So the big news yesterday (well, on the internet anyway..ok, twitter, tumblr and Facebook at least!) was that Wonder Woman was “re-vamped”. New costume and new back story. Huh?
Apparently the new issue in comic book stores this past Tuesday features the new Wonder Woman. I have not seen it. I actually haven’t read Wonder Woman for years but she is still, and always will be, my favorite super heroine. I still look every year to see if someone makes a good WW costume for Halloween. I have never found one that is great. So now what? No more chances? :(
She was my first “hero” comic. I read Archie (I preferred Veronica over Betty and didn’t understand what either saw in Archie), Richie Rich and Scrooge McDuck (of course I did) when I was young but then graduated to Wonder Woman and then Justice League, Justice Society, New Teen Titans, The Outsiders, etc and then onto the darker (IMO) Marvel titles.
I gave up my subscriptions years back as I simply have no more room to store my comics. I saved all of my old ones – bagged and boarded in acid free boxes, blah blah. But with all of my Star Wars collectibles – just ran out of storage space. Plus I found I just stored most of them and didn’t read them all as I ran out of time with starting our own company and working all the time. Stupid grown up stuff…
But I do like the new Justice League cartoon. And I would love for DC to also offer a digital reader. I read yesterday (I think) that they are but didn’t read the story as my guess it’s for the iPad and I am not buying that thing yet. Need 2nd or 3rd gen for sure. I want to be able to subscribe to my favorite titles and have them there on my digital reader just like I used to have them in my inbox at the comic book store. :)
But I digress…WW was my first hero(ine). Thanks to Wonder Woman, I got into reading a LOT of Greek and Roman mythology. So…are they messing with that history? What they were messing with wasn’t exactly clear in the articles I read, and I might have to go buy the issue (or stand in the comic book store and read it) to see. Wonder Woman kicked ass. And she didn’t need any help to do it. I like that. I can’t imagine they will change that part (after all she is a super hero) but what will be changed? I’m sure I’ll rant about it here if I don’t like it :)
But why change her story? Why write all this history and create this iconic character and then go “oh – let’s muck with it.” Will she pull a Bobby and walk out of the shower and everything will have been a dream? (random 80s reference.) Or are we just going to not even mention all these decades of history and stories and basically just press re-start on her character? See…I will probably have to see. But I don’t really want to pay for the comic and support this endeavor when I am 100% completely against it.
And changing her outfit? I’m sure all of the fanBOYS will be against it as she is definitely one of, if not THE sexiest characters in comics. But this girl is against it too. I saw a picture of her new outfit. Yuck. Triple Yuck. They basically took Black Canary’s outfit, tweaked it and gave it to Diana. WTF? Giant FAIL. And don’t even get me started on the fact that they took away the American Flag theme about her costume. She fought the Nazis in that costume for crying out loud. LEAVE IT ALONE!
Of course this is only 1 fan’s opinion. But every time they try and make big changes to their main characters, DC mucks it up. I still have my “Superman is Dead” issue in the sealed plastic bag with the black armband. I guess time will tell if people like it. If sales go up (I assume this is why it was done) and maybe they can finally cast her movie.
Maybe the point of this is not about re-inventing her story and making “powerful stories for a strong woman character who didn’t need to flaunt her body” (yeah, I read that in 1 of the articles yesterday and wanted to vomit.)
Maybe it’s as simple as the Powers That Be at DC realized there was no way anyone could ever fill the costume left vacant since the 70s after Lynda Carter made it her own so if they want to cash in on another hero franchise they needed to make a change to accommodate a wider array of actresses. And if they happen to ever cast Megan Fox or Kim Kardashian (I’ve read both rumors but likely started by their agents) as WW I will ban all DC Comics from my life forever.
Who knows. But this fan currently says Jim Lee and DC can suck it….
Why the hell would you change this?
Maybe I’ll try and sneak off to Lee’s to see the new issue. It’s my birthday on Friday…so breaking out of work for a quick trip to the comic book store might be in order :) And then maybe I’ll pull down my comic boxes and re-read some old classics…
“Update” Wonder Woman. As if…pfft…oh and meh.
4:29 am on July 2nd, 2010
Meh – it’s the continuous pc-ing of the superheroes into some kind of androgynous world. It looks awful -sure WW objectified women, but it also empowered them. It’s a frickin’ cartoon drawing, isn’t it supposed to be abnormallty freakish? Frankly, I think DC comics jumped the shark years ago – this just confirms it.
8:13 am on July 2nd, 2010
I’m with you! Why mess with a good thing? I LOVED the original Wonder Woman – esp. the TV series. ;) Linda Carter will always personify Wonder Woman in my mind. I think you’re right it might have to do with the proposed movie – who knows. But it sounds like The New Coke thing – and we all know how that turned out.
BTW – I also liked Veronica and preferred Reggie over Archie. ;)
HAPPY BIRTHDAY!!!! ;) We share the same birthday month. No wonder I like you so much. ;)
Cheers!
8:34 am on July 2nd, 2010
Ha! We have many similarities it seems :) Thanks for the bday wishes! Hope your upcoming one is a god one too!
And new Coke was horrific! Glad that went away fast :)