Why Is Wonder Woman's Mommy Making Another Mommy's Husband ..Happy?

[neonrideraryeh]

And therein lies the biggest problem of all. This is a character for all ages, just as Batman and Superman and the Justice League. If you cannot tell the origin of this character to a child, then something very valuable has been irrevocably lost.

You make a good point here. The thing for people to think about is if this new origin has taken away the innocence of the story and makes a separation between Wonder Woman and the kids who could become fans one day.

Another thing is while Zola didn't know that the man she was with was Zeus, it appeared Hypolyta did know it was Zeus which means unlike Zola, she was aware of Hera's existence. This makes it not so accidental. Seems kind of different to the lonely queen whose love helped bring clay to life.

[LoneNecromancer]

Absolutely not.

However, it is the cumulative effect on the history of the character - a lying adulteress of a mother who oversaw/condoned/possibly participated in the seduction and murder of innocents that just rips the entire fabric of Wonder Woman's history to shreds.

It went way too far, in my opinion.



And therein lies the biggest problem of all. This is a character for all ages, just as Batman and Superman and the Justice League. If you cannot tell the origin of this character to a child, then something very valuable has been irrevocably lost.

Superhero origins should be for everyone. 'A super soldier from WWII who was frozen in a block of ice,' 'A boy who lost his parents and grew up to make sure that never happens to anyone again,' 'a faraway planet was destroyed but this baby survived to become the world's greatest hero', 'a scientist in a lab was struck by lightning and chemicals and can now run super fast.'

All of these are suitable for all ages.

But 'her mother slept with a married god and then had to hide her away so the god's jealous wife wouldn't kill her' just doesn't work in that regard.

The most popular recent character from DC- and hugely popular with young people and kids- is Damian, and look at the story of his origin.

[numberthirty]

Superhero origins should be for everyone. 'A super soldier from WWII who was frozen in a block of ice,' 'A boy who lost his parents and grew up to make sure that never happens to anyone again,' 'a faraway planet was destroyed but this baby survived to become the world's greatest hero', 'a scientist in a lab was struck by lightning and chemicals and can now run super fast.'

All of these are suitable for all ages.

But 'her mother slept with a married god and then had to hide her away so the god's jealous wife wouldn't kill her' just doesn't work in that regard.

Since this has come up -

It seems like it is important to keep in mind that the bottom line is that a comic book is something a company sells in hopes of making a profit.

DC/Marvel both seem to have kids lines.

The current run of Wonder Woman is not a part of that kid's line. I'd guess that the bulk of the readers(as well as everyone posting here) is older than twenty. That is who DC is selling to. That audience is probably aware that Greek mythology was pretty morally questionable when viewed through the New Testament Christian point of view that followed it.

This story just seems to be a part of that. If a kid had questions, I would explain that to them.

[numberthirty]

Also, isn't that Hera is married to her brother something you would be uncomfortable telling a kid about? That Ares is the product of inbreeding?

Wouldn't that be like the redneck/racist Kents scenario?

[Blacksun]

Absolutely not.

However, it is the cumulative effect on the history of the character - a lying adulteress of a mother who oversaw/condoned/possibly participated in the seduction and murder of innocents that just rips the entire fabric of Wonder Woman's history to shreds.

It went way too far, in my opinion.



And therein lies the biggest problem of all. This is a character for all ages, just as Batman and Superman and the Justice League. If you cannot tell the origin of this character to a child, then something very valuable has been irrevocably lost.

Superhero origins should be for everyone. 'A super soldier from WWII who was frozen in a block of ice,' 'A boy who lost his parents and grew up to make sure that never happens to anyone again,' 'a faraway planet was destroyed but this baby survived to become the world's greatest hero', 'a scientist in a lab was struck by lightning and chemicals and can now run super fast.'

All of these are suitable for all ages.

But 'her mother slept with a married god and then had to hide her away so the god's jealous wife wouldn't kill her' just doesn't work in that regard.

I really can't or want to tell the new 52 origin story to my 7 years old nephew. the older origin is clear and easier to tell than the new Soap Opera style.

Batman and Superman origins messed up we find it in alternatives Earth 2, earth 3 stories, never in main continuity

The most popular recent character from DC- and hugely popular with young people and kids- is Damian, and look at the story of his origin.

Damian is not WW, he is another Robin. Most kids and young people know the young justice and teen titans robins

You make a good point here. The thing for people to think about is if this new origin has taken away the innocence of the story and makes a separation between Wonder Woman and the kids who could become fans one day.

Another thing is while Zola didn't know that the man she was with was Zeus, it appeared Hypolyta did know it was Zeus which means unlike Zola, she was aware of Hera's existence. This makes it not so accidental. Seems kind of different to the lonely queen whose love helped bring clay to life.

Zola didn't knew the guy was Zeus, didn't knew he was the big stud from Olympus, she didn't knew his wife Hera. Hippolyta knew about all these things.

[Dr. Poison]

The most popular recent character from DC- and hugely popular with young people and kids- is Damian, and look at the story of his origin.

Damian is a completely different character who, in most cases, appeals to a different audience than the character of Wonder Woman. While Azzarello's Wonder Woman is much closer to Damian than any other in-continuity version, they are still quite different characters. Damian himself is quite immoral, arrogant, rude, and despicable at times so I don't see much in common between him and Wonder Woman.

[Silvanus]

And this right here is why I take my son to see the Marvel movies like Avengers and Captain America, and I don't take him to see the DC contributions like Man of Steel. Because children and adults should both be able to enjoy super-heroes.

If Dan DiDio should happen to email me and ask, "Do you think we should publish a Wonder Woman comics for little kids," I'll say "Of course!" If he then asks, "Even if that means not publishing one that you, as an adult, find more interesting?" I'll sigh and say, "Yeah. I might not enjoy the all-ages version as much, and maybe I won't even buy it, but if you think you can reach a young audience, you should; it's more important to reach the next generation than to publish something that's interesting to me." But the problem isn't that Azzarello's Wonder Woman (or the Odyssey Wonder Woman or Rucka's or even Simone's, etc.) isn't really targeted at children; the problem is that no Wonder Woman comic is targeted at children. Both an all-ages Wonder Woman and one written for more mature tasts could--and, in my opinion, ideally should--exist.

As long as the stories in a particular Wonder Woman comic aren't being written to cater to young childrens' tastes and interests, I don't think it matters whether Wonder Woman's origin or family background in those comics is appropriate to young children.

But, again, I do think that Azz's Wonder Woman could be inspiring to mature, intelligent teenagers. They know that parents sometimes make bad decisions, and I think it's good for them to see that one can come out of a flawed background and still become a hero,

[AmiMizuno]

You make a good point here. The thing for people to think about is if this new origin has taken away the innocence of the story and makes a separation between Wonder Woman and the kids who could become fans one day.

Another thing is while Zola didn't know that the man she was with was Zeus, it appeared Hypolyta did know it was Zeus which means unlike Zola, she was aware of Hera's existence. This makes it not so accidental. Seems kind of different to the lonely queen whose love helped bring clay to life.

However Zola stated even if she knew Hera was married She still would have slept with Zeus

[Blacksun]

However Zola stated even if she knew Hera was married She still would have slept with Zeus

Hypothetic case, it didn't happened.

[Silvanus]

I guess I've just never subscribed to the belief that my heroes have to be dramatically flawed for me to relate to them. I do agree it's great that when someone makes a mistake, they recognize their mistake and strive to be a better person but when it comes to fiction heroes that inspire me, I'd rather they be a little closer to perfect as that's what inspires me to become a better person myself.

Oh, I agree that heroes should be closer to "perfect" (whatever that means) than I am. And I don't know about you, but I'm not as close to perfect as Azzarello's Wonder Woman. I think it's inspiring to see someone who was perhaps raised to love only her sisters but who figured out that everyone is her brother and sisters, and who has such a positive influence on those around her, shows mercy and understanding to those who act badly towards her.

[Darrin Kelley]

After 24 years straight of reading Wonder Woman, the Azzarello run is what caused me to walk away from a character I have loved since I was a child.

Think about it. I'm definitely not alone in my feelings.

[LoneNecromancer]

After 24 years straight of reading Wonder Woman, the Azzarello run is what caused me to walk away from a character I have loved since I was a child.

Think about it. I'm definitely not alone in my feelings.

If you managed to survive JMS I'm stunned that Azz was the dealbreaker.

[Dr. Poison]

After 24 years straight of reading Wonder Woman, the Azzarello run is what caused me to walk away from a character I have loved since I was a child.

Think about it. I'm definitely not alone in my feelings.

Same here. While the JMS run was kind of boring, that was it's only major flaw to me. It had some good moments in it like JMS/Hester's portrayal of Dr. Psycho. Azzarello's run is boring, watered-down, disrespectful, and offensive.

[Darrin Kelley]

If you managed to survive JMS I'm stunned that Azz was the dealbreaker.

With the JMS run, at least the character was still true to the person she was. She was the same Diana. She wasn't a knock-off that simply existed under the label of a decades established character.

I did not like the JMS run for its tone and approaches. But it was still about the same character I had read for decades.

[BlackFeath]

Oh, I agree that heroes should be closer to "perfect" (whatever that means) than I am. And I don't know about you, but I'm not as close to perfect as Azzarello's Wonder Woman. I think it's inspiring to see someone who was perhaps raised to love only her sisters but who figured out that everyone is her brother and sisters, and who has such a positive influence on those around her, shows mercy and understanding to those who act badly towards her.

I don't think these changes affect Diana in a negative way, too. If something they make her even more special.

Her sisters, without her knowing, and starting from many years before she was born, went on raids and killed men - not her fault and as soon as she was able to she started to try to change them.

She was born because her mother slept with a married man - even this was not in her control and doesn't diminish her character at all. It's not her who is "flawed", even if as she says, she is not perfect (but in a certain way she is more wonderful, because despite knowing she is not perfect, and she won't ever be, she always tries to be better and she inspires the others to do the same =) ).

But I don't think the problem for many fans was this. Wonder Woman is still Wonder Woman being born by clay or daughter of Zeus, that the amazons are good or evil. It's not her origin or her people that define her but what she does.

What this change of the story affected are the amazons and Hippolyta, who have fans too.
Once they were good characters and now they have been changed a lot (even before this run they weren't that 'perfect', though. Amazon Attack ruined them a lot...).

I don't like the fact that the amazons went on raids and killed men and that Hippolyta didn't do anything to change it, too, and of course also that she slept with Zeus, even if those two things, while being both wrong, are not on the same level, and for the latter Hippolyta recognized her fault and asked for forgiveness, which is already something.

Anyway, we don't know what made the amazons hate so much men. Probably the way women were treated at their time, but also something else could have happened to them. Of course these reasons wouldn't justify them, but it would still be better than them having done what they have without any, I think.