Fresh in my mind from seeing the Dark Knight Rises, which was everything I'd hoped it would be and more, and also watching the new Superman trailer, I know that if DC is going to get it together and have a "Justice League" movie, they're finally going to have to do justice to the other member of the big three of DC's trinity, Wonder Woman. It's long since passed time for a writer and director who take the character seriously to take the helm. I have been comic book fan from way back when my dad would buy and let me read his Silver Age Comics as a kid, to when I graduated to contemporary comics at 13 when I picked up the George Perez Wonder Woman.
The Perez Wonder Woman changed the way I saw and thought about not only comics, but my world view. To date, no one has done the character anything like justice to her origins since the reboot that ended the Silver Age outside of the cartoon movie. This is worse than pathetic.
Joss Whedon looked like the best shot for a film, but all the fans new there was trouble in paradise when Whedon started complaining that Wonder Woman didn't have any good villains, like Batman, or Superman.
Excuse me, all the fans were thinking. Ares, God of War, not a good villain?
Mythology is at an all time high popular in American culture. The entire Greek pantheon of Gods -- Circe, the Furies, Athena, Zeus, Gaia -- get involved in the Wonder Woman story.
What about, Cheetah, scientist Barbara Minerva, who has to serve a vicious god?
The Silver Swan?
The other Amazons, the Bana-Migdhall, who were exiled,
and become a major source of contention for Diana and her sisters?
The actual villains of both Superman and Batman are idealogies they fight. Lex Luthor symbolizes corporate greed and American capitalism values gone to deadly extremes, and the Joker symbolizes chaos. Wonder Woman's similar ideaologies that she fights, and what she stands for have been the real problem for the directors and writers who've taken Wonder Woman on in the passed 15 years. It seems these professionals, do not
have the chutzpah to take on Wonder Woman's real villain, "the man" otherwise known as chauvinists, sexists and dictators everywhere, who want to keep women and humanity from achieving their potential for peace. Diana is like Superman in that she's sent here as a potential messiah -- a female one -- with a message of love. One of the upshots of writing Wonder Woman, is her wry sense of humor, as she finds much of what goes on in our world absurd. Unlike Kalel, Clark, she was not raised in this world. She is the divine, the magical, where Superman and Batman are the male epitomes of the Age of Reason, its light and dark sides, that have brought us the modern world, the enlightenment. And I think possibly this is the hardest part of dealing with Wonder Woman's character. Is our world ready for a female messiah figure??? There have been plenty of movies with female messianic type characters, as well as heroes.
As a woman living in today's world, who is a mother and knows what is like to live int his world, I'd say it's time to realize some other things about the character that would make her more appealing today. Wonder Woman is pure of heart, but she's also a sexual being. Show her as a responsible woman of high principals who, being in the world of men, has to learn how to deal with that in a realistic way, while still being true to herself. That would make her both a hero, great role model and very human. So go ahead, add in some romantic elements for Diana.
Part of what makes Wonder Woman so dynamic and interesting of course, is that, like Batman and Superman, and any great hero is that she has contradictions and paradoxes within her character. For instance, she was created, as an Amazon, to be a peaceful worshiper of the gods, for Love, yet, the Amazons were also created and trained as warriors. Diana is sent to our world as an ambassador with the Amazon's way of life, and must learn to adapt to living here. The Perez run was true to Wonder Woman's roots, and did not shy away from the tragedy, the nitty gritty. It is more in vein with what DC has done with Batman and now with Superman.
If a director like Jane Campion was entrusted with Wonder Woman, someone who took the feminist aspect of Wonder Woman seriously, and also knew how to make a great movie, were at the helm, I think we could be assured Diana would finally get the movie she deserved.
The actress playing Wonder Woman has to look like a graceful, beautiful warrior, with statuesque features, a goddess,
it -- not a slender super model who would break in a fight, or I'm not buying it.Whatever actress they pick, has to be someone who really can make us believe she's from an island raised by only women, who's never seen a man in her life till she comes here. Someone who can strive side by side with the rest of the Trinity. We need Wonder Woman more than ever in some ways. I hope to see a movie that is worthy of a great character who has inspired more great characters in fiction, and women in real life to fight for their rights.
