William Moulton Marston
Grumpy Old Fan | Sex, violence, and Wonder Woman
Wonder Woman #2, by Cliff Chiang
It would be easy, and probably utterly predictable, for me to launch into an all-out rant about the origins of the New-52 Wonder Woman. In fact, because I found Kelly Thompson’s arguments fairly persuasive, that may still happen. However, I am more inclined to agree with Ragnell that the latest round of Amazonian revelations doesn’t quite square with what we’ve already been told, not just in Wonder Woman but in Justice League too. Therefore, there’s a chance that Brian Azzarello and Cliff Chiang are trying (with the best of intentions, naturally) to be provocative, ginning up interest in the book before the real story comes out.
Make no mistake, I understand completely Kelly’s argument that this version of Wonder Woman undercuts DC’s most venerable feminist institution. Even if the account in WW #7 is squarely contradicted, the insinuation is still pretty harmful. Either way, this is not the “old” Wonder Woman. Accordingly, this may simply be a new Wonder Woman, as different in origin as Hal Jordan was from Alan Scott; and her history may be the brutally-simple solution to the decades-old issue of “what to do with Wonder Woman.”
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Grant Morrison’s Wonder Woman series could debut in 2012
Grant Morrison
Grant Morrison’s long-discussed Wonder Woman series, which he describes as “the hardest project I’ve ever done,” could arrive as soon as next year, “or thereabouts.”
The update comes in a newly transcribed Q&A session from this year’s Edinburgh International Book Festival, where the writer again touched upon the bondage and “loving submission” elements inherent to the early Wonder Woman stories by her creator William Moulton Marston.
“The Wonder Woman strip had this weird, libidinous kind of element, and obviously on Paradise Island, it was this amazing Second Wave, separatist, feminist idea of an entire island where women had ruled for 3,000 years and what they did for fun was chase one another!” Morrison said. “So the girls would dress up like stags and run through the forest and another girl would chase them and then they’d capture the girl, tie her up and put her on a table and pretend to eat her at a mock banquet. This is a typical Wonder Woman adventure! In 1941. But then Marston died, and that energy left the strip, it just disappeared.”
Morrison said he’s attempting to reintroduce some of those elements, “but without it being prurient or exploitative.”