Tales of the Parodyverse - New look for Wonder Woman and a new actor for Spider-Man

Author

Member Since: Thu Jan 01, 1970
Posts: 618

Subject: New look for Wonder Woman and a new actor for Spider-Man
Posted Fri Jul 02, 2010 at 01:42:52 pm EDT (Viewed 364 times)

Posted with Mozilla Firefox 3.5.10 on Windows XP

Comics are all over the mainstream media the past couple of days. Wonder Woman has gotten a makeover as part of a new story by JMS, and I really don't care for the new costume. Hopefully it is just temporary as part of a contained story, since I can't see it lasting long-term. I discuss the new costume a bit over at my blog, http://jboknows.blogspot.com

http://www.newsarama.com/comics/new-wonder-woman-costume-100629.html

Also in the news, the new Peter Parker has been cast for the Spider-Man relaunch. Why in the world they would cast a 26-27 year old to play high school Peter Parker I will never understand; assuming they want to do multiple films with the same actor, he's going to be 30 by the time they do the next one. At least on a television show when the actors are older you get a lot more mileage out of them since they appear much more often.

www.mymanitoba.com">http://www.cbc.ca/arts/film/story/2010/07/02/spider-man-actor.html?ref=fh,www.mymanitoba.com

Visionary

Moderator

Member Since: Sat Jan 03, 2004
Posts: 2,131

Subject: Re: New look for Wonder Woman and a new actor for Spider-Man [Re: Hatman]
Posted Fri Jul 02, 2010 at 02:58:15 pm EDT (Viewed 378 times)

Posted with Mozilla Firefox 3.6.6 on Windows XP

Quote:

For the most part, I agree with you. In general, the new outfit looks good to me... there's nothing really to complain about unlike some other costume redesigns. However, is it a particularly great Wonder Woman costume? I don't think so. At the end of the day it seems very generic to me. It's essentially Black Canary in pants, isn't it? It's just so nondescript... so easily replicated in the real world, that it loses all interest for me. I'm sure that's what they were going for (something that would work in a movie) but at this point I wonder why have a costume at all.

Someone had gathered up some other costume changes for her, including some that were purportedly movie versions of her iconic look, and I have to say the ones that I liked the most (if a change was totally necessary) were the ones that looked inspired by Greek armor. Hell, some of them could have simply been a repaint of Xena, Warrior Princess with Wonder Woman colors and designs... and honestly, they worked fine. I could easily buy it on film as a ceremonial armor of the Amazons.

Really, I think the main problem with Wonder Woman is that DC seems to feel the need to make her all things to all people, and end up watering down all of her appeal. I don't think they should run from the cheesecake nature of the character... I think you actually get more mileage from pop culture icons that simply prove deeper than the superficial traits. Xena was full of knowing titillation, and yet she wasn't universally despised by feminists... quite the opposite.

DC should stop apologizing for what Wonder Woman looks like and focus instead on bringing a strong, appealing character to the forefront.

Quote:

Yeah, I find it kind of creepy that they cast guys in their late 20's to be high school students. Of course, I remember all of the films of the 80's where High School seemed to be populated entirely by college seniors just so that they could flash some nudity legally.

I suppose I'll wait and see how well they do with it... Personally I'd prefer them not to set it during High School anyway.

CrazySugarFreakBoy!

Member Since: Sun Jan 04, 2004
Posts: 1,235

Subject: My thoughts mirror your own ... [Re: Visionary]
Posted Sat Jul 03, 2010 at 12:48:16 am EDT (Viewed 415 times)

Posted with Google Chrome 5.0.375.99 on Windows Vista

... But in case you're still interested, here's my thoughts from my own blog:

There are two J. Michael Straczynskis. One did a great job of writing Aunt May and the Spider-Marriage, and the other produces pablum like the Amazing Spider-Man 9/11 issue, Superman getting blamed for not curing the cancer of random civilians and Wonder Woman getting the "One More Day" treatment, complete with a costume redesign that JMS himself admits was inspired by the worst stylistic excesses of the 1990s.

Look, folks, here's the deal; at this point, for better or for worse, anyone who seriously thinks that they're going to significantly alter the outfits of Wonder Woman, Superman or Batman for longer than a few issues is simply fooling themselves. Of all of them, Batman's "long term" look has been the most flexible, and even with that, we're talking about minor window-dressing details like adding or subtracting underwear on the outside of the costume and/or the yellow oval around the bat insignia on his chest. And as much as people piss and moan about how the FANS are responsible for undoing such changes, it's actually the NON-FANS who object the loudest to them, and do the most to get them undone.

An ironic case in point: Remember when Wonder Woman lost her star-spangled costume entirely, and traded it in for a then-contemporary outfit straight out of The Mod Squad? By all accounts, Denny O'Neil did this with the best of intentions, to try and give women who wanted to be empowered a superheroine with whom they could more closely identify, and yet, you know who complained the loudest about it? GLORIA STEINEM, who felt (and regardless of how any of y'all feel about her politics, you should be able to agree with her on this) that it removed the SUPER from her superhero identity. Poor Denny O'Neil ... he gets Diana out of the "bathing suit" and into a less exposed outfit as this grand feminist gesture, and one of the founders of the feminist movement actually devoted an entire editorial in Ms. Magazine to saying how much she hated it.

Plus, this Jim Lee redesign is, like just about all of his other recent costume redesigns, complete crap. Diana looks like she's about to go clubbing with Snookie and The Situation in that too-short-to-be-functional jacket, so if the aim was to give her a look that we would take "more seriously" than the "bathing suit," then, yeah, Massive Fail.

Oh, and HAHAHAHAHA WINS FOREVER:

JMS says:

Another guy, on a podcast, said the idea of Wonder Woman at a club or acting cool literally creeped him out because Wonder Woman was like his grandmother, and he didn't want his grandmother doing that sort of thing.

When people start to see your character as a grandmother, or a prude, or inflexible...something's profoundly wrong.

And all I can hear is [Kirk] getting an erection.

This will now become commissioned fanart. $\:\)$

By the way, who the hell looks at the current state of superhero comics and says to themselves, "You know what there's not NEARLY ENOUGH of here? Is more CONFUSING RETCONS!" Next to "gratuitous rape," "confusing retcons" are pretty much the chief commercial export of DC and Marvel anymore.

And if this is just because DC wants an outfit and an origin that can sell well to moviegoers, then a) Marvel's Thor movie certainly isn't shying away from the mythological to the degree that JMS is, and b) EVEN FUCKING FAN ARTISTS CAN CREATE A BETTER "REALISTIC" COSTUME THAN THIS SHIT.

This post contains SPOILERS - Click to read

K-Box in the Box