THOR’S COMIC COLUMN 1/27

Really had to fight my day job to get that Wonder Woman thing done, and it shows a bit, but damn do I love that series.

It was a good read.

Wonder Woman is one of the few DC characters I sort of half-heartedly follow, mostly due to the fascinating brand of sexual politics that gave birth to the character, and the weird machinations that has put subsequent creative teams through ever since. But after the last few reboots (and Amazons Attack!, for god's sake), I'd given up caring unless/until Grant Morrison's promised version materializes; I might have to check out Azzarello's, though.

Oh, and yes, I would probably buy Adam Hughes' All-Star Wonder Woman if he ever completed it. Not to say I'd necessarily read it, but I'd... um... check it out, at least.

Yeah, the sexual politics of Wonder Woman are fascinating, and it actually sounds like Azzarello is doing interesting things with her. In particular, I have to give big ups for retconning the "made of clay" thing and making her dad a god, which actually fits surprisingly well with the character as she's presented in the original origin story--the only difference is that it seems like Marston intended for Hercules to have been WW's father, as a consequence of his visit to the Amazons in the original myth. It's pretty blatantly obvious that he only came up with the "made of clay" thing because being born out of wedlock was probably seen as a little dodgy back in the late 30s, though you'd think even back then people would be familiar enough with the Greek myths to know just how sex-crazy they could get.

I've said it before, one potentially fascinating thing about Wonder Woman is that she's not a feminist superhero, really; she's a matriarchal one, which is a different kettle of fish. Rather than being in-your-face about it, she should simply have the underlying fascination with our world because "Oh, you let men run the place? That's wild!" It's almost coming from a position of "female privilege" if that makes any sense, but she's also trying to be accepting of other cultures and therefore respecting men, so a reversal of what we would think of as liberal values. Almost like an athropologist, and carrying with it a different set of values than Superman's "let me show you the way..." attitude. This would be a potentially great antidote to all the "strong female characters" bullshit in comics, though it would also require a writer capable of subtlety, so...

I also like the implication in the original stories that Wondy's less about throwing criminals in jail and preserving the status quo than she is about, potentially, reforming criminals. Through S & M. I mean, a lasso that forces you to tell the truth, that's almost like a kind of hardcore therapy.

Yeah, in case it isn't obvious, I'd really like to write a Wonder Woman story.

Also, I didn't realize Truman and Giarello were still doing Conan; I would have thought they were clearing the decks for the Brian Wood/Becky Cloonan version coming later (that's the creative team that's taking over the book, right?) I found Truman's version of Conan too stolid, too much a straight adaptation of Howard after Busiek's exciting take which wove the classic stories in with an original storyline. I think Truman's too much an old-school guy, and Conan needs a fresh take from the current generation (and yes, I'm aware that Busiek has been writing comics for decades, but he's still more of a "new generation" guy than Truman, to me). I'm really excited to see the Wood/Cloonan version for that reason.

Quote:

Originally Posted by The Prankster 

Yeah, the sexual politics of Wonder Woman are fascinating, and it actually sounds like Azzarello is doing interesting things with her. In particular, I have to give big ups for retconning the "made of clay" thing and making her dad a god, which actually fits surprisingly well with the character as she's presented in the original origin story--the only difference is that it seems like Marston intended for Hercules to have been WW's father, as a consequence of his visit to the Amazons in the original myth. It's pretty blatantly obvious that he only came up with the "made of clay" thing because being born out of wedlock was probably seen as a little dodgy back in the late 30s, though you'd think even back then people would be familiar enough with the Greek myths to know just how sex-crazy they could get.

 

I've said it before, one potentially fascinating thing about Wonder Woman is that she's not a feminist superhero, really; she's a matriarchal one, which is a different kettle of fish. Rather than being in-your-face about it, she should simply have the underlying fascination with our world because "Oh, you let men run the place? That's wild!" It's almost coming from a position of "female privilege" if that makes any sense, but she's also trying to be accepting of other cultures and therefore respecting men, so a reversal of what we would think of as liberal values. Almost like an athropologist, and carrying with it a different set of values than Superman's "let me show you the way..." attitude. This would be a potentially great antidote to all the "strong female characters" bullshit in comics, though it would also require a writer capable of subtlety, so...

 

I also like the implication in the original stories that Wondy's less about throwing criminals in jail and preserving the status quo than she is about, potentially, reforming criminals. Through S & M. I mean, a lasso that forces you to tell the truth, that's almost like a kind of hardcore therapy.

 

Yeah, in case it isn't obvious, I'd really like to write a Wonder Woman story.

And now for a timely reply.

I think that Azzarello wants to put Wonder Woman on the same plain as Hercules, hence her being a daughter of Zeus. This puts her in the same position as Hercules and Perseus, they're mortal sons of Zeus who Hera ends up hounding. The characterization of Hera here is really intriguing, too. She's not so much malicious as much as she is acting according to her nature, possibly not so much as a woman but more according to her divinity.

But he's not making Wonder Woman a matriarchal hero, or at least not interpreting her that way. If anything he's made her an outsider to both her native culture and our own. The Amazons here are almost villains, actually. One of the emerging themes seems to be of forming family and bonds outside of "normal" family, if that makes sense. WW's involved with this band of misfits (Hermes, a young woman pregnant with a child of Zeus, and a British son of Zeus) after the Amazons turn their backs on her, and that seems to be where she's forging her identity. Azzarello's story is much more of an individual sexual journey than a politicized one.

There's definitely some interesting scenes here and there that I can't wait to see pay off. Hera's murder (?) of Hippolyta is a particularly rich one.

Oh, and the last bit of your post made think of an idea for a Wonder Woman story where there's a crime ring that she can't put down, and it just keeps getting bigger and bigger. They end up being Wonder Woman fetishists who join up with this mafia so that they can be punished. I think there was a bit in Watchmen that riffed on that idea, but it actually fits well with a more "classical" version of Wonder Woman.