Wondering About Wonder Woman

[seneschal]

I know fans generally loved Gal Godot and Lynda Carter in the role and sneered at the 1974 and 2011 television pilots that offerred alternative takes on Wonder Woman.  But a part of me would like to have seen the blonde secret agent and grumpy toy tycoon versions fully developed.  Perhaps in a Doctor Who style crossover event among the various iterations, teaming up to save the day.  After all, the comics themselves have given us a de-powered Emma Peel style Diana, an angry stressed out heroine (after a series of crises) willing to injure bad guys, and a blonde substitute Wonder Woman with a militant attitude.  Also, i cant help recalling that the TV show M.A.N.T.I.S. turned out to be fun despite having a rough and (to me) rather offensive pilot.  Between the concept film and the actual series they worked out the problems.  Television Wonder Woman got a second chance in the 1970s but not in the 2010s.

Cinema aside, i stumbled upon an omnibus volume of Wonder Woman stories similar to the Superman tome i had discovered earlier.  In her 1941 debut, the Amazon princess took over the identity of U.S.Army nurse Diana Prince in order to stay near an injured Steve Trevor.  The real Diana Prince, meanwhile, followed her soldier fiance overseas so they could get married.  In the pulps, The Shadow had come to a similar arrangement with the real Lamont Cranston  Army Intelligence never discovered the switch.

Edited August 31, 2018 by seneschal

[Simlasa]

Do other amazons show up in the Wonder Woman stories?
I've never read any of the comics, or even watched the TV show.

[seneschal]

So far, in the early Forties stories I’ve read Wonder Woman is on her own once she reaches the United States, no help from home.  However, she gets plenty of backup from plump college girl Etta Candy and her spunky sorority sisters from a nearby university.  The plucky, adventuresome co-eds tackle gangsters, spies, paramilitary groups and mad scientists armed with nothing but their feminine wiles and youthful athleticism.  After all, the bad guys are mere men.

Later in her career, in comics from the 1970s through the 1990s, Wonder Woman has lots of adventures with her fellow Amazons.  But the point of the early stories is apparently that, inspired by Diana’s example, American womanhood is unstoppable.  It is interesting to compare Wonder Woman’s early attitude compared to that of her later incarnations.  In 1941 she is very young, very feminine.  She wears a modest skirt rather than bikini bottoms (although her open backed top is scandalous to some of the women she meets).  She pines for Steve Trevor’s attention and follows him everywhere, is jealous of his secretary.  Battling villains is as much a lark for her as it is for Etta Candy and company.  By comparison, more recent and more mature versions of her are grim and imperious.

Edited October 7, 2018 by seneschal

[seneschal]

Oops!  Spoke too soon.  In Sensation Comics #6 Wonder Woman goes home for a vacation.  I’ll have to see what transpires.  And it seems the Amazons begin to pop up more frequently in  future stories.

[Atgxtg]

It's most likely a sign of the times. For 1940s she was very "modern". By today's standards though, not as much. So they just try to update her outlook at values to modern standards. Plus the whole idea of Amazons being warriors who actually kill people in battle was really downplayed until recently. 

[RogerDee]

In modern comics she is almost as powerful as Superman, and like Shazam is powered by magic.

 

 

[Atgxtg]

On 5/4/2019 at 3:28 PM, RogerDee said:

In modern comics she is almost as powerful as Superman, and like Shazam is powered by magic.

What do you mean almost? For better or worse modern comics have pushed to make the female heroes at least equal to the male heroes. Considering the views of her creator, this is probably justifiable in Wonder Woman's case. She was created to get men ready for Woman's Domination. That's not a knock of Women's Liberation or Feminism, but just noting that Marston believed that women should rule the world.

[seneschal]

The worldview of the early stories is very different from that of current Feminism.  Sure, WW performs amazing deeds and inspires red-blooded American college girls to outsmart and clobber spies and fifth columnists.  But Diana and her followers aren't afraid to be feminine, to be girly.  They certainly don't hate men generally and unabashedly pursue romantic aspirations.  In fact, Wonder Woman's desire to be near Steve Trevor motivates the whole story arc.  They're not angry at and resentful of men.  Diana and Company are comfortable being female, confident in their ability to accomplish their goals, lacking the need to tear down men to do so.  They know men and women aren't the same and use the differences to their advantage.