Entertainment | June 29, 2010 | 6 comments

Wonder Woman Gets Radically Redesigned Costume and Origin

source: http://bit.ly/byf1B3

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WesleySmith
In Wonder Woman #600, to be published on Wednesday, Wonder Woman will get a spiffy new costume (with pants!) and new origin.
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    Entertainment,   Comic Book Universe,   SF&F and Comics,   Superhero Central,   1 more
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    Comics,  DC Comics,  Wonder Woman
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6 comments // Wonder Woman Gets Radically Redesigned Costume and Origin

  • Wesley_Smith
    • 0
      Wesley_Smith  

    • I'm adding this separately...

      Since this recent development with Wonder Woman, I've read a lot of opinions--mostly those of people outside the comic book industry--which have referred to changes in beloved characters which are not true to the "original" intent of the characters. But what they really mean is either that these new ideas don't reflect the versions of the characters they read when they were kids, or sometime in the fifties when a lot of super-hero mythology became codified. In many cases, these seem to be the same time.

      People seem to forget that these characters often existed for decades before they were born, and they've evolved since their first appearances. They forget that Superman couldn't originally fly and Batman carried a gun. The Fantastic Four didn't have costumes at all. The Incredible Hulk was gray.

      So when people--again, typically people who don't read comics on a regular basis--express their disappointment at the changes within a title and what it "was" like, it's usually due more to what they THINK that character should be like, versus how it actually WAS in its history.

    • 1 year ago
  • UtopianSky
    • +1
      UtopianSky  
    • Image

    • I think she should have a makover- after all, Batman gets a whole new look every movie.

      But this is maybe a bit much.

      I wondered what Gloria Steinem would think of this, and I googled- she is not amused.

      http://pursepundit.blogspot.com/2010/07/gloria-steinem-on-new-wonder-woman.html

      "There are at least two things about the Wonder Woman change that are in the Olympics of blunders.

      First, the guys doing this -- and they seem to be all guys -- cite no research from the generations of girls and women who've loved Wonder Woman ever since she was invented during World War II; an alternative to the sadism and gore in boys' comic books that were so extreme, they inspired a Congressional hearing. Instead, Wonder Woman converted her adversaries, compelled them to tell the truth with her magic lasso, and otherwise made the world safe for girls, women and democracy.

      I don't have a big issue with jeans versus skirt -- though jeans give us the idea that only pants can be powerful -- tell that to Greek warriors and sumo wrestlers -- and though in fact, they're so tight that they've just painted her legs blue; hardly a cover-up. I have an issue with changing her clothes and destroying home and family on what seems to be the brainstorming of a very limited group pf brains.

      Second, the new Wonder Woman birth myth has her arriving as a baby after her Amazon home of Paradise Island is destroyed; an exact copy of Superman who came as a baby from the exploding planet Crypton. This destroys her home, her Amazon mother and sisters, and gives her no place to go to gain strength and create an inspiring story line; something the original Wonder Woman often did.

      As in the late '60s when Wonder Woman creators took away all her magical powers -- and would have perished along with them, had not Ms. magazine come to the rescue with a lobbying campaign to restore them -- I wouldn't be surprised if it happens again.

      The original Wonder Woman was changing the world to fit women. This one seems changed to fit the world."

      Gloria Steinem

    • 1 year ago
  • Wesley_Smith
    • 0
      Wesley_Smith  
    • UtopianSky:

      For the record, I'm not a fan of the new look, but I agree that her costume has needed a revamp for a couple of decades.

      But Steinem seems to be missing the point in her first couple of paragraphs. Wonder Woman was created in a spirit of fetishism (hence the lasso and bracelets). And she was no more an alternative to the "sadism and gore" than any other super-hero comic books at the time; the comics in question were horror comics published primarily by one company. And even that Congressional hearing was about 50 years ago, so a lot of stuff has changed.

      And her issue that Wonder Woman's leggings are too tight isn't any different from an super-hero, male or female.

      But she right with her later comment that this new set-up is suspiciously close to that of Superman's, which J. Michael Straczynski is also writing for DC.

    • 1 year ago
  • SuperMatt
  • booksellergirl
  • smurph25
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