Character Analysis: Wonder Woman: Take One

I’m doing another character analysis, but this time will be a bit different. Usually I take a piece of a story (be it the whole thing, an aspect of the world, or just a character I like) and analyze how it has relevance or meaning. But this week is different because I’m going to point out how drastically important a certain character’s existing characterization is and how it is being completely ignored by a large creative body… potentially… This week’s Monday Character Discussion is going to be about Wonder Woman

And, no, I don’t think this will be the last time we bring this up.

Recently, a rumor regarding production of the Batman/Superman movie (aka Man of Steel 2 aka Justice League Prequel) has been getting around. Before it was only discussed by sources that don’t get much credit but it has been “confirmed” by much more reliable sources. Regardless, these are all still just rumors and we shouldn’t accept them as boldfaced facts. HOWEVER, given what these rumors ARE and how previous attempts to make comic book heroes into movies (Man of Steel, Green Lantern, Arrow, and even Dark Knight Rises) all give some credibility to these rumors.

Mainly, what I’m getting at is that Warner Bros has yet to grasp how to make a good or fun movie about super heroes or comics. Thus I can expect rumors which indicate that whoever is writing the next film (David Goyer and Christopher Nolan) doesn’t understand the characters or the world they’re from and will miss the point of their being entirely. The end result will then be a watered down less compelling version of the source material with the gritty cloak of “realism” in place to make us believe we’re watching some new and intelligent take on the subject… when it’s really just more like “imitation-superman” or “imitation-green lantern”.

And what character could possibly be MORE difficult for these two to understand than Wonder Woman… Here goes…

The recent article in question drops some details on Wonder Woman. Here’s a link with all the details (http://io9.com/the-rumor-about-wonder-womans-movie-debut-will-make-yo-1495695994?utm_campaign=socialflow_io9_facebook&utm_source=io9_facebook&utm_medium=socialflow). But here’s the short story of the whole deal, they’re basically reworking her character for the film and possibly even giving her a film of her own now. While that sounds like great news, the tweaks to her character actually make my head spin a bit.

First off, she’s no longer an Amazon. Instead, she’s apparently supposed to be a descendant of the Krytopians that left Krypton to colonize other worlds. Thus, she and Superman are now kind of related. I guess that works, sort of… not really… But that’s not the only change. If you read the whole article there is a quote which I will just copy so you know I’m not making this up. It reads, "Furthermore, I say that Wonder Woman will be powered-down, if you will, relative to Superman because these Amazons have evolved and adapted to living on Earth for hundreds of centuries. And since Kryptonians are produced without any "He'n and She'n" – Jor El and Lara excluded – couldn't this original Kryptonian on Earth have used this reproductive science to create an all-female race? I say yes!”

Let’s break this down. First, the concept of how the Amazons become an all-woman society within the logic of Kryptonian science is somewhat interesting, though it undermines much of what the Amazon society is really all about. HOWEVER, the part that really struck me was the “Wonder Woman will be powered-down relative to Superman.” Just think about that for a second… because I now have three points I’m going to discuss and we’ll do it right here, right now…

Starting with the first aspect about Wonder Woman and her sisters no longer being Amazons. There are a lot of issues with that, namely that Amazons are akin to the Norse Gods in Marvel. They are an ancient race built upon a mythos of magic, mysticism, warrior-traditions, and not being fully understood by man with their own set of rules they abide by. The Amazons are a proud all-woman race that distrusts the world of men and refuses to interact with it, fearing it’ll bring ruin upon them like it has in the past. Now, we can still have an all-women race with the new Kryptonian version of the Amazons. That’s not a problem… but that’s also not the problem I’m trying to point out.

The problem falls with the concept of how they’ll be using the “reproductive science” that was already alluded to in Man of Steel to explain how an all-female race of Kryptonians could even be formed. While I applaud the genuine attempt to make something convoluted make sense, I also despise the face you remove all the mystery and make it boring as well. Again, part of the appeal of the Amazons was the magical aspects to their people and way of life. These were god-like beings who worshiped ancient gods to perform their super human tasks. And you’re explaining it with alien science and eugenics to a level even Hitler would laugh at.

“But how is this a problem? Thor altered their mythos a bit to make their magic more science-like and you didn’t throw their balls into the fire,” I can hear you arguing. Yes, that’s true, but what Thor and his people do isn’t called science nor did they rearrange the mythos to make it entirely explainable. Hell, Tony Stark still can’t full explain most of what Thor can or can’t do with science. But Thor DID say that magic and science are basically one in the same, alluding to the fact that advanced enough science basically looks like magic to those unfamiliar with it. The overall goal, however, by not admitting the scientific logic and workings of Thor’s world was to help keep the world larger and more expansive.

But I argue the logic used to explain the “Amazons” or “All-Female Kryptonian Tribe” only serves to make the world building of the Man of Steel series small. Smaller, in fact, because of all the stuff that’s already happened by mere coincidence because they decided to make everything feel like a small and coincidental world of happy accidents. Examples? Clark just so happens to get a job where a science team just so happens to find an abandoned space ship that just so happened to belong to his people… and Lois Lane just so happens to be there and she just so happens to see Clark get on the ship as well. It’s one of the many issues with Amazing Spiderman in that everything feels small because it’s all strung together and all being happily coincidental. And why is this bad?

The other issue I have with the lot of this is that making the Amazons (and Wonder Woman) nothing more than Kryptonians basically makes her and Superman cousins… Hm… doesn’t Superman have a Kryptonian cousin? And wasn’t she not that popular a character throughout most of her publication history to a point where she’s been killed off at least once… permanently and replaced by a girl with a boob-window? For those not sure, I’m talking about the poor fate of Supergirl. If I didn’t know better, I’d assume their point is the make Wonder Woman less compelling so they have an excuse to just shove her off to the side when they find out just how unpopular she is because of their lack at making a fun version of her character.

This all brings me to my final point, the mention of Wonder Woman being “powered-down” in comparison to Superman. From all I remember reading, the two were generally fairly equal in strength with the key differences being that while Superman had more variety, Wonder Woman was willing to kill because her morals came from a warrior race. A group of people who were fine with killing because that’s the life they had led and it was noble to die a warrior’s death. This allowed them both to be unique characters that were insanely powerful in their own right.

Making her weaker brings a lot of issues to the table. One, the men still are stronger than the strongest woman in existence. Two, the writers feel like she isn’t as important or shouldn’t be as capable as the strongest man on the planet. Three, the clearly don’t understand a damn thing about the original comics or characters if they think this is the best way to put together a Wonder Woman story or character.

Now I’m not playing the “sexist” card yet. Calling them sexist implies this was done with the intension of making Wonder Woman feel lesser and “putting women in their place.” In short, I don’t think the guys at Warner Bros are BAD PEOPLE when it comes to women’s rights and equality. But, much like Capcom and their various complaints of racism in the Resident Evil series, I think Warner Bros must be staffed full of idiots. Fans, feminists, and people with good taste in film & stories will all call this out for it being a stupid move by and large. The symbol of strength and feminism in one of the DC universe’s most powerful characters is already being labeled as a weaker version of Superman. And literally so because she is supposedly going to be Krpytonian.

Wouldn’t YOU like a movie in which Wonder Woman was just as powerful as Superman? Wouldn’t you like the idea where she could take Superman on in a fight and possibly win but only because she’d be willing to kill if she had to? Wouldn’t you like to see a female protagonist strong and capable and willing enough to save their male companions NOT because of some obligation to appease women audiences, but because that’s what her character does?

Yes, Wonder Woman will be weaker if these rumors are true. Not in just a discussion of physical strength, but also in proper characterization. This is just another sign, again, if this is all true, that Warner Bros does NOT understand how to make the comic book movies work. They failed to end the Dark Knight trilogy properly. They butchered Green Lantern in ways that’ll never be redeemed. They failed to deliver a proper Superman movie this past year. And if these rumors are substantiated, then we can expect more stumbles as we move on. God, I can’t wait to hear how they’ll tarnish my beloved Flash… see ya next time.