Big news for our Amazon Princess

[abriel]

So not sure who hasn't heard by now but Wonder Woman is getting a Daddy and it is none other than the Big Kahuna of the Olympian pantheon himself.

I'm not totally sure how I feel about this.

On the one hand, it seems like a push to turn Diana into just a female version of Hercules. It wouldn't be much of a stretch to say that the whole reason Hera has a hate on for her now is that she's one of Zeus's illegitimate kids and therefore she's now the target for the goddess of marriage's vengeance, just like with Herc.

The whole child of Zeus thing has been kind of done to death too. I mean I know the guy gets around but I don't know, it just seems overdone. I might have preferred for her father to be Hades or something (Ares would have been a little too creepy).

On the other I think that her having a dad will, I don't know, make her seem a little more grounded? The whole fatherless from clay bit always seemed to make her a little too Messiah-like, a little too Up There. Also I have faith that Azzarello will do good things with this and won't turn her into a whiny angsty teen with daddy issues.

I don't know. I'm mixed really. Thoughts?

Legality, cover for WW #5:




Insert Hentai/tentacle porn jokes in 3....2....

Comments

[brooms]

i was wondering when this would show up here. so much wank already over the "everybody has a father".

[brooms]

interesting pov from one of the wanky places, btw:

"Something Brian Azzarello said in the interview is, to me, very revealing. He says:

"Everybody's got a father."

My interpretation of that--and I might be reading way too much into it (and I'm sure some of you won't have any problem in telling me that )--is "The only way most men, including me, can relate to this character is if we can somehow ensure that we're not excluded from her power; that we are, in fact, responsible for it."

Part of what made Wonder Woman original, part of what made her an enduring feminist icon was that she was created and nurtured without male interference. Now? She's just a modern day Hercules with a hint of Buffy the Vampire Slayer thrown in for good measure. Her messianic, transformative characteristics are all but obliterated now.

Ah well. I guess what should count our blessings that DC let her get away with her subversive aspects for this long."

i'm not into wondie, but i had never thought of it this way. very cool.

[crabby_lioness]

I don't like it, but I can live with it.

And I can't blame Hippolyte at all for wanting to hide that fact. Ick!

[jlbarnett]

If there's a Wonder with Zeus as a father Cassie Sandsmark is enough.

But honestly "everyone has a father" Greek mythology has characters without fathers and right now DC is PUBLISHING another character without a father, one Frankenstein.

[thokstar]

Frankenstein's monster has a father. He's just a nontraditional father who neglected him because of a really bad case of postpartum depression.

[valtyr]

THIS MAKES ME ANGRY

[valtyr]

Look, I'm just saying, a guy who steeples his fingers and stares at Wonder Woman's origin

what is missing here

And then he snaps his fingers all GOT IT

NEEDS MORE DUDES

I don't think he really did get it at all.

If you want to rip off Hercules, make Diana a hard-drinking bisexual seducer who travels around having hilarious misadventures that still have emotional depth okay. Or just get Greg Pak to write her, I'm down with that too.

[ian_karkull]

I'm rolling my eyes a little at retooling Wonder Woman's origin yet again, but honestly.. I kind of prefer this option to the original.
"Magical Princess Made From Clay" might be a little confusing and/or off-putting to people not already familiar with the trappings of classic mythology or the weirdness that is commonplace for comics. A demi-goddess is a much more readily accessible concept.
Personally, I would have made her the daughter of Ares though. to keep and highlight the contrast between Diana's mission as an emissary of peace and man's violent nature. But that's just me.

[abriel]

See I thought of Ares too but then I got to thinking that in the mythology he's Hippolyta's father and, well, ew....

(Course then Zeus is her grandfather, so...you know what, I'm just not going to think about it)

[kirke_novak]

She should have been the daughter of Ares and Joxer. Or Stryfe and Cupid. Just saying.

/old fandom love

[abriel]

Wondy the Mighty, take off and flighty, smashin' through the countryside, got my plane goin' for a ride...


Ah, damn it. Hope you're happy :P

[omgwtflolbbqbye]

I would have preferred Ares as the father and Athena still as Diana's main patron.

But then I wonder what he means by father. Are we keeping the clay origin and they're going to say Zeus helped Hyppolyta shape Diana like she did with Hades in the DCAU, or is it just going to be Zeus and Hyppolyta had sex then Diana was born from her womb?

Either way though, I feel like we'll be seeing a new version of Hercules for Diana to fight soon...

[darkknightjrk]

I think Zeus having a hand in the clay is possible--especially since the cover for #3 is a statue of Diana cracked to pieces. Azzarello's always been a bit hyperbolic in his description of things.

Plus, doesn't the clay origin typically use lightning to strike life into the mold? Making Zeus be the sole person might make more sense, since throwing lightning's kinda his shtick, and having it being one man strike the seed of life to create a child has a bit more narrative weight.

Yes, in this interpretation, the lightning would sorta be his penis.

[espanolbot]

Hahaha.

Man, this makes Hercules' advances on Diana even more uncomfortable then they were already. Though that was a guy who tried to get Cassie Sandsmark to marry him and start a new Greek Pantheon in her Countdown tie-in mini series, on the basis that their father's side of the family is a huge incestuous mess so them getting together would be okay.

Though it makes ZZeus' unwanted advances on Diana early in her post-CoIE series even more creepy. XP

[shadowpsykie]

that is both funny and creepy... i mean i remember that scene from the Wonder girl mini and her reaction was my reaction!

i mean its one thing to hear about it in myth its another for the myth to come to you ask you to make babies with it....

[drexer]

Not a big fan of the change on a first reaction basis. But seeing how much I LOVED Wonder Woman #1, I'll be waiting for the issue to talk about it more clearly.

[darkknightjrk]

"Insert Hentai/tentacle porn jokes in 3....2...."

I didn't think of that. My mind went to: "After finding out that he is the baby daddy, Zeus tried to cover the evidence by releasing the Kraken."

[nezchan]

Calamari for everyone!

[auggie18]

Zeus? Really? There are gods outside of the standard Zeus/Hades/Ares/Sometimes-Poseidon-but-not-very-often, y'know. If she simply just must have a father, why not make her dad Apollo? Or, hell, Dionysus. That could be fun. Maybe even make things super weird and have her father be Steve Trevor?


Whatever. I thought her Pygmalion origin was cooler than "lol demi-god," but whatever.

[misterbug]

WHELMED.

It's neither a here nor there issue. It's not tremendously out-of-character for Zeus to have fathered a badass kid, but it's not a gigantically shocking plot twist, hence their passivity over releasing the news via a minor comics news website.

Myself, I'd have gone with Hepheastus. Not only does he have a history of having trouble with women in the mythology - thus connecting him thematically to Wondy's actual creator - but he's also the God of making things, adding credence to the story of her being constructed from clay, and they could have Daddy-Daughter bonding time over testing the weapons and armour he's constructed for her.

[omgwtflolbbqbye]

So Diana could sort of be the Greek Pantheon's Weapon Plus project?

I would like to see Hephaestus and/or Io acting like Diana's Q for whatever version of the mythology though.

[sherkahn]

I'm no longer invested in DCnU, so I am glad that this turn of events barely turns my stomach instead of of causing a wretch-fest.

Hades being her potential father, on the other hand, had a lot more possiblity, especially in the DCAU.

[drmcninja]

That would've been awesome. This, this is boring and unecessary. Way to go, DC.

[thefiretonight]

I wonder if this had anything to do with Cassie's origin being changed if they didn't want them to be [half] siblings...

[eyz]

So...when are we finally be getting back to the continuation to George Perez/John Byrne/Greck Rucka/Gail Simone's Wonder Woman?

-sigh-

[icon_uk]

Really? Of all the things to change? Wonder Woman needs a Dad?

Don't get me wrong, I like fathers, I have enormous respect for them as a group as I know it's a job I would suck at beyond the imagining, and my own Dad remains my benchmark for what it really means to act like a man.

But in terms of Wonder Woman? I always like the weirdness of the Pygmalion variation, and the notion that Zeus was the most original thing they could think of? That just strikes me as..... painfully unimaginative. It's been done, many, many times, even the "Percy Jackson" books didn't choose Zeus as the father of the protagonist.

If I HAD to go that way as a plot, I like the notion of her being the child of Aphrodite and Haephestus; the goddess of love, and the armourer god would make for an interesting dichotomy.

[marco]

This.

And as much respect as I have for fathers (and love other peoples' and claim their's as my own), not everyone actually has a father in their life, and that's a way they could play with that aspect, but I like that she doesn't need or have a father.

But that's a cool idea~.

[long_silence]

So Wonder Woman needs a father in order to be relatable but Superboy doesn't need a mother?

[runespoor]

^ This.

[fifthie]

Oh look, some more 90s.

[fifthie]

I mean not that I blame most people for forgetting the five entire minutes where Hercules was her dad, cause of how fucking stupid and terrible it was

[cypherfdp]

For a second, I thought that tentacle was seriously going the way of hentai. Look at its position. LOOK AT IT.

[pyrotwilight]

Seems a weird way to go for a Wonder Woman story. I thought it was weird for Kratos too in God of War (mostly cause it just seemed cheap but I digress) but it's even weirder for this to be done to an already established character like Wonder Woman.

And why Zeus of all people? Does this mean Donna will similarly be another of his children so that the entire Wonder trio can be literal sisters?

[fredneil.livejournal.com]

Trio? Does that mean Wonder Tot is back in continuity?

Ok, I know it doesn't, but if they're going to bring back Silver Age stuff. I want the fun, wacked-out Silver Age. Wonder Tot. Inferior Five. Super-Hip.

[violetclm.livejournal.com]

Hey, it's Wonder Women vs. a Gyarados.

[pyrotwilight]

NOOOOO MR. FISHHHHHHHH

[shadowpsykie]

i don't like this turn... but i don't hate it... not yet... Wonder Woman # was AMAZON-ing! so i am willing to give this a chance... more reserved than before, but if the story is good its staying on my pull list... i REALLY hope being Zeus' daughter is only incidental and NOT going to be a main story point (unless it turns it he really isnt...)

[an_idol_mind]

I don't think it will wreck Diana as a character, but I think it's a bad idea. One of the interesting thing about Diana is that she's a female superhero born from a female world. I like her made of clay origin better than her being yet another child of Zeus.

I guess it's worth noting that I'm a male who happens to be a dad and who loves his own dad, and I have never had a problem identifying with Wonder Woman despite the fact that on a superficial level she has very little in common with me.

DCnU + pre-1980 sexism!

[blue_bolt]

I've now read half of the new 52. I've got to say that there seems to quite a bit of regression. Here's the thing, I get that comic book artists like drawing naked women - fine (JUST GET RID OF THE BLOOD HIGH HEELS!) but I can't stomach the whole *women need men more than men need women*. I've had female commanding officers and female subordinates and they're every bit as competent.

This whole - Dina's father is Zeus bugs me for a whole different reason: this is Cassandra Sandmark's father, not Donna's! It's not that I'm opposed to changing the whole "made from clay" thing, it's that I don't like that rather than coming up with a new idea they've just stolen from the most recent Wonder Girl. This isn't DCnU WW, this is DCnU Wonderwoman Girl.

[mullon]

All I can think is of is how pissed Kratos is going to be to find out he has someone else to fight.

[thanekos]

The lasso-themed button-mashing kill will be something to see, though.