Tuesday, May 01, 2007

He makes my Steve Trevor argument for me.

This link was mailed to me:
"In the comics, the easiest way to bring real life into the life of the hero is to give him a spouse," said Avi Arad, another producer on the "Spider-Man" franchise.

"Lois Lane and the other women, in the comic books, the woman is the other world that represents all of us, and she is there to support, she is there to demand, she is there to observe and to make you think of her as an ambassador of the rest of us," said Arad, who also headed Marvel Studios, the comic-book empire's Hollywood branch, until last year. "Otherwise, there is never a personal story to bring all of us into the room."

I've said it before and I'll say it again, Steve Trevor can not be replaced in this aspect and we lost so much when they threw him to the background after Crisis.

Edit: I commented on Tom's reaction post, and though I'd share what I said with you:

Steve's not there to complete Diana, he's there to complete culture Basically, if you look at the original Avi Arad quote, he says women. Not a general character type, but general female character type.

Steve was the male character who served that role for the iconic female superhero. He's gone now.

The iconic male superheroes have specific dramatic setup in their casts. Oour iconic female superheros (Wonder Woman, Supergirl, Batgirl -- Hell, even Storm over at Marvel) do not have the same dramatic setup. There is no dude-in-distress to balance the damsel-in-distress.

Diana doesn't need Steve Trevor. We do.
That's the point I thought was self-evident that actually isn't.

11 comments:

  1. Sleestak -- Nemesis is a costumed hero, still. Part of her world. He's not an audience entry, not the normal person caught up in all this.

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  2. Yes, thank you! I'm so glad you said this. I don't necessarily want Steve Trevor back, but I do want Wonder Woman to have a non-superpowered love interest. I'm convinced DC think she should be virginal, to allow fanboys to fantasize about having her, and also to add to the whole "goddess" thing. Or something.

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  3. I also think that Nemesis is the new Steve Trevor. Agreed, he's rather more on the superhero than the civilian side but he has no actual superpowers and is mostly seen as a secret agent type rather than a traditional cape-wearer. It's not, at least to me, that much different from Steve Trevor's military background.

    I'm also agreeing on the 'virignal' aspect, which I've always found more than a little creepy. I fully support real-world 30-year-old virgins everywhere but with Diana it seems more for the purposes of wank-fodder than anything else.

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  4. Not only creepy, but out of character. One of her major patrons is Aphrodite, for heaven's sake! Don't these stupid writers know what Aphrodite does when one of her followers reaches 25 as a virgin who turned down tons of offers?

    As Diana is not some variety of tree right now, we can only assume she is a good follow of the Goddess who gets regular R&R.

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  5. I vaguely recall a cop romantic interest from when Wonder Girl and her mom were first introduced...

    Of course I also recall Jason Blood dating Momma Sandsmark. Wonder whatever happened from that...

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  6. The world could do with a Lois Lane book. I'd have said Lane/Olsen but we know he's a focus in Countdown.

    As for Wonder Woman & Steve Trevor I concur but you'd have to be careful how he was written. He'd have to be written as a very secure person, cool & classy not petty. A lot of the non-super males tend to be written as whiny and somewhat resentful that they're not powered while their partner is.

    Ideally he'd have to be a clear leader in his field of specialization, that would keep the male ego in check while she's off saving the world for the third time this week.

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  7. You realize that Marvel has been trying to DUMP the Spider-Marriage, right?

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  8. Universalperson: All while still publishing Spider-Man loves Mary Jane too. The fact of the matter is that when Marvel feel a character doesn't have enough angst they bust up a relationship.

    Reed Richards needs to come across as a pitiful SOB? Why not have Sue go anti-reg and have Namor start looking good all of a sudden. Event over it's back to living with that dullard Richards so lets forget it happened.

    Wonder Woman could do with a normal character to act as a proxy for the readers, preferably they'd be written as someone readers could aspire to be. At the moment only a 13 year old would aspire to be Nemesis since he has the mentality of a 14 year old.

    I'm thinking Supergirl could do with a normal friend or two as well. Her personal relationships are a bit too abnormal even for an under-socialised teenager and it makes her character come across as arrogant and dislikable at times.

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  9. I think it's even more important for Wonder Woman than the other "Big Three." Superman is an alien, but he grew up in the rural United States and works a somewhat average, if in some stories glamorized, 9-5 job. Batman is a millionare and a genius, but still has Alfred and Commissioner Gordon. Wonder Woman is more distant from the "real world" than Batmana or Superman, and not only lacks a Steve Trevor, but any "everyperson" fixture.

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  10. It's like I've always said: Wonder Woman needs a girlfriend.

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