"My problem with Wonder Woman was that I could never get myself to believe she was that good. For if she was as strong as they said, why wasn’t she tougher looking? Why wasn’t she bigger? Why was she so flat-chested? And why did I always feel that, whatever her vaunted Amazon power, she wouldn’t have lasted a round with Sheena, Queen of the Jungle?
"No, Wonder Woman seemed like too much of a put-up job, a fixed comic strip—a product of group thinking rather than the individual inspiration that created Superman. It was obvious from the start that a bunch of men got together in a smoke-filled room and brain-stormed themselves a Super Lady....I see now that my objection is just the opposite of Wertham's: Wonder Woman wasn't dykey enough."
—Jules Feiffer, The Great Comic Book Heroes
I would encourage everyone to read Micheal Chabon's essay on why he loves Big Barda, wherein he picks at some of the reasons Wonder Woman doesn't make sense. http://web.archive.org/web/20060326233017/www.michaelchabon.com/archives/2005/03/a_woman_of_valo.html
ReplyDeleteI would probably like Wonder Woman a good deal more if she was treated like any other second- or third-string character. DC's insistance that she's part of a "Trinity" alongside the World's Finest makes her seem Mary Sue-ish.
Eh, the link didn't copy over.
ReplyDeletehttp://web.archive.org/web/20060326233017/www.michaelchabon.com/archives/2005/03/a_woman_of_valo.html
I think the problem with WW is that she has such a fantastic history, but is embarrassingly easy to screw up or not get or draw looking like Courteney Cox. One reason the New Frontier movie was so great is that she's a big, tough lady, taller than Superman. Which she would be. She shouldn't be second tier, but creators have a way of fitting her into a second-tier mold. Which is why Gail Simone is getting such huge kudos right now (but I still think the artist is making her look too much like Courteney Cox).
ReplyDeleteI'd never really thought about the Courtney Cox thing, but now I'll have trouble not seeing it.
ReplyDeleteDamn you Evie!
Wonder Woman is flat-chested? My God.
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