Last week, if you didn’t read the piece that appeared on Comicosity titled “Exclusive Interview: Greg Rucka On Queer Narrative and WONDER WOMAN,” you probably know it’s two major bullet points: the writer said Wonder Woman was definitely bisexual and DC was totally onboard. DC Comics hasn’t officially confirmed this yet, but given there’s a big budget Wonder Woman movie in the pipeline, if they or their parent company Time-Warner did disapprove, I’m pretty sure we probably would have heard something by now.
The story made headlines literally all over the world, particularly in France and Italy for some reason, and in spite of the fact Rucka clearly says the concept “doesn’t exist” in an Amazon society, it didn’t stop roughly half of those headlines from declaring “Wonder Woman Is Gay,” or, better still, “Queer,” which I must confess isn’t a word I often use. First, because as a white cis male I’m always afraid I’ll somehow use it wrong and cause offense, and second, being of a certain age, until I went to college, I only heard the term used as either a pejorative or invective. So when Matt Santori-Griffith begins the interview flat out asking Rucka “is she queer?,” I understood completely when Rucka wanted Griffith to define the term. While “not the full definition” he defined it as “involving, although not exclusively, romantic and/or sexual interest towards persons of the same gender.”
Probably the strangest thing about the declaration Wonder Woman was (as someone put it) “canonically queer,” I was unable to uncover much of a backlash. Oh, I have no doubt there were some snarky comments posted somewhere, but for the most part America seemed fairly indifferent to the news. It certainly wasn’t a matter of, as the La Parisienne website put it (in badly translated English), “The Revelation on Bisexuality Wonder Woman Shaken America.”
We’re given very little backstory for Bullit, other than he was once a former cop who got tossed from the force and became... I’m not sure what. Given his politics, it’s unlikely he’s a gangster, but that makes him what, exactly? Some kind of political “fixer”? A crooked union boss? Just a “tough” businessmen? All we really know about him is his base of operations is a cigar store which apparently provides him with enough income to keep a coterie of thugs on staff. That he likes to establish his badass bonafides by dressing him in Judogi (the formal Japanese name for the traditional uniform used for Judo practice and competition) during business hours and have his similarly dressed men “spar” with him.
Iceman shows up for no good reason, first to fight then team-up with Spidey to provide the “action” which was once a prerequisite of the Marvel Formula, the story mostly focuses on Bullitt's political campaign, which is based on a platform that’s equal parts hating Spider-Man and repeatedly squawking “Law and Order!” without any context, like a demented parrot. But in the end, Bullit is stopped not by superheroes but by J. Jonah Jameson and Robbie Robinson who have the courage to withdraw The Daily Bugle’s endorsement after discovering he has the secret support of hate groups. The story ends with Bullit’s political career finished when his crimes are exposed and he’s hauled off to jail... talk about wish fulfillment.
While it’s old news by now, I at least was made, well, happy when I heard that Iron Man director Jon Favreau would be reprising his on-screen role as Tony Stark’s driver Happy Hogan in the just-finished Spider-Man: Homecoming. So, Brian Bendis, could you just please spend a couple of panels and confirm that, thanks to Secret Wars, Happy is alive again and is ready to report back to work after a mysteriously long vacation. With Rhodey dead, Tony is doing to need his doughy working class pal to talk to again.
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.
