Do you remember a time where comic books were just about being comic books?
You went in to a news stand, picked up some comic books, read them and awaited the next issue with your favorite characters fighting their arch nemesis? Well now with the death of the printed word looming, comic books are no longer about entertaining us. They have to serve much more of a purpose and as such most of the comic books you’ll read that are out now are custom made to be movies, are just blueprints to be movies, tailored to fit a movie adaptation, and are being drastically altered to fit the needs of a parent company anxious to turn the star of the comics in to a film heroine.
Case in point: Wonder Woman. In spite of the declarations from Jim Lee and J. Michael Straczynski, it’s pretty obvious by “The All New” Wonder Woman, that DC and WB spearheaded this revival/reboot just to fit their needs for a film heroine. And they managed to spawn a mild controversy among fans, most of whom hated the redux, while others welcomed it. The character is god-like, someone who is beyond mere conventions of style. Wonder Woman formed her own precedent and was someone who was appreciated beyond the mainstream, and now that the studios want a movie hero, she’s just another stock super-heroine. Even though she is an icon for fan boys and fan girls all around the world, Wonder Woman is basically a heroine impossible to put on to the big screen.
Her costume is too short and skimpy for modern audiences to emulate, her back story is too layered to fit in one film, and the character is just not interesting enough. So how else to turn Wonder Woman in to a character that can be found on page and on screen for the film adaptation the WB is desperate to push out? Re-invent her! Give her a 1993 jacket, 1992 pants, and make her in to a much younger woman with a racially ambiguous appearance that can be fitted to any young up and comer who will be brought on board for the impending adaptation. JMS conveniently also reboots the origin of Wonder Woman to fit that of a movie where this new Wonder Woman is a young warrior without a home and a family and is piecing the bits of her past life together to realize her destiny once and for all. Like something out of a screenplay! There is a lot of exposition to be had with the introduction of this new canon, so JMS takes every page to form at least three paragraphs of Diana learning of her back story and what her purpose is.
The catch is that the women from the Amazon split apart and fled from the great war that took down their world, so now Diana has to find them before the mysterious army of men that brought down her world, do. For some as of yet unexplained reason, Diana is the one they want the most. Filled with severely out of place humor, and unusual extrapolation that doesn’t make a lot of sense, this “All New” version of Wonder Woman is basically set up for a new arc that will also be easy to put on film when the time comes because it’s so formula and broad it’s just a no brainer for any screenwriter. Diana has to piece the parts of her story together, she’s still developing her powers, much like Superman she’s something of an alien in a new world that was orphaned, and she can do whatever is convenient to the story.
For example she can probably, maybe, sort of fly, but not really. She can jump high distances and land on the ground without harm, but there’s never any explanation on why the flight is important if she can leap high distances and fall without hurting herself. Meanwhile, the art by Don Kramer leaves much to be desired as some of the panels are akin to art you’d find in the early days of Image comics when they were churning out Marvel and DC knock offs without paying attention to detail. One splash in particular featuring Diana landing on a sand dune is pretty sloppily drawn and lacks any form of dynamic or style this character is purported to possess.
I just didn’t care about this stock origin that features three macguffins to keep this new arc moving along. Diana has to find the escaped Amazonians, she has to bring together her ultimate origin, and she has to find out who is leading this assault on the the Amazons. And where did she get those clothes? And if she’s trying to remain incognito wouldn’t she stand out in that garb? Nevertheless, DC and the WB want a Wonder Woman movie, and they’ve enlisted two legends to re-invent this character for modern sensibilities so they can adapt this material once it’s set its roots down in the comic world among fans. It’s darker, edgier, sleeker, and pretty much about as sucky as you’d expect.