Thursday, April 19, 2007

I Thought I Knew Her

From Wonder Woman #7:Does anyone seriously think Wonder Woman, as characterized up to now, would do that? He made a joke. A stupid, sexist joke, but that doesn't deserve that kind of treatment.

I admit, Wonder Woman is a very strange character. Nearly every writer makes a point of talking about how hard she is to define, and a common complaint on message boards is that she's a cipher. She's been said to be the hardest character at DC to write.

Personally, I just see Diana as a complex and multifaceted individual, much like the ones you meet every day. Not entirely predictable, and you see different sides of her personality in different situations. Most writers have had a slightly different take on her, to the point that I've seen it described as "schizophrenic," but I always looked at her as a person made up of the gifts of seven very different deities (her six patrons, plus Ares who as her enemy seems as much a part of her as the others). With that in mind, the different portrayals fit together nicely, and there's even a single underlying personality trait.

You see, the secret is that, even though none of us can say we know who Wonder Woman is, its always been very clear that she knows who she is. There's trouble connecting with other people, and the gods, and her purpose, but Diana has always been centered in herself. Confident. She knew exactly what she was inside.

Its a great departure from a lot of the other characters in comics, always soul-searching. Diana had her soul, her problem was where it fit with everyone else's. The world would fall apart, and Diana always knew who she was and what she was doing. to the end of Rucka's run, she knew. It was comforting.

Even in Heinberg's story, where she professes she needs to find herself and get to know herself, that confidence and comfort is there. She has herself, she knows herself in her heart, she just can't define herself and how she relates to others anymore, so she intellectually wonders. But she knows.

It was the one consistency in Wonder Woman's characterization, and now its gone. All of that wistful mirror-gazing and angsting and confusion and loss of real-life skill has knocked that confidence away from Wonder Woman.

All of the other writers may have been confused as to exactly who Wonder Woman was, but hey, even Mark Waid who wrote her in a dystopian future where she'd lost her way and professed that he didn't understand the character seemed to understand that Diana knew who she was and was comfortable in her own skin.

Its how we, as fans, can disagree on a description of her personality but look at a scene like the one above and immediately know that that's not right That's not Diana.

Who is Diana? Who is Wonder Woman?

Hell if I know who she is, but I know who she isn't and I know she knows who she is.

Its not the usual characterization for a woman. According to what I've seen of women in fiction, we're unsure of ourselves. We're uncomfortable with ourselves. We're uncomfortable with our bodies. We're uncomfortable with our sexuality. We don't know what we're capable of. We second-guess ourselves. We surprise ourselves. We hate ourselves. We hurt ourselves and the people around us. Society seems designed to make us that way and that's what I see in most female characters. Every woman's story in fiction seems to be a coming into herself. Learning those traits.

Wonder Woman is not supposed to be like that. Wonder Woman is supposed to already be the woman other women in fiction learn to be. She's at the point where you are done working on your inside and ready to work on the outside world.

Wonder Woman is not for a deep, thoughful, soul-searching journey where, through the character, you learn your own self-worth despite the crap thrown on you by society. Wonder Woman is for when you want to sit down and vicariously kick misogyny's ass, because it seems like the world is working against you're fed up with not being able to make a change for the better externally.

That may be hard to plot, but really, how hard is it to understand?

26 comments:

  1. Ye cats. I can't get over the fact that Diana dropped an already very injured man for making a bad joke/hitting on her.

    Yeesh. This is the Diana that used to work with Guy Gardner on a regular basis after all. She's heard worse. And he's injured!

    I'm annoyed at such a nice beginning of a woman carrying an injured man is ruined by that idiocy.

    ReplyDelete
  2. Way to make Diana look like even more of a jerk by dropping an injured man for the sake of a tired joke, Picoult! You've effectively convinced me to never buy anything you write, because you obviously can't.

    ReplyDelete
  3. The only thing important about her characterization is that she's a woman, and women always overreact to sexist comments. Haha!

    ReplyDelete
  4. That's a good point about Diana's self-knowledge, Ragnell.

    As for the scene you quoted, I chose to interpret it as more expressionistic than a genuine depiction of what happened--sort of like the mangaesque depictions of the Teen Titans in Teen Titans Go. That is, it's not something that actually occurred, but it reflects a momentary emotional impulse. Granted, there's nothing in the art or story that points in that direction, but since the alternative is Wonder Woman dropping an injured man, well, clearly something ain't kosher.

    (That said, I thought it was actually a nicely-staged bit of comedy. Just wildly, WILDLY out of character.)

    ReplyDelete
  5. How is it possible for her own book to be so awful, when over in Manhunter, Marc Andreyko is writing her so beautifully?

    And Kalinara is right as usual. If she can handle Guy Gardner, (and she CAN!) she can handle anything Nemesis dishes out. But this "woe is me, I'm so helpless" attitude that Picoult has given her,just makes me seethe. It's not just out of character, it is WILDLY out of character.

    Beau Smith wrote a wonderful Wonder Woman.

    ReplyDelete
  6. I'm a Joss Whedon fan, and your last couple of paragraphs are the most succinct explanation I've seen of why he'd be wrong as a writer for the character.

    ReplyDelete
  7. Phil: I agree.

    Not only was Nemesis injured, he was wounded and looked out of it. I think Diana can forgive him for hitting on her in that state.

    I bought this book for my mom, who loves Picoult. She says it's great.

    ReplyDelete
  8. We should tell this to miss Picoult herself. She has a website you knwo, and responds to e-mails.

    ReplyDelete
  9. By the way...while dropping an obviously injured Nemesis is very much out of character for Wonder Woman...she would TOTALLY do it to Snapper Carr.

    heh.

    ReplyDelete
  10. There was definitely something OFF about Picoult's first issue, though I couldn't put my finger on it.

    I don't think she buys that much into the reality of the book and the characters. Issue #6 leaned so heavily on metafictional business and very contrived setups (the whole "Wonder Woman milkshake" scene), and here we have her making Nemesis faw down for the sake of a gag that's a cliche in magna circles (okay, she doesn't use a hammer, but still.) Even overt funny books- JLI, SHE-HULK, etc.- know not to undercut scenes that are supposed to be dramatic in this way.

    ReplyDelete
  11. *Sigh* Seriously, this is just another example of the lazy writing I've seen during Picoult's issues.

    I haven't read any of her non-comic writing but I'd wager she's a fine writer. Gail Simone called her "whipsmart" so I'm sure if she sat down she could come up with an engaging, challenging story. Yet it really seems like for WW she just slapped the first thing she thought of down on paper, which 99.9% of the time is going to be a complete cliche. It's like that old creative writing exercise of taking a situation and listing 10 things that might come next. The first three are really easy because it's just your mind regurgitating cliches its learned over the years. The next three are tougher because you have to start thinking, and the last four are near impossible because then you're getting into the original stuff. So you toss the first six and pick from the last four.

    Picoult took # 1 from her list apparently. One of the most intelligent, advanced, generally awesome (in its true sense of the word) women in the world is befuddled by the subway turnstile? Please! It's not like she walked off the island yesterday - this is in continuity. She's been in "Man's World" for several years.

    Picoult is better than this. The Editors at DC are better than this. And, most importantly, Wonder Woman is better than this.

    Oh man I can't wait until Gail Simone comes on and saves this trainwreck.

    ReplyDelete
  12. Can't be--- you never wear that in my dreams...

    No? What do I wear?

    Oh, I don't know... dessert toppings mostly.

    Really? Hypnos indulges you like that?

    Hypnos?

    God of Sleep. Has to be him, I know Morpheus, he'd have made you the dessert.

    Morpheus? Gods?....

    Rest now, let's get you somewhere safe.

    ReplyDelete
  13. Ahh. Blogger mocks me. I modified my comment after preview and it wouldn't post it. And then it somehow posted the unmodified one.

    ___

    Can't be--- you never wear that in my dreams...

    No? What do I wear?

    Oh, I don't know... dessert toppings mostly.

    Really? Hypnos indulges you like that?

    Hypnos?

    God of Sleep. Has to be him, I know Morpheus, he'd have made you the dessert.

    Morpheus? Gods?....Ughh

    Open those baby blues now. You might have a concussion. Keep talking while I get us somewhere safe. Now what was this horribly embarrassing fantasy you were about to reveal?

    ReplyDelete
  14. Maybe Nemesis is just really, really slippery.

    ReplyDelete
  15. There are some writers who can write her. As mentioned, Andreyko did a marvelous job with her guest appearances in Manhunter. And she's been better written by Meltzer in JLA than in her own book OYL.

    The page you posted is such a good example of how awful that issue was. Picoult sets it up that the guy is seriously injured, then has Wonder Woman drop him! Diana is not cruel. She'd never deliberately drop an injured man. I would expect her to either ignore him, or tell him he should be glad he's hurt or she would have to teach him the error of his ways or.... well, anything but what she did.

    Like I said on my blog, this was like poorly written fanfic.

    ReplyDelete
  16. That scene made me want to drop the book just like Diana dropped Nemesis.

    Before I could call my comic shop, they announced that Gail Simone would be writing.

    ReplyDelete
  17. I'm going to pretend that panel was Diana just IMAGINING she was dropping Nemesis, but that she didn't do it for real.

    Otherwise, it's just.....WRONG.

    ReplyDelete
  18. I don't have to pretend. It happened in Hypertime. It's not in MY DCU.


    LA LA LA LA LA LA

    ReplyDelete
  19. Dropping Nem seemed like it was to be the punchline of a joke and not Diana trying to hurt the guy. If American comic art allowed such a thing, if they would've shifted to a cartoony sd look for that panel, as they do in manga. Then people would more easily realize it was a joke and not meant to be taken literally/seriously.

    ReplyDelete
  20. In an issue of Birds of Prey from a few years ago (not sure which one; I have it in a trade), there's a scene where Black Canary goes to Wonder Woman for training. Dinah is narrating and says that in the superhero community Superman represents the "light" and Batman the "dark". WW, she says, represents both. She's kind, loving, and caring, but can and will f*** people up when the need arises.

    That's the way I've always viewed Wonder Woman as a character: she's a combination of opposites (NOT contradictions) and understands that. As Ragnell said, she knows who she is and acts with complete confidence at all times. That's the character I want to read about.

    ReplyDelete
  21. willow's dialogue (above) was much better. Let willow write the book.

    BTW: a real super-hero. Miss America 1944: read here.

    I am speechless with admiration for the old girl. Awesome.

    ReplyDelete
  22. Ragnell, I agree with you that Diana's most consistent character trait should be that she is completely confident. I think that Diana should always be shown as an active participant in whatever she does even, and especially, in cheesecake art. I disagree, however, with your assessment of Ms. Piccoult's run.

    I think that it is okay to show Diana with some angst (although I'd like to know what she did in the missing year). I think that one of the reasons Ms. Piccoult shows Diana to be so miserable and, well, annoying is because Mr. Heinberg's issues were late and she didn't see the (sudden and abrupt) moment where Diana became confident again. I don't think that Ms. Piccoult shows Diana as completely not confident--there is a different between knowing who you are and knowing what your role is. Even though I thought it was weird in issue 6 that she was telling Nemesis how she didn't understand "humans" (like she isn't?), I don't think her characterization is clumsy. Without reading issue 7, I don't think Diana is shown as cruel--yes, there are some other ways I would have handled the conversation (as willow showed), but her reaction isn't so out of character. And for all we know, Nemesis wasn't supposed to look as injured as he was, and that was just Mr. Johnson's art.

    --Sandicomm

    (I'm having trouble with my Blogger account right now.)

    ReplyDelete
  23. I agree that it was just a joke and shouldn't be overanalyzed. Wonder Woman did patch Nemesis up so she should get credit for that.
    I doubt Nemesis was that severely injured. If he was mere bandages wouldn't be enough to help him.

    ReplyDelete
  24. All I've got to say is XENA the warrior princess owns all. thank you!!!

    =D

    ReplyDelete
  25. I think Diana's personality will be always depending on two things: time period (she was a different woman in the 40's, 50's, 60's and so forth) and writers (if Batman can be a happy fellow in the 50's and 60's and become a maniac in the 80's, I would say it's up to the writers to do her the way they like most).

    ReplyDelete