It Came Out On Wednesday! – Men and Elephantmen (and Women!)

Be you man or animal-man, this week’s podcast has something for everyone – Richard Starkings stops to talk about Elephantmen!  We take you on a comic book safari through the app to see the untamed Batman and Robin, the magestic Walking Dead grazing for brains, and Archie in his untouched habitat of Riverdale.  Then we bring it back around for some Wonder Woman, a bit of Avengers, and say our final goodbye to Jack of Fables.  Even John Merrick would be proud of this one.

Click Here for This Week’s Episode of it Came out on Wednesday!

Oh and also here’s a sneak peek at out upcoming interview with Ryan Sohmer of the often hilourious web comic The Gutters! Listen Here

Part 4: 5 lacking parts of the Wonder Woman mythos and how JMS’s run may fix them

In honor of the many changes that have recently affected one of DC Comics’ most long lived character, I’m writing five problems I see with Wonder Woman and how they might be fixed.

Part 4: The Sex(less) Doll

I guess it’s fitting that a character made from dirt is written with the sexuality of a headstone, but that doesn’t make it any more interesting. Wonder Woman has long been depicted with a virginal saintliness, deprived of human contact outside the realm of sisterly hugging with the nearest safely feminine woman or alternatively punching misogynists in the face. I think the heart of this problem lies in the massive void that was created when the character’s original golden age relationship and sexuality were wiped out. In the Golden Age, she was a lady in the street and a freak in the bed, so to speak. That is to say, in her civilian life as Army Nurse Diana Prince (or even as Princess Diana) she was a pining romantic and in her role as Wonder Woman she was a bit of a dominatrix. Once World War Two was no longer a functional setting for the heroine, out went the sense in her relationship (what logical role would an Army Nurse have in non-army life and why would she have a continuing relationship with an intelligence officer). Similarly, after original writer William Moulton Marston was no longer writing the book, out went the kinky fetish interest that was based in his own private interests. Admittedly I’m not a comics historian, but nonetheless this is how I see it. In the absence of those aspects of her life, Wonder Woman was left with a huge gaping hole at her center, one that no one has been able to fill since.

Ways People Might Try (and mostly fail) To Solve Her Relationship Troubles

1- Bringing Back Steve Trevor
Steve Trevor worked when he worked because of the context in which Wonder Woman was being written. He can work again, but ONLY if one is willing to return Wonder Woman to the army, where their romance makes sense. The problem is that our views of the United States and of the army have grown much more complicated since the second World War, and it would be nearly impossible to set her in that space without constantly running into problems of political incorrectness and offensiveness, or alternatively writing with extreme nuance about subjects that are highly complicated morally. Needless to say, there is a dearth of writers who could tackle that challenge.
In summary, that’s a terrible idea unless maybe on Earth One.

2- Continued Asexuality/Virginity
This would actually be an interesting idea if someone had the stones to go ahead and do it. What I mean is, the character is currently being written as if she was asexual, or at best falsely sexual, but without this being a stated choice. If someone were to play with the idea of a truly asexual person we could have a character whose friendships had a decidedly romantic quality, but outside the confines of our society’s monogamy fixation. Even more complicated would be a character with sexual urges who resists them in favor of being a virgin in the Ancient Greek temple maiden sense. In both cases, most writers would probably have trouble placing themselves in the shoes of one in these atypical circumstances, so I doubt it will happen.

3- The False Lead
This is the big one. Many superhero comics miss out on the fact that the love interest (much like the rest of the supporting cast, the alter-ego, the costume, and the rogues gallery) are all just aspects of the main character’s dramatic themes or concepts.

So for the case of Superman:

The Value: The American Way i.e. honest, hard work and playing it straight (this idea has yellowed a bit)

The Occupation: Reporter. The reason that this works is because the reporting done by the Daily Planet seeks to undo corruption, which would get in the way of the value

The Villain: Lex Luthor, the ultimate corrupt business man

The Love Interest: Plucky Alpha-Reporter Lois Lane, who embodies journalistic integrity, bravery and the ideals of the occupation

Now for Wonder Woman (using the most recent circumstance previous to the current run)

The Value: Compassion (this is probably why she was a nurse originally) and Truth

The Occupation: Super Spy. This is sadly where they went so wrong. How exactly does being a secret operative relate to either of her core values?

The Villain: Genocide, a crazy emotion corrupting dark mirror villain. Not terrible, but not great, if only because she’s so deliberate and formulaic. Villain creation differs from other aspects of character creation in that it needs a bit of comic book wackiness to not feel so obvious.

The Love Interest: Super Spy Tom Tresser a.k.a. Nemesis. This actually is a perfect love interest for this occupation, if the job fit Wonder Woman at all. Poor Nemesis could’ve worked so well with another character, say, The Question. Then again, he’s not really her type.

Note that in this case, the lead fails based on premise not on his own merit within that premise. Often it’s another case. For instance, let’s pretend Wonder Woman was in a job that represented her core value of compassion– A Zoo-keeper. This would probably be a terrible choice since it’s not enough of a springboard for stories, but at least it would embody her characteristics and be better than sticking her in a Taco Restaurant. Now let’s say you introduce Friendly Teacher Smiley Bobenkins as a love interest because he takes his class to the zoo one day. A teacher actually isn’t a terrible match, but in this context they have really no need to bump up into each other ever. In the end, all of their interactions will feel unnecessary and ham-fisted. Now if you’d chosen instead Collegiate Zoology Professor Jackwell Handsome, the match could work a lot better.

Ultimately, it comes down to a process of overall design of a character’s circumstances into which a Romantic lead fits. When the lead is created independent of a character’s station, or alternatively, when a character’s station is not fitting for them, we have the birth of the false lead. This is also known as the failed lead that never sticks. This is also true for: villains, sidekicks, supporting characters, and alter-egos, and costumes.

JMS’s Run: Straczynski really hasn’t played at all with the notion of a romantic lead. Maybe the oracle girl counts?

5 lacking parts of the Wonder Woman mythos and how JMS’s run may fix them

In honor of the many changes that have recently affected one of DC Comics’ most long lived character, I’m writing five problem I see with Wonder Woman and how they might be fixed.

Part 3: Greek Myth wasn’t like this

Another aspect of Wonder Woman’s stories that rings false is their take on Greek myth. I’m not referring to the conception of Ares or Circe as direct villains, that’s the nature of the genre and can work well, but rather that it doesn’t contextualize myth in contemporary realities. Most myths are and were created from oral traditions to either teach morality, explain the way the world works, or allow for worship. They transformed as they passed from mouth to mouth to fit regional eccentricities or the realities at their time of telling. Strange then that in Wonder Woman comics its use feels dated and irrelevant.  During Greg Rucka’s run he attempted to change this by modernizing the gods and making them reflections of Wonder Woman’s mind frame, but DC decided to abandon that. If myth is to be used in comic books then it needs to be grounded and palpable as any other story is. It needs to reflect our current time period in many ways. Even if the gods remain in their classic forms, the way they react to the current world and the way their behavior functions needs to interact with the world in a more seamless way. Most often, writers turn the gods into either pollyanna figures or cackling maniacs, when in myth they were so much more multi-faceted and interesting.

Another point, it’s nonsensical to ignore the realities of multi-canon belief and limiting Diana to a realm of only greek belief is thinking small. Here and there writers including the talented Gail Simone have attempted to introduce figures from other myths as minor plot points, but a big picture all inclusive vision on the line of War of the Gods or Neil Gaiman’s Sandman would make the character’s world so much richer. This month’s Thor comic did this nicely: Thor is forced into Christian hell by a confluence of circumstances and there finds Gaia, the earth goddess. He comes to realize that this is merely one aspect of her form and that despite the pain she is feeling from being bathed in hellfire, it is a natural aspect of a goddess who exists in all earth. In this way two pantheons are fluidly mixed, creating a more interesting overall take on godliness. It was a small moment but one that worked well.

JMS’s run: In the most recent Wonder Woman story, issue 602, the protagonist speaks with her patron goddess Aphrodite, who lobs some tepid vagaries at her about becoming a queen and ominous gobbledygook and then fades away. This again, really?  I understand that inevitably the story will develop and the fate of the gods will become clearer but the talking snorephrodite in Wonder Woman’s head is certainly not enticing. On the upside, the temple where the story is set has a history of being lowered into the earth by Aphrodite only to later be summoned out by an Amazon priestess, which is a great bit of invented myth and perhaps points to some more interesting stuff coming up.

Part 1: The Amazon Way

Part 2: Small Island Culture’s Condition Is Not The World’s Condition

5 lacking parts of the Wonder Woman mythos and how JMS’s run may fix them

In honor of the many changes that have recently affected one of DC Comics’ most long lived character, I’m writing five problem I see with Wonder Woman and how they might be fixed.

Part 2: Small Island Culture’s condition is not the World’s condition

Part one discussed problems with Wonder Woman’s context and the world where she developed her values. Going hand in hand with that but changing focus, Wonder Woman’s mission’s goal rings false. At the core of the character is her aim to spread peace to man’s world. A small society, say a town or even a small country, does not function in the same manner as a large society, like a big city or the world. Cultural diversity, gender relations, and social interactions are just some of the issues that take on a much greater complexity when population increases and varies. Proscribing messages of peace and cohesion to the world because you come from a small peaceful community seems absurd. Amazons have been without interaction outside of their own space since they moved to Paradise Island. What practical applicable solutions or realistic experience could Wonder Woman possibly have? For this reason, her central cause has an undertone of implicit meaninglessness.

At the character’s genesis, much of the the explanation for Wonder Woman’s usefulness was based in her creator William Moulton Marston’s beliefs about women and the nature of power struggle. The one I think most important is the concept of submissiveness: he seems to have believed that women took an implicit pleasure in submissiveness, something he saw as good and important, and that a beautiful woman like Wonder Woman could lead others to be submissive to her, which in turn would lead to a better world since women ruling would be more kind and compassionate than men who he seemed to believe were naturally barbaric and violent. As strange as this idea may sound, its focus on a real alternative set of power roles that would disrupt the power structure of our society gives Wonder Woman’s mission a clearer and more revolutionary purpose.

For the sake of moving away from the particular bondage heavy conception that Marston had and towards a more applicable idea, perhaps Wonder Woman could focus on the idea of the group over the individual and human unity, a rejection of an implicit american ideal (individualism) but one that could lead to interesting frictions and plot points wholly unique to her.

Straczynski’s Run: JMS seems to be addressing this problem by bringing Diana away from the island near birth and making her a child of both American and Amazon cultures. Perhaps Diana can be a vehicle for connecting the two in a less preachy and more self-explorative manner in this continuity. What’s worrying about it is that all the sophistication of trying  to connect both seems fundamentally changed: Diana becomes less of an adult Immigrant analog and more of a superman-esque character; She’s rooted in her mythicized background(Amazon ruined world becomes akin Krypton) while bringing a young American sensibility to her heroic actions. I’m not sure that supermanizing her origin story is the best way to go, but since much of this will be removed by the end of his run, perhaps it’s all a false concern.

Part 1: The Amazon Way

5 lacking parts of the wonder mythos and how JMS’s run may fix them

At the start of J. Michael Straczynski’s run on Wonder Woman, one of the longest lived but most consistently empty comic book characters, many fan reactions have been absolutely vitriolic in their rejection of his take despite the small amount of information we know about his storyline. One complaint is that the character he’s writing is too far of a departure from the traditional character. That’s completely ridiculous considering the thrust of his story is specifically that she is in an alternate timeline and that she’ll be attempting to (and most likely succeeding to) return to her classic form and timeline. I’m writing in response to this concern with what I regard as five fundamental problems with her current mythos as it stands in general, but more particularly in the runs just prior to Stracynski’s take over, and how his run should and may address them.

Part 1: The Amazon Way

At the heart of the Wonder Woman character is the concept of “the amazon way”, a purported better way of life that underlies the decisions and beliefs of the superheroine. Except, what is the amazon way? Perhaps owing to a lack of interest or sophistication by prior writers, it’s never been clear what Wonder Woman’s culture understands of concepts like law, justice, death, truth, etc. This leads to incredibly hollow depictions of the superhero, who seems to be from an underdeveloped hug-it-out culture.

In order for Wonder Woman’s journey to make sense, we’ll need to see how it is that qualities like truth, justice, and love are so important to her culture across the board. How is order kept on the island? What is the Amazon conception of love and what kind of social existence do Amazons have? The more depth her culture gains, the more depth she’ll have and the more interesting her interactions with the world she’s come upon will be. It would also be nice to understand exactly what their faith entails considering the much more direct role that gods play in their world.

An example: When Wonder Woman killed the villain Maxwell Lord during the Infinite Crisis storyline, battle lines were drawn by fans as to whether or not this was a consistent action for the character. One group claimed she was a warrior and did what she needed to do for the greater good. Another pointed to her lovingness or some other  abstract part of her character to say that this action was abominable. Ultimately, both camps are stretching since we have absolutely no idea what her culture would believe or what would justify that action to her. What do amazons even believe about death or justice? The closest we can get to guessing how she should of reacted are two competing lines of American thought: the concept of martial order for the greater good as afforded to the police, even though this is arguably a case of more direct murder since he was restrained, or the traditional superheroic ideal that killing is never justified. Those are the lines this argument exactly fell along, neither having to do with the character herself, pointing out how hollow the character’s role in that scene really was.

Straczynski’s run: To date, it’s not clear what JMS’s take is. As seen in issue 601, the idea of a warrior race willing to sacrifice everything for battle is being upheld. We understand that, as before, almost all amazons are participants in the amazonian military. Considering that JMS’s run will move towards a return to canon, and that much of Diana’s journey will be defined by discovering her culture along with other mysteries, perhaps this alternate world will be a perfect way of defining the Amazons and thus Wonder Woman, something she sorely needs. I’m hopeful.