Monday, August 21, 2006

My Newest Infatuation

I think I've in love.

He's been working on it for a while already, and seems to have one hell of a plan.

“My plan is to start with Steve Trevor crashing on Paradise Island, and hilarity ensues,” Hughes said. “The way the All Star line was pitched to me, and this was several years ago, was that this was going to be the iconic interpretation."
I like that part where "hilarity ensues." It will be nice to have an All-Star book that's funny on purpose (Unless Miller truly is the Kaufman of Comics, in which case the joke is on all of us -- critics and buyers alike.)
“My take on Wonder Woman is that she’s the perfect woman, but perfect characters are boring. It’s the weaknesses that make people interesting. Superman running through the criminal world, with bullets bouncing off of him saying, ‘It tickles!’ - that’s not as interesting as it is when Superman gets to the villains’ lair, and the bad guy whips out a piece of Kryptonite, and Superman’s weakness now must come into play.

“Wonder Woman’s this perfect character, so her weakness can’t make her look like a bad person, or even a weak character, really, and I came up with insatiable curiosity. All of my favorite, larger than life, fictitious characters seem to come from farms, and they all seem to have what I think is called a Dorothy complex – they have everything they need at home, but they want to see over the rainbow. That’s it with Wonder Woman – she lives in the perfect place – and she wants to go to man’s world, and meet people, and talk to strangers, and learn their ways. I thought, in the hands of a writer who’s halfway decent, that insatiable curiosity, that Marco Polo, ‘I have to see the world’ kind of thing, could get any character into a world of trouble. She has this insatiable need to know and see the world. She’s Dorothy Gale, She’s Luke Skywalker, she’s James Kirk – she wants to get off the farm.”
He seems to have realized the importance of Hermes being the only patron she has that she doesn't share with the rest of the Amazons.

"There’s a difference between curiosity and naiveté. Wonder Woman standing in the middle of traffic asking, ‘What’s a car?’ is not what I’m talking about. She’s out somewhere, in strange new lands, meeting new people, and while she’s there, she needs to slay a dragon…or something. She’s almost addicted to learning new things. Anybody else would look at her and think she was perfect – wise, strong, beautiful, but she’s like a mental anorexic, and would be thinking, ‘I haven’t learned Japanese yet.’ But there’s no pessimism – there just aren’t enough hours in the day to learn all the new things in the world. That’s where her fascination of man’s world comes from – it’s so big and wide open – there’s just so much. Where she’s going to get into trouble is that…there are certain things we do in man’s world that they don’t do on Paradise Island. Likewise, she’s never seen a baby…or an old woman. Somewhere in amongst all of that, the stories start to write themselves.”
That's... That's a little creepy. Adam Hughes can read my mind, and has decided to use the Wonder Woman approach he found there.

And as for that aforementioned Steve Trevor? After 25 odd years as not being even perhaps a love interest, he’s back to his more traditional role, that of a contemporary to Diana in age.

“To make this all an interesting journey, I’m trying to turn up the interest level in Steve Trevor. He’s going to be her guide through man’s world, and if romance blossoms between them, well…we’ll have to see…”
Marry me, Adam.
“If I can pull him off the way I want, picture Steve Trevor as Steve McQueen who’s been hanging out with Race Bannon from Jonny Quest, and they go over to Chuck Yeager’s house for drinks, but it’s the Chuck Yeager played by Sam Shepherd from The Right Stuff. Steve Trevor is the prototypical laconic, cowboy pilot, because that would make an interesting balance with Wonder Woman.”

Or, to go totally geekspeak, Hal Jordan wishes he could be Steve Trevor one day – and not just for the possible shot at Wonder Woman.
If marriage is out of the question, I have this reproductive equipment I'm not using right now and wouldn't mind bearing your child.
As Hughes sees it, he’s the perfect match for Wonder Woman.
And he's not the only one. So long as he keeps the vital Steve characteristic -- which is that being saved by a woman turns him on as opposed to hurting his pride. The proper reaction to getting his butt saved by Diana is not "I'm being saved by a girl" but "So, what are you doing after the fight's over?"

“Everything Wonder Woman says and does makes the world a better place. If you aske her to pass the salt at the dinner table, she’d do it in a way that would make you think, ‘Gosh darn it, I am going to go back and finish college! She could cure cancer with a smile. She’s this positive, outspoken person, so her companion for the story will be this laid-back, laconic, cowboy poet of a pilot who balances her completely. Again - it’s not a story about a superhero, it’s about a princess from a foreign country coming to America, and her handler/tour guide is the Marlboro Man.”
Okay, if he can pull it off, this could be a lot of fun.

Finally a Wonder Woman writer who sees things the way I do. Hopefully he can convert enough to this viewpoint that some of the All-Star continuity makes its way to the regular continuity, and Steve Trevor lives forever!!

15 comments:

  1. My perfect Wonder Woman is the way that Lynda Carter portrayed her in the 1970s series. I'm not talking about the storylines, but her portrayal. It's interesting how Hughes' vision sounds like the way Lynda Carter portrayed her. If so, I'm really excited for All-Star Wonder Woman. Hells, even without it, I'm excited for All-Star Wonder Woman. And, please, lord, let a DC Direct action figure based on Adam Hughes' art come out.

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  2. Holy wow. I've been generally under-enthused about Hughes heading up the All-Star interpretation of the character, but WOW that's a good take. It sounds like he understands WW better than anyone I've ever heard talk about her. SOLD.

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  3. Well, it sounds like he knows what he's doing...

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  4. Make sure you don't miss Adam's post in the discussion thread after the interview.

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  5. Hey, remember waaaay back when, Adam Hughes did the art for JLI?
    And it was pretty darn fabulous.
    He did such a great version of Ice and Fire, and even made Guy Gardner look nice. This should be a fun new read.

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  6. Just the way I want to see Wonder Woman and Steve Trevor (love the Race Bannon/Steve McQueen comparison ...)

    Plus, no solicits until books are done! What a radical concept!!!!

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  7. Great Hera! What wonderful news. Thanks for directing us to this article!

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  8. If he can actually pull this off, Hughes' WW will be the first WW I have bought and read in 30 years.

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  9. Holy christ, that follow-up post...he does get it. He really gets it.

    So why does his pin-up art make me cry so much? It always feels like the easy way out. Hopefully, the story will really balance out the cheesecake because man alive...he gets it.

    -- Anun

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  10. Likewise, she’s never seen a baby…or an old woman.

    That one line made me really happy, because it's always been something that bugged me about the character that's never been dealt with.

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  11. I was SO crabbing with our comics group this past Saturday on how I wish Adam Hughes would do sequentials again -- and then this news comes out -- AND he gets WW.

    JOY!!

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  12. loren, how would you describe the way Lynda Carter portrayed WW? I'm not really sure which characteristics you're celebrating.

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  13. If he gives us All-Star Etta Candy, I'll be a happy happy dragon.

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  14. This will be THE event of whatever year it comes out. I'm with the rest of you guys. That is a good take.

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  15. Hopefully all this Wonder Woman love will result in the logical next step for ASWW: The return of SENSATION COMICS!

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