CT: On The Developments in Wonder Woman

[espanolbot]

NSFW For Referencing a Person Who'd Require a NSFW wiki-search.

By Me


The new improved Etta appeared in the new issue of Justice League as Steve Trevor's assistant, who Priapus is and what he did in Ovid's Fasti do not bear repeating.

Comments

[jeyl]

So, to summarize the Amazons of this story...

- They're murdering psychopaths.
- They're too dumb to forge their own weapons.
- They're man haters to the nth degree.
- They can't produce a single independent thought that doesn't involve sex and/or violence.

The fact that Diana is the only reasonable character (to a degree) in this book adds another point to that list.

- Amazons cannot produce positive thinking individuals unless they have sex with a white male god from space.

Not only does this origin make Wonder Woman totally male dependent, but the main story line screams "Wonder Woman vs. the Female Gender!". She has no female allies outside of the damsel Zola who's pregnant with a son of all things, and Diana's number one villain is Hera, who's literal title is "Goddess of women". I do not understand how DC takes their signature female super hero and puts her in a world where all women are crazy and only men are the trustworthy good guys.

[jlbarnett]

to lazy to forge their own weapons. After all they didn't always trade the male babies for weapons, so they must have made them themselves back then

[akodo_rokku]

I don't think trading for weapons made by the *God Of Making Weapons* makes you dumb or lazy.

[golden_orange]

Yeah, that's kind of like saying you're lazy for buying a Ferrari instead of making one in your own garage.

[espanolbot]

Claiming that Diana is only who she is due to her (incredibly lousy) father is oversimplifying a tad isn't it? It totally ignores any personal character development that she'd have undergone as an individual, as well as free will and the fact that it implies that Diana can't be a good, freethinking person because that's who she is.

It's kind of like saying that the reason why the Batman antihero Anarky only wanted to bring down the establishment was entirely due to his biological father being the Joker, when he had his own socio-political ideas on the subject and only learned who his father is late in his own series.

Or it smacks of that unpleasant time in DC's history where everyone who is immediately related to one or more villains by blood are also evil be default, even if they've always attempted to be good before hand. For example, Cass Cain, Rose Wilson etc. etc.

And there are several other reasonable characters in the book, there is Hermes, Zola, what'shisname the Jason Stratham demigod bloke etc. etc.

And making Hera a villainess (or at least very, VERY shorttempered character) also isn't something new considering the mythology and protrayal in things such as Hercules' only legend. The fact that she's more in line with her mythological version IS somewhat new to the WW books though, as previously she's just been something of a stern influence in the background with Athena being the more forwardly mobile of the goddessses.

[md84]

Oh yeah, Hera is not a very nice goddess in the Greek Myths, and her harassing one of Zeus' children by other women is very much in-character.

If Diana being the daughter of Zeus really had any influence on her morality (and it doesn't), then she ought to be WORSE. Zeus could be a real jerk when it came to his pursuit of women and the occasional boy.

[espanolbot]

She'd be Wonder Woman as portrayed in All Star Batman.

[jeyl]

"Claiming that Diana is only who she is due to her (incredibly lousy) father is oversimplifying a tad isn't it?

Well, it's the sole reason why she's here in the first place, isn't it? Even Hippolyte made that point abundantly clear. And I don't see any other Amazons traveling to the man's world like Diana does.

"And there are several other reasonable characters in the book, there is Hermes, Zola, what'shisname the Jason Stratham demigod bloke etc. etc."

I never said there weren't any reasonable characters. I said that the only reasonable characters outside of Diana who can actually do anything are all men. The only other female character is Zola who is the damsel that must be protected and at this point needs rescuing. Basically, Wonder Woman is the only competent woman in this whole entire story who can actually do anything.

[tsunamiwombat]

I gotta concur with everyone else on the "god of making weapons" point, but completely agree with you otherwise. This is a complete subversion of everything Wonder Woman is supposed to be: feminine empowerment (this does not necessitate male de-powerment, it's just that it's supposed to be about WOMEN being AWESOME without men around to muck into it, an image of a utopian society free of patriarchy). The Amazons and Themyscara are -important- in that image because the original creator wanted to prove it didn't just work on a personal level, but on a societal level (the gentleman genuinely believed women would/should rule the world eventually) and because he felt a positive, nurturing environment was one of the great things matriarchal rule would provide society.

The DCnu Amazons aren't empowered, they're charictures, masculine nightmare scenario's in line with the ancient legends of Amazons as horrible monsters who are horrible because they're WOMEN WITHOUT A MAN TELLING THEM WHAT TO DO AHHH!

Aweful, aweful bullshit

[lascoden]

I don't see this as saying the Amazon's are bad because they don't have a man telling them what to do. I would say that in order to have that message, they would have to show that a patriarchal society would be better, which I don't really see anywhere in the story.

[tsunamiwombat]

It's not directly stated but that was always the insinuation in classical society - Amazons were a threat to masculinity by virtue of their independent agency.

It's not directly stated here either, but their greatest hero is such because she is the daughter of the ultimate abusive patriarchal figure, Zeus.