The Wondermarriage that almost was

[cardinalximenez]

Gail Simone recently revealed one of the storylines she wanted to do during her run on Wonder Woman, but didn`t get to do, and if you´re like me, you´ll both be happy and angry at what could have been. Gails post at the CBR Wonder Woman forums:

"The idea was that the Nemesis thing was never going to work out, as I've talked about before. But at the end of the Genocide story, Zeus was going to remove Hippolyta from the throne, and insist that Diana be queen of the Amazons (something Diana objected to, but not Hippolyta).

Hippolyta, freed from her position and able to finally follow her heart, presents the apricot and the bracelet of thorns to Phillipus, proposing marriage to her, now that she is no longer Queen. After the ritual, she looks up at a stunned Phillipus and says, "This is three thousand years overdue."

It's the one scene that it's killing me that I didn't get to write. We had tentative approval, but then not. I suspect it's because they were talking with a new writer and didn't want to hand him that kind of change in the status quo. But I think it would have been lovely, hugely important for the mythos, and a very humane thing to say about the Amazons and Hippolyta.

Of all the regrets I have about WW, that's the biggest."

I made a post asking if we were to consider Hippolyta/Phillipus a canon couple then, but she has yet to reply, and in the meantime the thread has evolved into a somewhat homophobic debate about how Hippolyta likes men and therefore cannot like women too, and suggesting that the amazons have relationships with each other undermines them as characters. *sigh* Guess I should post the scan of the amazon telling a foreign visitor that most of the amazons have hooked up with each other. Anyway, for legality, the Hippolyta/Phillipus scene that started it all:

Comments

[shadowpsykie]

really because a group of warriors could only be in love with the opposite sex... i mean to be gay would undermine thier efficiency... look at the Spartans, aint no Pansies there......
.....
.....

would have LOVED to have seen that story....

[fifthie]

What are you talking about the Spartans were totally straight.

Straight and shirtless and well-oiled and

~

what were we talking about again ATHENIANS

those LIBERAL ATHENIAN BOYLOVERS yeah man hate those guys

[pyrotwilight]

Heard of it before, sucks, would've been interesting to see actually happen.

[comicoz]

"...how Hippolyta likes men and therefore cannot like women too, and suggesting that the amazons have relationships with each other undermines them as characters..."

I said "why" like 5 times reading that sentence. The paranoia of homophobic people is one of those things I'll never understand.

[shadowpsykie]

*sigh* apparently they never heard of Bisexuals, also shes a Queen, as per fitting her station, a Queen is supposed to have an Hier (at least traditionally)

[janegray]

Bisexuality doesn't exist. Duh.


It hurt to type that.

[joasakura]

I would have LOVED to have read that story :wibble:

[hw221.myopenid.com]

I thought most of the Amazons, on the whole, *didn't* like men. In general, I mean. I thought that was their thing.
Or have I just missed far more than I thought I did? (In which case, damn my lack of car/job/near-by comic shop/driver's license/knowledge of this community's existence since it got kicked off LJ.)

[crinos]

Well sure, they're a culture of warrior women who shun men, to the point that they forbid men from even stepping foot on their island, but that doesn't mean they're GAY. Why even Amazons bow to the all mighty penis *rolls eyes*

Besides, wasn't it already kind of hinted that the Amazons swung that way in the JL story where J'onn went undercover as a girl?

[thebigapricot]

Well I certainly don't have any questions about them.

[turtlefu]

I always thought Phillipus was really young, younger than Wondy.
I wonder if that means Wondy is bi?

[korvarthefox.livejournal.com]

Aren't all the Themysciran Amazons the same age? As in, three thousand years or so? wonder woman's the only one with an age worth measuring in mere decades.

Have to say, Hippolyta doesn't look a day over two thousand three hundred and fifty.

[aaron_bourque]

From: [personal profile] turtlefu
I always thought Phillipus was really young, younger than Wondy.

In the seventies, it was at least once implied that Wondy was bi, because "They don't call it Paradise Island for nothing," but she still was famously linked to Steve Trevor.

Aaron "The Mad Whitaker" Bourque; and by "famously linked," I mean doing it.

[psychopathicus_rex]

I'm pretty certain that Phillipus has been serving Hippolyta faithfully for several thousand years now.

[aaron_bourque]

Wait, Gail Simone would have done something gay-positive? But she totally killed her own gay character in another title! She can't possibly have had any inkling of doing anything gay-positive! It must be a different Gail Simone!

[korvarthefox.livejournal.com]

Gay-il Simone?

[valtyr]

That would have been nice. :/ Oh well.

[greenmask]

Yes, wouldn't it?

[blackruzsa]

On another note, I thought Amazonians killed the men who sire their children.
Or maybe that was just a Marvel joke.

Anyways, obviously, the homophobic people aren't very history-oriented. Or smart, for that matter.

[q99]

Not DC Amazons, but possibly others do.

[q99]

Hm, considering that JMS is apparently doing a "No Amazons" story, perhaps this is for the best. It's one thing to shuffle them aside now, but it'd be worse to do it right after a high-profile gay marriage. That'd really set up a storm.

[sailorlibra]

Hippolyta/Phillipus would have been okay, but I wouldn't have enjoyed Diana being queen. It's extremely unlikely that she would have stayed queen past Gail's run, anyway, which would have... Why can't Hippolyta and Phillipus just get together anyway? Most queens are allowed to marry.

[perletwo]

Waitasec, I'm confused. I thought the apricot/thorn bracelet ritual marked the beginning of a courtship. Is it actually a marriage or engagement ritual?

[psychopathicus_rex]

Would it make a difference in this case? I think the inference is that while Hippolyta was queen, she could not in all fairness pursue a love life - she was charged with ruling over the Amazons and keeping the peace amongst them, and she must concentrate on that above all else. Once that burden is taken from her, however, she's basically going 'what say we skip the formalities? We've known each other for several thousand years now, we know each other about as well as it's possible for two people to know each other already, so why waste time? Wanna get married?'

[psychopathicus_rex]

Well, THAT would have been daring, all right. Nice job chickening out, DC.

[lieut_kettch]

Whew... for a moment there I thought Polly was gonna propose to Ted Grant.

[liara_shadowsong]

I dunno about the Diana as queen part of the proposed storyline, but I totally ship Hippolyta and Phillipus.