Wonder Woman - some thoughts.

[shades of eternity]

While I don't believe any golem aspect will work now, reposting this here, warts and all.

************************************************** *******************
I wrote this a while back and have updated it a bit.

It seemed appropriate to bring it out now that we have a changing of the guard.

************************************************** ***

to be honest, it was linkara of the guys with the glasses.com, in preparing for his acidic review of amazon attacks that really opened my eyes to the character.

http://thatguywiththeglasses.com/vid...ttack-prologue

He summed up the character in a single word: Truth, and that gives tons of potential for story telling alone.

Now combine with the greek/amazon background plus inspirations from both 300 and the god of war video games, and you got a ton of storytelling potental.

and I think one of the biggest problems is ww role with the dc trinity.

Superman's role is the flag bearer and spear point. You throw him at the biggest scarriest thing out there, and he emerges victorous. Plus he is the inspiration for eveybody else to keep fighting.

Batman is the special ops master. He's the one with his breath of knowledge, skills and training should be a nightmare for anybody, especially when the following words are used: Prep time. All the more impressive cause he is a "normal human".

Wonderwoman should be the general. Trained in multiple forms of fighting and with real time experience in modern military tactics, and a millenia of experience, she should be the one in charge of large scale tactics. She should be shouting out orders to her companions to best utilize their capabilities to defeat their targets.

While superman would fight darkseid, Wonder woman should be arranging it so that the parademons are going through hell and even take out any other key leaders with a ruthless and brilliant efficency.

I really liked the timverses version as a bit of a hardass, and combined with her powerset and better tactical skills, would make her one of the focal points and as much a flagship as supes and bats.

****************************************

As for rogues gallery, I think it was villians unlimited/secret six really showed me how to repackage a villian to be effective again. She also has a few mainstays that seem to be pretty effective.

here's her list

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of..._Woman_enemies

I'll even bring up a few particularly noteworthy. with some repackaging.

Ares: When you have a god in your rogues gallery, it adds a real mythic feel to the character base. God of War and Xena gives you tons to crib from and mix with the wonder woman mythos. Just have Ares put Ww through the same hell that hera put hercules through and you got an epic. Even if she can't fight him directly (which she can), as a big bad behind the scenes he is magnificant.

Circes: This is WW's version of the enchantress. Based loosly off yet another character of myth, the ability to turn other people into critters can easily be retranslated into monsters thus giving ww New opponents to throw against. plus it's an easy in to add new character's to ww rogues gallery and life in general. plus the illusion spells means ww needs to use her head, not her fists. Finally symbolically, she is the opposite of ww: lies when compared to truth. plus the fact she's the underdog could give her a real victor von doom feel in their battles....she preps to even the footing.

Dr. Psycho: If their is any character that I had underestimated before villians unlimited, it is dr psycho. This repulsive little man is one of the most powerful psychics in the dc universe. His morbid one liners were a hoot and and represents yet another polar opposite. Even if she win's against him, the readers should feel a little dirty, much like mold behind the walls. Add back his ectoplasmic generation pre crisis powers and it gives him yet another tool to make ww's life miserable.

Cheetah: Probably the most visually remembered of ww's characters. you take a person who was just a little greedy and give her powers that, physically, she could rival wonder woman. Make her concentrate on hit and run tactics against wonderwoman. Make her mutate with divine energy over time. To be honest, the plant god he's bound to, seems kinda lame, but if it's given a lovecraftean makeover, could ad yet another facet to the character.

Fausta: Nazi's are great villians. The use of a "castle wolfenstein" feel with wunderweapons and dark teutonic magic should give endless possibilities to make people miserable. And if you really want to rub it in, point out that wonder woman is a Übermensch and use that word as a weapon as much as anything else. Change her costume from the witch look to paramilitary geer. Use her like what happens when you cross ilsa she wolf of the SS with the Red Skull and you could have a blast.

Giganta: Thanks to the timverse, we have a good grasp on the character's powerset and personality. While she'll never be a big bad, she's a fun mook to use with other more dangerous characters.

Genocide: While the appearance of the character is kinda bad, the concept is sound. It brings up something that we often put on the side line: Technically WW is a golem or Pygmailion, and the character reflects a killing machine made in her image.

Maxima: I've always liked this character and her original use in superman only scratched the surface of what you can do with it. We got a haughty alien queen who, while not evil per say, can be a really nasty foil for wonderwoman, especially if she has worked with her in the past. She could be played as wonder woman's black adam and setup a "300 type story arc on an alien world with her. Plus she has a powerset that makes her a threat if you want to do a slobber knocker.
Although she is dead, when has that ever stopped the writers .

Dr. Cyber: I really like the idea of one of the greatest minds of the DC universe being a woman, and her look is brilliant. Plus she is a great contrast (brains vs power) that could be used with WW as a theme.

Weapons and equipment:

Wonder woman's equipment is probably where the character stops short the most. It's hard to take a character seriously as a general, when she is effectively wearing a colorful swimsuit into battle. Plus the lasso and invisible jet seems to both be relics of a bygone age to some degree. However, with a little repackaging it could really work.

Costume:

traditional: The ww swimsuit is iconic, but also the biggest limiting factor on the character's development. A warrior should be wearing armor. One of the things I did like about the timverse version is that it did include a breastplate made by Hephaestus.
While the design probably cannot be deviated too much, but it should look more like armor then a swim suit. Give it more of a classical greek design and make it awesome. It should be one of the main reasons why ww can take a punch from supes.

Alt costume: If she is going to be the soldier of the team, one of her alternative costumes should be good old fashion military fatigues. plus it deals with the facet of her involvement in the us military.
Now that their are many women in the armed forces, it's been joked that the tank top and military pants is the new chainmail bikini: we might as well use this .

The Lasso: While a lasso can be a darm effective weapon and it's natural power does make it very useful: it does feel like a "cowboys and bondage" motif that takes away from the character. However, it is too iconic to remove from the character. The best solution is how it is used. Anybody whose ever done the old dungeon hack knows how useful 50' of coiled rope can be. show her using it in an effective manner. plus don't be afraid to use it to choke an opponent, al la hangman's noose.

The invisible jet: This is just plain wierd. I think we all remember superfriends and the dotted lines that were the so called jet, yet ww is still seen. In order to be useable it needs to have a function that makes it useful. Additionally, it needs to be iconic in it's own right.
I see any jet acting as a personal transport and weapons platform as well as a means to infiltrate a place in and out. I would redesign it to look somewhat like the f117 stealth bomber, but give it a greeko roman feel with a touch of the american air force. When it goes invisibile, it should go totally invisible, with maybe a invisible haze, must like the stealth modes of section 9 from gitsac. Finally, I would give it a ton of weapons and sensors to easily give a wide range of options.

The vambraces are one of the pieces of equipment that just plain old kicks ass. It's the one pieces of equipment I wouldn't change, cause they are both iconic and useful.

Not a fan of the tierra, but seeing as it's a backup weapon, it is useful and also iconic.

If their is one piece of equipment that needs to be carried more, it is her sword. It's easily sheathed and pulled out when she needs to go hand to hand. plus it really can act as an extension of herself and it shows that this is a warrior, not a bondage queen.

The final piece of equipment might be a tad contraversal but hear me out. I would give her a more modern piece of equipment that gives her a ranged attack. I was thinking of an energy blaster pistol of some sort that has a stun setting as well as a nuke setting. It shows that she is not only adapting to modern times, it also keeps her options opened.

Lightning: I really like this addition to her powerset. It gives ww a ranged weapon that shows that she really is a child of the greek gods. It also reduces the need for a ranged energy pistol.

************************************************** ***

[shades of eternity]

************************************************** ***

themes and settings:

Truth: If a character can be summoned up with a single word, it's best to explore all possibilities of it. here are some rudamentary themes.

1. The truth hurts

2. The truth is ugly

3. People often prefer a beautiful lie over the ugly truth.

4. The truth will set you free.

here's a whole list of proverbs that can be adapted into story themes

http://www.parrotsmeow.com/IQ/QP5.htm

Culture shock: While this has been both done to death and often badly, it still remains a component of the character. Fish out of water scenerios are fun, but if the character is suppposed to be a harden warrior, they have to be used sparingly.

Golem: This is a theme that really seems unexplored in the wonder woman genre. While a real person and raised in a loving community, the fact remains the character is essentially a golem, pygmalion, or simulcrium. This opens up a wide range of themes of whether wonder woman can even be considered human at all. Even if it was the magic of the gods, there might be ways to revert her to a more frankenstein form, with a bit of a touch up, that opens up a wide range of storytelling possibilities.

Mythic: Wonderwoman is based on greek mythology and exploring this world can be a huge source of interesting ideas and possibilities. Furthermore, there are a number of modern adaptions that can be cribbed.

War: If the woman is a warrior, then war must be used as a common theme. Both her attitude of war and the fact she's really good at it. I expect her to be reading books like art of war, five rings, and on war and adapting these to four color tactics. This something that is best shown rather then told.

One of the few things I liked of her precrisis storytelling is she often had adventurers involving the us military. Ironically, this opens up the ability to steal plot ideas from other military influenced metahumans (ex hulk). This also shows how times have changed when contrast with her original classical military training.

Finally, I want to base her military style to some degree on a great american general: General macarthur. Should she feel equally as iconic as she steps out of her jet rallying the troops.

Woman: The character is a woman and it's been her sole defining characteristic. While I would reduce it's importance when compared to other themes, it still needs to be used as a means of telling a story, and can often give it a different perspective then their male counterpart.
Finally, we come to the other theme of wonderman: namely Cheesecake. We won't be able to eliminate this as a theme and it has to be used as a marketing tactic, we should strive to use it as merely a component, cause if it is not used properly, it will reduce the ability to tell stories with the character.

Ageless: The fact is Wonderwoman is essentially immortal. Even though she is comparatively young, it adds a whole new dimension for storytelling. Crib off the old highlander series for storylines to best explore this angle.


Amazon: I also hope they have her keep standing on her diamond hard, Amazonian foundation. I like the greek/amazonian aspect of the character a lot and a little mixing of greek culture into the character is always fun.

************************************************** *****

The Transition:

With Gail Simone passing the torch to JMS, I hope JMS goes the work she is writing and builds on it.

Achilles and the Circle are good concepts that should be built on to give a stronger rogues gallery.

[shades of eternity]

The main reason I posted this again is to see what I can learn from dialogue.

I wrote this about a year ago and a few of my opinions have changed.


1. I still think WW has a Pygmailian aspect, otherwise Genocide would make no sense as a character.
However, I doubt any stories could be told because of both fan backlash and/or writers using it to devalue her as a character, rather then opening up new options.
For what it's worth, I consider Adam and Eve to be in the same category, for the exact same reason and will leave it at that to avoid going off tangent.

2. Originally the Fausta referred to a another character. Maybe somebody who is more familiar with the WW franchise can recommend a female nazi like character who better fits a similar motif?

3. Empowerment is an interesting concept, but I'm actually interested in how you could use it.

I'll be blunt, I am not sure how I would use it myself.

a. Empowerment is a term usually referred to as female empowerment, and that can often alienate your male demographic.

b. Empowerment takes away focus from the main character. By giving to others in such a comic situation, it might sideline the character.
This is something I don't want to do for a flagship character

I can however twist it to reflect back to my original thesis, The truth will empower, and could use it for storytelling.

I can also revise it and twist it to the following cribbed heavily from mainframe entertainment.

"You have taken a hopeless cause and giving us a fighting chance."

That I can see.

I am sure somebody can figure that out and I would like to hear any and all options.

4. Even though Comic storytelling has gotten a lot more complex, it still has at it's base a simple conflict of good guy vs bad guy and having a warrior aspect really helps focus it.

It makes things easier for the purposes of storytelling and there is a lot of past material that can show it can be used. It also helps simplify the storytelling to make it easier to get behind.

It was the one thing I really liked when they did the WW animated movie .

5. The military aspect was basically to offset something that really bugs me about how she's often presented as a greek bumpkin in a lot of stories, which, in my opinion, devalues her character.

Since a lot of precrisis stories had her working with the military and her character as a secret agent, it gives any potential writer another tool in their arsenal.

6. When I say general, I don't necessarily mean that she's hiding on the back lines. I would see her more of a "alexander the great" type general, in the thick of things and pointing things out to her allies, and barking the occasional order.