Why do we only have one Silver Surfer series?

Recently I got access to Disney+, and when opening the streaming service found a pleasant surprise. The Silver Surfer animated series, the short-lived gem that did everything right and I wish more than any other series got its second season. Many clamour for a 2nd season of Firefly still in hopes that it will happen and Disney announced that the X-men animated series that ran from 1992-1998 will get a continuation on Disney+ despite it getting an actual finale which the Silver Surfer did not. But who is the Silver Surfer and why has he only ever got the one show?

The Silver Surfer’s history isn’t as long as The Fantastic Four or Spider-man or The Hulk. In fact it’s relatively short with few publications for a character who has been around since the 1960’s. But the Silver Surfer is a well known character, you hear him referenced in things like the Big Bang Theory. He is popular, so his reason for a lack of publications is not a lack of popularity like Jack of Hearts. The reason for his lack of publications was Stan Lee. The Silver Surfer first appeared in Fantastic Four 48 and he’s even introduced as “a character that Jack calls the Silver Surfer” (Jack Kirby being the artist and principal writer of the F4. At this phase Stan only did the final script). Despite this somewhat dismissive introduction by Stan, he grew to love the character, so much so that nobody else was allowed to write him. The other theory is that he felt guilty because this was around the end of his working relationship with Kirby that he wanted to do right by his former friend. While Galactus and the Silver Surfer where among the last characters Lee and Kirby co-created he’s not the last. Black Panther was introduced 2 issues after the conclusion of the Galactus trilogy. 

The Silver Surfer made very few appearances after a stint as a supporting character in the Fantastic Four. The most notable part he played was having his powers stolen by Doctor Doom. Without Jack Kirby Stan Lee wrote a one shot with European comics legend Moebius, a one off Graphic novel and an ongoing series with John Buscema. Despite handpicking Buscema to be Kirby’s replacement, Stan hated the end results of the ongoing series. Stan later mellowed on the series with Buscema telling the artist that he really liked the Thor and Loki crossover issue. Buscema then pointed out “that’s not what you said when the book was first released”.

The Surfer also joined the Defenders (briefly) but was removed on the insistence of Stan Lee. Even though the series was written by Stan’s protege Roy Thomas. Silver Surfer got an ongoing series after Stan Lee retired from Marvel comics in the 90’s (Stan would still work as a producer on non-comics projects).

The Silver Surfer is an unusual character in the genre of Superhero comics. Similar to Superman he is extremely powerful but doesn’t use his powers for gain. But Superman is a more active character, Superman will actively seek to stop evil, while the Surfer is a true pacifist. Also while Superman is a Man (when written well) the Silver Surfer is a demigod. Superman is super-strong, fast, able to fly and shoots lasers from his eyes. The Silver Surfer has the power cosmic “a power too vast, too universal, if misused it could destroy a galaxy” or “the power of creation itself”. 

The ideas and philosophies of the character are too difficult for your conventional boys adventure story. The Silver Surfer is more like a space Ghandi than a warrior. The Silver Surfer avoids conflict at all costs and even lets himself being enslaved. A notable example would be Planet Hulk where Silver Surfer takes a beating from The Hulk rather than fight back, because he could take the abuse. But is it truly enslavement if you can escape at any time like the Surfer does and transmutes the other slaves’ chains to dust allowing them all to revolt against their captors.

The Silver Surfer is more like Stan Lee’s self-published character. It’s normal in mainstream comics for a character to be created and then completely destroyed by subsequent writers. But Stan tried to keep the character consistent and was very protective of this intellectual property. Which makes the decision to let the character leap to TV worse. While the Silver Surfer cartoon is amazing and 100% looks like a Jack Kirby comic now animated. The next featuring role of the Silver Surfer pains me. 

The decision to add the character to The Marvel Superhero Squad, a pre-school show featuring the Marvel heroes, is baffling. Well until you realise the Mayor of the town is played by Stan Lee. Did the Surfer retain his personality? nope. In fact the only one who did was Captain America. The Hulk became the Cookie Monster, Wolverine became an easy-going happy go-lucky character and the Silver Surfer became Michelangelo from the Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles. 

So what does the future hold for Norrin Radd? well Terry Crewes is campaigning to play the character. I’ll be very impressed if he can play the role, as it seems so out of his comfort zone. But what I really want is either a continuation of the series from the 90’s or the next film to be animated. So they can fully explore the parts of cosmic Marvel that were too out there for the movie where a tree and a raccoon with a machine gun save the universe. Terry could even do the voice as long as it’s a more subdued performance than his Old Spice commercials.

WTF Superman

Superman comics have been in print since 1938 and, with expectations of monthly stories, some are going to be thought of last minute. This being the case, not every Superman story is going to be a classic. Not every villain is going to maintain popularity and the ideas that the writers come up with are sometimes just bizarre. So bizarre that they even make Bizarro scratch his head. If I couldn’t convince you to read some Superman comics from the best list, maybe I can convince you to do so with the weirdest. Heads up though, the weird sometimes cross over with the worst.

Superman’s inner conflict

Superman has sometimes been his own greatest enemy. In the Silver Age, Superman once gained the superpower to blast a miniature version of himself out of his hand to do the Superman thing of saving everyone. This new useful super power was short-lived because Superman got jealous of all the attention that mini-Superman got. You’d think this would be the only time that Superman would be in literal conflict with himself but you’d be wrong.

During Marv Wolfman’s tenure on Adventures of Superman, a new character was introduced the Gangbuster. Wolfman created Gangbuster as a criticism of the new anti-heroes (Frank Miller’s Daredevil in particular). However, his abrupt departure lift this character and plot-thread dangling. Realising that these 2 characters had never met, an idea was formed by the new creative team that they must be the same person. Whenever Superman went to sleep, he would become the Gangbuster. The reason given for this was that Superman wasn’t happy with the results he was getting. He wanted to punish criminals more. The revelation that he was in fact the unhinged vigilante caused Superman to go into exile for a day.

This concept couldn’t be left alone forever. DC’s creative teams were in conflict over how to present Superman, with Dan Jurgen’s wanting him to just punch things and Karl Kessel wanting a more intelligent and thoughtful Man of Steel. Inspired by an imaginary tale from the 60’s, Superman splits into 2 Supermen and fixes all the world’s problems (one marrying Lois Lane and the other Lana Lang). DC figured this would be a way to please everyone. It did not. Despite this storyline being universally hated on release and still being reviled today, DC are releasing Red and Blue Superman graphic novel collections and toys of both Fire Superman and Electric Superman. 

The Justice League would be nothing without him

I’m not making the old joke that he doesn’t need the rest of Justice League because he’s so powerful. Nope. Back in Smallville, he single-handedly made the members of the Justice League who they are. In Adventure Comics 258, Superboy teaches Oliver Queen archery and gives him a robin hood costume. In New Adventures of Superboy 13, he meets a young Hal Jordan and convinces him to give up his delinquency. Some of Superboy’s early meetings with Justice leaguers were less formative, like Aquaman, but then there’s Batman. Bruce Wayne once met Clark Kent before the murder of his parents and the story ends with Superboy showing him his time sphere and all the future adventures they’ll have as Superman and Batman. Makes you wonder if he now antagonised Joe Chill.

Thankfully, for all our sanity, these stories are considered non-canon.

The Squiffles

The Squiffles are extra dimensional beings that only Adolf Hitler and Superman can see. Originally appearing in Superman 22 during the war, they’re almost a prototype for 5th Dimension imps. The Squiffles have been at war with the Gremlins for generations. The Squiffles join forces with the Axis, whilst the Gremlins joined with the Allies, and its all very strange.

Time Travel

Time Travel is a big part of Superhero comics. The ending of the original Superman movie has our hero fly around the earth in reverse rotation to save Lois Lane. Thats just the tip of the iceberg. Brainiac 5 created a time bubble so that Superboy could join his superteam in the 31st Century. But Brainiac 5’s messing with time travel has nothing on the rest of the cast Superman comics. Superboy once travelled back in time to try and prevent the assignation of Abraham Lincoln, only to find Lex Luthor in that same part of time. Luthor then hypnotises the young Superman, which prevents him from saving the 16th President of the United states.

Superman’s Girlfriend, Lois Lane 59, has the plucky young reporter travelling back and romancing Jor-El. Yes, and she’s aware of whats she’s doing. When leaving this doomed time, she travels to see a young Kal-El playing in his garden and kisses him because the grown up Superman wouldn’t let her do this. I think Lois might need therapy.

A young Jor-El also travels to earth to meet Superboy in Superboy 121. The story even includes exposing Jor-El to Red Kryptonite so that he’ll age up so Superboy can spend some real quality time with his father.

Superman has had to use time travel to defeat his arch enemy Titano. Superman is so strong he can literally punch you into next week and that’s holding back. Titano got thrown back to prehistoric times where he lived peacefully. That is until Superman was having a clear out of the Fortress of Solitude and he found a massive TV-like device. Not knowing what this device was, he turned it on and left it on because it had Dinosaurs on it. He then realised that this was a time travel device when he saw Titano. The giant ape then went to rampage through Metropolis and Superman has great difficulty defeating the giant ape that shoots kryptonite rays from his eyes because, in his own words, “He can’t use his robot duplicate because his apartment is being painted”. 

Kristin Wells might be the most responsible time-traveller other than Brainiac 5. Kristin Wells is a future historian for Superheroes who travels back in time to find out the secret identity of the Superwoman. Realising that all of her powers could be copied by 31st Century technology and that Superwoman hasn’t shown up, it must be her. She also turns down the advances of Jimmy Olsen, who is her Great-Great-Great Grandfather (Jimmy doesn’t know this, he’s just seen a hot redhead).

“Seminal” writers creating trash

Did you know Chris Claremont wrote a Superman comic? The writer best known for reinventing the X-men wrote a Superman comic. Before this story, Claremont had, throughout his career, seemed determined to write the Man of Steel, creating homages like Gladis the Gladiator in X-men and Majestic in Jim Lee’s Wildcats. You’d think the guy who wrote strong female characters in X-men and made Superman homages would’ve done a good job with Superman and Wonder Woman For Who God’s Destroy. Superman in a world where the Nazi’s won WW2 sounds like a good read but it’s bad.

This is actually like the recent DC films in comic form. Superman is a jerk who actually tells Lois Lane that “He wishes her and Lana were dead” because then he can sunbathe on the moon. Also, Diana Prince is the Queen of Nazi’s and Superman becomes a Centaur and tries to eat Lana Lang. Words can’t convey how badly it does Superman but it’s not the worst.

The worst Superman stories belong to Frank Miller and his tribute band Brian Azzarello. I’ve already written about Superman Year One. I don’t think I need to write about the duo’s Batman: The Master Race and it’s plot about Superman and Wonder Woman creating a false messiah. 

Azzarello, for some reason, has been allowed to write about Superman multiple times. The best evidence that he doesn’t know about Superman comics would be Luthor. A story from the villains perspective with Winslow Scott, a villain known for his hatred of technology, being an elite hacker.

Joe Kelly was forced to write a storyline that introduced a new General Zod because Azzarello’s script Superman For Tomorrow featured the villain (despite the character appearing only in once in continuity were he killed off). The storyline that followed For Tomorrow killed off Zod, almost showing Kelly’s contempt for the pitch.

But what is For Tomorrow about? I can sum it up in one sentence. “Superman decides who lives and who dies”. Superman, who saves everyone and anyone at anytime. Superman, who believes anyone can be redeemed, apparently after arguing with a priest decides half the population doesn’t deserve saving. Zod then steals this list and teleports all the worthy to a dimension called “Heaven” except for Superman. Other than this list, Superman also interferes in military conflicts and disables only one side of the conflict, leaving them to be slaughtered. At no point does he do anything resembling Superman. However, the artwork by Jim Lee gets this one highly promoted by DC, despite it being better used as toilet paper.

The Curse of Superman

Writing about the weirdest Superman stories is like saying Beetlejuice three times; of course Grant Morrison is going to appear. No, this isn’t about how the role of Superman might be cursed but the storyline from Action Comics 9. The story on it’s release was heavily criticised for the Barack Obama Superman (but that’s awesome). Of course Black President Superman’s archenemy would be white supremacist Lex Luthor (or the current President). But that’s all window dressing. The main focus of the story is a meta-commentary of Superman himself. 

On a parallel Earth, Lois Lane, Jimmy Olsen and Clark Kent create a fictional character with a dream machine based on an ideology so pure that it moves everyone to tears. Inspired by George Bernard Shaw and Nietzsche, they name the character Superman. Corporations deem the character unrelatable and insist that the character be changed to “Superdoom”. This monster now travels the universe trying to kill all Supermen.

The story is all about how 90’s Superman was awful and the wrongheaded ideas that ruined it. But New 52 Superman wouldn’t listen and ended up going down the same path as 90’s Superman.

Kryptonite, Magic and Rock ’N Roll

Silver-Age Superman gets a lot of slander from hipsters online. This is partially because having to write 8 Superman stories a month feels like DC just threw any idea out there and made it. But my favourite has to be from Superman’s Pal Jimmy Olsen 32, which reveals Superman’s lesser known vulnerability; Rock and Roll. Jimmy Olsen joins a band and, anytime he plays his guitar, Superman starts uncontrollably dancing.

Heroes Against Hunger

DC made a charity special teaming up Superman, Batman and Lex Luthor with profits going to charity. This is very good but could this comic have any consistency? A different creative team for each page causes a very disjointed story. In one page, Batman asks his old pal Superman to check on a plane crash with his X-Ray vision then, on the next, he’s telling Superman how much he hates him. 

The cause of famine in Africa apparently was caused by a giant green alien that feeds off of misery called “The Master”. I think it would’ve been a better idea for Warner Bros to just send African charities a big fat check.

Kryptonian Love lives

Whats the obsession with Superman’s genitals? Seriously, writers get obsessed. John Byrne proclaimed that Kryptonians reproduce asexually but then, in Action Comics 592 & 593, a Supervillain called Sleeze manipulated the 2 into making a sex tape. It’s almost as if he was proclaiming Superman might be asexual but his dick works.

Also, did you know Superman went out with a Mermaid in a wheelchair and never realised? Despite having X-Ray vision, he never once checked what was under the blanket. Quite sweet, really.

Al has nothing on his cousin when it comes to strange love interests. Comet the Super-horse isn’t Kryptonian but a cursed man who is in love with her and will revert back to being human on a full moon. “My pet has become human and is now trying to seduce me” is a unique problem for Supergirl. Supergirl’s other questionable love interest would be Brainiac 5 from the Legion of Superheroes. Brainiac 5 uses his technology to spy on her, including watching her while she sleeps. I guess he’s not so different from his ancestor who likes to look at cities in bottles. I just hope she ends up with a nice boy like Jimmy Olsen.

Here’s what you could’ve won

Did you know sometimes Warner Bros turns down bad ideas? I genuinely think Richard Donner might’ve been the last person to have a good pitch for a Superman movie. In 2001, Akiva Goldsman pitched a Batman vs Superman movie to star Colin Farrell and Jude Law (I think Jude Law would’ve made a good Man of Tomorrow). The film would be about Batman wanted to avenge the death of his wife (I guess Selina Kyle), a crime Lex Luthor framed Superman for, only for the 2 heroes realise who is actually responsible for this in act 3.

Jar Jar Abrams was competing with Zack Snyder for the Man of Steel movie and his pitch is notorious. It involved General Zod (again) and Lex Luthor as Kryptonians and Earth as a war-zone of giant robots. Superman also dies half way into the movie and gets half of his powers.

Superman Lives was to be directed by Tim Burton and was supposed to be a Dark fairytale version of Superman. Also, Lex Luthor and Brainiac become a giant spider.

George Miller pitched what if Superman turned evil and Zack Snyder copied his homework. Well, if the rumour is to be believed. The Snydercut of Justice League, which is about to be inflicted upon us after every Snyder fan promptly whinged themselves inside out, will have the revived Superman killing people for talking to Lois Lane, murdering her, becoming a servant of Darkseid and turning the earth into a wasteland. The Heroes can only stop Superman by sending the Flash back in time to give a message to Batman (explaining the dream sequence in BvS).

Outside of cinema, DC have turned down a bad Superman pitch. In 2001, Grant Morrison, Mark Waid and Mark Millar pitched a reboot of Superman. In this reboot, Lois Lane was to die from being pregnant with Superman’s baby and Lex Luthor was to become an art dealer. 

The Amazing Brainiac

Superman defeated Brainiac-13 by throwing his robotic nemesis into a sun. This vaporised Brainiac into dust. DC’s universe got rebooted and the dust started being in communication with a circus performer. The Brainiac dust increased his psychic powers, creating an all new form of Brainiac with psionic powers. 

After defeating this new form of Brainiac, his mind got implanted into Lex Luthor. However, I think the storyline got abandoned because the next appearance of Brainiac I know of has him trying to prove that the Death of Superman didn’t happen and it was all an holographic illusion. 

Superman True Brit

There is a lesser known Monty Python skit called Bicycle Repair Man, where a world of supermen is  left astounded as an ordinary Michael Palin fixes a bike. I bring this up because True Brit is cowritten by the Minister of Silly Walks himself, John Cleese. This else words comic shows what would happen if Superman was brought up in a Monty Python version of England. Everyone is obsessed with cricket, tea drinking and not making a fuss. There’s a whole lot about True Brit that defines comprehension, epitomised by this blogs proof reader seeing the alternate Superman’s Union Jack costume and his brain going ‘no’.

The politics of Superman and is he irrelevant? (SUPERMAY)

What do Superman and the Fantastic Four have in common? Well they both started superhero comics franchises, have endlessly optimistic main characters, white skin and had a steep decline in popularity in the 1980’s that neither have recovered from. But why is that, well I forgot that they both embody “leftist” ideals, and the heroes that replaced them in popularity are more conservative (to varying degrees). A superhero actually can’t be apolitical, a Superhero needs to fight something and what they fight must be bad. When people say “don’t put politics in comics” they mean “put my politics in your comic”, because people have a hard time finding their own politics in things, it’s much easier to rally against the enemy than to say “that is just how I see the world”.

Superman first debuted in 1938 with his first story “The Champion of the oppressed”, (a clearly political title). Being in the first issue of an experimental idea by National Comics his future was not certain, the plug could’ve been pulled at any time. Knowing it may be the only chance for the world to see their Superman, Jerry Siegel and Joe Shuster put everything they could into the story. The page layouts where radically different to everything else (even the other stories in the magazine), normally comic pages where made in with regular sized panels so the story could be reprinted in newspapers. The layouts in Superman’s first story are different long tall panels to show him leaping into the air and one of Superman smashing a car over his head onto a rock that takes of 2/3 of the page (this is also the iconic image from the front cover that was chosen last minute). The story is also  a laundry list of the baddies Superman would face, corrupt bosses, spousal abusers and gangsters. Despite the all in feel of the first story it sets up the second where Superman forces arms dealers to go to war to see what their weapons do. The early Superman is more heavy-handed than his later incarnations busting through doorways declaring “learn some compassion or I’ll beat it into you”. An often overlooked and under appreciated part of the early Superman books is Lois Lane. A mistake made by onlookers about Lois is that she is just a shrinking violet who is easily caught by Superman’s enemies. That is not true. Lois is a headstrong career gal and the Daily Planet’s best reporter, resourceful and stubborn which gets her into trouble. It’s really debatable if she even needs Superman to save her some of the time, but why bother when he will and with his involvement you’ll get the front-page story. Clark Kent as a reporter lives in her shadow, that is because of his faux-timid demeanour he can’t put himself into the same risks as Lois, if he did the world might find out he’s Superman.     

Clark Kent was a self insert of Jerry Siegel, a timid meagre unathletic man with Superman as his fantasy (girls are ignoring me but thats because they don’t know who I really am). Now this wish fulfilment and power fantasy are common in fiction but Superman was different. Siegel’s wish was to use his amazing power to try and fix the world and be the father he wishes he had. It’s interesting that Mort Weisenger (national comics editor), Jerry Siegel and Joe Shuster all grew up without a dad and their creation Superman is, a strong, caring man who stands up for the weak. An authority figure whose goal is to guide mankind to a brighter future. Coming from the destroyed world of Krypton, Superman’s goal was not conquest like his pulp alien precursors, his goal was to warn us about the pitfalls of progress. We must progress in a way that isn’t destructive, to teach us not to be prejudiced or creedist and we must unite to create a better tomorrow. Superman drew influence from mythology, mankind has always told stories of great saviours like King Arthur or beings of great strength like Hercules but Superman was an industrial-era update of these concepts. Superman’s whole costume is designed to tell you who he is at a single glance, a circus strong-man belt and pants to show he’s strong, a cape similar to a rabbis robe to symbolise his wisdom doubling as a way to show if in picture his leap is taking off or landing, no mask to show he’s not hiding, a shield on his chest show he’s a protector and brightly coloured tights with no mask to show how confident he is. He sheds his work clothes of Clark Kent to become Superman to show he isn’t hiding anymore he’s proud of who he is, this has led to Superman being popular with gays and minorities as they’ve often felt they needed to hide who they really are when their true culture is something beautiful in itself.

With the success of Superman stories imitators had to come along it was inevitable, but only two in “The Golden Age” of comics where ever a threat to his title of the most popular superhero and they both did it by appealing more to children. One being the original Captain Marvel, an orphaned newspaper boy who by yelling “SHAZAM!” can become the oedipal wet dream of an amazing super-dad. The other being The Black Terror a pharmacist who takes vitamin x and gains superpowers. The Black Terror also introduced the idea of the kid sidekick which became a staple of comics, so much so Superman even gained one with Jimmy Olsen an orphaned boy (he had to be an orphan so nobody could sue for reckless child endangerment) who became the Daily Planets cub reporter.  

Superman’s leftist stance lessened with Siegel and Shuster being accused of being communists, so when a soft relaunch of Superman into his own book his backstory was fleshed out (Superman still to this day appears in Action Comics). While the Fleischer Superman cartoons explicitly state he was raised in an orphanage after crashing to earth this was now retconned to landing outside Ma and Pa Kent’s farm who raised Clark to be a good American who believed whole heartedly in the inscription of the statue of liberty, the bill of rights and the declaration of independence (which actually reads a lot like the communist manifesto just saying). 

With a popular platform Siegel and Shuster couldn’t keep their political views quiet for too long and with the rise of fascism over Europe why should they. Superman was one of the first to speak up against it, in an out of canon published in Look magazine Superman busts through the Third Reich and Mussolini’s guard to put Adolf Hitler and Benito Mussolini on trial for crimes against humanity. More superheroes were created to motivate Americans to stop the Axis, like Captain America whose creator Jack Kirby once said “I don’t have any political views I just hate Nazis” (more on him later). Superhero comics where very enthusiastic to join in the war effort, a lot of anti-Nazi comics started before america had even joined World War 2 and with good reason. Comics where one of the few places Jews could get jobs, with them being deemed as low art for kids they weren’t seen as a glamorous form of writing and most used pseudonyms so the publishers didn’t have to deal with anti-semitism. 

In the comics during World War 2 Superman became Americas secret weapon but once it finished we got Action Comics 101 (published one month after the war was declared over) where Superman documents atomic bomb tests and calls the bomb itself the greatest evil in the world. With the war over Superman was not going to be the military’s stooge again. But superhero comics steeply declined in popularity after the war so this story effectively ended the Golden age of superhero comics.

This war with the atomic bomb defined the next era of Superman comics but they called the bomb Kryptonite. The radioactive rock was Superman’s main weakness, often used by mad scientists and their experiments to defeat the man of tomorrow. Green Kryptonite slowly poisoned and drained him of his super strength and Red Kryptonite horribly distorted Superman sometimes physically and sometimes mentally. Like atomic radiation Kryptonite was also useful, it could be used as a fuel source similar to chemotherapy in small doses it could cure earthlings illnesses, but it could always fall into the wrong hands. 

The new wave of Superheroes shared this outlook that science is mankind’s salvation whilst fearing the bomb, starting this wave was the rebooted Flash but this idea would be best embodied by Stan Lee and Jack Kirby’s Fantastic Four. While the Flash was created to teach children scientific ideas, and if young boys learnt about friction from a man in a red suit running around a gorilla, who’s to argue with that, Marvel’s comics were sci-fi horror. The Fantastic Four where mutated by Cosmic radiation after travelling in an unsafe rocket-ship to beat the Russians in the space race. Now with powers that were a mixed blessing, led by Reed Richard manly scientist who is as rugged as he is smart (and did I mention he’s the smartest man in the world) they perform experiments and explore the universe. The Lee Kirby era introduced the majority of the Marvel universe like the Unamerican group of ex-Nazis and their sympathisers known as Hydra. Latveria is a land ruled by a traditionalist, occultist and mad scientist Dr Doom. More progressively their allied nation is Wakanda which is technologically more advanced than the rest of the world and located in Africa. 

 

image photoshopped by James Dawson

Marvel attempted at making superheroes for conservatives like Iron Man, Tony Stark was created with the sole purpose of being a hero Marvel’s current counter culture readership would hate and it worked. Iron Man wasn’t popular until his movie (in fact when the MCU started Iron Man and the Avenger’s comics had been cancelled due to low sales). Iron Man stayed in print by being paired with Captain America, Superhero comics having only one story was a new idea at the time and many of Marvel’s heroes shared a book; Strange Tales of Dr Strange and Nick Fury, Tales to Astonish was the Hulk and Namor and Tales of Suspense was for the conservative fans. DC also had conservative superheroes, Green Lantern and Batman are essentially good cop heroes (Batman in the 66 Television series does flirt with being a counter culture hero) and these characters would soon get overhauls by Dennis O’Neil and Neal Adams. Green Lantern would be paired with Green Arrow to argue ideology and Batman would lose his sidekick to college and become as violent as the Comics Code Authority would allow.

Feeling under appreciated Jack Kirby left Marvel comics and was quickly hired by their biggest competitor who offered him total freedom as long as he wrote and drew one Superman book a month. Not wanting to put anyone out of a job Jack chose as his Superman series Jimmy Olsen which became part of his (retroactively named) Fourth World Saga. This was an exploration of hippie culture with the good parts being embodied by New Genesis, like peace, love and The Beatles. The bad like Charles Manson’s seduction of young girls to join his white supremacist cult was Darkseid and Apokolips. Darkseid was also not so subtly based on Nazi’s complete with Germanic spell of side. Superman’s role in this was as a square Dad who wanted to be part of the good parts but being worried that the good was being steamrolled by the evil. Post-Kirby the Marvel universe suffered from a lack of originality, mostly churning out monthly comics shallowly expanding on concepts he produced with one exception the relaunched X-men. The X-men were a Lee/Kirby series but during their run it felt more like a copy of the Fantastic Four but with a younger cast of characters. With the relaunched series the X-men stopped being a bunch of white teenagers but a diverse group of heroes and continuing through the Claremont era getting more and more diverse so much so nobody looks twice at the fact they have a one-legged vietnamese lesbian. 

John Byrne made a name for himself in the comics industry as an artist on X-men, but due to creative differences with Chris Claremont the two parted ways and Byrne took over the Fantastic Four. With Byrne as writer and artist on Fantastic Four the sales increased to make his run on F4 the second most popular era (behind the original Lee/Kirby). DC wanting to continue a trend they hired Byrne to reboot Superman in 1988. This in a lot of ways was the last hurrah for the Man of Steel, despite an obsession with trying to explain how his powers would work without breaking the laws of physics. The Man of Steel reboot reset the Superman lore, before it Clark Kent was a news anchor not his more recognisable newspaper reporter and his supporting cast where expanded to having 3 single mothers; Maggie Sawyer (a cop in charge of special unit trained to takedown superpowered threats), Cat Grant (The Daily Planets gossip columnist) and Sarah Olsen (the mother of Jimmy proving that single mothers can raise children to be responsible adults). Lex Luthor was also reinvented for this era, his original version was a Nazi cult leader, then he was a gangster and then in the 50’s he became a Mad scientist but his most sinister incarnation came in the late 80’s Donald Trump. Byrne had no idea that after his tenure of Superman his evil industrialist would become the president and then later his real world inspiration would be inspired by this. 

The rise of Comic book shops opened the door to new independent publishers and challenge the duopoly of Marvel and DC. One of the great things about comics is their expensiveness, so with a market of independent writers and artist would be a mixed blessing. One of the biggest success stories of the early self published comics was Dave Sim, his work started off innocuous enough a barbarian parody comic about an aardvark but as time went on Sims work became more and more political. Dave Sim influenced others to make their own comics like Jeff Smith (Bone), Eastman and Laird (Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles) but Sim’s views on the world are not conventional. Dave Sim believes feminism is destroying the world and the only way to stop the spread is to save young girls from it at a young age by making them do things (basically he’s a paedophile with a cause). Fortunately Sim has never worked on a mainstream comic book series. 

With the rise of outspoken comic book creators the medium itself was determined to be taken more seriously. Unfortunately they forgot the difference between thoughtful and cynical. Deconstructions of the superhero started cropping up like The Dark Knight Returns and Watchmen. An important thing to remember about deconstruction is you have to actually deconstruct something, he deconstruct a building you have bricks, you deconstruct brick you have gravel. Since the publication of Dark Knight Returns and Watchmen very few honest superhero properties have become popular (exceptions being Alan Moore’s later work Tom Strong and Promethea, Savage Dragon, Invincible and the PJ Masks). Superhero deconstructions have gotten so plentiful that they’re well trodden ground like One Punch Man. One Punch Man has absolutely nothing to say, it’s 2nd rate Venture Brothers and a 3rd rate Tick but it’s popular for some reason (despite awful art and blatant homophobia).

90’s Superhero comics loved using this phrase “Not your Dad’s Comic books”, this is very true because my Dad’s comic books were actually good. The new heroes weren’t heroes they were paramilitary groups. The New Mutants became X-Force and the implied child soldiers aspect became the text, Cable wasn’t training children to be diplomats he was making them weapons. The popularity of Rob Liefeld and the end of the Comics code authority meant that comics were violence for the desensitised. Full of Reagan era patriotism and bigger guns, storytelling was a secondary interest to creating variant covers for chumps to buy. Superman didn’t fit into this era very well so they killed him after character assaignating him first. Lobo was now DC’s best selling series, with a readership not getting he was meant as a parody of the increasing violence in comics, the fans didn’t care he was violent. 

After the speculator boom these new heroes all disappeared but it’s legacy still remains. “Superman is unrelatable” is something I’ve heard for years but this statement is anti-humanist. The reason given is that Superman “saves people for no reward, he has no great tragedy in his back story and he’s too powerful”. This reasoning is awful, it’s that of a psychopath or a libertarian (is there actually a difference). People do acts of altruism all the time why wouldn’t a superpowered person help people without compensation. We’ve had deconstructions like the Incredibles where the heroes are actually punished for altruism but thinking like that only breeds more misanthropy. If we met aliens it’s just as likely that they would be friendly as they would be hostile. In fact people act accordingly to how they are treated so being nice to someone will mean they’re nice to you. So Superman’s lack of tragedy in his back story actually makes him more realistic. As for him being too powerful, part of why we read superhero comics is as a comfort, a piece of escapism where we know the good guy will win and the bad guys loses. Of course we want him to have a challenge but why does it have to be a physical one? why not challenge his moral code or take his super intelligence out for a spin. The meathead Superman of the 90’s is the most boring version of Superman as part of the fun is watching him do creative problem solving, sure he could lift that building or he could fly round the water making a typhoon and then freeze it with his super breath to catch the falling building. 

As for the question do we need white, progressive Superheroes? yes we do. A common suggestion to fix Superman is to have him become black but times haven’t changed enough for Pa Kent not to have lived through the race riots of the 1960’s and this would change his outlook on the world. Not to mention Superman is from Kansas which isn’t as racist as Alabama but I don’t think they would take too kindly to a flying black kid. You could change him from growing up in Kansas to a more black part of the US say the Bronx but then thats Static Shock with different superpowers (and Static is a different character to Superman). 

Also Comicsgate we need to stop them, Comicsgate have tried to weaponise fan disapproval of losing their favourite characters to new diverse ones for their own racist agenda. They hate Carol Danvers Captain Marvel even though the only thing progressive about her is that she’s a woman. Everyone deserves a hero they can relate too but Alt-Right heroes like the Punisher are not heroes. We need to have some with a progressive outlook maybe they don’t need to be the star of their own book, maybe part of an ensemble team with diverse ethnicities like the X-men. But Superheroes were meant to fight hatred and intolerance and now fans are trying to spread it and they need reminding that they’re wrong and if that will only be heard if it comes from a white character then so be it. 

Wonder Woman: Feminist Icon or Male Fantasy?

As one of the three characters who have been published by DC continuously since World War 2 (the other 2 being Superman and Batman) and often the sole female member of the Justice League, Wonder woman is easily one of the most recognisable and popular female superheroes. However, one question has lingered over her since her creation, is she a champion smashing through the glass ceiling (or carefully unhinging the roof if it’s her invisible plane) or just fetish fuel for adolescent boys. Wonder Woman’s history is more obscure than her colleagues, with her often feeling like a clear third to the World’s Finest team. Wonder Woman is popular but she tends to be popular with non comic readers, if comics sales where the only factor in whether or not a comic is cancelled Wonder Woman’s publication would be as patchy as Aquaman’s but due to her selling a lot of merch to girlfriends and daughters as well as potential readers scared off by the boys club of chauvinists that haunt comic book stores monthly drooling over the sexy pin-up girl posters. 

The best place to start looking for an answer is to look at her creator and his reason’s for creating the character. Wonder Woman was created by William Moulton Marston a former psychology professor at Harvard University. Marston was notorious for feuding with other professors including one who became the inspiration for the recurring villain Dr Psycho (a small man with an intense hatred of women and desire to see them subjugated at any cost). Marston’s most notable contributions to the sciences are the patent on the lie detector (which the research was mostly done by his wife Elizabeth) and DISC theory which he expanded on in many books like the “emotions of normal people”. DISC theory is all about how humans interact with each other and how they get what they want from one another as people are social creatures we need each other and form groups. A healthy relationship to him is one of equals trusting equals, and the best way to gain trust is to “submit yourself to a loving authority”. A loving authority would never abuse those who they have control over, but within submission you throw yourself upon them hoping they are loving which is why it builds trust. These beliefs are a cornerstone of Wonder Woman and her beliefs within the earlier stories (the ones by Marston). Marston’s was an adamant supporter of women’s rights even believing that emotionally healthy women are naturally more compassionate and caring than any man and would in fact be the better leaders, because men are only good at following orders, lifting things and maths. 

Marston was fired from Harvard University as the educational establishment did not like the polyamorous relationship him and his wife (Elizabeth) had with their student Olive Byrne. With his teaching job gone Elizabeth took a job as a secretary and William looked for a new way to promote his ideas, his first attempt was through pornography but with strict laws prohibiting its sale he looked for a new medium for a shady character like himself could work (and Olive raised their children). The new fad of “Underwear Heroes” in children’s literature was the perfect place for him to write about his ideas, seeing that boys had Superman to look up to he wondered who girls had as a role model? He couldn’t find one so he made one himself. Creating a new woman out of clay with the best parts of Olive and Elizabeth he created “Suprema the Wonder Woman”. He pitched this new character to National comics the biggest publisher of Underwear heroes with such characters as Superman, Batman and Green Lantern. Thinking he had a kindred spirit in the publisher Mort Weisinger, a man who took a massive risk on the sci-fi stories of second generation immigrants Jerry Siegel and Joe Shuster, he was sure he had a buyer. Mort hated it, he gave Marston some advice “girls don’t buy action stories” and “shorten the name”, Marston complied with the second piece of advice and proceeded to selling “Wonder Woman” to All Star Comics (who would be bought by National Comics and merge to become DC Comics).

In December 1941 Wonder Woman debuted in the pages of Sensation comics a book she would share with Mr Terrific and the Gay Ghost. Wonder Woman unlike most comic book characters had her first few issues dedicated to her origins and back story (Superman got a single page saying her was from space and fans had to wait 8 months to find out what would possess a man to dress up as a Bat and fight mobsters). With the Wisdom of Athena, the Beauty of Aphrodite, Strength greater the Hercules and more Swiftness than Mercury (note she is equal 2 Goddesses and greater than 2 Gods) Wonder Woman is saving the life of American spy Steve Trevor. Steve Trevor is a self insert of Marston himself, Marston also worked as a spy but Trevor’s role in the series is to be a Damsel in Distress similar to how in Superman comics Lois is really good at finding people to kidnap her, Steve Trevor is the worst spy in the world. Steve has the innate ability to be captured by the enemy when going out to get a pack of cigarettes, but due to his male gender he is promoted for Wonder Woman’s work (similar to how Marston got praise for Elizabeth’s work). Sigmund Freud wrote about how women have “Penis envy” Marston argued that this is not literal, but women are jealous of how current society (or “Man’s World”) has put them in a role of dominance, Steve Trevor embodies how great it is to be a man and be praised for work you didn’t do.

Wonder Woman altruistically gives up her role as a doctor and princess of paradise island to continue to care for her patient who is one part baby bird one part patronising douchebag who calls her “Angel”. After making this decision she finds out about the history of her people, how they where subjugated by Hercules (later tellings add under the orders of Zeus but early Wonder Woman had a smaller pantheon of gods). The tools used by Hercules are now her greatest weakness, if they are welded together Aphrodite and Athena will strip an Amazon of their strength and they will be exactly like a normal woman but with them unbound the bracelets give an Amazon boundless strength and they’re nifty at deflecting bullets (Amazonian children like to play a game called bullets and bracelets and Diana herself is the islands champion at the game).

Now in Man’s World Wonder Woman must blend in and find some form of income, she at first becomes a circus performer where she shows off her skills at Bullets and Bracelets. This would be a temporary arrangement as her manager was a crook and Diana took him to the authorities. Her real lasting alias in man’s world she would gain by identity theft, stealing the identity of a woman who wanted to leave the army so she could be wed (fortunately the 2 look alike and have the same first name). In this role she could help nurse Steve back to health until he gave her the job as his assistant. 

With the series continuing from that point new characters had to be added, every superhero needs a sidekick and Wonder Woman got a whole sorority of them called the Holliday girls. This was inspired by Marston’s intensive research into a sorority at Harvard which Olive was a member of, studying them he got many of his ideas of submission and loving authorities. The most notable member of the Holliday girls is their leader and often head spanker Etta Candy and obese girl obsessed with eating nothing but sweets. The Holliday girls are fiercely loyal to Wonder Woman and often appear at the end of stories summoned by Wondi via her “Mental Radio” to go and beat up Nazi’s. 

As well as run of the mill Nazis Wonder Woman would take on some more colourful criminals: the first would be Dr Poison a woman so consumed with penis envy that she wishes to pretend to be a man and poison everyone. Baroness Paula Von Gunther an Austrian noble woman who kidnaps women and dominates them into becoming her spies, then having them seduce allies officers to find out military secrets which she then sends to the Nazis to help them win the war. Wonder Woman defeats her by taking over her cult because “she is a more loving master” and they (implied) become members of the Holliday girls. Paula Von Gunther would actually go through a redemption arc with her being a puppet of the Nazi’s and the Amazons taking her on with Wonder Woman being her mistress in charge of her rehabilitation. Other enemies of Wonder Woman in the Marston era include Mars the Roman god of War who lives on Mars and with his 3 lieutenants; The Earl of Greed, the Lord of Conquest and the Duke of Deception use their skills to aid the Nazi war machine and hate how an agent of Aphrodite has been aiding the allies. Less focused on the war effort are Dr Psycho and Wonder Woman’s most enduring nemesis The Cheetah. Consumed by Jealousy and Greed Priscilla Rich is transformed into her split personality The Cheetah who wants what other women have, she wishes to be as strong as an Amazon but this is feeling of pure entitlement. She is completely unhinged and will do anything to get either Hypolita’s magic girdle or Wonder Woman’s lasso. When being told she is unworthy of such powerful artefacts she would most likely respond with “But I want them”.

This story is probably apocryphal but it’s too good not to include. One day a friend, a neighbour of the Marston family knocked on the door of their house, there was no response. She waited a few minutes and knocked again, noticing the door was open and as she was friends with Elizabeth and Olive she let herself in. Not finding either of them in the living room or the kitchen she walked into Professor Marston’s office. In his office she was greeted by the sight of Elizabeth dressed in a skin tight leopard print leotard and cat ears and the professor and Olive tied to chairs. Olive was in a tiara, knee high boots, a red corset and blue skirt and professor Marston was in an Army uniform with hat and no trousers or underwear. Make of that what you will but the Professor is supposed to have had a massive erection as well.

Marston would write Wonder Woman until his death, and would write most of her stories. Wonder Woman was given the role of Justice Society secretary (a role in tribute to Elizabeth) so she could appear on the covers to promote the book but the writers wouldn’t have to deal with Marston’s constant notes about how to write the character. But not long after Marston’s death came the Comics code Authority, this caused many series to get overhauled. All the feminism and fetishism they could find was washed out the series. Etta Candy was no longer a sorority girl she was now an obese orphan girl who was good at getting kidnapped. Wonder Woman’s rogue’s gallery became more and more women (violence between men and women was prohibited in CCA approved books which all of DC’s where) and with this came the power of Super Empathy, this meant she had a calming aura that would help her get to root of a problem (a handy tool for Paradise Island’s only Ambassador into Man’s World). 

The 1960’s a good decade for Women’s liberation in America but what of the Wonder Woman comic series? With low sales DC gave the book to Dennis O’Neil who was gaining a reputation as the reinventor of classic characters. Harry G Peter’s eagle crested girdle and starry pants where deemed too 1940’s for their new younger audience of girls. Wonder Woman was to lose her whole history, and not just lose it give it up for Steve Trevor, who was promptly killed. This is what’s known as the Mod-Era Wonder Woman where she runs a fashion boutique and learns Kung Fu from a blind master. This era is best known as the worst era of Wonder Woman comics, her lore was almost entirely rewritten and her archenemy during this time is The Catwoman (yes Selina Kyle the Batman badguy) and has more than a passing resemblance to the Frank Miller era of Daredevil (theres actually a storyline where she has to climb a mountain to revive somebody and features her fighting Ninjas). 

With Dennis O’Neils departure from the book the Wonder Woman series returned to something closer to it’s status quo, but DC thought with the success of the Adam West Batman maybe the producers could have a go at Wonder Woman and a pitch pilot was made. The pitch pilot revolves around one joke, Diana Prince transforms into Wonder Woman and becomes uglier, her enemies scream at the site of her but she’s convinced she’s beautiful… unsurprisingly this series did not get green lit.

After William Doziers abysmal attempts at a Wonder Woman TV series, DC tried again with a failed TV movie that has nothing to do with Wonder Woman other than the name. A third attempt had to be made and this one starring American beauty pageant contestant Lynda Carter is possibly the most famous version of Wonder Woman. It’s also easily the most overtly feminist “Fighting for your rights in your satin tights and the old red white and blue” is right there in the theme tune, or what about this quote from the pilot “no society should continue if they don’t recognise the accomplishments of women”. 

The first series is about as faithful to the original comics as it can, the conservative medium wouldn’t have Etta Candy spanking sorority girls on during Tea time, but Etta was still there as another secretary and friend of Diana Prince. Steve Trevor was still there played by Lyle Waggoner (who was second choice to play Batman in 66) and still as capable at getting kidnapped by Nazis as ever. Episodes of the show are almost 1:1 adaptations including the pilot which is mostly Sensation Comics 1 and 4 stapled together. But faithful adaptations of 1940’s comics are expensive so the 2nd season onwards abandoned the WW2 setting in favour of the contemporary 1970’s. Steve Trevor became Steve Trevor Jr played by the same actor, she was a spy, but her rogues gallery rarely appeared opting for cheaper more realistic villains (but Frank Gorshin appears in one episode as the Superman villain the Toyman).

In the 1980’s Wonder Woman comics made strives for gender equality in the boys club of Superhero comics, Dann Thomas in 1983 became the first woman to write Wonder Woman (but with her husband Roy, the first woman to write her solo would be Romantic novelist Jodi Picoult 2006) and Trinna Robbins would do art duties on the mini series “The Legend of Wonder Woman” a recounting of her earliest adventures (and about the only version DC doesn’t reprint). 

The big headline for the main DC Universe in the 80’s would be the Event comic Crisis on Infinite Earths which would completely reshape the DC universe (except for Batman comics). Post Crisis Wonder Woman Art and scribe duties went to George Perez who was top tier talent at the time having just finished his run on New Teen Titans (DC’s best selling series at the time). Perez would add more greek mythology to Wonder Woman, her reason for leaving Themyscira (previously Paradise Island) would be to stop Ares (not Mars this time) from launching a Nuclear warhead. The Amazons would now have been enslaved on the orders of Zeus and Hypolita would free them by tricking their warden Heracles. Hera lead them to the new land where they would be safe but Hypolita would long for motherhood due to her being raped by Heracles. This longing would be so great that Hera had to breathe life into the clay doll she carried around and this would be Diana. Wonder Woman would no longer have an invisible plane but instead would be bestowed with gifts from the gods; The Speed and Flight of Hermes (the only man allowed on Themyscira), The Wisdom of Athena, The Cunning and Strength of Artemis and The Beauty of Aphrodite. This era would also give a greater importance to the occasional Wonder Woman (and Superman) villain Circe. Circe had appeared in earlier stories but with a greater tie to Greek Mythology on the antagonists from Homer’s Odyssey was given pride of place and made a nice counterpoint to Dr Psycho. While Dr Psycho wants to subjugate all women because they make fun of his height, Circe wants to turn all men into manimal slaves that worship her. With these two Wonder Woman fights for equality between the genders and not just saving women from the wickedness of men, equality women can be evil too. 

The relaxing of the Comic’s Code Authority cause the artists post-Perez to make a distinctive choice with Wonder Woman’s already skimpy costume to shrink it. Over the years Wonder Woman’s pants shrunk to the point that they became a thong, but her bracelets have been growing since Harry G Peter left the series so much I want the original Wonder Woman to meet the current  one and say “I see you have the Novice Bracelets, you must work on your skills at Bullets and Bracelets”. If they weren’t shrinking her costume artists where (and this trend continues to now) adding armour, this is an insult. DC does this with Superman and The Flash as well but it makes the characters look weaker, as if Wonder Woman can’t deflect bullets with her bracelets. If anything it would make the villain seem better because now the hero doesn’t trust in their abilities. 

With changing creative teams in the 90’s Wonder Woman’s costume shrank again until one man, John Byrne said no more and drew her wearing more comfortable looking pants. I actually have this theory that she was not in fact wearing smaller and smaller pants but she had been wearing the same batch from the 40’s all this time and they’d been shrinking in the wash. Byrne’s run added many things to the lore, Diana Prince now worked at a fast food chain, her best friend was an archeologist and she had finally gotten competent sidekick (Donna Troy never actually served as her sidekick and was created solely for the Teen Titans). Cassandra Sandsmark was the daughter of Wonder Woman’s best friend and Zeus, Cassie would go on to be in Young Justice and Teen Titans. But how did Byrne treat Wonder Woman herself, well she became a martyr, she took hits and punishment so that nobody else would. While still motivated by empathy and her inner strength, it makes Wonder Woman heroic but also more of a submissive when Wonder Woman had previously been the loving dominatrix. DC editorial during John Byrne’s tenure kept mandating he use specific characters, and a specific one during each arc, Wonder Woman’s solo book had stopped being solo and became a team up book, this trend would continue off and on until 2005.

Greg Rucka would be the next writer to make lasting additions to the Wonder Woman mythos, his addition would be the super villain Veronica Cale. The best way I can describe Veronica Cale is as Wonder Woman’s answer to Lex Luthor. A self made billionaire industrialist and scientist who is motivated by envy, Veronica hates that Wonder Woman is viewed as a feminist icon. She doesn’t think Wonder Woman deserves the accolades as she was given opportunities Cale never had, Cale never got to be raised on a magical island of all women, Cale has no superpowers, everything she has she learnt through work and all she wants is to knock down the demigoddess to her level.

Times where changing in Geek Culture with the success of the Doctor Who revival, Harry Potter and the Twilight books more women where willing to identify as geeks and get into geeky things like Superhero comics. DC capitalised on this by giving Wonder Woman her first female writer who would reintroduce the character after the Infinite Crisis event, Jodi Picoult for a mini series called “Who is Wonder Woman?” after this mini series the main book would be taken over by Gail Simone. Simone’s run was the most popular since the 70’s even though it added relatively little to the lore, it’s most enduring legacy is that it outs Wonder Woman as bisexual. However DC couldn’t let a good thing last, despite the series being the best it had been for a long while (both in writing and sales) they had to abruptly fire Simone from the series and replace her with J Micheal Straczinski fresh from his tenure at Marvel. In the false name of Hera JMS and Jim Lee in Wonder Woman 600 introduced Wonder Woman’s new costume a Biker jacket and leggings. The sales of 600 where strong, 601 weren’t and 602 sales were worse. Fans were outraged, some because of the firing of Simone, some for the new costume and some because Straczinski had just ruined Spider-man over at Marvel and he looked set to work his magic at DC.

Wonder Woman’s first major outing outside of the comics was the Hanna Barbera series Super-Friends, but in that show all the heroes are reduced to different powers the only real personalities are the Wonder Twins who are mind-bogglingly annoying. But DC in the early 2000’s had 2 failed attempts to bring Wonder Woman to a wider non-comic book reading audience. A pilot episode for a new live action TV series was made written by Boston Legal and Ally MacBeal creator David E Kelly, starring Addrianne Palicki as Wonder Woman and Elizabeth Hurley as Veronica Cale. This version has nothing to do with Wonder Woman comics, Diana Prince is the CEO of a major corporation who sells her likeness to toy manufacturers and complains about the expectations of her like “Wonder Woman is supposed to have perfect tits” that is an actual quote from the pilot. The series was not green-lit and to this day fans wonder what they where thinking. The other failed live action project for Wonder Woman was Joss Whedon’s film version. This was often spoken off in hushed tones over the internet as a what if (to go with Whedon’s failed Batman movie) and with the directors success of The Avengers fans became more and more curious as to what it could be. All that was known about it was he intended Cobie Smulders (best known as Robin from How I Met Your Mother) was to play Wonder Woman until the script leaked online. At first some journalists thought this was a fake, but alas this was the real thing. Joss Whedon’s “Feminist” credential has always felt shaky to me but with this script was one of the final nails in that coffin. The script gives intense graphic details of scenes of foot fetishism, Wonder Woman performing stripteases and Steve Trevor as the main character.

DC Animation had greater success bringing the character off the comics page with an animated movie and her inclusion into the Justice League animated series. The animated film starring Keri Russell and Nathan Filion as Steve Trevor, is a mostly faithful adaptation George Perez’s run on Wonder Woman. The biggest change is that Ares is the one who tried to enslave the Amazons not Hercules, which is done to streamline the story. Without a doubt my favourite part of the film is where Wonder Woman punches Steve Trevor and tells him to show that he needs to show more respect to women. Unfortunately that strong feminist message cannot be found in DC Animations other version of Wonder Woman, there she is reduced to what I call the “Jean Grey Role”. In the Justice League animated series, Diana is a lovesick teenager pining over Batman (because the DCAU is made by Batman fanboys for Batman fanboys). Producers justified this decision with “we didn’t want to explore a romantic relationship between Superman and Wonder Woman” which is just insulting to the character that “she needs a love interest”. But in reality giving Batman the arm-candy strengthens him, makes him the coolest one, something the DCAU is obsessed with doing so much so that every other member of the Justice League is weaker than their comics counterpoint except him. 

Wonder Woman would also appear in The Dark Knight Strikes Again and All Star Batman and Robin written by Frank Miller. The version of Wonder Woman in these stories would be a straw feminist, an excuse for Frank Miller to give his criticisms of modern feminism which as he’s a racist, misogamist as well as a talentless hack he had a lot of them. Miller’s idea of feminism is hating all men, at that what Wonder Woman monologues about semi-coherently (did I mention Frank Miller is not a good writer) yet paradoxically is in love with Superman whom she has sex with in the sky causing a snow-storm. How that works I have no idea my only guess is its not snow but instead Super-sperm. These stories would not warrant mentioning but they actually went on to inform the next era of Wonder Woman’s history (and not as a reaction against). 

DC rebooted all of its comics in 2011 with the New 52, whole back stories would be rewritten and Wonder Woman got Brian Azzarello as her writer. To those who don’t know Brian Azzarello is to Frank Miller what Robin is to Batman, he’s his biggest fanboy and also a misogamistic piece of shit. Wonder Woman was no longer a champion of Peace and Love but a 2nd rate Xena and later the Goddess of War. She was no longer brought to life by a goddess but the daughter of Zeus. She wouldn’t use her lasso of truth to find the solution to a problem she would now use her Godslayer sword to stab things. The Amazons where no longer subjugated unfairly but would now sail the seas in rape gangs, looking for men to impregnate them and then kill them. Over on Justice League New 52 Wonder Woman would be in a relationship with Superman once again reduced to his arm-candy. Wonder Woman had sold out all of her values and she was about to get a movie out of it. 

The Wonder Woman movie produced a story-credited by Zack Snyder, a man whose only original movie is Sucker-punch which encourages rape “because it allows women to grow stronger” would not make a good Wonder Woman movie. Produced by Brett Ratner who actually raped someone on the set of the movie (would not want to uphold the feminist ideas of Wonder Woman). Gal Gadot who when the story of his rape broke to the media campaigned for his removal from the sequel suddenly went quiet when the victim, her childhood friend accused her of helping him do it. The Movie itself removes any relevance of the Goddesses from the story, opting for Zeus to rule the Amazons, this is not an all female society but a male fantasy for one man to have a whole harem of warrior women. The film also chooses to have Steve Trevor be a competent spy (also not having Wonder Woman nurse him back to health, thus changing her motives from altruism to a desire to kill Ares) and not once despite his constant patronising does Wonder Woman stands up to him. The film also ends with her giving up her role as Wonder Woman to run a fashion boutique (just like the Dennis O’Neil era). The only reason this film got any praise as a feminist moment had to come from how overdue a female lead superhero movie that was watchable was. 

With her history covered which is Wonder Woman? Well, the answer is both. Wonder Woman’s history is problematic and not just because she fought a villain called Egg Fu (a giant egg with a Fu Manchu moustache who speaks in “engrish”). Wonder Woman doesn’t actually belong to DC Comics, no fictional character actually belongs to their publisher, she belongs to the reader. She lives in out collective imagination and there is certainly evidence for both sides of the debate. But we as readers can choose which stories inform “Our Wonder Woman”, we can select the most uplifting and feminist, we can pick the silliest or we can be slimy creeps that DC are more than happy to cater to and pick the worst. The choice is up to you and sure Marston her creator was a complicated man but he had good ideas as well as bad, to remove him wholesale like DC has tried to do is wrong. Thankfully they’ve published Grant Morrison’s Wonder Woman Earth One which is an exploration of his ideas, criticising the ones that don’t work and praising the good ones. The future of the character is not decided yet, hopefully more and more creators will reject Azzarello’s run and draw inspiration from the better ones, currently Greg Rucka has returned to the book and her characterisation as a compassionate diplomat have returned with him. 

DC’s Trinity have different roles in their universe; Batman is there to punish the wicked, Superman to protect the world and Wonder Woman is a healer. Her main goal is to have the Amazons make peace with men, so they can have a better future, to heal the mistakes of the past. She wasn’t meant to do this with violence, classic Wonder Woman doesn’t carry any weapons, she stands openly and offers emotional support. She helps in a way that is different from the very male Batman of punching criminals. DC have tried to move Wonder Woman away from that, to just the woman who ties people up, taking away Marston’s greatest idea that understanding and compassion are greater than violence.