Just a little Dinah/Diana sparring scene from Birds of Prey #68 that makes me happy. Because I need something to take my mind off the colossal awful that Azzarello is inflicting on Wondy.
Well, that I disagree with - if anything, Azzarello's portrayal of Amazons merely reflects Greco-Roman misogyny by presenting a society that, at least thus far, appears to be universally violent, man-hating and barbaric. And with Diana (the demigod daughter of a white male deity who represents, among other things, masculine power) apparently the only member of that society to reject those practices... at the moment, at least to me, Azzarello's Amazons are reeking of straw feminism and ugly stereotype. When you've got a group of characters you feel is almost universally wonderful and they need to be brought down to earth, the answer is not to make them almost universally reprehensible.
But again, he's not building on existing canon to explore darker themes, he's totally recreating Amazon society.
Take, by contrast, another writer who explored a darker facet of Amazonian society by building on something we already knew: Gail Simone, in The Circle, took the well-known story of Diana's birth and asked the question, what if not everybody on Themyscira welcomed Hippolyta's daughter? What if, rather than seeing Diana as a miracle, some Amazons saw her as a monster; a clay-forged abomination created in some unnatural ritual, who threatened to tear their people apart? She created a group of characters fanatically loyal to their queen and determined to protect her at all costs, whose hatred of the child Diana was unfounded but entirely understandable.
The Circle enhances Diana's story by fleshing out Amazonian society: these women may be immortal, but they are human, with human fears and failings. And while they may have lived in relative peace for centuries, they are not a utopia, and isolation breeds its own set of issues. And we see that these women are individuals with their own ideas and agendas, their own beliefs about what is best for Themyscira.
I would love to see more of that - writers developing the factions and individuals within the society, exploring its politics, exploring the impact of Themyscira's strangely isolated existence, the drawbacks of immortality, the dangers of cultural stagnation, the existence of views and traditions that may not necessarily match up with Diana's values or our own. Azzarello's not done that; yes, he's exploring problems with the society, but it's a society he has totally recreated, erasing all of the Amazons' rich backstory.
![[personal profile]](http://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
![[community profile]](http://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/community.png){kind=small}
no subject
But again, he's not building on existing canon to explore darker themes, he's totally recreating Amazon society.
Take, by contrast, another writer who explored a darker facet of Amazonian society by building on something we already knew: Gail Simone, in The Circle, took the well-known story of Diana's birth and asked the question, what if not everybody on Themyscira welcomed Hippolyta's daughter? What if, rather than seeing Diana as a miracle, some Amazons saw her as a monster; a clay-forged abomination created in some unnatural ritual, who threatened to tear their people apart? She created a group of characters fanatically loyal to their queen and determined to protect her at all costs, whose hatred of the child Diana was unfounded but entirely understandable.
The Circle enhances Diana's story by fleshing out Amazonian society: these women may be immortal, but they are human, with human fears and failings. And while they may have lived in relative peace for centuries, they are not a utopia, and isolation breeds its own set of issues. And we see that these women are individuals with their own ideas and agendas, their own beliefs about what is best for Themyscira.
I would love to see more of that - writers developing the factions and individuals within the society, exploring its politics, exploring the impact of Themyscira's strangely isolated existence, the drawbacks of immortality, the dangers of cultural stagnation, the existence of views and traditions that may not necessarily match up with Diana's values or our own. Azzarello's not done that; yes, he's exploring problems with the society, but it's a society he has totally recreated, erasing all of the Amazons' rich backstory.
(no subject)
(no subject)
(no subject)