Wednesday, November 14, 2007

Warrior Women Wednesday!

Today's illustration is another Victor Santos one. Sort of defines the term "warrior woman" doesn't it?

Victims, not warriors

I'm still doing a lot of catching up on blog reading, so some of these links are old. Like this one by Scipio about another problem with Perez's take on Wonder Woman. I'd never thought about it this way before, but he's absolutely right. "Instead of using the traditional version of Amazons (the one used by both the Ancients and Marston) -- buttkicking women warriors who founded a society that didn't need men -- Perez chose to make them victims." I've never really cared much for the modern version of Wonder Woman's Amazonian sisterhood and now I realize why. Scipio goes into much more detail in the link, so it's worth clicking through.

Whedon didn't get Wonder Woman

Speaking of fan favorite creators who really weren't the best thing to happen to Wonder Woman, I agree with this Joss Whedon fan who's pretty glad Whedon didn't end up making the Wonder Woman movie. I don't agree with everything she says, especially her dismissal of Steve Trevor as a potential sidekick, but her assessment of Whedon's vision for Wonder Woman is right on. "(I)f Joss was gonna present her as, 'She doesn't know how to be human and needs to learn how,' then he had it all wrong."

I also love the quote from Lynda Carter: "Wonder Woman is not impressed with herself. She doesn't think her abilities are a big deal. She does what she's capable of, and expects others to do the same." Now Lynda Carter gets Wonder Woman.

What Superheroine Are You?

Even as I was taking this quiz, I knew from my answers that I was going to be the White Queen. I'm not too sure about the telepathy, diamond-skin, and wealthy parts, but I am undeniably attractive and about as close to a Queen as straight guys are allowed to get.

What female superhero are you???

Emma Frost

You sometimes vary between devious and good. You have the power of telepathy and turning into a diamond substance. Attractive, wealthy, and sometimes a teacher!

Personality Test Results

Click Here to Take This Quiz
Brought to you by YouThink.com quizzes and personality tests.

Not Women in Refrigerators

Looking at the Justice League of Amazons last week got me curious about Big Barda and the others, so I went out and got the first couple of issues of Death of the New Gods. I knew Barda was killed in the first issue and that some folks were upset about it, but now that I've read the issues and the complaints, I don't know what the fuss is about. This is not a Women in Refrigerators moment.

First of all, it's not a story about Mister Miracle or how Barda's death affects him. It's a story about all the New Gods, male and female. Barda's death, as unsatisfying as it was to have it happen offscreen, is the exact same death that the other New Gods, males included, have been experiencing in Countdown and the other books setting up this storyline.

Secondly, Death of the New Gods is primarily a mystery story. The main plot is that the surviving New Gods are terrified at what's going on and have to figure out who's responsible. Not knowing the ending, I'm not sure, but I can easily imagine that showing Barda go down bravely in battle might give away aspects of the mystery that we're not meant to have yet. And that's putting aside the facts that none of the other victims had a chance to defend themselves and that that's likely an important piece of the puzzle. As much I like the idea of Big Barda being the exception to the rule, I don't know enough about where the story's going to demand it or be upset that it didn't go down that way.

More Justice League of Amazons

My list-making last week got me curious about more than just Barda, so when I was at the store I also picked up the last few issues of Justice Society of America (everything since "The Lightning Saga") and all the issues of Birds of Prey since Black Canary left the series (which is when I stopped reading it before). I want to catch up with Huntress and learn more about Power Girl and Barda.

Not to leave my Marvel league of Amazons out, I also grabbed the latest issue of Ms. Marvel and the first issue of Peter David's She-Hulk run. I think that's all I need to catch up on my Marvel list since most of those are ladies I'm already reading about.

Anyway, I could (and probably should) start another whole blog about this, but the plan is to sort of follow these characters for a while and comment on what becomes of them. Maybe dig into their past adventures a bit too, as well as seeing how they're represented in other media. I don't know; it sounds interesting to me now. I'll do it for a while and probably either spin it off into its own blog or get bored with it and give it up.

No comments:

LinkWithin

Related Posts with Thumbnails