contrast, although Lois Lane was very interested in Superman, and was a strong independent woman, she was almost a shrew to Clark, and Superman always kept her at a distance, emotionally. Sure, he'd always save her if she fell (or threw herself) out of a window. But it was rare that he indicated his care for her verbally.
4) There was a whole order of magnitude more bondage imagery in Wonder Woman. Sure, this would happen with female characters a lot . . . but she also got tied up (and spanked!) by her allies. And did a significant amount of tying up (and spanking). And then there was the . . . fucked up story in which a group of women were dressed as deer, "hunted" down, and then made up to look like the after-hunt feast. There was just . . . a lot of fetish in between those covers.
But eventually, the original creators died, and work on Wonder Woman (contractually mandated, at first, or the rights to the character would revert to the writer's estate) went to more typical comic book writers. And . . . well, Diana quickly lost her defining strength and independence. Ironically, she wouldn't regain them again until she lost the super powers she sported through much of the Silver Age (those Greek goddesses who granted her life I mentioned earlier? Well, in the Silver Age, they also gave her super powers). The changes in the Silver Age (aside from her powers) weakened the character concept significantly: now, no longer was she crusading on America's behalf, she was just another costumed crimefighter, and when she wasn't fighting crime, she was trying to get Steve Trevor to marry her. But Steve was no longer the enthusiastic if a bit boneheaded "good match" of the Golden Age. He was actually a major league jerk, and he wouldn't marry Wonder Woman because he didn't want to get tied down. And his treatment of Diana Prince was as bad as or worse than Lois Lane's treatment of Clark Kent. So Diana actually had a few suitors in the Silver Age, like Mer-Man, Birdman (but not Harvey Birdman, which would've been kinda cool), and . . . Amoeba-Man. What woman could resist his asexual magnetism?
Things limped along until the mid-to-late sixties, when an actual feminist movement was occurring. Suddenly, women could be sexy, strong, and independent again (hey! Just. Like. Wonder Woman!), and there was a certain British tv show starring Diana Rigg featuring a sexy catsuit wearing female spy who was just as capable as her male co-star . . . and in some ways (like Judo) more. Comic books, never able to let a good idea someone else used go for long without shamelessly ripping it off, took the idea, and transplanted it almost completely onto Diana Prince. Suddenly, Wonder Woman was no longer super powered . . . but she was strong and independent again (it didn't entirely hurt that the jerkhole Silver Age Steve Trevor was killed off), and she could have been a fantastic symbol of female empowerment . . . .
Except they took her powers away. Gloria Steinem, a feminist icon herself, pointed out the problem in the very first issue of Ms. magazine. Apparently, she'd missed out on the characterization of the Silver Age, though. There was enough controversy that eventually, Wonder Woman got her powers back . . . and actually managed to keep her independent, pro-feminist streak (even despite the resurrection of Steve Trevor as a love interest). Well, for the time, at least. She wouldn't get her true feminist characterization again until after Crisis On Infinite Earths, and the whole continuity was rebooted. Sort of.
Well, Diana never really made waves in comics again until COIE, despite her television series (which was much less campy than Batman's). She was just another reliable super hero. And then, the crisis. On INFINITE Earths, not just one. Diana got a complete tear-down and rebuild, using only her best qualities (and a few new ones).
This new Diana (and I'm going to continue calling her that for reasons I'll get to) was a new immigrant to "Man's World." Where Superman and Batman's post-Crisis reboots assumed they'd been around a bit and established themselves at least somewhat, Diana's didn't. She's previously existed in the form prior to her debut, growing up on Themyscira. Her first appearance after the Crisis was her first appearance. So Diana was a fish out of water, who implicitly trusted all females she came in contact with--and who at first didn't even speak English. This new Diana had her Silver Age powers, perhaps ramped up a bit (there was no question now, she could totally match Superman punch for punch). But the defining characteristic of this new Princess Diana was that the lasso of truth--a peripheral she'd had since her origins in the '40s, because her creator had helped invent the lie-detector--was now sort of metaphysically a part of her. The "fires of Hestia," goddess of the hearth, lent her an inherent honesty and resistance to lies and falsehoods. She also wasn't a crime-fighter (she was granted the nom de vigilante Wonder Woman by a publicist who kind of wanted to exploit her), hence my calling her "Diana" now instead of "Wonder Woman." Whereas most super heroes have a dual identity thing, Diana inherently has a hard time grasping the concept. She groks its importance to her colorfully costumed colleagues, but it's so far from her intrinsic honesty she would have a hard time living with a dual identity (until a recent retcon-crisis thing, but I don't want to get into it, don't make me get into it). She thinks of herself as Diana, whereas Clark sometimes might actually think of himself as Superman, and Bruce sometimes thinks of himself as Batman.
She was more interested in showing Man's World--now called "Patriarch's World"--the benefits of Amazon philosophies: peace, love, mercy (and ass-kicking awesome)--than fighting crimes, although she'd certainly do it when the occasion called for it. She also doesn't really think of herself as a superhero: she came to Patriarch's World as an ambassador. Some people think that, being a kickass Amazon warrior is hypocritical for an ambassador of peace and love and mercy, but such people have a simplistic view of peace and war. Sometimes, warriors are needed to keep peace, to enforce peace. And when peace fails, who you gonna call?
Warriors. You call the warriors. That, uh, was where I was going with this.
Some people also think Wonder Woman is a flawed character because she's inherently sex material. Which is stupid. As I pointed out near the beginning, she certainly was there to titillate the reader, but she had many other aspects. She's no more inherently sex-objecty than she is inherently a caring, motherly figure, or a warrioress. So what if she exists because of her creator's kinky sex-life? Does that mean that women can't have a sexual identity? I thought that was one of the points of feminism!
I believe that there are no bad characters. And I don't think there are any bad character marks on Diana. She's a strong, confident, independent woman who takes her obligations and duties seriously. She's also a wise, caring, dignified woman with a quiet sense of humor and an acceptance of both her body figure and the effect said figure has on people. And she has a mission beyond simple cleaning up crime or saving the world from epic, cosmic threats (not that she can't do those things). In other words: she's a great character! Anyone who has any problems with any aspect of her character might want to look into their own gender issues before they cast aspersions upon her!
Is she perfect? Well . . . I don't see why she can't have a long-term love interest. Sometimes it could be read that only an unmarried woman, single woman can be a strong feminist ideal, and that's as stupid as saying all feminists must be lesbians, or that all penetrative sex is rape. And nowadays, she has a stupid secret identity that doesn't fit her characterization at all. Her "secret identity" should just be like how celebrities sometimes try to avoid paparazzi: frumpy jeans, t-shirt, a jacket, sunglasses, and a baseball cap. Sometimes, she should have the right to let her hair down and not have to live the role of ambassador, or princess, or Wonder Woman. And her role can be tightened up. See, Diana isn't a super hero. She can be plopped into super hero stories, but that's not her role. Superman's role is Protector, or maybe Savior. Batman's role is Detective, or maybe Avenger, or perhaps Crusader (as in Caped) would be better. Diana's role is CHAMPION. She sees injustice and disenfranchisement, and champions those people, so that they may flourish and thrive. Some people might think Superman can take that role, and sure, there's room for overlap. But Diana should be treated as an outsider who enters a situation to understand it, and comes out trying to show people the flaws in their system and possible solutions to make things better. Which can be really tricky in super hero comics, where status quo is sometimes more a powerful force than the heroes or villains. But I think it's that understanding that would be a wonderful drive for stories. And it could be a great way to educate the audience.
But be sure to remember: Diana isn't preachy. That's an annoying trait that she seems to have gained from one specific, prolific, writer at DC. Diana isn't someone who wants to make you different. She's accepting of people as they are more than any other fictional character! That's her thing, truth. She won't try to change you. If you're hurting people, she'll try to stop you. And if you want to be better, there's almost no one better to have run into you. But she's not the type to drone on and on about the benefits of her lifestyle. She'd rather show you the benefits of her lifestyle through her example, but without an patronization.
Aaron "The Mad Whitaker" Bourque; okay, and maybe she can cover a bit more of her skin. But then again, most of her bouts in her costume wouldn't amount to light workouts, for someone of her skill and power levels. When she needs armor, she's got access to it.
Wonder Woman.
Princess Diana (sometimes Prince or Trevor, sometimes not) of Themyscira.
Wonder Woman is sort of tricky to pin down. Unlike Superman or Batman, Wonder Woman actually had a meta-reason for existence. Well, several. She was meant to be a strong, independent female role-model in a medium dominated by strong, independent male role-models who were as often bad examples to follow. She was meant to be a sexy female to attract boys into reading her stories (10-year-old boys, the most common demographics for super hero comics, are still often stuck in the "girls have cooties" stage of development, but are also starting to develop physical and emotional attraction to those cootie-having girls). She was meant to be a piece of pro-sado-masochistic propaganda, convincing the reader that if men willingly agreed to "loving submission" as administered by strong women, the world would be a better place.
Well, I dunno about that. My kinks sort of swing the other way, and I don't think any single sexual identity can save the world. That requires less pillow talk and more people threatening each other with global annihilation. But that's me.
Wonder Woman.
Wonder Woman.
Wonder Woman. She was rather different in many ways. First, there was the gender. Sure, there were other super heroines before here, but most of them existed just to titillate a male-dominated audience. And few were anywhere near as powerful as her (even though, at first, her super powers weren't all that impressive, especially as compared to her powers now). There was also her origin: there are some people who consider comics to be a sort of modern mythology, forgetting that myths were often about individuals who were worshiped, and while plenty of fans have created shrines dedicated to their favorite characters, few if any have created religions based on them. Anyway, Wonder Woman's origins are tied directly to ancient--particularly Greco-Roman--mythology. She's literally a daughter of the legendary Amazons, the warrior women of Ancient Grecian myths, who despite their strength in combat are nevertheless always beaten by men for getting too uppity (ancient Greeks were almost comical in their blind misogyny). Turns out, the Greek goddesses sent the Amazons to an island where they could live forever in peace and enlightenment (because those are highly prized by warrior cultures) thousands of years ago after the rape of their queen by Heracles (or Hercules, or totally not Gilgamesh, y'all) and the entire culture's enslavement. Now, if you think about it, there are a couple (or more) unfortunate implication here: a race of slaves, sent to live alone on an island . . . yeah, someone obviously meant well (something you should be repeating to yourself throughout much of this article), but didn't think things through (something else you should be repeating).
So time passes and the Amazons are magically able to not age due to magic (in the form of their island itself as well as the Golden Girdle of Hippolyta--an actual mythological artifact). On their island, they developed their own society of women, and created a paradise . . . for Amazons. They had several scientific achievements, including telepathic radio and invisibility, and rode around on animals called "Kangas"--essentially scaled-up kangaroos. They were perfect, and were so perfect, that they had, through training alone, surpassed the human physical ideal. Like, say, Captain America. And the pinnacle of that pinnacle was Princess Diana, (sculpted from clay and granted life by the Greek goddesses). Anyway, there's a pilot crashes on the island, he's nursed back to health, the Amazons are told by Aphrodite (their main goddess at the time) they need to return to Man's World to help with WWII, which was building up, and so they decide to have a contest and send the winner. Alone. Without much backup. To fight in WWII. What?
So Diana wins, she goes out to man's world, and immediately, other differences are apparent.
1) Diana has little interest in just catching crooks. She tries to reform many of them. In fact, there's an island off the coast of Paradise Island called "Transformation Island" for this explicit purpose. One of her first attempts, the villainess Cheetah--a fursuiter who's turned to a life of crime (I KNEW IT!)--works for most of the Golden Age of comics.
2) Diana is actually a patriotic hero, in the sense that she is steeped in nationalistic iconography (red white and blue--and yellow--swimsuit, and a starfield skirt) and is there to help the Allies and America, specifically, win WWII.
3) Diana's romantic life was rather healthy. Oh, sure, there was the standard soap-opery-ness because of her secret identity: Diana Prince (secret ID of Wonder Woman) was always trying to attract Steve Trevor (love interest to Wonder Woman) but he only had eyes for Wonder Woman (Wonder Woman). Steve was rather competent as both an army pilot and an intelligence agent. He was a bit hard-headed and insular, but it was intended to show a strong, vital man as a match for the strong, vital Wonder Woman. And he was excited and almost worshipful of Wonder Woman, and Wonder Woman was always there for him. Steve was also always respectful of Diana Prince . . . although he did have a tendency to not realize that the "other woman" probably doesn't have much interest in hearing the guy talk about how amazing his girlfriend is. In contrast, although Lois Lane was very interested in Superman, and was a strong independent woman, she was almost a shrew to Clark, and Superman always kept her at a distance, emotionally. Sure, he'd always save her if she fell (or threw herself) out of a window. But it was rare that he indicated his care for her verbally.
4) There was a whole order of magnitude more bondage imagery in Wonder Woman. Sure, this would happen with female characters a lot . . . but she also got tied up (and spanked!) by her allies. And did a significant amount of tying up (and spanking). And then there was the . . . fucked up story in which a group of women were dressed as deer, "hunted" down, and then made up to look like the after-hunt feast. There was just . . . a lot of fetish in between those covers.
But eventually, the original creators died, and work on Wonder Woman (contractually mandated, at first, or the rights to the character would revert to the writer's estate) went to more typical comic book writers. And . . . well, Diana quickly lost her defining strength and independence. Ironically, she wouldn't regain them again until she lost the super powers she sported through much of the Silver Age (those Greek goddesses who granted her life I mentioned earlier? Well, in the Silver Age, they also gave her super powers). The changes in the Silver Age (aside from her powers) weakened the character concept significantly: now, no longer was she crusading on America's behalf, she was just another costumed crimefighter, and when she wasn't fighting crime, she was trying to get Steve Trevor to marry her. But Steve was no longer the enthusiastic if a bit boneheaded "good match" of the Golden Age. He was actually a major league jerk, and he wouldn't marry Wonder Woman because he didn't want to get tied down. And his treatment of Diana Prince was as bad as or worse than Lois Lane's treatment of Clark Kent. So Diana actually had a few suitors in the Silver Age, like Mer-Man, Birdman (but not Harvey Birdman, which would've been kinda cool), and . . . Amoeba-Man. What woman could resist his asexual magnetism?
Things limped along until the mid-to-late sixties, when an actual feminist movement was occurring. Suddenly, women could be sexy, strong, and independent again (hey! Just. Like. Wonder Woman!), and there was a certain British tv show starring Diana Rigg featuring a sexy catsuit wearing female spy who was just as capable as her male co-star . . . and in some ways (like Judo) more. Comic books, never able to let a good idea someone else used go for long without shamelessly ripping it off, took the idea, and transplanted it almost completely onto Diana Prince. Suddenly, Wonder Woman was no longer super powered . . . but she was strong and independent again (it didn't entirely hurt that the jerkhole Silver Age Steve Trevor was killed off), and she could have been a fantastic symbol of female empowerment . . . .
Except they took her powers away. Gloria Steinem, a feminist icon herself, pointed out the problem in the very first issue of Ms. magazine. Apparently, she'd missed out on the characterization of the Silver Age, though. There was enough controversy that eventually, Wonder Woman got her powers back . . . and actually managed to keep her independent, pro-feminist streak (even despite the resurrection of Steve Trevor as a love interest). Well, for the time, at least. She wouldn't get her true feminist characterization again until after Crisis On Infinite Earths, and the whole continuity was rebooted. Sort of.
Well, Diana never really made waves in comics again until COIE, despite her television series (which was much less campy than Batman's). She was just another reliable super hero. And then, the crisis. On INFINITE Earths, not just one. Diana got a complete tear-down and rebuild, using only her best qualities (and a few new ones).
This new Diana (and I'm going to continue calling her that for reasons I'll get to) was a new immigrant to "Man's World." Where Superman and Batman's post-Crisis reboots assumed they'd been around a bit and established themselves at least somewhat, Diana's didn't. She's previously existed in the form prior to her debut, growing up on Themyscira. Her first appearance after the Crisis was her first appearance. So Diana was a fish out of water, who implicitly trusted all females she came in contact with--and who at first didn't even speak English. This new Diana had her Silver Age powers, perhaps ramped up a bit (there was no question now, she could totally match Superman punch for punch). But the defining characteristic of this new Princess Diana was that the lasso of truth--a peripheral she'd had since her origins in the '40s, because her creator had helped invent the lie-detector--was now sort of metaphysically a part of her. The "fires of Hestia," goddess of the hearth, lent her an inherent honesty and resistance to lies and falsehoods. She also wasn't a crime-fighter (she was granted the nom de vigilante Wonder Woman by a publicist who kind of wanted to exploit her), hence my calling her "Diana" now instead of "Wonder Woman." Whereas most super heroes have a dual identity thing, Diana inherently has a hard time grasping the concept. She groks its importance to her colorfully costumed colleagues, but it's so far from her intrinsic honesty she would have a hard time living with a dual identity (until a recent retcon-crisis thing, but I don't want to get into it, don't make me get into it). She thinks of herself as Diana, whereas Clark sometimes might actually think of himself as Superman, and Bruce sometimes thinks of himself as Batman.
She was more interested in showing Man's World--now called "Patriarch's World"--the benefits of Amazon philosophies: peace, love, mercy (and ass-kicking awesome)--than fighting crimes, although she'd certainly do it when the occasion called for it. She also doesn't really think of herself as a superhero: she came to Patriarch's World as an ambassador. Some people think that, being a kickass Amazon warrior is hypocritical for an ambassador of peace and love and mercy, but such people have a simplistic view of peace and war. Sometimes, warriors are needed to keep peace, to enforce peace. And when peace fails, who you gonna call?
Warriors. You call the warriors. That, uh, was where I was going with this.
Some people also think Wonder Woman is a flawed character because she's inherently sex material. Which is stupid. As I pointed out near the beginning, she certainly was there to titillate the reader, but she had many other aspects. She's no more inherently sex-objecty than she is inherently a caring, motherly figure, or a warrioress. So what if she exists because of her creator's kinky sex-life? Does that mean that women can't have a sexual identity? I thought that was one of the points of feminism!
I believe that there are no bad characters. And I don't think there are any bad character marks on Diana. She's a strong, confident, independent woman who takes her obligations and duties seriously. She's also a wise, caring, dignified woman with a quiet sense of humor and an acceptance of both her body figure and the effect said figure has on people. And she has a mission beyond simple cleaning up crime or saving the world from epic, cosmic threats (not that she can't do those things). In other words: she's a great character! Anyone who has any problems with any aspect of her character might want to look into their own gender issues before they cast aspersions upon her!
Is she perfect? Well . . . I don't see why she can't have a long-term love interest. Sometimes it could be read that only an unmarried woman, single woman can be a strong feminist ideal, and that's as stupid as saying all feminists must be lesbians, or that all penetrative sex is rape. And nowadays, she has a stupid secret identity that doesn't fit her characterization at all. Her "secret identity" should just be like how celebrities sometimes try to avoid paparazzi: frumpy jeans, t-shirt, a jacket, sunglasses, and a baseball cap. Sometimes, she should have the right to let her hair down and not have to live the role of ambassador, or princess, or Wonder Woman. And her role can be tightened up. See, Diana isn't a super hero. She can be plopped into super hero stories, but that's not her role. Superman's role is Protector, or maybe Savior. Batman's role is Detective, or maybe Avenger, or perhaps Crusader (as in Caped) would be better. Diana's role is CHAMPION. She sees injustice and disenfranchisement, and champions those people, so that they may flourish and thrive. Some people might think Superman can take that role, and sure, there's room for overlap. But Diana should be treated as an outsider who enters a situation to understand it, and comes out trying to show people the flaws in their system and possible solutions to make things better. Which can be really tricky in super hero comics, where status quo is sometimes more a powerful force than the heroes or villains. But I think it's that understanding that would be a wonderful drive for stories. And it could be a great way to educate the audience.
But be sure to remember: Diana isn't preachy. That's an annoying trait that she seems to have gained from one specific, prolific, writer at DC. Diana isn't someone who wants to make you different. She's accepting of people as they are more than any other fictional character! That's her thing, truth. She won't try to change you. If you're hurting people, she'll try to stop you. And if you want to be better, there's almost no one better to have run into you. But she's not the type to drone on and on about the benefits of her lifestyle. She'd rather show you the benefits of her lifestyle through her example, but without an patronization.
Aaron "The Mad Whitaker" Bourque; okay, and maybe she can cover a bit more of her skin. But then again, most of her bouts in her costume wouldn't amount to light workouts, for someone of her skill and power levels. When she needs armor, she's got access to it.