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EliseuGouveia — Wonder Woman page 1

Published: 2008-08-28 15:00:28 +0000 UTC; Views: 10465; Favourites: 49; Downloads: 144
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Description At the beginning of Bioshock, you can read the words "No Gods. No Kings. Only Man."
I like that concept, because it´s exactly what i think of when I think of one of the ways I´d recreate Wonder Woman.

Step 1 - I´d get rid of the mythological greek gods.
I always thought that they steal too much protagonism from the ones who should be the real heroes of the story, the Themyscirian amazons.Why would a race of highly advanced, highly evolved immortal women worship a 3,000 years old,dead religion that revolved around adoring a bunch of self-indulging creeps?
By getting rid of them, you can attribute far more merit to the amazons who acchieved the point they are not due to some divine gift, but to the fruit of their labour, their efforts, resilience and constant thrive to evolve.
They gained immortality on their own, through their own perserverance, science or magic.
It also bears a much more empowering message than the original.
"The gods granted me immortality" VS "I gained immortality on my own."

On a sidenote, I never liked the idea of dressing the amazons in greek attire and make them worship greek gods.
The amazons were not greek, they were "the other", a tribe from central asia/eastern europe that the greek looked at with either shock, disdain or fascination. For all we know, everything they wrote about them, from killing baby boys to chopping off breasts could be just good old-fashioned mysoginistic propaganda.
So, making the amazons dress in greek fashion and worship greek gods would be akin to writing a western where native americans dress like and act like cowboys.

Step 2. I´d get rid of the queen.
I don´t like monarchies, the idea that someone is destined to rule over others because some god said so. Democracy is not perfect, but I´d choose being a citizen over being a subdict any day of the year.
My amazons are a meritocracy, a society where you advance on the merit of your contribution to society, not due to which family you were born in.


Step 3.
Which brings us to the story I had in mind.
The amazons instituted this meritocracy centuries ago, throwing the queen off her pedestal. I imagine there was likely a gruesome civil war (otherwise it would be boring) and queen Hippolyta was believed killed.
Centuries after, today, she resurfaces.
In the patriarch world.
Living with a mortal man who gave her a child, an all-american girl.
With superpowers.

Step 4.
Makiing Diana an all-american girl solves one of the problems I´ve always had with Wonder Woman: her custume. She´s not american, she´s an amazon princess and ambassador representing the proud nation of Themyscira, so why does she wear an american flag? Because she likes america? So does french president Nicholas Sarkozy, but you don´t see him drapping himself in the american flag when addressing the UN, do you?

No, my Diana was brought up by her mom, Queen Hippolyta and some yet-unnamed guy.
She learned much of the amazon ways but like any other girl, she salivated at Billy O´malley´s broad shoulders in high school.

This gives us readers an "in".
It´s hard to empathise with perfect princess from paradise land, born with a golden spoon in her mouth. But a princess fallen from grace? That´s GOLD!
It has drama, and most important it has the sense of loss that WW´s origin lacks.
A good superhero origin tale has a degree of tragedy to it.
Superman lost his homeworld. Batman lost his parents. Peter Parker could have stopped the man who killed his uncle.
And now, Diana has lost her crown.

Step 5.

I really like the idea of a fallen princess struggling to find her place in the world.
Of course she´ll eventualy return to Themyscira and there shall be much @$$tkickery.
She´ll have to face her "sisters" in the arena just like she originaly did under Marston and Perez´ pen, but this time she´s not The Special One, with powers given to her by the goddesses.
It´s another Wonder Woman pet peeve of mine.
"All amazons are special but one is more special than others."
The Contest of Champions where she faces the best of the best of the best always felt so fake to me because there is no valor in it.
Sure, an amazons can lift a car in her best day, but WW can benchpress aircraft carriers!
Where´s the fun, the challenge in that?

This way, you can finaly give the Contest of Champions the unsurmountable odds it always lacked, piting a NYPD rookie who moonlights as a superhero against seasoned, immortal amazons warriors with 3,000 years worth of combat under their belts.
I salivate at the mere thought.

Step 6.
Now of course I can already hear the DC boys groaning. "-Noooo, we can´t have a race of wimminz as powerful as Superman walking around.
Superman -> smash.
Wimminz -> kitchen."
Chill.
I´m sure one or two or twelve could occasionaly visit earth, but the vast majority of "dem wimminz" would be confined to whatever dimension Themyscira exists in, where I imagine they´d spend eternity fighting off demon creatures bent on invading earth. How´s that sound? ^_^

Step 7.
This also solves the issue of technological advancement.
Themiscira is supposed to be a highly advanced society (unless this is Amazons Attack, where they´re basicaly a bunch of idiots who spent 3,000 years riding horses because inventing flying cars was too much for their little heads) but I could never buy the idea of paradise island as an advanced society. Sorry, but if I spent my days walking at the beach at sunsets, chewing grapes and drooling at half naked women, I would have had zero incentives to develop Purple Ray emmiters.
But fighting demons for all eternity? Now there´s an incentive to evolve. ^_^
Magic, science... there´s any number of fields they could have mastered in 3,000 years.

Step 8 . Civil War
"As long as there are two men around, there will be conflict."
Same goes for women. I don´t buy the whole "there would be world peace if women were in charge".
My amazons are not a homogenous group, they are divided in factions that cohexist peacefuly. Wonder Woman would be the catalist for the rift. The extremists VS the moderates, the monarchists VS the democratis, the amazons who hate the patriarch world VS the ones who wouldn´t mind paying a visit every now and again. Some of Wonder Woman´s archenemies would in fact be amazons, following her to the patriarch world to kill her and, in the process, becoming supervillains themselves.

Point is, the amazons are a rich, untapped pool of great story material if you give them the protagonism and prominence that Zeus & company have enjoyed so far.

In the end, of course she wouldn´t regain her crown as the Princess of Themyscira.
I hate monarchies, remember?
No, in my book, they would do what Wonder Woman comics do best, the ole "come together in mutual understanding".with lots of hugs and xoxo.
The amazons would welcome her in Themyscira during summer vacations or 2 weekend per month or whatever terms of custody allowed her to dump mom and crash at aunt Kleio´s place every once in a while to learn how not to get her derrière kicked by Artemis at the arena
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Comments: 21

Phintolias [2020-08-16 16:34:58 +0000 UTC]

Sounds very interesting

👍: 0 ⏩: 1

EliseuGouveia In reply to Phintolias [2020-08-16 18:25:07 +0000 UTC]

👍: 0 ⏩: 0

Michelleblitzgirl [2019-08-08 19:41:37 +0000 UTC]

Do Amazons here have grudges against men? Because Wonder Woman comic has a whole feminine issue stuff. 

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EliseuGouveia In reply to Michelleblitzgirl [2019-08-09 16:41:48 +0000 UTC]

DC amazons grudge against men comes and goes, sometimes some of them are written wanting to kill men on sight while others, such as Diana are more open and accepting of men in general.

Personally, I don't like to see amazons painted as men haters.

They are supposed to be highly evolved, wise 3,000 years old immortals who mastered many fields of human knowledge, so they should be able to recognize that men are just... human?

There's good, there's bad and then there is a few billions somewhere inbetween.


I'd prefer the amazons written as more zen-like, in my head I see them as immortal Jedi.

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devilphantom [2011-07-04 02:40:37 +0000 UTC]

Your concept for Wonder Woman is an interresting idea. In fact, I had an idea of twisting her origins, namely her birth. I didn't accept the whole being born from a clay statue that she did have a father and her mother kept it a secret to protect her.

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EliseuGouveia In reply to devilphantom [2011-07-06 09:51:26 +0000 UTC]

Thanks, Devilphantom.

That´s the best part of the Wonder Woman mythos, so many elements to play with.

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devilphantom In reply to EliseuGouveia [2011-11-03 04:28:16 +0000 UTC]

Sorry for the late reply. That's the problem. No one wants to play with the elements. Superman's origan gets played with alot. Batman more or less stay the same. Wonder Woman became a sacred cow no one wants to mess with except for the fans who see potental like you.

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AAAtheXelTico [2011-06-05 07:22:33 +0000 UTC]

I think is really funny how one of most powerfull symbols of feminism is in the same universe where Superman lives

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EliseuGouveia In reply to AAAtheXelTico [2011-06-05 19:20:48 +0000 UTC]

It´s a result of a shared universe, I guess.
I could live with it, if the company treated both with the same amount of respect.

Unfortunately, that is seldom the case with Superman (or other male hero) usually taking the spotlight and the (alledged) icon of female empowerment relegated to the role of wallpaper.

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AAAtheXelTico In reply to EliseuGouveia [2011-06-05 20:38:05 +0000 UTC]

The trick with Superman is that he is not suppused to represent male power... he actually represents Power in all the expresion of the word, that is the reason why he gets more screan time than Wonder Woman (she actually is a lot more powerfull than a lot of male superheroes)

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DaisyJane2189 [2009-12-17 18:33:16 +0000 UTC]

I really could agree more. You have made the women empowered by their own merit and not some stupid gods. I always hated that they were 3000 years old and didn't progress one iota in science and technology. Bullshit. At least Marston gave them some advanced technology. I honestly never liked the reboot/post crisis. All that was good about them was taken away and they seemed a bit pathetic. I could see Diana winning back her crown as princess and then abdicating in favor of democracy--she is an American after all. She just wanted to prove herself. To bad DC is not as foward thinking as you.

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EliseuGouveia In reply to DaisyJane2189 [2009-12-20 20:42:46 +0000 UTC]

Thank you, DaisyJane.
i think too many people get caught up in minor details (does she do the transformation spin, does she have an invisible jet or a floating palace, does she wear the skirt or the swimsuit bottom...) and forget the grand picture: female empowerment.
That should be at the back of the head of every creative team who comes onboard to tell her stories.

Both at the forefront and at the subliminal text level, her stories should convey a positive Can-Do message of strenght, courage and love toward ALL of mankind that will inspire both girls and boys of all ages.

Dayum, can I use big words or what?

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DaisyJane2189 In reply to EliseuGouveia [2009-12-24 05:41:13 +0000 UTC]

BTW I think your artwork is fantastic. If you ever want to finish the story and are looking for a writer to help you I would like to volunteer my services. I really like your interperation of the Wonder Woman saga. I would add that she has a younger sister (I love Donna) in case you ever want to go there.

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EliseuGouveia In reply to DaisyJane2189 [2009-12-31 08:39:49 +0000 UTC]

Hi, DaisyJane,

Thank you so much for your post and for your kind offer, I don´t really know what to say.
Right now I don´t have plans to continue this story but I really appreciate you stepping forward and volunteering.

A Happy New Year to you and may 2010 bring all that you´ve hoped for.

Zeu

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AlejandroIsAMinotaur [2008-12-01 07:16:49 +0000 UTC]

This would make an excellent comic! I absolutely think it should replace the established story. Who would have thought that Wonder Woman could conceivably be interesting?

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EliseuGouveia In reply to AlejandroIsAMinotaur [2008-12-02 03:13:18 +0000 UTC]

Thank you, Alejandro, you´re very kind.

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genekelly [2008-11-17 03:59:42 +0000 UTC]

That's an incredibly well thought out and compelling reinvention. I'd buy it in a heartbeat and I'm not much of a DC guy. If only DC were smart enough to make this happen, lol. Great art as well. Dang.

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Saizian [2008-08-29 20:32:26 +0000 UTC]

Brilliant!I think your Wonder Woman should replace the old one.Especially as DC and Marvel have gone to the dogs.

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EliseuGouveia In reply to Saizian [2008-09-07 18:38:06 +0000 UTC]

Thank you, Saizian. Well, I think most people would view it as just another Elseworlds sorta thing, you´d need a heft of people pushing for a change in the status quo to pull it off.

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EliseuGouveia [2008-08-28 22:14:59 +0000 UTC]

Hey, JKCarrier, thanks!
Great to find you here, this really IS a small world, isn´t it?

You know, I may do just that one day, tweak the story and character a bit and make it something new and distinct.

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JKCarrier [2008-08-28 15:11:18 +0000 UTC]

I'd certainly buy it!

In fact, if you changed it up a little, you could probably go ahead and do it as an original strip.

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