I'm Free
Last night it hit me. I don't have to write Wonder Woman.
(I mean, I know I have no discipline to write narrative, I've been thinking about this idly for over a decade & nothing has come from it or ever will. I knew that. No, something else.)
My Wondie-related ideas were always in a weird coexistence with the fact that I'm not that fond of standard Wonder Woman. I like the unconventional takes, the revisionist approaches--Sekowsky's Di Prince, the Byrne job at the museum, the Bolland costume redesign, Sheriff Prince from Justice Riders. Before I got into Wonder Woman (which was around the time of Amalgam--I was already an Ororo fan), I had a certain hostility toward the concept as I'd encountered it before--& parts of that hung on a long time. I think the tiara is ridiculous, the secret identity was handled badly, etc. There were parts I liked--the myth angle, the funky Roman bracelets, "Merciful Minerva". But Wondy in general bugged me; it was somehow defective as a franchise, & the sole token female-headed franchise at DC a long time.
I latched onto Byrne's take because it was Byrne, Mr Redefine-the-Premise-&-never-mind-the-previous-writer. I didn't care at the time that he killed half the Amazons (supposedly; none named). I'd never liked Paradise Island. I really got attached to the book after Cassie became Wonder Girl. This was the kind of myth-based heroine I wanted to see, rather than one tied into military motifs & gender feminism as Marston's was.
So if I were writing Wonder Woman, it would really be with an agenda--to somehow turn it into something else. To say to the fans of the way it was, "No, I'm taking your concept away from you, & reinventing it."
Well, isn't that a self-limiting paradox? I wanted to write Wonder Woman, but I wanted to change it. Get Diana some trouser legs, bring in some unexpected love interests, eventually push Di aside & make Donna or Cassie the star of the book--& fight against the purple ray (gag) & the spin (@_@) possibly futilely.
I realize belatedly this is insane. Just take the elements I like & make my own series around those.
I liked the Byrne run, & I could build a series around its premises [with some differences]: the museum, the custodian's kid who hangs around & gets in adventures, a [totally not-Amazon, mysterious] superheroine who was hired to deal with weirdness from dangerous artifacts [and maybe super-powered burglars]. DC's not doing anything like this now. But I could. I hashed this out in my head a little. I mostly just need names, & maybe to make the characters a little less similar just so they develop their own identities more.
So, yeah. Something to write that, while a bit derivative, would be my own. And I never have to get Jossed. Why not?
("...& I'm waiting for you to follow me")
(I mean, I know I have no discipline to write narrative, I've been thinking about this idly for over a decade & nothing has come from it or ever will. I knew that. No, something else.)
My Wondie-related ideas were always in a weird coexistence with the fact that I'm not that fond of standard Wonder Woman. I like the unconventional takes, the revisionist approaches--Sekowsky's Di Prince, the Byrne job at the museum, the Bolland costume redesign, Sheriff Prince from Justice Riders. Before I got into Wonder Woman (which was around the time of Amalgam--I was already an Ororo fan), I had a certain hostility toward the concept as I'd encountered it before--& parts of that hung on a long time. I think the tiara is ridiculous, the secret identity was handled badly, etc. There were parts I liked--the myth angle, the funky Roman bracelets, "Merciful Minerva". But Wondy in general bugged me; it was somehow defective as a franchise, & the sole token female-headed franchise at DC a long time.
I latched onto Byrne's take because it was Byrne, Mr Redefine-the-Premise-&-never-mind-the-previous-writer. I didn't care at the time that he killed half the Amazons (supposedly; none named). I'd never liked Paradise Island. I really got attached to the book after Cassie became Wonder Girl. This was the kind of myth-based heroine I wanted to see, rather than one tied into military motifs & gender feminism as Marston's was.
So if I were writing Wonder Woman, it would really be with an agenda--to somehow turn it into something else. To say to the fans of the way it was, "No, I'm taking your concept away from you, & reinventing it."
Well, isn't that a self-limiting paradox? I wanted to write Wonder Woman, but I wanted to change it. Get Diana some trouser legs, bring in some unexpected love interests, eventually push Di aside & make Donna or Cassie the star of the book--& fight against the purple ray (gag) & the spin (@_@) possibly futilely.
I realize belatedly this is insane. Just take the elements I like & make my own series around those.
I liked the Byrne run, & I could build a series around its premises [with some differences]: the museum, the custodian's kid who hangs around & gets in adventures, a [totally not-Amazon, mysterious] superheroine who was hired to deal with weirdness from dangerous artifacts [and maybe super-powered burglars]. DC's not doing anything like this now. But I could. I hashed this out in my head a little. I mostly just need names, & maybe to make the characters a little less similar just so they develop their own identities more.
So, yeah. Something to write that, while a bit derivative, would be my own. And I never have to get Jossed. Why not?
("...& I'm waiting for you to follow me")