Confessions of a Comic Book Guy is a weekly column by Steve Bennett of Super-Fly Comics and Games in Yellow Springs, Ohio. This week, Bennett takes a look at Wonder Woman's new origin and Archie bringing back their superheroes.As I've previously suggested (see "Confessions of a Comic Book Guy--The Power of Pants") I believe there are a number of things keeping Wonder Woman from becoming the kind of multi-media success Time-Warner would dearly like her to be. The short version being she's a foreign, pagan sob sister with a startling lack of allies, enemies and accessories for someone who has been around for seventy years. But one more thing that might distance her from a larger audience I should have put on that list is her origin, specifically the part where Hippolya molds her out of clay.
OK, sure, it helps to distinguish her from the rest of the superheroes as well as help ground her in the world of fantasy, and as Grant Morrison points out in his book Supergods fantastic elements in a comic book needn't 'make sense' because they're not real. On the other hand I'm betting if you put the clay molding scene up on the big screen you'd get laughs. Big ones.
So when I broke the news about the change in origin to a female friend, along with my theory why it was happening; her initial response was "Nobody would believe in animated clay but they'll believe in sex with a god?" Then after a moment of reflection she said, "Makes sense, but I feel sorry for Hippolyta. She's an Amazon, he's a rapist."
Which took me aback. I was familiar with Greek mythology so was aware of Zeus' many dalliances but tended to think of him as a "player." It's a term I ordinarily would never use but after doing some Internet digging at Yahoo Answers I found this Resolved Question; "Was Zeus really a rapist or a player?" The Resolved Answer was "I believe he was both." And Wikipedia helpfully reminded me in Greek myth "seduce and ravish were near-equivalent."
It was about this time I realized I was "OK" with it because I hadn't thought or rather thought of the change as just one more tweaking of "continuity" (as we used to call it). And when I finally did begin to think, I had the terrible thought "I really, really hope DC isn't about to make Princess Diana the product of rape."
But that's just the opinion of a middle-aged guy. The piece I read at the FemPop website written by Alex Cranz titled "DC Gives Wonder Woman a Father And Misses The Point" makes my point far better than I ever could:
"Now, almost 70 years after being a matriarchal touchstone Wonder Woman is getting a dad and losing a bragging right at Justice League brunch. And it's not just any dad. Zeus, the original Western philanderer, is her dad. The guy who regularly raped his way across the globe now plays a significant role in the birth of pop culture’s symbol for womanhood."
Crantz then quotes Wonder Woman writer Brian Azzarello, "Everybody’s got a father, even if he's not the nicest guy in the world." She then concludes:
"That was the point Azzarello. Batman saw his parents murdered and it impacted his life. Superman was the product of two sets of parents showering him with near infinite love. Wonder Woman was the product of women. Now she's just another demigod in tights."
If the sexual politics of the change are of no interest to some of you I think it important to note something Graeme McMillan did over at Blog@Newsarama in a piece called "The New Wonder Woman Origin: Why Did It Take So Long?" Written this way something unique has been taken from Wonder Woman and she becomes yet another DC character with father issues.
With an emphasis on six page stories, a youthful super-team and "fun" clearly they’re marketing this comic not to traditional superhero fans but an audience closer in age to who's reading Archie Comics now who might want to read superhero comics. And while, at least initially, there will be a limited amount of original material it's hard to argue you won't get your money's worth from the subscription, not when you'll also have access to "thousands and thousands of pages" from the Archie archive.
The opinions expressed in this column are solely those of the writer, and do not necessarily reflect the views of the editorial staff of ICv2.com.
