Earth-2 Wonder Woman: Before and After
Feb. 29th, 2012 10:22 am![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
aeka posting in ![[community profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/community.png){kind=small}
scans_dailySame fashion as my last post, low and behold the NuEarth-2 Wonder Woman.
During the Golden Age of comics, the first incarnation of Wonder Woman started off as the Amazonian WWII heroine who later became a member of the Justice Society of America, and was one of a few attempts of the then infant comic industry to acquire a female audience. She was also (iirc) the comic industry's first attempt at establishing a feminist-type character, despite not really understanding the idea behind feminism, let alone yet how to portray it. They do at least get points for trying.
When DC established the multiverse in the 1960s, the Golden Age Wonder Woman was shown to have aged, semi-retired from superheroics, and even married her love interest, Steve Trevor with whom she had a daughter, Lyta, who later became Fury on the world that became known as Earth-2.
Then of course, Crisis on Infinite Earths wiped all of that away, and Golden Age Wondy disappeared permanently during the events of Infinite Crisis.
so what changed with NuEarth-2 Wondy? In two words: PLENTY MORE!
“Due the events that open the saga of EARTH 2, Wonder Woman is already the last Amazon of this world and she is determined to avenge her sisters…at whatever cost,” said EARTH 2 writer James Robinson.
“How did Wonder Woman come to be the last of the Amazons?” asks EARTH 2 editor Pat McCallum. “It’s one of the mysteries we’ll be getting into with the series. While there will be recognizable faces and settings on EARTH 2, don’t for a moment think you’re on familiar ground. Do that, and you let your guard down…and then you’ll end up like the rest of the Amazons.”
Translation: Earth-2 is increasingly becoming darker-post-apocalyptic-type place than the main DCU Earth, where this world's Trinity have more tragic pasts, subsequently leading to a darker take on their characters.
At this rate if Earth-2 Wondy and Bats are angrier, more violent versions of the main DCU characters, I'm betting Earth-2 Superman is equally angrier and violent over the loss of Krypton. Not sure if I like. :/
During the Golden Age of comics, the first incarnation of Wonder Woman started off as the Amazonian WWII heroine who later became a member of the Justice Society of America, and was one of a few attempts of the then infant comic industry to acquire a female audience. She was also (iirc) the comic industry's first attempt at establishing a feminist-type character, despite not really understanding the idea behind feminism, let alone yet how to portray it. They do at least get points for trying.
When DC established the multiverse in the 1960s, the Golden Age Wonder Woman was shown to have aged, semi-retired from superheroics, and even married her love interest, Steve Trevor with whom she had a daughter, Lyta, who later became Fury on the world that became known as Earth-2.
Then of course, Crisis on Infinite Earths wiped all of that away, and Golden Age Wondy disappeared permanently during the events of Infinite Crisis.
so what changed with NuEarth-2 Wondy? In two words: PLENTY MORE!
“Due the events that open the saga of EARTH 2, Wonder Woman is already the last Amazon of this world and she is determined to avenge her sisters…at whatever cost,” said EARTH 2 writer James Robinson.
“How did Wonder Woman come to be the last of the Amazons?” asks EARTH 2 editor Pat McCallum. “It’s one of the mysteries we’ll be getting into with the series. While there will be recognizable faces and settings on EARTH 2, don’t for a moment think you’re on familiar ground. Do that, and you let your guard down…and then you’ll end up like the rest of the Amazons.”
Translation: Earth-2 is increasingly becoming darker-post-apocalyptic-type place than the main DCU Earth, where this world's Trinity have more tragic pasts, subsequently leading to a darker take on their characters.
At this rate if Earth-2 Wondy and Bats are angrier, more violent versions of the main DCU characters, I'm betting Earth-2 Superman is equally angrier and violent over the loss of Krypton. Not sure if I like. :/
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Date: 2012-02-29 04:34 pm (UTC)don't think i dislike this... but it could go horribly wrong... that said, i have liked Justice league and... Huntress... so i am willing to see where this is going... there is STILL a trinity, so maybe there in lies the hope...
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Date: 2012-02-29 04:40 pm (UTC)I can understand going the grim and gritty route with Huntress and Batman since that's part of their world, but I'm not sure about extending that over to the rest of Earth-2's heroes.
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Date: 2012-02-29 05:12 pm (UTC)No other Amazons, though? They're usually a part of Diana's story that IS interesting.
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Date: 2012-02-29 06:51 pm (UTC)just because there are no amazons besides her does not mean they will not figure into the story, or her life greatly.
also, i actually LOVED some of the Flashpoint storis Batman Flashpoing FTW!
but i get what people's issues are though...
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Date: 2012-03-01 03:02 am (UTC)no subject
Date: 2012-02-29 09:45 pm (UTC)We do get a little bit of confirmation of that in this week's Justice League. After Batman rescues Superman from a torture chamber, Superman, in mild shock, says to Batman: "They images they pumped into my brain. The death and torture Darkseid's spread across a...multiverse. I think I saw...me."
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Date: 2012-02-29 05:26 pm (UTC)ALTERNATE PUNCHLINE: Krypton and the Waynes killed each other in a gun fight.
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Date: 2012-02-29 05:41 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2012-02-29 06:19 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2012-03-01 04:07 am (UTC)no subject
Date: 2012-02-29 06:18 pm (UTC)Vengeful alt-wondies seem pretty common (Flashpoint, and even Odyssey to an extent), I would call it familiar ground.
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Date: 2012-02-29 06:53 pm (UTC)....people actually read Odyssey? how do you do it... my eyes start to bleed imediately and my brain begins to ooze.... you are a stronger being than I....
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Date: 2012-02-29 08:57 pm (UTC)The last 2-3~ issues were proper Wonder Woman again.
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Date: 2012-02-29 09:00 pm (UTC)oh yeah i liked the Odyssey arch. Hester's more than JMS
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Date: 2012-02-29 09:09 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2012-02-29 09:50 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2012-02-29 07:37 pm (UTC)And do we really need another “Last of X” type character? Superman is the last son of Krypton (cousins, pets, and countless imprisoned war criminals notwithstanding), Martian Manhunter is the last Martian (not including Miss Martian and the imprisoned White Martians and several one-note villians), Lobo is the last Czarnian (legions of illegitimate hybrid children aside), Kilowog is the last survivor of Bolovax Vik, and so on.
Do the writers and editors of DC Comics really think this idea is clever or original?
All it does is make set-ups for those inane, first-encounter dialogues.
-Last Survivor of X- “YOU!? You can’t be from X! All the X died in the war/crisis/disaster”
-Other Last Survivor of X- “NOT ALL OF THEM! RAWR!”
(Last Survivor of X struggles with stereotypical angst about fighting Other Last Survivor of X before eventually deciding to do so, et cetera, et cetera….)
If the new Earth-2 universe does not introduce other Amazon survivors who have turned to evil from the trauma of witnessing the destruction of Themysceira and now wish to conquer the world to make a new homeland, I will be very surprised.
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Date: 2012-02-29 09:12 pm (UTC)I have a pulllist full of non-big 2 and I'm not afraid to use it :)
The only question is how to get everyone else to read Atomic Robo, Gold Digger, Sonic the Hedgehog, etc..
-Do the writers and editors of DC Comics really think this idea is clever or original? -
I do think they're stuck in another era.
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Date: 2012-02-29 09:53 pm (UTC)Hell, I got a pull-list of the New 52 that isn't all grim and gritty either. I honestly don't understand that claim at all.
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Date: 2012-02-29 09:52 pm (UTC)Honestly, yeah, I kinda doubt it--Robinson himself has said the main focus of this book will be the original JSA mainstays--Alan, Jay, Ted, etc.
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Date: 2012-02-29 09:56 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2012-03-01 08:05 am (UTC)So uh, what was wrong with this design?
Does this mean that adding armour makes her "edgy"? Because I can go into a triade about how stupid that would be.
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Date: 2012-03-01 12:27 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2012-03-01 10:50 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2012-03-12 08:51 pm (UTC)