#wonder woman meta

[fantastic-nonsense]

finding out that a lot of people just want the badass warrior women with swords and are supremely uninterested in grappling with the many social and political issues the Amazonian struggle actually represents is super depressing btw

#edit: this post now comes with bonus additional commentary in the notes #wonder woman #dc comics #dc amazons #diana of themiscyra #queen hippolyta #wonder woman meta

[theparadiseproject]

Another character i have never liked is Philippus. She was always bland and Perez did a horrible job trying to fluff out the Amazons and the cast of them, but she has become some idea of being Diana's 2nd mother and sometimes a love interest of Hippolyta. It is a sorely unwelcome change that does rewrite Hippolyta as being interested in women and shoe horns an unnecessary element into Diana's upbringing for the sake of representation. There were other areas where adding these sorts of rep would have been better served.

The biggest disappointment is that Phillipus has no real character appropriate for an Amazon. She is quiet, loyal, subservient, and overall lacking any charisma. Which is all of what you expect from someone in service to their Queen. Which only makes the relationship even more uncomfortable and leads to Phillipus inclusion into Diana's upbringing all the more unnecessary.

There is very little there and she seems to exist solely for representation sake and she doesn't even fit in the Amazons like every other Post Crisis addition to the Amazons. She is too stoic, way too martial, and the structure of the Amazons were way too militant.

The only bright side to her was the fact that she added more diversity but for the sake of everything else that comes with the franchise.

#phillipus #dc comics #wonder woman #wonder woman meta #george perez #hippolyta

[bet-on-me-13]

The Villains Daughter

So! Years ago, back when the Justice League was only just starting out, only a year or two after their initial team-up, they had one of their biggest battles to date. A group of Extra-Dimensional Beings had burst into their reality, hellbent on destroying a Government Facility and the nearby small town in Illinois.

They barely managed to beat the Invading Army back, although the Government Facility and a part of the nearby Town had been destroyed in the battle.

Later, they would learn about what had happened. Apparently the Government Base, called a GIW Facility, had managed to finally Crack the secret to Interdimensional Travel a few days earlier. Unfortunately, they had opened a Portal into a Dimension known as the Ghost Zone, ruled over by a Tyrant King who wanted to enslaved all world under him. Their Breaching of the GZ had alerted the Tyrant King to the existence of their Dimension, and he had launched an immediate Invasion to try and take it over.

And the evidence supported this.

Wonder Woman shared Legends of her People, telling that their Founding Ancestor had fled the rule of a Tyrant King when she passed into the Afterlife.

Zatara shared his Magic Tomes, showing them passages detailing the horrific Rule of the Tyrant King of the Infinite Realms.

They even asked Boston Brand, the Deadman and resident Ghost about it. He hadn't been the the Ghost Zone in Years, but even he told them that he had personally fled the Tyrant King.

And they also learned that when the Tyrant King set his eyes on something, he did not falter on his Warpath to acquire it. The Tyrant King, Pariah Dark, would be back for their World, again and again.

And they needed to be prepared. This Battle was what kickstarted their true Commitment to the idea of a Team. They knew they could not defeat Pariah Dark alone, so they needed to remain as a Team.

But there was another thing that came about from the Battle.

While the JLA had been helping clean up, Wonder Woman came across a strange sight. A Baby had been left in the rubble of the GIW Building.

She asked around, investigated, and did all she could to find the babies parents. At first she thought that one of the GIW Agents had brought their kid to work that day, but their records indicated that none of the Agents had children of that Age. And Neither did any of the other workers who worked on the base, like the Janitors or the Kitchen Staff. And of they did, all of their children were accounted for.

She eventually came to the conclusion that the Baby must belong to somebody in the nearby Town, but that lead led nowhere either.

She finally came to the conclusion that the Baby's parents must have died in the Invasion, a very unfortunate but very real possibility. She was going to place her into the System, but over the course of her investigation she had grown fond of the Child.

She decided to Adopt the baby herself. She didn't know the child's name, so she had to come up with a new one.

"How do you like the name, Stella?"

The baby gurgled in delight.

...

Over the next decade of their Teams Existence, the Justice League had to fend off the Legions of the Ghost King's Army many more times. It seemed that Pariah had grown wise to the fact that they were the ones defending the Human Realm, as almost all of the later attacks were directed on them personally.

It made sense, they were the First Line of Defense against his Armies, if he managed to defeat them, their World would soon fall.

But they dealt with the attacks as they came. They had made it their mission to defend their Home from the Forced of Pariah Darks Army, and they would not falter now, or ever.

In the case of Wonder Woman, he Daughter had grown to be a fine little lady. Stella had eventually developed Powers similar to her mother, in that she could fly and had super strength, and had begged to be trained as a Hero.

And who was Diana to deny her Daughter her greatest wish? Over the next 5 years, Diana trained Stella in the ways of the Amazon's. Then, when Stella was 15, she had her join the newly formed Young Justice.

She made a great group of friends on that Team, and even started going by Ellie as a Nickname. Her best friend was by far Conner, though she didn't know why she felt such a strong connection to him? It felt like she could relate to him, but her situation was completely different?

Ah well, her Mom wouldn't mind having another kid, would she? She always wanted a Brother!

...

Meanwhile in the Ghost Zone, the Ghost King was getting anxious. After 15 years, his Agents in the Human Realm had finally managed to set up the Ritual needed to Summon Him into the Human Realm.

Who knew that accepting the Ghost King's Throne would bar him from entering the Human Realm through normal Means? He couldn't even use the Portal, he needed to be summoned or he simply wouldn't be able to leave his new home dimension.

But now, it was almost time. Just another year or two, and he would finally be able to enter the Human Realm. He would finally be able to Find Her. His Daugther.

Danny would finally be able to reunite with his daughter, Ellie.

#Dpxdc #Dp x dc #Dcxdp #Dc x dp #Danny Phantom #Dc #Dcu #Justice League #Wonder Woman #Diana adopts Ellie #Ellie was kidnapped by the GIW #Ellie was deaged so her Core would be able to grow alongside her Body #She doesn't know she even has powers aside from her flight and strength #They all just think that he is an unregistered classification of Metahuman and that's why her blood work didn't come back with a Meta Gene #Ellie Joins Young Justice #She is extremely uncomfortable when Superman rejects Connor but she doesn't know why #The Justice League thinks that Danny is a Villain #They think that he is Pariah Dark #Just under a new name #The whole world thinks that Danny is the greatest Supervillain to ever live #Including Ellie #She does not react well when she finds out that the World Greatest Evil is her Dad #Especially since she doesn't have the context #Danny attacked the JLA because she could sense that they had his daughter #He thought they were working with the GIW

[soleminisanction]

I've always really liked DC's in-house choice of referring to their various superhero groupings as "families," but it has gotten a little frustrating recently with people both in canon and in fandom seeming to forget that families aren't just a parental-unit-and-kids formation. They're complicated, and a lot of the DC families are too messy to fit into that neat little nuclear family mode.

Which is to say... here's some scattered thoughts/summaries about how these families are actually structured in canon, because I think it's interesting:

Supers -- The smaller, more traditional Superfamily (Clark, Lois, Kara, Kon, etc.) is a pretty traditional Midwestern nuclear family, with Jimmy Olsen filling the role of close family friend/goofy neighbor sidekick (in the Silver Age, he was Kara's would-be suitor) and Steel feeling more like part of Clark's personal circle of friends. The recent line up, though, with Jon, the twins, Kong and Nat? Starts to feel more like some old dynasty or noble house, complete with fostered foundlings and the Steels acting almost like knights under a noble's banner, possibly reflective of what the House of El would have been on Krypton.

Arrows -- Might currently be the closet to a traditional nuclear family structure. You've got Ollie and Dinah, their younger sisters, Ollie's adopted and biological children, and Ollie's granddaughter through Roy, plus by some counts Roy's co-parent and her sister as "in-laws." Bonnie and Cissie King-Jones are adjacent to but not technically "part" of the family, though I believe it's implied at one point that Ollie might also be Cissie's bio-dad. Pretty straightforward, these guys are actually family and they act like it, for good and ill.

Shazam Family -- Also a literal, actual family. Not originally, the original golden age "Marvel Family" was considerably more complicated and only Billy and Mary were full siblings, but nowadays the whole point of the modern Shazam family is that they're foster siblings united by familial love and that's fantastic. Meanwhile your average Black Adam story is 75% angsty family drama, 25% Egyptian mythology references.

Flashes -- Technically closer to three nuclear families (the Allens, the Wests and the Garricks; four if you include the Quicks), two of whom are united by marriage and all of whom are bound by the Speedforce, which, given its semi-spiritual connections to things like Speedster afterlives, can act almost like a religious force that connects them to the additional members like Avery, Circuit Breaker and Max as Bart's foster-dad. They're a big, sprawling tree with more cousins than siblings, the kind of family that functionally has a reunion every Christmas and Thanksgiving.

Lanterns -- Now these guys are the exception that proves my point about the whole 'family' thing not being straightforward. The lanterns aren't a family, they're a corps. Soldiers. Space cops. Comrades-in-arms. They respect each other, have each other's backs, might even like or care about each other, but those last two are optional, and they don't have the same kind of assumed obligations towards each other that a family would have. They're friends and co-workers, not family, but that doesn't mean their relationships are less significant, they're just different.

Wonders -- Roughly half of them are either one of Hippolyta's daughters (Diana, Donna, Nubia pre-Crisis) or related to them through the gods (Cassie), and the other half (Artemis, Yara, modern-age Nubia) use sister as a term of endearment more in a utopian lesbian commune kind of way. I think they brought Steve Trevor back recently? He's basically the Ken in this equation and perfectly fine with that role. None of which should be surprising if you've seen Professor Marston and the Wonder Women.

Bats -- This is the one that people get really wrong when they try to force it into a traditional family structure. Don't let WFA fool you, the Bats are and have always been way more a snarled mess of tangled interpersonal relationships than they've ever been a cohesive family. Whether Dick is Bruce's son or his brother depends on what era you're talking about, and the former reading is much more recent than you think -- as in "started cropping up in the early 2000s" recent. Barbara is both Cassandra's sister and her mother. Duke and Steph both have living parents and neither of them want or would ever dream of treating Bruce like their dad; Tim was the same way until his dad died. None of the Robins ever lived in the mansion together, nor did Cass. Babs considered Jean-Paul Valley her brother and Huntress is so close to Tim she once hallucinated him calling her Big Sister. They're a beautiful mess of people finding places where their broken edges fit together into something that works for them and trying to reduce it down to a cozy nuclear family is just so goddamn reductive and lazy.

Blue Beetles -- Are only tangentially related to each other. Seriously, they never even get direct mentoring, each one just takes over when the previous one dies and works on completely different rules from the other two. They're complete strangers bound by a legacy and that's honestly pretty fun.

Zataras -- There's only three of them and they're literally a father, daughter and cousin.

Martians -- Not really a family because there's only the two of them, but an interesting case where the two survivors of what was functionally a war of mutually assured destruction came together in an attempt to find some peace in the aftermath of what they'd lost.

Titans -- The JLA and JSA aren't really in the "family" category, but the Titans lean into it hard, mostly because they're a textbook found family. They don't mirror a nuclear family structure, they're simply a group of people who came together to form a mutual support network. They're the idealized college friends you grew into your own with, some of them childhood companions and others you only met once you leave home for the first time, but all of them friends that you manage to maintain contact with for life, with everyone coming back together even as you scatter and do your own things.

Young Justice -- Meanwhile, this team is the chaotic group of misfits you hung out with when you were a teenager, especially when you were just starting to be allowed to act without adult supervision. You drive each other crazy, none of you know you're all queer as fuck, and you'd fight a bear for any of them even if they asked you not to. They'd probably be insulted if you tried to call them a family. They come out here to get away from their families, thank you very much.

#dc comics #meta #batfamily #super family #arrow family #flash family #wonder women #shazam family #batman #superman #wonder woman #green lantern #teen titans #young justice #kinda rambling #just kinda throwing some ideas together #families of choice #non-traditional families

[arrowheadedbitch]

Wonder Woman: Why do I feel like you tend to avoid me?

Tim, glancing at the lasso of truth as obviously as possible before looking her in the eyes again: No reason.

#tim drake #red robin #robin #rr #chaotic tim drake #meta!tim #my au #wonder woman #diana prince

[mango-sp1ce]

HEY DC X DP FANS

REMEMBER CALCULATOR??? THE CALCULATOR? Whatever the fuck his nerdy ass name was???

He like, was the villain equivalent of oracle in dc-online. And he’s like a character that I don’t think dc really uses often… (Yes I still play that- shut up)

Yeah, anyways-

Boom, make him Tucker. Or make Tucker him??

Tucker = The Calculator

Get it? Got it? Good.

then do whatever the fuck with that. Like- Danny could be a villain in training (dc-online story arc???)

Or maybe no one else knows, and then the bats find out and Tucker freaks the hell out

Or I dunno- Danny is a “villain” (but in the fun way, not so murderous) and ends up being recruited as one of the villain mentors (yknow; Lex, Joker, Circe)

(Since each is a counter to a hero; Superman, Batman, Wonder Woman. What if Danny’s the counter to another hero? Or even the counter to the entire Justice League Dark. I think it’d be pretty funny if he’s the counter to Flash or something)

And now he’s gotta mentor a bunch of villains-in-training who literally busted out of test tubes and have no memories from before… and god hes just adopting kids isn’t he?

maybe somehow Klarions here, too.

I rambled in the tags a lil bit btw…

#danny phantom #dp x dc #dc x dp #batpham #danny phantom crossover #dpxdc #dp x dc prompt #dpxdc prompt #I could also ramble about the power system in dc online #Because the actual options are magic combat | hand to hand combat | and powered combat #so I think metas fall under Lex | Superman #and Wonder Woman and Circe are magic #And then Joker and Batman are hand to hand combat #so then it’s like #Constantine falls under magic too #So introducing Danny as a big villain would be interesting #you have the option of making an ectoplasm section of the power dynamics #or maybe you could fit him under something else? #maybe we could specifically separate alien from meta and give meta to Danny? #And superman won’t run out of kids to mentor because all of the player characters in the game just wake up on brainiacs ship #so they could be from literally anywhere #which would also make the hero equivalent of him Flash #so like #literally perfect #i’m rambling

[kiraman]

are people aware of the fact that Mizu is not canonically in any way shape or form.............. queer....bi.....

(quick note here because reading comprehension stays dead and people may not read the tag novel: I want bi Mizu! I hc her as bi! I love sapphic Mizu)

#Yall are not ready for this take but.......boy....... #can we like praise the show for all its wonderfulness without Proclaiming it a REVOLUTION for the LGBT com. before it actually earns it #It's a thought....... #No one wants bi Mizu more than me trust me but it's just not canon yet. Gender exploration has not gone There #we can meta and we can HC and we can analyse. But it's SUBTEXT #But actually full on praising it for .... something that it's just not there yet is wild to me #A sapphic AF woman #I GET IT. All I write is bi Mizu &Mizu/ladies but it's not canon yet! And if we get it great if we don't oh well! #I'm just saying that...you can't praise a show for what Might happen. That's all 🧘🏻‍♀️💙 #Blue eye samurai is wonderful for so MANY other reasons #Stop giving it credit it has not earned #this is totally open to discussion and non confrontational btw❣️ #if anything the only thing you can kinda give them rep for is Taigen getting a hard on for someone he thinks is a man and STILL... #blue eye samurai #bes mizu #and before anyone comes at me swinging I don't ship ta*zu. that's not at all my point.

[moongothic]

Honestly I think crocodile/dragon and crocodile/Doflamingo are only interesting when treated as failed relationships spinning off into increasingly petty grudges and instigations. Become a warlord to piss off one ex by working with his hated father only for the OTHER ex to ALSO become a warlord to drive you insane. Etc.

I am now going to take his as an opportunity to rant about Dragodile because I unironically think it's an interesting ship if Crocodad Real and I don't think I'm ever going to find a better excuse to rant about it unprompted lmao SO HERE WE GO

But yes like. Dragodile is so fucking interesting to me

A marine and a pirate falling in love with each other is already some starcrossed lovers kinda BS. But then it's like, a FORMER marine and pirate who is WORKING FOR THE GOVERNMENT. That's EXTRA JUICY, it adds layers to the starcrossed lovers shit, and I am not immune to it, it's FACINATING, like what was the dynamic here

But also we don't even know when Dragon left the marines and when he and Crocodile first met, so for all we know it could've been some real enemies-to-lovers-to-enemies shit AND THAT'S SO INTERESTING

(Also the mere concept that Dragon could've been chasing Crocodile around kinda like Smoker tried to chase Luffy, only for Crocodile to become a Shichibukai and Dragon having to give up because they're on the same side now (kinda). Like. That is so fucking funny. And then he leaves the Marines to start a revolution. Or just out of spite dshgjdgs)

Then there's the absolutely hysterical part where Crocodile is the meanest, most intimidating, standoff-ish asshole around. So the idea Dragon was fucking into that is INCREDIBLE. THIS MAN LIKES BEING BULLIED DFSHFKGHFGJHDS (It's possible Young Croc might've been less mean but it's funnier if he wasn't)

And yeah. Somehow. In complete secret. A romance blooms.

And then there's a baby.

And Crocodile transes his gender.

And there's a divorce.

And 17 years later Crocodile has commited dozens of unforgivable warcrimes that are almost exactly the kind of things Dragon wanted to stop the government from doing to begin with.

Mind you, I don't actually think there's coming back from that, this relationship was burned to the ground and the ashes blown away by wind, there is nothing left

But could you imagine if despite the anger and the hurt and the warcrimes they still somehow loved each other

I would just

#Moon posting #Crocodad #Sir Crocodile #Monkey D Dragon #Dragodile #OP Meta #I keep on mentioning Dragodile Divorce but to be fair we don't even know if they had been married #All we do have is the fact that Crocodile Very Specifically doesn't wear a ring on his ring finger (in the manga) #(First half of Alabasta it's his middle finger but from the second half onwards it's consistently been his ring finger) #And there's that SBS where a person asked if the Shichibukai were gonna remain single etc and if they had any kids #And Oda was like ''hMmM I wOnDeR iF aNy oF tHeM hAvE bEeN mArRiEd... Anyway I imagine their kids would be like this'' #And then very very specifically he only did Doflamingo Mihawk and **Crocodile** #So like. If Crocodad Real. The two could've been married briefly (in secret). Probably just engaged in my personal opinion #Also like. Like we all know Iva's Magic HRT is POWERFUL STUFF right #There is something so deeply tragic to me about the just the mental image #Of Crocodile trying to put on his engagement ring post-HRT only to realize it doesn't fit his massive man hand #Like a horrible premonition of how this relationship was going to end #Even if he was the same on the inside he no longer literally fit the mere concept of the woman Dragon had fallen in love with #Can you imagine the series of emotions Crocodile would've gone through realizing that #Or who knows maybe he realized it all much earlier-- when and however the fuck he decided to get HRT from Iva-chan #There is much to be said about One Piece's running theme of loneliness and the loneliness queer people experience #God Oda please I need this man's backstory #I need to know what the fuck happened #I NEED TO KNOW HOW THE DIVORCE HAPPENED #NGL there's a part of me that almost hopes Dragon was Objectively Horrible (in a heated moment that he really regrets) #Just so Crocodile could be at least a little justified in being at resentful towards Dragon #I dunno it would not sit too well with me if the Cishet Man Dragon was 100% In The Right And Never Did Anything Wrong #And then it's the transgender man who does all the morally questionable horrible shit because he's an evil queer #(There's more than plenty of positive queer rep in OP to balance out one (1) evil trans character don't get me wrong) #(But it would be sad if Crocodile was An Evil Queer especially because he's the one who has transitioned)

[ameba-from-space]

Wonder woman should be hairy, actually all amazons should be hairy, I mean leg hair, bushy brows, mustache, and armpit hair, all of these beauty standards were created in the modern times, the amazons would have never been exposed to them and therefore would not follow them, in this essay I will

#dc stop being cowards and give me hairy amazons #dc #dc comics #wonder woman #diana prince #amazons #dc meta

[jackdoe]

In the DC Cosmology, the Trinity is of course Wonder Woman, Batman, and Superman. In an American mythological reading of DC Lore, they can represent the Trinity of Fates, Past, Present, and Future.

Wonder Woman represents the Past, the civilizations who came before us, the ones we studied and modeled our civilization after, I.E. The Romans and The Greeks.

Batman is our Present, a mythological figure for the modern age, A Billionaire, a Polymath, An Altruist, A man railing against the social injustices of modern society, he fights the problems we face now. Superman is our future, he Is the Man Of Tomorrow. He leads the way into the future by example. Be kind to one another and the world, help out where ever you can. But also the potential of technology. Krypton was conceived of as being millions of years older and more advanced that Earth, he is a child of a futuristic utopia, come to our world. He is who we could be.

Representations of Past, Present, and Future of Civilization

#dc comics #superman #clark kent #wonder woman #diana prince #batman #bruce wayne #superwonderbat #dc meta

[fantastic-nonsense]

I wouldn't mind the heavy focus on warrior Amazons so much if they were allowed to be competent instead of just being used as red shirt cannon fodder. But it seems DC only hypes up the Amazons as deadly fighters so other characters can look more impressive when they take them down.

Oh and Happy New Year.

Happy New Year! Forgive me if I use your ask to talk about a piece of the Wonder Woman mythos I've wanted to discuss for some time, because your complaints offered me the perfect segue to write a nice, in-depth meta on it and I couldn't pass up the opportunity.

Honestly, I think a lot of people (both creatives and readers) either don't know, forget, or fundamentally misunderstand the nature of the Amazons' warrior status. So they often get reduced to "deadly warriors who strike first," "supposedly deadly but generally incompetent warriors when outside of their own books," or "militant man-haters" by a lot of people. None of which are true.

The Amazons are incredibly competent warriors and have been since Marston's first portrayal of them in the 1940s, so I don't inherently mind them being shown as such. However, where people get bogged down is insisting that they be shown as deadly and trigger-happy offensive fighters who are happy to strike first and hard, which fundamentally goes against the philosophy and thematic messaging built into Amazonian lore.

DC's Amazonia, lore-wise, is traditionally framed as an Aphrodite vs. Ares "peace and love vs. violence and war" story. In Marston's original rendition of the Amazon's backstory Aphrodite is not only their patron goddess but also their sole creator; it was only after Crisis on Infinite Earths and George Perez's long-overdue lore expansions that the rest of the goddesses became co-creators and co-patrons of the Amazons. Regardless, Ares and his domain are consistently invoked as what the Amazons don't want to be like or engage in. That behavior is the antithesis of what Amazons are supposed to be. This lore informs literally everything about how the Amazons view both their combat abilities and their duty to the goddesses.

The contemporary Amazons are, for the most part, women who died in terrible and traumatic ways at the hands of men (usually through domestic violence, murder, or as conquests of war). When the goddesses created the Amazons by reincarnating these women via the Well of Souls, they specifically charged them to become their champions. And what did these goddesses want? They explicitly wanted justice and protection for women in a violently patriarchial world. The Amazons being warriors is thus specifically tied to an understanding of necessary self-defense and protection (both of themselves and other women), not offense.

Which of course is what lands the Amazons on Themyscira in the first place: invoking the goddesses' ire by not obeying these commands after their rebellion against their enslavement by Heracles and his men crosses the line from the necessary battle to achieve their liberation into wanton violence and revenge:

"The battered Hippolyta prayed to her goddesses and found the courage and inspiration to free herself. Athena had reminded Hippolyta of the Amazons' purpose and mission—but not all of the Amazons remembered. Or cared. They yearned for vengeance. For retribution against those who violated them...and under Antiope, many found it." -Wonder Woman: Our Worlds at War (2001)

And as Hippolyta and Menalippe tell Antiope:

"No, Antiope. Never vengeance; never again!" /// "That is Ares' way, Antiope. We achieve no glory by embracing the Dark God's power!" -Wonder Woman (1987) #1

The Amazon way is promoting a society based on love, equality, truth, and peaceful conflict resolution, not vengeance and violent combat. It's a philosophy that defines Diana's mission in Man's World as an ambassador, teacher, and living example of her peoples' way of life:

Enraptured, they listen to her dissertation on equality between the sexes, tolerance, peaceful coexistence. Social Philosophy 101, Amazon Style. -Wonder Woman (1987) #170

Diana's gods-given mission was to spread the Amazonian ideals of conciliation—to give those living in the World of Man the proper tools to peacefully coexist with each other. It was her life's purpose to teach the possibilities of respect and love by being a living example of an upbringing founded in those ideals.

Truth-seeking, diplomacy, and peace are the Amazonian way of dealing with conflict, not violence. And when you are forced to engage in combat (and you should be prepared for that eventuality because sometimes it will happen), your goal should be self-defense and de-escalation, not offense and prolonging the conflict longer than necessary.

This is also, as an aside, why Diana (and specifically Diana in her capacity as Wonder Woman) does not usually carry offensive weapons like a sword and why her primary "weapons" are the Lasso of Truth and protective bracelets. She's the official representative of her peoples' culture and personally deeply believes in that cultural philosophy. Other Amazons have different views on the matter, including her mother, but Diana grew up completely separated from the World of Man and fully immersed in that belief system, which deeply informs how she views her mission as Wonder Woman.

Personally, I think many (but not all) of the problems re: depicting the Amazons in the modern era come from various writers attempting to solve contradictions that don't exist. They see "kickass trained warriors living peacefully on an island" and see that as a contradiction they have to solve: why do they train if they're pacifists? Why do they fight if they're peaceful? In reality, it's not a contradiction: their status as warriors and champions is specifically tied to self-defense and protection (both of themselves and others), but given the choice they don't want to have to take up arms to protect people because that goes against their fundamental cultural philosophy. Outsiders and meddlesome gods are the ones who force them to do that! What they want is for everyone to be treated with love, respect, and understanding so they don't have to!

And there's a lot of problematic elements built into the concept's execution, but this is the core thesis behind the split between Hippolyta's Themyscirans and Antiope's Bana-Mighdall. The Themysciran Amazons have had their fill of violence and war; they just want to live in peace. But a) they were specifically tasked with guarding Doom's Doorway when they were taken to the island, a duty which necessitates perfect combat readiness, and b) their history is littered with examples of people refusing to leave them alone. So they train, in case someone decides to take shots at them, but otherwise live in peaceful isolation. Meanwhile, the Banas looked at that same shared history and went "we need to take the fight to the outside world. Offense is the best defense, and the only way to protect ourselves and the other women of the world is to actively seek vengeance for the violence women face." So they chose to actively intervene in Man's World, fighting constant battles and exacting revenge for any women mistreated at the hands of men.

...which is also why Artemis was such a necessary and interesting addition to the Wonder Woman mythos (even if she's often handled...poorly), because she and Diana represent two diametrically opposed views of how to protect and represent both their cultures and the women of Man's World, but that's a rant for a different time.

Anyway, the Themysciran Amazons' martial pacifism as a cultural value isn't a contradiction; it's one way of looking at a history filled with violence and victimization and saying "no more." And it's a pretty subversive way of doing so, which (well-written) comics tend to note!

So yes, the "Amazons are warriors" mentality has always been there and has been solidly emphasized at various points throughout Wonder Woman's history, and it should be acknowledged and shown that they're all incredibly competent in battle when they're forced to engage in it. But the way in which it gets emphasized is what defines whether a writer has a solid understanding of the history and baggage that comes with depicting the Amazonian struggle and the socio-political issues embedded in their lore. And unfortunately...many writers just don't seem to get it.

#sorry for just ranting about this but I HAVE to correct the narrative every time this comes up. it's not a want. it's a need. #someone hire me to write a political history of Amazonia #I could do SO MUCH with the recurring themes of isolationism vs. interventionalism as a method of self-defense #dc comics #wonder woman #wonder woman meta #diana of themiscyra #artemis of bana mighdall #queen hippolyta #dc amazons #dc meta #long post #asks

[theparadiseproject]

How GEORGE PEREZ Saved WONDER WOMAN From Becoming a ‘Raunchy Sex Object’

x

George Perez: I didn’t realize until I came into the office of the then-editor Janice Race, and they were putting together a new Wonder Woman book, that there wasn’t a single woman working in that company — and you’re talking about a company whose publisher was a woman! — who was happy with the direction they were going to go in.there was just part of me — the inner feminist in me — who was really bothered that she was just kind of being thrown out.I mean without naming names, when I saw the artist who was going to be on that, I said, “The man is more used to drawing stuff like a Penthouse magazine.” Every woman will vilify this — the premier female character, and we’re going to make her into a raunchy sex object? Oh God, that is the worst direction you could ever take for this character!So, I had ideas for her. I was inspired by Walt Simonson and his take on Thor and by Ray Harryhausen. If you’re looking to challenge the gods, fighting skeletons, hydras, I figured what if Wonder Woman were done, before CGI, by Ray Harryhausen? That became a focus for me.Also, one thing that she is not supposed to be — she is not a female version of Superman, she is a character of mythology. Karen Berger agreed and said, “She’s a fantasy character; she’s not a superhero in the strict sense of the word. She’s a fantasy like Sinbad, all the great stories and myths, she’s a mythological character. Let’s play with that.”I said I also needed to clean up her mythology because she was a mixture of so many Greco-Roman plus modern (influences). I said, “Let’s go back to classic Greek and let me do what I can with that.” And I didn’t realize at the time that ever since the death of (creator) William Marston and H.G. Peter, the original artist on Wonder Woman, there hadn’t been a single writer or artist who ever volunteered to do that book. It was an assigned book. No one wanted to do Wonder Woman. I was the first person — particularly at a time when I could have asked for any possible project and they would have said yes to it.

Title should be "How Perez Ruined Wonder Woman for good."

Finding this old article from 2019 before Perez passed away is him simply recalling everything that I have spoken about with his work on Wonder Woman.

He was more concerned with the women in the office and the supposed negative fallout among women in the audience with the character than he was with the actual character herself.

The editor that he worked for only reaffirms his bad decision to take the most iconic and quintessential female super hero in the genre and relegate her to that of a fantasy hero, totally misconstruing her character, and destroying the few good changes that had happened prior to the Crisis on Infinite Earth event that lead to this new reboot.

It was always obvious from the comic itself that Perez was more interested in his political leanings and own ideas for an 80s fantasy themed story feature Ancient Greek aesthetics and Greek mythology than he was in modernizing a faithful and earnest version of the classic character, but hearing him affirm the obvious is good.

He even turned down an artist that apparently drew the character like a "sexual magazine" as if that wouldn't align perfectly with the original career and art of her Golden Age artist H.G. Peter.

He clearly did not have the character's best interest at mind and was more concern with including the sensibilities of people that the character was not mean to appeal to.

While she certainly supported women and spoke of women empowerment and had many important explorations of gender and women in modern day. She was never a feminist, not meant to appeal to people who had issue with sexual art.

It was clear from their own misrepresentation of the character that those in charge did not have Wonder Woman's best interest in mind and it shows. Even the mythology he wrote was horrible and clearly just scrapped together for his ideal fantasy background.

This explains why the fandom is more interested in bad Greek Mythology and feminism than anything that is actually related to the character.

#ray harryhausen #wonder woman #william moulton marston #dc comics #diana prince #George Perez #karen berger #H.G. Peter #Penthouse #thor #80s fantasy #wonder woman meta

[hollow-keys]

I suffered through Tom King Wonder Woman so you don't have to, here's the review:

The set up is that Amazons become outlaws because one Amazon attacked a guy who assaulted her, then all the guys in the bar attacked her because of it, a full bar brawl happened and she killed them. Already, this feels very uninspired.

Instead of being told through Diana's perspective, the entire story is narrated by a guy who's unnamed for most of the story. Wonder Woman is a secondary character in her own book and isn't even on most of the pages.

Additionally, a lot of important information is glossed over. The political atmosphere and lead up to the bill outlawing the Amazon's should be the focus of the first issue. We should see Wonder Woman and her allies organising and reacting to the events, but this is all handwaved away by a few narration boxes from the currently unnamed guy I just mentioned. He tells us that she protested the governments outlawing peacefully, but it's not shown. The only time we see Diana up to this point is a brief nothing-conversation with Steve Trevor.

When the act is put in place 300 amazons are killed or imprisoned. We don't see her defend them once. We do see a lesbian amazon get gunned down because apparently the government somehow got bullets that can cut Amazon steel.

When we first see Diana after the act's in place she's at the graves of those guys who were killed and she tells the government agents that are after her that she's trying to solve their murders? Homegirl, your people are being genocided.

She doesn't actually seem to care, she appears like an emotionless slate who talks of "obligation" to the Amazons like this is a job, not her people being hunted. The most emotion we get is being told by an Amazon ambassador that she gave her sword to her to resist the temptation of using it, which could point to her being enraged by all this but, again, it's not like we hear from Diana herself.

Edit: I forgot she got angry when a gov agent called her a bitch but yeah that's it on the emotion front.

She then talks to Steve about the situation, again, and then we're finally fully introduced to the narrator guy, The Sovereign. He is part of a dynasty of men that have been secretly ruling America for centuries wielding the lasso of lies. No, seriously.

Firstly, putting America's problems at the feet of an entirely made up guy who's secretly subverting democracy is exactly the type of overly simplistic bullshit I would expect from an ex-CIA operative like Tom King. It's a neat explanation that doesn't require you to consider structural problems, all you gotta do is dispose of this one guy.

Secondly, the idea of a person/group secretly pulling the strings is deeply tied to anti-semitic cabal conspiracy theories, even the word cabal comes from Yiddish. Sure, not all people who believe this type of thing believe that it's a Jewish person/group controlling the world, but the further you get in conspiracy circles, the more prevalent anti-semitism becomes. This guy also has a big nose, which is a common stereotypical Jewish feature.

Thirdly, the lasso of lies? Seriously? Why? Questions, questions and no good answers.

All of this is written in Tom King's unmistakable style (derogatory) where all the dialogue is disjointed, all the characters are sad + stoic and the political commentary is meaningless at best.

#wonder woman #diana prince #tom king #dc comics #wednesday spoilers #meta #📨

[cricketsintheaudience]

Dan Mora’s Knight Terrors designs for batman, superman, and wonder woman came out and I have Thoughts as to what that might tell us for their individual stories !!!!!!!! if I’m right I am owed one billion dollar and to be president of dc thanks

wonder woman: okay admittedly this one is easiest. judging by the several Greek mythological aspects of her design (medusa hair, ares/battle helmet, harpy or other bird of prey appendages, etc.) and excessive weaponry, I’d combine those two to expect her fear will be becoming a machination of war and a tool manipulated to fulfill the myth that is her life and themyscira’s existence. her extensive training as a warrior could easily be used to slot her into the place of the next great hero of myth, slaughtering the gods’ enemies until she herself completes her purpose and dies a warrior’s death. the fear stems from the fact that despite that, she is an individual. her choices to mingle with man’s world and extend her horizon beyond the world of the gods, along with the conscious decision to become the humans’ champion rather than just the gods’, is proof of this. To lose this and be used by the powers that granted her incredible talents against the new life she’s fought to protect could likely be her greatest fear.

superman: death. the grim reaper aspects of the design (skull face, hooded cloak, withered and near skeletal limbs, halo-like spikes) scream that to me (see also: angel of death). specifically, the fact that he can so easily escape death while nearly everyone around him can’t. it could also potentially be the fear of what dying would even look like for clark—alone, in a world unrecognizable from the one he landed in, etc. as a rebuttal for his seeming lack of fear regarding it—but this is less likely to me. the fact that humans are so fragile, so short-lived, and yet so wildly and passionately important to him is an easy target for clark, hence why this character is giving “ghosts of christmas future” vibes that will force him to confront a world without those he loves. (think, mark!!! what will you have in 500 years????)

batman: this was harder than I thought, in part due to my bias against doing his parents’ deaths for the millionth time. though, the detail of the bat crawling out of bruce’s mouth gives me hope for something a little different, as weird as that sounds: I think a distinct fear of bruce’s is letting the identity of the bat consume him. the fact that the amorphous bat-monster-thing crawling out of him alludes to the alternate identity that’s been dormant inside of him finally emerging, leaving bruce behind as a hollow skin along with his humanity and ties to the dredges of his former life. he has fully become the bat—there’s no longer any room for bruce wayne within him anymore. It might as well be the incarnation of his fear and anger leaving the rest of him behind to gain a life of its own.

so yeah!! I’d absolutely love to hear some other takes, I may very well be wrong but I had so much fun trying to decode these designs and I’m super excited for knight terrors regardless!

#knight terrors #dc meta #superman #batman #wonder woman #bruce wayne #clark kent #diana prince #meta analysis #dc comics meta #cricket reads comics

[teruel-a-witch]

no thoughts just Steve automatically looking at Danny when Danny talks about acting crazy out of love and doing big insane gestures because he is that person for him, the one that makes him crazy in love

just so you know, Danny doesn't talk about love in general like love of family etc but specifically being stupid and gullible and desperate to believe what you want to believe even if logic dictates otherwise and being willing to do anything to gain the favour of the person who is the object of your romantic love ↓

all those times Danny called Steve out on acting crazy, all the things Steve has done (and will do) that seemed like too much, Danny has never made the connection, he's still out there talking about how Steve isn't a romantic and doesn't want commitment.

(imagine Danny one day going on one of his usual rants 'why would you do this?? it's not like you are in love with me, are you?' and Steve just looks down and, finally, Danny has that lightbulb moment 'oh...you are'.)

I know the show wasn't trying to portray Steve as canonically madly in love with Danny but they succeeded anyway 🤷🏼‍♀️

#mcdanno #h50 meta #h50 #myh50 #h50 caps #hawaii five 0 #steve mcgarrett #danny williams #very serious scene analysis ™ #pining!steve #h50edit #idiots in love #the suspect didn't want to believe the woman he loved set him up #and it made me wonder if steve felt some mockery in danny's tone #because he too didn't want to believe that danny loved rachel he just wanted to think #danny is only getting back with her because of the kids #of course it wasn't intentional but steve felt put on the spot #and still there's so much affection there #h50 3x03

[arrowheadedbitch]

What if Tim's scared of wonder woman bc she could so easily get him to spill his biggest secret

#meta!tim #tim drake #red robin #robin #rr #wonder woman #lasso of truth #justice league