Wonder Woman in Chains, while Siege is a Bloody Yawn

Iron Man 2 trailers are everywhere.  Green Lantern and Thor films are shooting now.  But, where the hell is Wonder Woman?  It’s been talked about for years first as solo project back in the early 2000s and then as part of an overall Justice League film.  I don’t know what the hold up is.

Go find a actress who looks good as a brunette and can fill out the costume.  There was talk of Mischa Barton for a few years.  Can’t figure out why, her heroin chic look runs counter to the athletic Amazon. Then some fans did a mock up of Megan Fox.  But she can’t act. And the bar for comic book movies has been raised over the past few years with Christian Bale (Batman), Robert Downey Jr. (Iron Man), and Edward Norton (The Hulk).

Catherine Zeta-Jones or Lucy Lawless would have been ideal ten years ago.  The relative unknowns that were mentioned certainly looked the part there were rumors of Australian Megan Gale and Indian Priyanka Chopra.  How difficult is it to find the next Lynda Carter to play this character?

And its an interesting character. Wonder Woman was created by psychologist William Moulton Marston, a man with an agenda. In the early 1940s Marston felt that comic books held great educational potential (circulation was in the millions of copies for popular titles then).  Marston thought that with the popularity of Superman and Batman, there need to be a female empowerment character in comic books.

So he came up with Wonder Woman in 1941.  “Wonder Woman is psychological propaganda for the new type of woman who should, I believe, rule the world,” Marston wrote.  Ok, doctor, there is something just a little kinky about a six foot tall Amazon who runs around in a bustier and hot pants tying people up or getting tied up.

In an interview with Family Circle magazine in 1942, Marston was very forthcoming about his reason for creating the character: “Wonder Woman-and the trend toward male acceptance of female love power which she represents indicates that the first psychological step has actually been taken. Boys, young and old, satisfy their wish thoughts by reading comics. If they go crazy over Wonder Woman, it means they’re longing for a beautiful, exciting girl who’s stronger than they are. By their comics tastes ye shall know them! Tell me anybody’s preference in story strips and I’ll tell you his subconscious desires. These simple, highly imaginative picture stories satisfy longings that ordinary daily life thwarts and denies. Superman and the army of male comics characters who resemble him satisfy the simple desire to be stronger and more powerful than anybody else. Wonder Woman satisfies the subconscious, elaborately disguised desire of males to be mastered by a woman who loves them.”

He went further explaining in a 1943 issue of The American Scholar: “Not even girls want to be girls so long as our feminine archetype lacks force, strength, and power. Not wanting to be girls, they don’t want to be tender, submissive, peace-loving as good women are. Women’s strong qualities have become despised because of their weakness. The obvious remedy is to create a feminine character with all the strength of Superman plus all the allure of a good and beautiful woman.”

See kids sometimes a cigar isn’t just a cigar.  Enough of the history lesson, time to see what got off my reading pile last month:

Great Reads

Batgirl #7
This is still my favorite title.  Its the rare combination of vibrant art, good dialogue, and interesting storytelling.  A three part story concludes with a good old fashioned team-up: Batgirl, Robin, and Batman against Riot, Roxy Rocket, and Dr. Phosphorus in one of Roulette’s high stakes death matches.

Batman #696
Tony Daniel’s Batman is so much more enjoyable than Grant Morrison’s current portrayal in Batman & Robin.  Daniel’s Grayson is driven, determined to live up to wearing the cowl.  He’s at peace with Bruce being gone. We’ve gotten a well paced Gotham City turf battle between the mob, Penguin, Two-Face, and the Black Mask. With Batman trying to keep the body count down and figure out who is pulling the strings.

Since Frank Quietly left Batman & Robin, the book has suffered artistically and Morrison’s Batman has done a 180 in characterization.  Now Grayson is suddenly obsessed with getting Bruce Wayne back from the dead.  To the point that he’s willing to stick the corpse in a Lazarus Pit.  So much for respecting the dead.  But wait, that’s not the right corpse– ooops we brought back some crazed doppelganger.  But Morrison did manage to kill Batwoman for a short time.  Nevermind that she’s doing just fine in her own book, Morrison just stuck here so we could see that the pit works.

Good Reads

Three books were all building towards next month, however one was building to an event that already took place.

Thor #407
I would have enjoyed this issue more if it had come out about a month ago.  It chronicles the events in Asgard the night before the Siege. We see Loki taking out an elderly oracle and the all seeing Hemidall.  Now issue one of Siege make more sense– how do the mortal forces of Norman Osborn’s HAMMER and Dark Avengers get the drop on the near immortal Norse gods of Asgard?  Ahh.  It was an inside job.

So why are they releasing books out of chronological order?  Is it greed in a race to get books on the shelves?  Is it editorial incompetence? It just seems that if you are going to have a crossover event involving multiple characters, storylines, and books that you would organize the whole thing more efficiently.  Dark Avengers #14, New Avenger #62? same problem.

Fantastic Four #576
Great cover. I guess now we’ve encountered the second city in the prophecy that Val received from the future.  First a group of intelligent Moloids from Subterranea put their city on the surface of Earth.  Now we meet some lost creatures of the deep sea that want to start up diplomatic relations with the surface world.  Susan gets to play diplomat.

Uncanny X-Men #521
Magneto is going to great lengths to prove his honest intentions to the X-Men.  First he brokered a deal with Namor to stabilize the sinking Utopia (previously Asteroid M) and now he’s sitting on a mountain top meditating trying to retrieve a lost in space Kitty Pryde.  Kitty was last seen in Astonishing X-Men as an unwilling passenger in a runaway spacecraft.

Secret Warriors #13
Nick Fury is getting ready to fight a multi-front war, with his own group, the Howling Commandos and others.  But its also cut down day and he’s getting rid of the dead weight on the team.  Expecting big explosions and old guys kicking ass next month.

Disappointing Reads

Siege #2
I can’t stand the Sentry (yes, I know that rail about that fact every month).  Unfortunately, he’s front and center in this issue. Apparently, he flipped out in Dark Avengers #14 and almost destroyed Manhattan.  So it makes perfect sense to bring him on a mission to attack Asgard. Ares finally wakes up and decides that Norman Osborn is a crook, switches sides, and aligns himself with gods.

But that brings him into conflict with The Sentry who literally rips him in half.  It felt gratuitous and lacked any emotion.  Maybe we’ll get something from a tie-in book that comes out three weeks from now.  How is it that certain writers and series can kill characters and it has some gravitas or meaning? When Brain Michael Bendis does it, it feels like a cheesy horror movie.  There is no permanence or even a hint of significance to his plot points anymore.

I’ve been reading Bendis’ work off and on for ten years and he has yet to produce a story of any emotional impact or lasting memory. I want memorable stories not disposable hackneyed tales.  So what’s my idea of superb storytelling.  My top five in no particular order:

• Alan Moore -  The Killing Joke
• John Byrne – Fantastic Four #236 – Terror In A Tiny Town
• Chris Claremont – Uncanny X-Men #200 – Trial of Magneto
• Brad Meltzer – Identity Crisis #1-7
• Gerard Way – Umbrella Academy: Apocalypse Suite

Agree?  Disagree?  Make a comment.  That’s it for this month.  I’m gone.