Superman and Wonder Woman Appreciation 2019

[LoveStar]

New Article! Very interesting to read different POVs. Superman and Wonder Woman are perceived at times as boring, bland or too perfect. As times, they are even written that way. But actually, when taking the time to get to know the true purpose of Superman and Wonder Woman, letting them actually go through challenges and step by step get through them without short cuts. Actually be the inspiring, standout characters they are, they are quite compelling. We need more of this kind of character studies in stories than the tedious superficial stuff now.

“Men of Steel, Women of Wonder” exhibit at Crystal Bridges Museum of American Art delves deeply, darkly into the characters”

Think of Superman and Wonder Woman. These are American products, national symbols of our projected virtue. Truth, justice and the American way. He was born in the Depression, she just before the attack on Pearl Harbor. American myths, a brand of spangled American gods, characters so ubiquitous as to seem ordinary and perhaps beneath serious consideration. Superman and Wonder Woman are mom and pop, savior symbols who do good and banish evil. They might seem even less interesting than the costumed crusaders they inspired.

Boy Scout-ish Superman especially seems a bit banal and square, the ultimate overdog. (Wonder Woman we'll get to later.) Maybe you find the psychological darkness of Batman, the third member of DC Comics' flagship trinity, more compelling. Maybe you prefer the method-actor angst of Spider-Man or other members of the Marvel Comics Universe. Fair enough.
So maybe you adjust expectations for the Crystal Bridges' exhibition "Men of Steel, Women of Wonder."

This is one thing about superheroes — they are easily impersonated. In Kaur's 2013 photograph Wonder Woman, paired with Christopher, the superhero impersonator bears only a vague resemblance to her presumptive model, the Lynda Carter incarnation of the character, but she still registers as the DC Amazon. If Superman can recede into Everyman anonymity by putting on a pair of glasses, why can't we be special by tying a blanket around our neck as a cape?

"Superhero impersonators ... go out and this is their job," Alejo Benedetti, Crystal Bridges assistant curator and the exhibition's creator, says as he guides a group of journalists through the exhibit. "Don't we all have those same types of experiences when we dress up for Halloween or we go to the gym? These are some of the ways these characters exist within our daily world."

In other words, when does a costume become an identity?

Superman was born in the Depression and "Men of Steel, Women of Wonder" astutely locates the character's roots in the political and economic tribulations of the times, offering a few examples of New Deal-era works of working-class men and women laboring heroically, such as Tyrone Comfort's dynamic Gold Is Where You Find It (1934) and James Edward Allen's 1932 etching The Skyman, which depicts a muscled iron worker hovering over a city skyline.

Superman first appeared in the pages and on the cover of Action Comics No. 1 which, in keeping with the conventions of comic books, bore a cover date of June even though it was actually published on April 18, 1938. (The exhibit features a rare copy of this issue, along with Sensation Comics No. 1, which marked Wonder Woman's debut. Though that title is dated January 1942, it actually hit the newsstands in October 1941, before the Japanese attack on Pearl Harbor.) But Jerry Siegel and Joe Shuster, classmates at Cleveland's Glenville High who became Superman's spiritual fathers, had been refining the character for years. Siegel's short story "The Reign of the Superman," illustrated by Shuster, was published in the January 1933 issue of Science Fiction: The Advance Guard of Future Civilization, a fanzine printed on the school's mimeograph machine.

The original Superman doesn't bear much resemblance to the familiar superhero — he is a villain picked out of a bread line by a scientist who promises him a "real meal and a new suit" in exchange for testing an experimental potion that gives him the power not only to read the thoughts of others but to control them with his mind. He kills the scientist and uses his new powers for evil until they wear off and he finds himself back in the bread line.

As the story ends, the former Superman is pondering what might have been had he "worked for the good of humanity."

That dark Superman never took off. So Siegel and Shuster went back to the drawing board and created an icon, one that borrowed a bit from Doc Savage (the "Man of Bronze") and Philip Wylie's Hugo Danner and Edgar Rice Burroughs' John Carter, the Confederate officer who gained superpowers when he was transported to Mars. They gave him a costume with a cape and an S on his chest. They gave him a blue-black spit curl. They made him a refugee from a blown-apart planet with powers that were impressive though not quite unlimited.

At first, the reinvented Superman had the proportional strength of an ant — he could lift hundreds of times his own weight. He could vault a 20-story building or leap an eighth of a mile. (Planet-pulverizing power and flying came later.) His first story handled his origin myth in just three comic panels. Siegel and Shuster famously sold their rights to what was to become the most famous fictional character ever created for $130.
. . .
Superman is easy enough to deconstruct — he clearly seems a product of adolescent male wishfulness. He can't be hurt by earthly plights; he's strong, aloof and pure. He flies faster than light. He retreats to his Fortress of Solitude. His seemingly superfluous alter ego exists to demonstrate that within any apparent weakling a god may lurk. (So watch who you bully.)

His invulnerability posed a problem for the Silver Age writers who had to invent dozens of varieties of Kryptonite, each with its own specific and limited effect on our hero to hold our interest. (Superman has "died" at least 15 times in various comics; the first time was in 1966 when he was assassinated via Kryptonite radio waves. He was revived by a Superman android that, programmed to behave like Superman, sacrificed itself.)

Wonder Woman is a kinkier, more complicated creature.
"Wonder Woman was from the start a character founded in scholarship," her creator, Harvard-educated psychologist William Moulton Marston, wrote in a press release announcing her arrival.

"The only hope for civilization is the greater freedom, development and equality of women.''
Marston, an expert on truth and deception who developed the systolic blood pressure test (which he used as a kind of rudimentary lie detector), may have been a good candidate for the most interesting man in the world, according to the research of his biographer Jill Lepore.

Marston led a highly unconventional home life, having married editor Sadie Elizabeth Holloway in 1915 before taking a second "wife" — his student, Olive Byrne, niece of birth control advocate Margaret Sanger — in the 1920s. The arrangement had Holloway essentially supporting the family because Marston had trouble holding a job until 1933, when he was hired by pioneering comics publisher Max Gaines to help him respond to calls for comics bans. ("Ten million copies of these sex-horror serials are sold every month," thundered the Chicago Daily News in 1940.)

Marston's association with Gaines led directly to his pitching the character, which Lepore has convincingly demonstrated was based on Marston's relationships with his various lovers and his fondness for bondage scenarios:
"Not a comic book in which Wonder Woman appeared, and hardly a page, lacked a scene of bondage," Lepore writes in The Secret History of Wonder Woman.

Wonder Woman draws a large part of her power from her sexuality, and so it's not just New Deal depictions of women doing their bit in the factories that show up in the Crystal Bridges exhibit — Norman Rockwell's iconic 1943 painting Rosie the Riveter is a given — but pinup artist Earl Moran's early 1930s pastel Golden Hours, which was once used as the cover of a large box of chocolates, and Gil "the Norman Rockwell of Cheesecake" Elvgren's Jill Needs Jack (1950).
...
While there's plenty of fun to be had with "Men of Steel, Women of Wonder," the deeper you go into the galleries, the darker the interrogations of the characters become. It is a remarkably executed, graceful monochrome hymn suffused with love.

In an essay in the exhibit's innovative five-volume catalog, has an amusing (and insightful) discussion on underwear and the should-have-been (but wasn't) obvious connection of Superman's costume to the tights worn by circus strongmen. Books might — and no doubt have — been written about the ways artists of different ethnicities have responded to the reflexive whiteness of these characters (even though it is often observed that Superman is an illegal alien and Wonder Woman hails from an island in the Mediterranean). Why do they fight for America?

Well, perhaps because America needed them. As the Laurie Anderson song "O Superman" (the video is also part of the exhibit) goes, "O Superman ... O Mom and Dad. Mom and Dad."

Surely she intended that line to be an allusion to Philip Larkin's "This Be the Verse"? Certainly she understood the ways a hero could become a master. We get the heroes we deserve, and sometimes we find them in unlikely places. Sometimes even inside ourselves.

https://www.arkansasonline.com/news/...uWqRY.facebook

[Deiasilva10]

"Oh sweetheart, you never stop to amaze me. How lucky I'm to be your wife.
Today afternoon my husband took me to a surprise trip. He took me to a #macarons store. Macarons are my favorite ever and he made a special order of #Superman & #wonderwoman custom macarons. It was a great visit and great service. Thank you @macadons for such great flavor and thank you @bradmos28 for taking care of me always. Love you!"



https://www.instagram.com/p/Bt-HfmSB...on_share_sheet

MACARONS!!!!! I LOVE THIS!

[LoveStar]

It's not. The thousands of people that post SMWW content, dedicate their lives to being better people , trying to fulfill their potential, the couples and families showing love, the people of diversity all over the world, identifying with the positive messages and showing despite differences, we all can be heroes, the cosplayers who do charity, the people who keep fighting on be it sickness or trying to stay fit, the artists who feel creative juices flowing , the cakes, and arts and crafts people, even the pets and toys, we can be children again as children can feel heroic...smww is a GREAT thing.

Facts! 🙌

"Do not let Sunday be taken from you. If your soul has no Sunday, it becomes an orphan."

Albert Schweitzer



https://www.instagram.com/p/Bt-IpD-g...on_share_sheet

Great posters! Lovely quotes as always 🤗

"Oh sweetheart, you never stop to amaze me. How lucky I'm to be your wife.
Today afternoon my husband took me to a surprise trip. He took me to a #macarons store. Macarons are my favorite ever and he made a special order of #Superman & #wonderwoman custom macarons. It was a great visit and great service. Thank you @macadons for such great flavor and thank you @bradmos28 for taking care of me always. Love you!"



https://www.instagram.com/p/Bt-HfmSB...on_share_sheet

MACARONS!!!!! I LOVE THIS!

This is so sweet in more ways than one!!! ❤️

[Deiasilva10]

"Drawing in process delayed for Valentine's Day with Superman and Wonder Woman out of the country. Nothing better than using them as an example of an amazing couple."



https://www.instagram.com/p/Bt_f7F1l...on_share_sheet

[LoveStar]

Lots of Valentines love still coming up! Here’s more SuperWonder sappiness:

Diana asks Kal a serious question and he answers the only way he knows how to show and let her know his absolute truth. ❤️

http://nightskywonderer.tumblr.com/p...and-he-answers
https://www.fanfiction.net/s/12789488/10/

"Drawing in process delayed for Valentine's Day with Superman and Wonder Woman out of the country. Nothing better than using them as an example of an amazing couple."



https://www.instagram.com/p/Bt_f7F1l...on_share_sheet

Nice captions as always! 🤗

[Deiasilva10]

Lots of Valentines love still coming up! Here’s more SuperWonder sappiness:



http://nightskywonderer.tumblr.com/p...and-he-answers
https://www.fanfiction.net/s/12789488/10/

Ahhhhhhhhhhhhhh more stories!!! Finally!!!

[Last Son of Krypton]

Well I see Valentine's Day was a SuperWonderful success!!!!

Once again our power couple rocks with the merch on the day of love.

I loved all the art and pics. So nice to see, despite it all, SMWW is a very powerful presence and many couples opt to be inspired by them or be represented by them. I even saw comic sites post smww in their acknowledgement of the day! And great to see the love for the post on Sinclair's page. Many people did love this couple. The negative noise against them was in no way reflective of the positive impact they had. Their comic sales were better than many of the other iconic romantic pairings who tried to have books together. What a pity DC does not know how to capitalize on the multiverse to reach these fans. This forum use to have so many posters back then, many who are simply silent now. Thanks for flying the smww flag because if you guys did not , some might be inclined to try to suggest no one cared for SMWW. But that is so not the case. SMWW content is still strong online. When people can't get merch they create them!

I recall the good ol' days of the forum. Now most users don't post anymore, abandoned the forum, or moved into the Marvel forum. You'll prob find more SM/WW talk there than here. 😅

[LoveStar]

SuperWonder Cosplay Couples!

“Hi friends! @mcglam_ and I have been SUPER productive this year already. We close on our first house in less than a week and have been prepping hard for Spring cosplay season to start up! We wanted to thank all of our amazing friends for being so supportive and sending sweet words of encouragement our way. [Oh, and PS: we get married in like 5 MONTHS!! 👰🏻 🤵🏻 🎉]”

https://www.instagram.com/p/Bt_N38HDuQD/




https://instagram.com/saianeregistro...d=o10a9f3hjppq

[Last Son of Krypton]

Yes!!! 😍

It’s absolutely AMAZING to see all the daily SMWW love and support! General audience is still constantly gravitating toward the pair.

From Sinclair’s post not only is there support from fans, but also former DC President Diane Nelson

“dewnelson1: And I own this original inked page, thanks to you and @jimlee it hangs in our home with so much love and respect. I LOVE this piece. ❤️“

That’s so awesome that she has the original and cherishes it. It truly exemplifies the true positive impact SMWW had and still does.

Thanks for pointing out Diane's comment. She was the one to give her blessing to the SM/WW romance and to proceed with it.

[LoveStar]

Ahhhhhhhhhhhhhh more stories!!! Finally!!!

Yep! HAHA “finally” is right! 🤣

Thanks for pointing out Diane's comment. She was the one to give her blessing to the SM/WW romance and to proceed with it.

It was quite a surprise! It’s amazing to know that she is still very proud. That kind of gives more confirmation that SMWW was a success, very meaningful and very much real.

[Last Son of Krypton]

I get some like Rebirth. I have 0 problem with that. My issue has been and will always be the poor way they dealt with the new 52, the way they try to tell readers this is what they must accept because they feel like flip flopping, the lack of coherency in heroes like SM and WW, drastic lack of development. It makes for poor story telling and any story telling that is done on the fly...ie making it up as you go along and what they make up makes no sense...yeah that is just bad management of a line.

I am so sorry for the artists, inkers, letterers etc.

As for those who try to blame smww for anything...anyone with access to comichron, comics beat, even bleeding cool and any site that brings analysis or tells us what is happening to the industry etc etc can easily show up their absurd claims. SMWW sold better than some of the stuff the haters praise or like to deem popular. One wonder what in fact defines popular. Is it numbers as in sales? Is it merchandising? Is it fan art? Is it a presence in pop culture? Seems to me SMWW ticks all the boxes and some!

Popular = what I like

Unpopular = what I don't like.

🙄

This is one of the reasons that SMWW is fought with so much hatred by some, with such fury that it even drives people to lie and play dirty! SMWW is not just a "fictional comic couple", SMWW is an idea, it's a revolution! It is the graphic representation, in the form of a couple, of equality, empowerment, cultural, religious and educational respect. It is the alignment with the most modern worldly thoughts.

Well said, Deiasilva. 👏

It was quite a surprise! It’s amazing to know that she is still very proud. That kind of gives more confirmation that SMWW was a success, very meaningful and very much real.

Whatever the detractors claim, SM/WW was the most successful idea from that comic-book period.

[Deiasilva10]

Popular = what I like

Unpopular = what I don't like.

��

Whatever the detractors claim, SM/WW was the most successful idea from that comic-book period.

True, very true!

[Last Son of Krypton]

Valentine's day card:

"Hey everyone, hope you all had a great Valentines Day! Trust me, I know it’s just a gimmicky Hallmark day, but it’s nice to do something a little extra special with the one you love. Even if it’s just something small like going to a movie, enjoying a nice meal at your favourite restaurant, or just putting all your work away for 20 minutes to cuddle and watch tv. I’m thankful that I get to spend this day with @dianaprinceinlove for the rest of our lives, gimmicky hallmark day or not.
__________

Here is the wonderful card that she made for me yesterday, along with another small card from @littlehulkinlove. I thought these were great and it was an awesome surprise to come home to yesterday. I have to admit, they had me choked up a little bit and I had to compose myself. 😂"







https://www.instagram.com/p/Bt6qPprHoh7/

[LoveStar]

Whatever the detractors claim, SM/WW was the most successful idea from that comic-book period.

At some point, facts need to be realized.

Valentine's day card:

"Hey everyone, hope you all had a great Valentines Day! Trust me, I know it’s just a gimmicky Hallmark day, but it’s nice to do something a little extra special with the one you love. Even if it’s just something small like going to a movie, enjoying a nice meal at your favourite restaurant, or just putting all your work away for 20 minutes to cuddle and watch tv. I’m thankful that I get to spend this day with @dianaprinceinlove for the rest of our lives, gimmicky hallmark day or not.
__________

Here is the wonderful card that she made for me yesterday, along with another small card from @littlehulkinlove. I thought these were great and it was an awesome surprise to come home to yesterday. I have to admit, they had me choked up a little bit and I had to compose myself. 😂"







https://www.instagram.com/p/Bt6qPprHoh7/

AWE!!! How sweet and adorable!!!!

[Last Son of Krypton]

BTW. I read that Jupiter's Legacy has gotten a Netflix series! Imagine that! Once again...other people beating DC to capitalize on what DC refuses to act on...ie what if SM and WW got married and had children in our modern age etc etc. Marvel did it with Civil War while DC still sits on KC and won't do a thing with it despite them having KC first. But then when one considers who makes the creative decisions you kinda feel some of those creators simply want their stuff keep being pushed despite it not entirely able to rejuvenate DC or generate interest and a vast playing field the way Marvel has done.

I guess Netflix will often compare the characters of the Utopian and Lady Lyberty to Superman and Wonder Woman for the promotion of the series. I wonder if it'll push people to have curiosity for the originals. 🤔

"Our first Millarworld cast announcement: The Sampsons have been cast! Jupiter’s Legacy imagines what would happen if a hero like Superman married Wonder Woman and had children... and those children grew up in the age of reality TV."

https://twitter.com/nxonnetflix/stat...05366859907072