Is Wonder Woman more compelling in WWI or WWII?

[LordUltimus]

Just thought it might be interesting to discuss.

[kjn]

Depends.

From the structure that the film set up, it would not have worked at all in the Second World War. Her arc required that she be involved in a war where there is no clear bad side and no clear good side. (Or to put it another way, one can construct a clear moral jus ad bellum against Hitler's Germany; not so much against the Imperial Germany or the Austrian Empire outside of the treaty structures of Europe and the fact that Austria–Hungary declared war on Serbia.) Thus the First World War works best if one wants to make Wonder Woman's origin story work as Diana's coming-of-age story as well.

Second World War, on the other hand, carries a lot of the character's history behind it. But I think it's notable that The Legend of Wonder Woman basically shed the trappings of the Second World War as it neared its end, even more than Captain America: The First Avenger did. You can include a superhero in the war, but given how powerful they are now compared to when they are introduced, and that I can't think of any moral lessons on an individual level for superheroes, I can understand why it's not as popular anymore.

In one way I think Pérez dropped the ball with his introduction of Diana in the Cold War. Ares is arguably the antithesis of the Cold War—it would IMO have worked much better and been more thematically fitting if the villain had been a mad Athena.

[Dr. Poison]

As much as I loved the movie, I think World War II is a much better setting for Diana given how many of her villains have Nazi/Axis roots:


Armageddon
Baron Blitzkrieg
Baroness Paula Von Gunther
Dark Angel
Dr. Poison
Fauasta
Gundra the Valkrie
Kung
Red Dragon
Red Panzer
Sumo the Samurai

[Phoenixx9]

WW II for WW!

"In this most desperate time, all the world is waiting for you and the power you possess! To save us all, comes this Champion of the Amazons, this Woman of Wonders from Paradise Island!"

Yeah, World War II for me.

[SiegePerilous02]

WWII in general, but I have no issue with the movie making it WWI. Thematically it worked to have a war with less clear "good guys vs. bad guys" than WWII like Kjn said. There's lots of thing from the WWII period I'd love to see (the Baroness, the Holliday Girls), but it's hard to squeeze all that into one movie anyway.

Besides the comics had already changed the time period for Wonder Woman's arrival twice, first with Perez and then with Rucka. Not to mention we have two Elseworlds (LoWW and Earth One) that both re-tell the origin in different time periods. So Wonder Woman is no longer tied to WWII the same way Captain America is, so the movie changing it is just a cosmetic change and not a major one.

[kjn]

One can also add in the Bombshells universe, the Lynda Carter show, and New Frontier that all take very different approaches to time periods (even if they all put the appearance of Wonder Woman in the Second World War).

I'm not sure you could move Bombshells out from the Second World War, mainly because it needs the imagery of that war with Rosie the Riveteer (even though women were arguably even more important to the home front during the First World War, especially in Europe), together with its moral urgency. But I think The Legend of Wonder Woman easily could have been set during the First World War.

In the end, it really comes down to which story you want to tell with Diana, and every choice you make will bring different tradeoffs.

[Koriand'r]

World War II - It's the actual time of her debut, plus thematically it goes with the rise of women in the workplace and the military.

I saw ABC's Wonder Woman pilot before Casablanca, The Diary of Anne Frank, The Fighting Sullivans, The Best Years of Our Lives, Raiders of the Lost Ark, Sophie's Choice, Playing for Time, Winds of War, War and Remembrance, For the Boys, Flags of our Fathers, Schindler's List, Saving Private Ryan, Inglorious Bastards or anything else dealing with World War II, so she gets credit for introducing me to the era and making me love it's history.

[kjn]

World War II - It's the actual time of her debut, plus thematically it goes with the rise of women in the workplace and the military.

I believe that's one common modern misconception. The 20th century saw three big rises of women in the workplace and in various military roles: first during the First World War (with a backlash in the 20s), then during the Second World War (with a backlash in the 50s), and then the current one starting in the 70s that is still ongoing.

It also ignores that women were hugely important as a labour force in the textile industry, which was the first business where you can talk about industrialisation in the modern sense. Also, in many ways the 19th century was a long period during which women's opportunities to work outside the domestic sphere was more and more curtailed, and as late as the Napoleonic wars women were an integral part of the support structure of the field armies (though they were disparingly often called "camp followers").

[Slim Shady]

WWI works well, no issues with it. But WWII would prob be better. Lots of themes to work with there. Plus it has a real life super villain.

[Agent Z]

I think WW1 works a bit better but neither is essential to the character. They were simply settings that worked for their respective stories.

[AmiMizuno]

Due to how serious WW2 had come and how racial tensions become a bigger player would make Wonder Woman more for WW2

[Koriand'r]

I believe that's one common modern misconception. The 20th century saw three big rises of women in the workplace and in various military roles: first during the First World War (with a backlash in the 20s), then during the Second World War (with a backlash in the 50s), and then the current one starting in the 70s that is still ongoing.

It also ignores that women were hugely important as a labour force in the textile industry, which was the first business where you can talk about industrialisation in the modern sense. Also, in many ways the 19th century was a long period during which women's opportunities to work outside the domestic sphere was more and more curtailed, and as late as the Napoleonic wars women were an integral part of the support structure of the field armies (though they were disparingly often called "camp followers").

Be that as it may the years 1940 to 1945 saw women's workforce rates increase by 5 million due to entering industrious jobs vacated by men at war and United States' propaganda such as Rosie the Riveter compelling them to assist in the war effort. That's the time period to which I was referring as it correlates with Wonder Woman's true debut in World War II.

[RealWonderman]

Depends.

From the structure that the film set up, it would not have worked at all in the Second World War. Her arc required that she be involved in a war where there is no clear bad side and no clear good side. (Or to put it another way, one can construct a clear moral jus ad bellum against Hitler's Germany; not so much against the Imperial Germany or the Austrian Empire outside of the treaty structures of Europe and the fact that Austria–Hungary declared war on Serbia.) Thus the First World War works best if one wants to make Wonder Woman's origin story work as Diana's coming-of-age story as well.

Second World War, on the other hand, carries a lot of the character's history behind it.

In the comics, WWII. but in the movie, WWI worked best, for sure, for the reasons you've stated.

[Zahina]

In the comics, WWII. but in the movie, WWI worked best, for sure, for the reasons you've stated.

I thought the reason the movie was set in World War 1 so it wouldn't be criticized for copying Captain America.

[kjn]

I thought the reason the movie was set in World War 1 so it wouldn't be criticized for copying Captain America.

Surprise! It was still raised as a point of criticism by a lot of people.

To me, that criticism missed the point in several ways. One is that a lot of the elements used by both Captain America and Wonder Woman are common story elements used in lots of war and action movies. Another is that many of the elements were mixed up, and used in different fashions. The third is that even if Wonder Woman copied various beats and elements from Captain America, to me the Wonder Woman movie executed those beats much better.