Introduction

Ah the 90s I remember going to my aunts country house during vacation and
catching up with all the gossip of entertainment, which i guess is not what yo you
see, over there, far out in the country there was no internet, and no TV only some
dubiously recent magazines that piled up from the years of guests going over and
leaving them behind. So you during the day I would go outside on the grass and
catch up with Cromos (stickers?), Jet Set and Caras (Faces). you know, the
classics.
I remember there was one, a really old one that featured and article about
Lynda Carter as wonder woman and featured a full page spread of her in the outfit I cut it out and pasted it on the board of my bed this one.

But I digress, despite most magazines being gossip from celebrities and royals. I
remember from time to time, some news regarding the next batman flick, and
even on rarer occasions there would be some new regarding a superman movie
would show up. This was weird an oddity.In the 90s no one really cared for DC
comic movies (even less marvel if you can imagine that), except Batman nothing
else seemed to matter in that area. But when Tim Burton from Batman decided
to do his version of superman, that was in the news, it never happened tho, for
years bits a new came around, about Nicolas Cage getting the part, or Tim Allen
being Brainiac or something For the longest time there were news and news.
But no movie. it never happened. Thats was my introduction to the meaning of
the words development hell.
It was in these magazines around 2001, when I too first heard anything about a
Wonder Woman feature film, and was widely rumored that Sandra Bullock would
be playing the role. It also never happened.
Ive been waiting 14 years now. The rest of the world has waited a lot longer.
When my mom came to my apartment the other day, she couldnt help but notice the not-actually-that-insane amount of geek memorabilia that adorns every
corner of my crib. Aston point she casually asked if my favorite superhero was Superman. no, its not mom I answered its Wonder Woman for sure.
-Well all I see are supermen everywhere she retorted.
There is, I admit, a painting of Superman (I believe by Fernando Milln ) hanging on my living room, I have also displayed the New 52 we can be heroes Justice League set which includes both Wonder Woman and Superman on the table,
a Kingdom Come Armour Wonder Woman figure on the library, the Amecomi
Wonder Woman statue on my desk and theres even a Wonder Woman brightly
displayed on the superpowers Hall of Justice box I have on the TV room. But despite Wonder Woman three timing Superman among my collectibles, she didnt
see her
And it bugged me then Why would I come online to rant if it didnt?

ii

But I fear people, like my mom,dont see Wonder Woman. I mean if you are
into DC Comics or working for DC Comics, when you talk about the big three,
she comes to mind right?. when you talk to anyone about heroines doesnt she rise
above all other? She does! But she is not anywhere not in the past and rarely,
and for some time now, people have been asking well where is Wonder
Woman?In fact its been asked so much and by so many, that there is actually a
documentary inspired by the absence of the super hero in current media for decades. Yet still no wonder woman movie yet. There is one in development right now
(as always since 1999).
But I have decided to go a bit further, do research and try to come up with
some sort of explanation for this present absence of the character in peoples
minds. And stumbled upon a notorious absence in TV, movies and visual media in
general. Looking back I realised something. Superman and Batman are media
franchises Wonder Woman is not and the more I looked into why she wasnt,
more questions arose? Was it plain machismo in our society? was it really an uninteresting / not profitable character? was there hints of a course?
The only way of knowing is by going back, play historian and see how it would
have been like if wonder woman, had joined her fellow members of the trinity in
the media and why she actually didnt.

iii

CHAPTER 1

1st Stage
Development Hades:
Acheron

SECTION 1

The Golden Age

In the 40s, with the boom of super heroes, Hollywood (cos its inevitable to refer
to the movie industry by a proper name) took notice and of course made the most
of the phenomena. Batman got a serials in 1943 and so did Superman in 1948,
these as part of a really big trend of comic book to serial adaptations, that included captain America, The green hornet, Zorro, the shadow, Captain Marvel
etc. Yet wonder woman didnt have one. Why?
Imagine a vintage Wonder Woman suit, with a ruffled skirt and old time bathing suit. A serial at that time that would have propelled Wonder Woman to early
heights of popularity just as Batman and Supermans serials did for them. It would
have been as controversial as popular it seems You might argue that in the 40s
women in action leads where uncommon, but thats just not the case, one of the
most famous is Linda Sterling, she starred in in the The Tiger Woman (1944) playing Nyoka, a jungle heroine in a sexy leopard outfit.
You might even argue that wonder woman were just too weird and full of bondage in the era but The tiger woman had its share of bondage included.

So its not that wonder woman was too sexy. or to fetish. In fact, during the
latter years of the war, having a sexy woman hitting Nazi jaws seems like the best
6

idea ever for propaganda films. And imagine having some pretty 40s actress traveling abroad to visit the troops and boost morale, it seriously would have been the
perfect movie serial at the perfect time.

A mockup for a poster of the wonder woman movie serial that never was by Scott Blair (on the
right) along with the Batman and Superman Serial posters that actually were.

Upon closer examination however, Nyoka is very well covered herself after all
while Wonder Woman is after all very scantly dressed. its the 40s after all. I mean
this was censored for being too sexy:

Rita Hayworth scenes in Gilda, made many censors rise up in rage when it
premiered in 1946 (She LITERALLY dances and removes her gloves to later slap
some guy with them).
Imagine the outrage of an even more revealing women punching men to the
floor I guess for any studio was just to much of a risk. My guess is that no one
was brave enough to pull it off, and I cant argue that a more soberly clothed Wonder Woman, even with Nazi ass kicking action would have been quite the same.
In an interesting note DC comics published in the 90s a mini-series titled:
REAL WORLDS, these explored, grounded real world stories (of what you
might call earth prime type of stories). In the issue: Wonder woman Vs. the red
menace the story (which you can check out the art here | Or buy here) revolves
around the scenario of a wonder woman serial placed at the early 50s post war
america. Its quite touching and both melancholic and well real.

So what the big deal of Wonder Woman not being featured in a golden age serial? well Im not sure, it might not be important all, after all the big boom of super heroes movies nowadays centres around heroes that wrent created till the 60s
or later; but the truth is that when the Superman radio show aired in the 1940s.
8

Batman was the one who guest starred regularly in it. Maybe because Batman
had stablished an image outside comics and Wondy had not? Maybe she had no
media persona people into superheroes would recall? a presence to make her appearance on radio significant or beneficial? According to The Superhero Book by
Gina Rene there were attempts as early as the 1950s to get Hollywood to create a
live-action Wonder Woman serial, But the tide was probably against it. Also in the
50s, anti-comic crusader Fredric Wertham accused Wonder Woman of being a lesbian with a a sadistic hatred of all men. which Im sure that didnt help her case
into the silver screen.

CHAPTER 2

2nd Stage of
Development Hades:
Fields of Asphodel

10

SECTION 1

The Silver Screen

The 50s was not the best time for superheroes, or comics, in general. If you've
watched ANY retrospective on the history of comics, you know it (heck they mention it in almost every featurette included on a DC Comics property DVD) If you
dont, they were being persecuted by the government and judged by the public as
the biggest bad influence on youth since well since ever, comics were really the
first youth oriented medium in way. During the 50s we there was a need to shift
the roles of woman back to a more traditional setting after the war see many
women had to fill the jobs of the men that had gone to fight, and they eventually
came back but the most important gift of the good old fifties was TV!
At the beginning of the decade Superman was the first and pretty much the
only one to move onto TV in this decade (1952-1958), probably because of the
success of the radio show. A show that at some point even featured Batman and
robin on some episodes, however, with the witch hunt of superhero comics, Batman was ironically not the most popular of the bunch, he was deemed a rather
bland character to feature on TV: he had no powers and most of his adventures
took place at night (a big no no for the early days of TV). His biggest foe is a non
lethal clown, Catwoman had been erased from the comics because she had to
much cleavage and a whip oh yeah and he was probably, not only gay but, a bit
of an ephebo So yeah, no Batman for the 50s due to simple lack of popularity;
plus there was Zorro who embodied most of what batman did but had that popular old western feel.
But what of old Wondy? She unlike batman had no radio appearance on the
superman show for some reason. My bet is that Wonder Woman, although much
like superman, wasnt really supposed to be out there kicking Nazis by now, so it
didn't make much sense, and in the back of the mind of many, her Nazi kicking
magazine covers stuck; now she was supposed to go back home let the men take
over like all women folk did.
11

Looking at the wonder woman of the fifties is very unique cos she never quite
got married and held a clean house hold with trevor. Not that they didnt try:

12

But overall, she didnt move onto longer skirts and baking. She remained a
scantly dressed superhero (also a good bet why she didnt move onto tv).
It would take 8 Years, for DC to have another live action TV series after Superman. That series was Batman (1963-1966) and despite Batman being quite unpopular in the comics then, the series becomes insanely popular, general consensus
being that while the show was children safe it was full of sexual innuendo for the
adults to see.
It seems during this time, and thanks to the 60s sexual revolution, that William
Dozier the creator of the batman TV show stumbled onto the discovery that superheroes could also be sexy which in the long run would mean, they could be marketed to adults. And so it was that Catwoman saved Batman from oblivion by being sexy as fuck.
Now with the success of all these sexy girls and whacky, surreal villains and stories, wouldnt you think wonder woman could work to?! after all she is sexy and
whacky as hell, And William Dozier thought of it too. He commissioned two Pilots for Batgirl and for Wonder Woman!

13

They recorded only 5 minutes of a 41 page script. and those 5 minutes are the
weirdest piece of TV you can encounter. From what I can gather, it was written by
MAD comedy writers Stan Hart & Larry Siegel and the series was called Whos
afraid of Diana Prince?. In it Diana Prince is a young woman who is not a very
dashing looking girl that lives with her over bearing mother who insists she should
have a boyfriend and a healthy life. However Diana is also Wonder Woman, wise
and fast but not as beautiful as she thinks. Apparently Diana thinks she becomes a
beautiful woman when she becomes wonder woman but really is not. This
makes for a really kind of cruel comedy. With Diana acting all confident and sexy
in the misogynist 60s when she really is not. Steve trevor is mentioned and we one
can assume will be Dianas unrequited love interest. In essence this Wonder
Woman is Ugly Betty (the original one not the crappy US remake) with a jewish
mother stereotype thrown in.
I can just imagine Steve Trevors expression of exasperation at seeing this
shabby Diana coming on to him at every chance, even when he doesnt really need
her help and he not daring to put her down because he needs her as Wonder
Woman, I can picture his chauvinist co-workers making fun of him. Then he
would need Wonder Woman and awkwardly he has to conquer her, make her
think he loves her. She is thrilled and then as the series progresses he starts to actually like her and fall for her because she is so confident. Finally she would learn after battling some petty enemy that she is actually not the sexy bombshell she
thought she turned to at all, and understands that Steve was only courting her
back as a ruse and to use her. He realises he cant live without Wonder Woman,
and persists and tracks down the real Diana and tells her he doesnt care he loves
her and proposes she realises she is as valuable and lovable as she was being wonder woman all the time and accepts. Now because its unthinkable to have an unattractive couple on TV, Aphrodite would then grant her the real gift of beauty and
she and Steve live happily ever after.
If 60s TVs were making breakthrough and a comment on beauty conventions
and gender roles, I would have said this was a great idea. But if the Batman series
serves as an indicator it would probably mean that the series would not move for-

14

ward but be a repeating sketch of a poor young unattractive Diana flirting with
Steve and being the butt of all the cruel jokes every week.
They had the template set by Batman why couldnt they just use it for wonder
woman? The pilot casts the very attractive and amazon looking Linda Harrison as
Dianas delusional version of herself, we see her on the mirror as Diana checks herself out. That was a good cast! But in the era of Bond girls and the such, really I
cant see how Diana could have carry on a campy comedy inspired series without
it being a joke. It would be 7 years later, when we got a Wonder Woman TV Series! that lasts 3 seasons (1975-1978)

Why did that one work? My opinion. Well they allowed themselves to do it
wrong first. The 60s pilot is only 5 minutes short they made an attempt but
they really didnt try.
Years pass and by the 70s Wonder Woman was an unrecognisable character in
the comics, she had no powers, no costume and owned a boutique. The feminist
movement was outraged by this. And this attention to the character with the
15

women liberation movement must have sparked the interest in the character. In
1974 Warner/ABC created a TV Movie pilot for wonder woman, Originally Angela Bowie (David Bowies wife) had been considered for the role of Wonder
Woman for the upcoming ABC-TV movie but lost the part for her refusal to wear
a bra.

The role of Wonder Woman later went to the tennis player Cathy Lee Crosby.
In the movie, Wonder Woman, who is also known as Diana Prince, is called in by
Steve Trevor to fix a hostage situation regarding some infiltrated CIA agents who
are at the hand of criminal mastermind Abner Smith, played by none other than
god-mother-fucking Khan (Ricardo Montalban)! And man what a Villain he is.
Now in this version of Diana and Socialite Diana, she spends better part of the
movie in Paris, dining with her enemies and avoiding deathtraps all while in the
comfort of the most tacky 70s hotel ever portrayed on TV. All this while having
the most delightful and fancy chitchat. Halfway through, we are revealed Abner
has allied with rogue Amazon warrior, Angela which leads to the most action
packed girl on girl action America daytime TV could allow (Javelin hand to hand
combat!). The movie really starts three thirds in, when Steve receives a special delivery in his office, a crate with a fucking donkey inside! The donkey, shockingly, becomes the cornerstone of the movie, as its the medium in which the Ransom has
to be paid. Steve Send the donkey off with the ransom and Diana Flies from Paris
in her unseen Invisible Jet to Alba Nevada to stop it. (Both the audience and Mon-

16

talban are denied the opportunity to see the plane which makes me wonder if it
was going to remain unseen through out the series.
Eventually Diana catches up with the damn donkey after surviving more deathtraps and arrives riding it (Thats right Diana actually makes an entrance riding a
donkey in this movie) to confront her amazon sister gone rogue, Angela. Once she
is lazily defeated, she moves on to the real baddie Abner Smith, who really is as
charming as Khan. After whats like 15 minutes of pleasantries between them, Diana re states that she has no intention of letting the Smith keep the ransom money
and uses on of her bracelets to blow up Abners Helicopter launch pad (Yeah
those are one dangerous peace of jewellery to wear) yet Abner makes an exit via
an inflatable boat. Diana goes after him in a motorcycle and jumps in the river
and swim up to him. As to the reason why Abner didnt just knock her unconscious with the row and continue his way is revealed in the Cop Car scene that fol-

lows where he declares his undying love to Wonder Woman right before being
shipped to jail. The movie ends with a pretty soaked and shivering Diana covered
in a white towel as Abner seems confident they will meet again.

17

Now I for one, enjoyed listening to Montalban most of the movie, he gets all
the crappy lines just right. I would have loved to see him appear again, having his
love towards Wonder Woman inspire him to construct wacky plans to lure her,
then in a further episode become an unexpected ally, only to finally have him kill
Steve Trevor and rise as the ultimate Wonder Woman foe and die himself trying
to destroy her.
In truth, the pilot WAS poorly written, Montalban is only heard and his face
obscured most of the movie and only appears on camera for the third act, which is
a really lame villain reveal as we know its Khan right from the opening titles se-

quence. Wonder Woman had an awkward outing here, her most memorable moments include she riding a donkey and calling room service to overcome a deadly
snake. Yet it has in some measure enriched the mythos. You can actually see Cathy
Lee Crosbys Wonder Woman in more recent comics, making cameos.

18

The TV series, was the first comic faithful adaptation of the character. Everything from the amazons, the island, the costume, invisible (inflatable) plane, Steve
Trevor and Etta Candy is there. It also gave us the first live action Wonder Girl,
not the comics version of course (no one in their right mind would go into something as complicated that), The show introduced so many thing to the mythos us
to some cool things like but Drusilla
The show also introduced so many thing to the mythos like a completely unnecessary K-9 like mascot named IRAC, Skater Wonder Woman, Diving Wonder
Woman and most important of all the transform Spin!
The show managed to mix the powerless fem fatal spy with the classic amazon.
By having us see Diana in two different time periods, the Second World War and
the 70s

My only but with this series is that none of the comic books villains except
one, make an appearance (Veronese Van Gunther in case you are wondering). It
19

did give us one recurring villain: Andros, a form of Oan type alien representative
sent to earth to destroy it if he finds humans to dangerous for the good of the galaxy.

20

CHAPTER 3

3rd Stage of
Development Hades:
Cocytus

I think if you play geek god and watch it all history from above, DC kinda had a a
memorable live action TV Series for their Trinity characters per decade, during
the 50s (superman) 60s (batman) and 70s (wonder woman) all accompanied
with their respective rise in popular merchandise and tie-ins. right?
The superman TV shows had the 1940s Fleischer animated serial aired in syndication well into the fifties. By 1966 when the bat-mania hit, it really pushed
21

ABC to keep the tie ins and commission Filmation animated studios to work on
segments based on the properties now televised in prime time properties. These
meant a Batman and Robin animated series to tie-in, and a superman series that
included a Superboy segment with Krypto the super dog.
In fact these tie in series were so popular, that lead Filmation to develop yet another series with DCs then most famous character. Wonder Wo no, wait Aquaman! and eventually even some Flash, Green Lantern, Atom and Hawkman
short series. Actually everyone BUT Wonder woman.
By te 60s Wonder Woman has never been in the air so in the 60s is kind of
un known territory to do a female centred action animated series. Specially if take
a look at the way stories seem to work within Filmation, which was very standardised.
Watching just few of each, it becomes evident they used templates. There was
the Batman template inspired from the live action TV shows, zany and campy.
One sidekick and one crazy villain. They had a Superman template based of the
radio show and live TV counterparts with a stand alone hero, with secret identity
fight Sci-Fi monster / evil genius of the week.
Both these templates were worked for all other superheroes. And man, if they
didin;t fit they wopuld make them. Not this means all their personalities are interchangeable ( even more than in the comics of the era) Their powers are also exchangeable, solo heroes can do pretty much anything superman can do solo: The
atom flies and has super speed for example and Hawkman uses a ray gun that
woks just as well as any heat vision along with flash who also exhibits flying and super strength. Those NOT using the Superman template are using the Batman template, and so they ALL have sidekicks, Flash has Kid Flash, Aquaman has Aqualad, Even Green Lantern had to be created a sidekick so it would fill the template
(Kairo the Venusian boy).
My guess, is that it is possible since there was no immediate predecessor to how
to write wonder woman stories there was no template for wonder woman animated shorts. In closer inspection will reveal that actually they avoided heroines
on their line up in general,Mera (Aquaman's wife) makes a few, brief (and rather
22

embarrassing) cameos in Aquaman, in a more of a Lois Lane damsel in distress

type of situation. And Hawkman instead of borrowing the Batman template and
having Hawkgirl as a sidekick uses the Superboy/Krypto template and has an eagle sidekick named Skreal.
Even when they did some Justice League episodes there was still no Wonder
Woman! Aquaman was only included in the title of the segments, but the fact wonderwoman wasnt even ther well its just unbelievable.

Heres my rendition of how that might (and should) have looked like.

One cant help but imagine endless ways they could have always just adapted
one of their templates to Wonder Woman. Maybe wonder woman could have had
wonder girl as a sidekick a la dynamic duo, or maybe create a Wonder Boy for her
(oh my imagination). Maybe she could have a pet unicorn and fit the Superboy/
Krypto template.

23

Interestingly enough, when they did the Teen Titan Episodes they did include Wonder Girl (wtf ?). She was arguably portrayed as the most competent and
powerful member of the team. Unfortunately, she was also subjected to lots of
doll and chick jesting. According to comicbook journalist Darren McNeal It
seems a wonder woman series was in the plans. Allegedly there were pilots
planned for not only wonder woman but Metamopho and Plastic man as well but
with the Bat-mania being so catchy they decided to focus their efforts on batman
alone.
Suggested evidence of this planned Filmation wonder woman pilot, seems to
have made it to the View-Master Superheroes reel Peril in New York.
Filmation wouldnt get a chance at animating
the character until 1972 when she would guest
star in an episode of the Brady Kids tie-in animated series.
Evidence also suggests got over their cold feet
and went on ahead with female action leads, but
not having the DC license they made their own
superheroes instead of borrowing DCs. Filmation did get to do an animated Isis series, SheRa Princess of power and even a Spidermanlike female hero called WebWoman, so I guess they werent
against doing super heroines in
the long run, it seems that for
whatever reason Wonder woman
just missed the chance again.
After the Live action TV series aired, seemed like it was only
fair the Wonder Woman would
have had an tie in animated series. But alas, it did not hap-

(very gif-able moment) Man She drops like a

rock!

24

pen In America, that is. Why, its anyones guess, the series was such a big deal
overseas, the theme song was remixed and sold as a disco hit in France The theme
song was sort of a hit in France and all the way in the other side of the world, Korean animator Kim Cheong-gi produced the Anime Run, Wonder Princess!
( )

Im not sure if its a serialised TV movie or an actual series, couldnt find any
episode list, just a series opening. True they didnt bother acquiring an actual license. But really they barely bothering changing the character at all. She has the
spin, the colours, and even has a crush a military man and astronaut version of
Steve Trevor. She battles The Red Empire enemy of the series Taekwon V.

25

The anime had a VHS release, but aside from that, and not being very fluent
in Korean (not that Google is very fluent either) there is very little info on it. Here
a couple of interesting art I found. Including what seems production art and a 2nd
volume of a manga where it seems she turned blonde and got a costume change.
Wonder Woman wouldnt make her first official
ongoing cartoon appearances till the Super
Friends premiered, and kept going for 9 seasons
(1973-1986). But Superman was also being
heavily promoted in the movies, and Batman
batman had yet another solo tie-in animated
show during the 70s which mean that during
the 70s both got twice the mediatic exposure.
Even spider woman had an animated TV show
that heavily borrowed on the success of the wonder woman TV shows.
Interesting fact, when the series needed the development of new teenaged sidekicks to accompany the justice league, it was made
so that Marvin White, was actually recruited by wonder woman, as he was the son
of the original Diana Prince. Meaning he is technically Wonder Womans protg.

26

CHAPTER 4

4th Stage of
Development Hades:
Limbo

Shortly after the end of the Wonder Woman TV series, there was finally a talk for
a Superman: a feature length color movie! The second ever to feature one of its
main characters. We now think it takes forever for anyone to deliver a new DC
movie, but the truth is its has always been that way.
While Batman had a theatrical movie during its Bat-mania craze, it was close
to 12 years till Superman premiered in 1978 that DC heroes finally became a
27

movie franchise. This Superman movie was clearly more inspired in the classic
1950s Superman of the comics era, while in turn the 1950s TV series in turn was
more oriented to the 1940s Superman. It did not portray the Superman of its
own day. By the 70s Clark had quit the planet and was by then a TV news anchorman for example. The movie was followed by 3 sequels and a supergirl spin-off
during the next 7 years with the final one being released in 1986.
3 years later they took a crack at a Batman movie (1989), here Tim Burton
made dark re interpretation of the original Batman 60s series. The movie was a
success and 3 sequels followed during the next 8 years with the Last one being Batman & Robin (1997). The movies increased the tone of the Batman 60s camp in
each sequel but adhered more of the comics lore of characters than the superman
movies ever did, even borrowing characters from the contemporary Batman animated series.
Logic would dictate that by 1999 they would have had a crack at a Wonder
Woman Movie. But no.
If Superman had 80s, Batman the 90s Wonder Woman would not have the
00s, why? I think we have to go back:
In 1986 the Super Friends ended, the longest running show to feature any DC
superhero, and right after it did (in 1988), Superman turned 50 years old. To celebrate and since the Superman movies series had ended a couple of years before,
warner needed new stuff to capitalize on, so it commissioned,a Ruby Spears animated mini series andnew Superboy live action TV series premiered, it lasted 4
seasons (1988-1992).
When Batman turned 50 the next year (1989) and the Burton movie premiered
that same year, only 3 years after Super Friends ended. it was accompanied by a
semi tie-in Animated series by Bruce Timm.. you know, the one that was super successful.
But by the time Wonder Woman turned 50 in 1991 and there was nothing.
And there should have been:

28

Its not that they did not think of anything. In 1990-92 Mattel noticed how well Filmations She-ra and Sailor Moon were doing and noticed that had been 17 years
since her last solo appearance in any media (3 years since her actual last appearance on TV in the Superman 50year animated series). So they contacted Warner
Animation and DC and prepared a new Wonder Woman! They hired the artist
whose art had adorned the successful Superpowers line and had him design the
characters. The started animation, which apparently got as far as some story
boards and then They pulled the plug.
Unfortunately, the whole thing collapsed not long afterwards I cant trace
the actual fatal blow, but my guess would be that they couldnt find any takers for
their proposed cartoon (animated shows geared towards girls are virtually unsellable even today I know of cartoons being shopped around that no-one will produce because conventional wisdom dictates that shows geared towards girls will
29

fail). But as the pilot was never even made (supposedly it got as far as storyboards
and some test animation, although Im not sure if thats true), its also possible that
orders were so low on the toy line Mattel decided to pull the plug [] In fact, a
Feb 93 article in the Wall Street Journal calls the line an unusual venture because of Mattels attempt to do a female action line, which at that point hadnt
been seen for several years. To help clarify things for those who might have been
made nervous (and to think Xena would appear just a few years later!), a spokeswoman for Mattel stressed that the line would be nonviolent and that Wonder
Woman would have lots of hair to comb. But lots of hair couldnt save this Wonder Woman. - Sarah Dyer. Action Girl

As Wonder Woman and the Star Riders collapsed, Batman began getting movies
every 3 years. After Superboy ended in 92, Superman got yet another live action
series with Lois & Clark. This time a sort of drama series that focused in the relationship of Clark Kent and Lois Lane rather than in the super heroic exploits of
30

Superman. Sort of a superman soap opera, and while the man of steel was not
enjoying the multimillion success of Batman in the movies and had its own difficulties getting a new movie, the series lasted 3 seasons (1993-1997) and it managed to
influence warner animation to create a new animated series (again at the hands of
Bruce Timm) a series that went on for another 3 seasons (1996-2000).
By 1997 after Lois and Clark finished its run, series creator creator Debra Joy
LeVine pitched a Wonder Woman show in the same vein. And it made perfect
sense, females in leads where everywhere in the 90s. There was Buffy the Vampire
Slayer, AllyMcbeal, Star Trek: Voyager, Sheena the Jungle girl, not to mention
Xena! There was crave for this strong female leads and it was the right place for
Wonder Woman.
[In the new series] she was a Greek history professor, a young and very bright
woman having a hard time juggling her personal life with her work. In this case,
of course, her real work is being an Amazon warrior. Its, like, Ill save the world,
come home, pop a Lean Cuisine in the oven and watch the soap I taped this afternoon. In many ways, shes like a real woman, a real person. Theres a lot less holier than thou, out to fight for truth and justice, and more or less the fact that shes
here, she did come from Paradise Island, she was sent by her mother who the gods
spoke to and said you have to send an emissary. So she came here and thats sort
of what shes supposed to do as Wonder Woman, but shes trying to live a normal
life as Diana Prince, Greek history professor, as well. [] is not a show thats totally about her fighting the bad guys, and certainly not, as it was in the comic
books, where she has to fight monsters. No monsters here. I think what worked on
Lois & Clark is that it was really 50/50 or 60/40 relationship and stuff going on
between them versus the bad guys they had to deal with. I guess if you were to
compare this to something, it would have to be Ally McBeal meets Xena. She can
be like Xena and beat a group of people if she has to, but the drama of her life as
a single woman living in Los Angeles is probably the priority here.- Debora Joy
LeVine (via voices of Krypton)
Eventually a script was written and casting began and then it was canceled.
The official reason was given that the producers couldnt find an actress as good as
Lynda Carter.
31

By 1997 however a Justice league TV Series pilot was filmed, Interestingly

There was a Pilot for a Justice league series developed.Yet this version of the justice league did not feature any of the trinity members. Probably due Superman
film being developed by Tim Burrton, Batman V with George Clooney also in pre
production and the Debra Joy LeVine Wonder Woman series being in development.

Now its hard to argue that Wonder Woman should have been part of that. But
hell, flash got TWO 90s TV incarnations, Martian Manhunter, Ice, Green Lantern, The atom, and Fire got at least one. Plus its just a matter of time before this
one gets a Warner Archive DVD release and those are fun. It would literally be
12 years off the air in any form until Bruce Timm started developing a Justice
League animated series which include Wonder Woman in its roster (The show
went from 2001 to 2006). Thats over a decade of the character not being anywhere in any media.

32

CHAPTER 5

5th Stage
Development Hades:
Elysium

When Batman ended his 4 movie run at the box office during the 90s Wonder
woman had been off the air, in radio, tv and cinema for a decade. The Lynda Carter tv show didnt spun off a cartoon to air, and after the super friends ended, any
projects involving the character for tv would stale or fail. Wonder woman could
hardly fall back on recent merchandise sales and media presence to justify a multimillion movie deal investment.

33

It was around 2001 the first time I heard anything about a feature film on Wonder Woman, and was widely rumoured that Sandra Bullock would be playing the
role. Things got really interesting when I learned that the guy who made Matrix
was to produce the movie (Joel Silver)!! awesome 00s newsright?
Things looked even more promising when in the following two years several
high profile screenwriters where tied to the project, John Cohen (Minority Report.), Todd Alcott (13 Ghosts) and Becky Johnston (Seven Years in Tibet)

From this early 2000s movie versions only the Todd Alcotts script was eventually leaked. Heres how it goes:
The story to everyones surprise actually presented two Wonder Women: Diana
Prince and Donna Troy.
The story begins with the super-heros career already underway, and opens
with original heroine Diana Prince as a sort of cross between Superman and
James Bond, a secret agent who can fly at the speed of sound (yes, thats one of
Wonder Womans powers here so there was no need for an invisible jet) and has
34

super-strength. The script suggests a Wonder Woman costume more like Donna
Troy from the post crisis comics. Both Diana and Donna wear skintight black catsuits, black boots, and Wonder Womans signature gauntlets. Diana Prince also
wears a snug, fur-lined flight jacket over her catsuit during the opening sequence
in the Alps. Both are described as having raven-black hair, dark eyes and they
both have cupids bow lips.
Soon the story becomes about how Donna Troy comes to realize that shes the
new Wonder Woman. The tale is set in the corrupt Pacific Northwest metropolis
of Gateway City, Donna having dreams where shes living out events that actually
happened. Specifically, a violent altercation at residential Marston Tower between
a woman (whom we know is Diana Prince) and a man (who is involved with the villains dastardly scheme). Donnas dream is actually Dianas perspective of the fight
as it transpires, Diana is a top-secret agent for the DIA (the Defense Intelligence
Agency), who stole some important item fundamental to the villains plans, but she
was injured in the brawl at the Tower and is now missing. Beckoned to the crime
scene by this dream, Donna raises the suspicion of dogged police detective Mike
Schorr.
Long story short: Donna finds that she has suddenly and inexplicably gained
super-powers and that shes somehow connected to the mysterious Diana Prince.
(Dianas origin is related about halfway through via a brief, expository out of
body visit to the paradise island of Themyscira, and then also discovering Dianas hidden lair where she also finds Dianas (for lack of a better expression) warrior princess outfits, including one that bears a more passing resemblance to the
classic Wonder Woman costume. Dianas Amazonian outfits and Amazon architecture in general are described as somewhere between ancient and futuristic in design. ) Donna quickly comes to terms with her newfound powers and her Amazonian destiny, and confronts Dr. Psychos minions in a series of public altercations
that leads to her being dubbed Wonder Woman by the press and has now become the target of hi-tech arms manufacturer Dr. Peter Sychopoulos (a.k.a. Dr.
Psycho) who needs to recover an item that Diana Prince stole. Trying to Locate
Diana (and the Item) becomes the goal for Donna and her new sidekick/potential
lover Mike, as well as for Dr. Psycho.
35

Dr. Psychos sinister plan involves a doomsday weapon of sorts so finding Diana is REALLY urgent. This draft ends with a the original hero and her successor
to team-up in the last act and not too subtle set-up for a potential sequel.
I can really see this movie being more in the vein of X-Men / Daredevil than
that of Spiderman from the early 2000s. Te dark suit and mixture espionage and
technology. Despite whatever revisions the script went through production never
really begun and the project fell apart, with Sandra Bullock leaving the project
and going on to win an Oscar at some point.
Later script writer Todd Alcott would recall:
True story: Im in a story meeting for the ill-starred Wonder Woman project
and Im laying out Wonder Womans fundamental backstory formed out of
mud by her mother Hippolyta, meant to be the only female created without the
help of Man, wears silver bracelets to remind her of her sisters enslavement, etc
and the producer cuts me off and says Okay, first thing, there aint gonna be
any Greek mythology in this movie. Making a Wonder Woman movie without
any references to Greek mythology is like making a Superman movie where Superman is not the Last Son of Krypton or a Batman movie where Bruce Waynes parents are alive and well and residing in stately Wayne Manor.
By 2003 Laeta Kalogridis, who had some reputation of working in Birds Of
Prey TV series (not great since it lasted only 13 episodes.) was attached to the project, and apparently delivered a script THEN rumors regarding Buffy The
Vampire Slayer former cast members (such as Christina Carpenter and Sarah Michelle Geller) started popping up as possible candidates for the title role and rumors where not that far-fetched cos it was soon revealed that Joss Whedon himself,
the creator of Buffy was actually hired to pen the Script from scratch.
Why would Joss Whedon be perfect for wonder woman is really something that
can' b put into words. you just gotta watch his shows and movies.
Unlike Kevin Smiths script for Tim Burtons Superman Lives, none of Whedons writing for the film has leaked so far, But what we know about Whedon's vision is the following:
36

She sort of traveled the world. She was very powerful and very nave about people, and the fact that she was a goddess was how I eventually found my in to her
humanity and vulnerability, because she would look at us and the way we kill each
other and the way we let people starve and the way the world is run and shed just
be like, None of this makes sense to me. I cant cope with it, I cant understand,
people are insane. And ultimately her romance with Steve was about him getting
her to see what its like not to be a goddess, what its like when you are weak, when
you do have all these forces controlling you and theres nothing you can do about
it. That was the sort of central concept of the thing. Him teaching her humanity
and her saying, OK, great, but we can still do better.
- (via Vulture)
The idea of wonder woman really seeing herself as a citizen of the world really
talks to me. but this was all we got and seriously is just too little, cos it went
on for four years! and as the time passed the internet kept on rumouring possibilities for the role to basically every famous female actress around (some as terrifying
as Jennifer Lopez) fan-casted. By the time the first draft was handed, every newcomer and well established actress in Hollywood had been tied to the project, my
favourite being Evangeline Lily (Lost). even Lynda Carter shared her interest in
doing a cameo for the film at some point.

Extremely early concept art for Joss Whedons wonder woman

37

By 2007 From out of the blue, Joel Silver bought a new script that was floating
around by Matthew Jennison and Brent Strickland and Just days later Whedon
confirmed he had abandoned the project.
I have no idea the status of the movie and, honestly, I never did. I was told they
were very anxious to make it. I wrote a script. I rewrote the story. And by the time
Id written the second script, they asked menot to. [Laughs] They didnt tell me
to leave, but they showed me the door and how pretty it was. Would I like to touch
the knob and maybe make it swing ? I was dealing with them through [producer]
Joel Silver who couldnt tell me what they wanted or anything else. I was completely in the dark. So I didnt know what it was that I wasnt giving them. Ive
moved on.
- comicbookmovie.com

Stricklands script was eventually leaked and reviewed by BOF (batman on

film) shortly after and alongside LatinoReview.com rated it Almost Perfect.
Its 1943 and World War II is raging. Steve Trevor is described as being tall,
handsome son of a senator, but made it on his own. a spy and hes spying on the
Nazis. But before we meet Trevor, we get a quick history lesson on the Amazons
and how they made their way to Themyscira years ago. Wonder Woman is described as barely twenty; shes beautiful, with long black hair. And based on
the way shes introduced, shes one badass Amazon.
38

Coming back home Trevor crash lands a Nazi concept jet in Themyscira that
he stole from back in Germany. The Amazons find him and Diana saves his ass.
Of course, they end up fleeing the island and head off to the good ol US of A in
the invisible plane.
The second act provides us with the set up for the rest of the film. Diana and
Steve partner up to defeat the Nazis (who of course are bastards) who are up to
even more no good in addition to being up to the typical Nazi no good usually depicted in such films. They head to Germany and a good portion of Act 2 is set in
Berlin. Also, Diana has her own reason for helping Steve and fleeing to America
with him. I wont spoil it, but it has something to do with the Nazis being up to the
extra no good that I previously mentioned. It is during the second act we are finally introduced to Wonder Woman. Her costume is a]combination of her Amazon battle gear and the American flag, the costume we all know as Wonder
Woman but slightly more combat ready.
The 3rd act consists of a no holds barred battle between the good guys (Wonder Woman, Trevor, Amazons) and the bad guys (the Nazis). The battle takes
place on Themyscira (seems they have something the Nazis want) which is how
and why the Amazons get involved. While the ending is indeed the conclusion of
this story, things are clearly set up for a sequel.
The studio, however, did not want a period peace and asked Strickland for another script but placed in current times. Even with such a script, the Wachowski
were in negotiations to Direct but dropped out over creative differences.
Ultimately, the film was put on hold so that the studio could pursue the Justice
League: Mortal film. Here there was first time a cast for Wonder Woman was announced since Lynda Carter. Megan gale was to play the part, but the movie fell
apart.
Eventually Silver lost the rights due to a combination of a lack of development
and the writers strike of 2007. The film rights reverted back to DC who up to
date has negotiated with various writers and directors but never made any official
announcement regarding anything that maybe have been put into any stage of production.
39

The absence of a wonder woman movie seems to me really was a turning point
for the future of DC comics adaptation in movies. When the movie was announced by Warner Brothers in the it was on the eve of their revival of Batman in
Batman Begins, and after the success of X-men and standing on the success of the
earliest Marvel films. X-Men and Spiderman. Expectations were low if not inexistent, but as Time passed. Things happened.
1st. are Catwoman and Elektra. Those two movies bombed in the box office
and both had female super heroine leads. This kind of set a very poor standard
and easily scares off both producers (who don' want to invest) and property owners (who dont want their lucrative franchise tainted).
2. By the time Whedon left the project (to do a little flick called Avengers) of
the three DC movie ventures that had made it to the box-office (Superman, Batman and Green lantern) only Batman Begins was a success and was set up into a
trilogy. That movie had a, no super powers, little costumes, realistic world setting
philosophy something the character of Wonder Woman is not easily associated
with.
By 2008 once wonder woman rights had reverted to DC, Bruce Timm who
was now a legend in super hero animation managed to convince Warner to let
him make PG-13 version of the DC characters in the form of a direct to video animated movie.

40

Warner animation had produced direct to video animated movies during the
90s as Tie-ins of the Animated shows, Batman and Superman, the movies did so
great that when the animated shows ended, They continued making movies with
DC characters and each would stand on your own. The first to be released in such
manner was the Death of Superman, and was followed the next year by Gotham
Knights.. and despite the absence of wonder woman having any appearance on tv
or movies on her own for what was 30 years, r in 2009, The Wonder Woman Animated Movie came to be.

41

The movie came out to positive reviews and is the forth highest grossing DC
animated movie of their 19 releases. However in 2010 Bruce Timm announced
that There wouldnt be any more Animated releases for wonder woman.
Wonder Womans sales started out extremely slow and then over time were
eventually able to catch up to probably 'Justice League: New Frontier. said
Timm. "The Execs decided because it wasnt able to sell quickly right away,
whereas 'Justice League was, that there wouldnt be any more female super hero
films right now. We were developing and hoping to get started on a 'Batgirl film
based on 'Year One, but because of 'Wonder Womans slow sales start, that wont
be happening now
Why?! Oh god Why?!!
The reason for this I will touch on the next part. The Most horrible step into
Hades: Tartarus AKA. The Wonder-Embargo.

42

CHAPTER 6

6th Stage
Development Hades:
Tartarus

So by The end of the decade, wonder woman managed to get an animated direct
to video feature film and the promise there would be no more.
The reason for a decision like this I think is what would become The wonder
woman embargo.
The long production status of the wonder woman movie and TV series had an
impact in the character. As the characters rights were tied to Joel Silver or ABC r
43

whoever was working on a project. DCs way to protect the character was to avoid
it being distorted, and try to keep it uniform with whatever main media representation the character got. So this resulted in a weird deal for all DC properties. But I
think wonder woman suffered the most.
Since Superman and batman were pretty active franchises in the 90s. They
had animated series to tie in with their popularity. TheseAnimated series by Bruce
Timm eventually featured other heroes such as Aquaman, Flash, Green Lantern,
Zatanna and even the Creeper guest starred in some episodes, Yet wonder
woman never did. When Superman the animated series ended in 2000 It seemed
then that only a wonder woman Animated series would be in order But instead
a new Batman TV series was picked: Batman beyond (1999-2001) and even
then in this new Batman Beyond seres there was and episode aired that featured
the justice league but Wonder Woman was absent and in her place appeared Big
Barda.

Producer Paul Dini explained:

Theres kind of a licensing problem: if we wanted to do Wonder Woman as a
series, we could do that, [but] if it was a guest-shot, it was a little more problematic. I dont really understand itit just turned out to be easier all the way around
[to use Big Barda in the Batman Beyond episode The Call] we love Wonder
WomanBruce [Timm] did that great design of her, which is now a maquette at
44

the Warner Bros. store. At some point, well do Wonder Womanwe just need to
fight that battle when we get to it .
- Paul Dini on Wonder Woman (circa 2000)
Yet regardless of the complications it might bring to simply Cameo wonder
woman in the animated series of the time. Its clear the option to make a solo an
animated series was open but not taken.
Superman returned to TV in 2001 with the TV Series Smallville, which lasted
10 seasons and several Heroes from the DC Universe guest starred in it. Some as
obscure as star girl and as campy as the Wonder Twins. But wonder woman never
did. It was widely rumoured she would and that the producers wanted to. But all
we got was some faint references and Lois Lane wearing her costume which I
can only imagine they had prepared for the actual hero but realised they would
never use.

45

In fact neither wonder woman nor batman ever made an appearance due the
right being tied to movie productions.
in 2001 a Justice league animated series premiered, and this one was close to
not featuring wonder woman at all. Bruce Timm admitted in an interview shown
on the first season DVD that he initially ran into some legal issues once he told
Warner Bros. that he wanted to use Wonder Woman for the series (probably the
same Paul Dini mentioned). He was eventually successful in being able to use the
character for the show, which makes me think. Wonder woman could be used in
the justice league, because she was an Integral part of it, Not a just a guest in it.
However later other animated series ran into similar road-blocks preventing the
use of both the Wonder Woman character as well as established Wonder Woman
supporting characters.

When justice league premiered the character had been off the air for 12 years.
A whole generation of children who had not been exposed to the character in any
mainstream form. (I cant count comics as mainstream since in the 90s with the
rise of the internet and TV going on strong for about 50 years comics had clearly
become a niche medium.)
In 2003, midway through Justice League, a new animated series featuring the
Teen titans also premiered and as expected this one did not include Wonder Girl
who had been part of the teen titans line up since its inception.

46

When the Justice League guest starred in YET another Batman tv series. (batman now beating both superman and wonder woman animated series by 3) Wonder woman was not part of the team.
I think DC comics rights to wonder woman, as explained by Paul Dini might
be one of the main the reasons why the character is hard to bring around.
While batman has used superman series in media to grab some attention to
himself, wonder woman has not been so lucky. Like it happened on the Radio
show in the 50s, and now in this era of superhero animation, superman (and others) got more media exposure by being able to cameo and guess star.

The embargo scenario that might have been playing since the 40s might have
existed as a protection devised by William Moulton Marston, to ensure the feminist character he created was never going to second fiddle to any of the existing
male heroes. That she was going to be able to stand on her own.
By 2009, in the comics, Wonder woman was being transformed and re written
and was wearing a new outfit which caused a lot of controversy and media discussion of the character. Interestingly that same year David E. Kelly partnered with
Warner and NBC to produce a wonder woman pilot for a new TV series. David
E. Kellys was most famously known for his success has been in the realm of legal
dramas, and that really made sense to me, after all Wonder Woman is an ambassador.
47

The pilot centres in Diana (of) Themyscira/Wonder Womans efforts to link Veronica Cale to the distribution of an illegal steroid that gives its user super-human
strength and endurance, but can cause death through repeated use; it is also
learned that earlier experimental versions of the steroid created hideous mutations in Cales test subjects. She has been wonder woman for a long while, and she
tries to do this, Diana is growing frustrated with having to maintain a perfect image to the outside world, the legal complications that hinder her as she tries to
bring Cale to justice, and her strained romance with Steve Trevor, she had reluctantly broke up with Steve on account of her new responsibilities as a crimefighter. At the end of the episode, Steve comes to her in his new capacity as a Justice Department attorney and, to Dianas chagrin, he has married someone else.

The series seemed to be to have a show focusing of the diplomatic conflicts, difference of politics, feminism, and clash of ideals Diana faces as she comes to
Mans World. The pilot was not completed in time due to VFX complications and
was leaked online only to receive an alarming bad press of what was obviously an
unfinished product. Unsurprisingly the pilot ended up not being picked up.
David E. Kelley would later say
We made mistakes with ours, he said. My only regret is we were never given
a chance to correct them. We had a lot that was right about it and a great cast. In

48

time, we could have fixed what we had done wrong, we just didnt get that
chance.
We produced it at warp speed and its a special effects show and it took more
time than we were able to give it. We [would have been] able to give it more time
and extended it had we been picked up. Just learning the storytelling the genre
was very different for me and I had a lot to learn; my learning curve probably
would have gotten better. Im sad we didnt get to do it but I do believe it can work
for the CW. Theyre smart to try it.

Its somewhere around 2010 that the wonder woman embargo finally ends. It
was never official, something must have changed, Batman had yet another animated series by the end of the decade called: The Brave and The bold. That featured lots of DC characters. Wonder woman missing for most of the series until in
its last season she was featured in a couple.
Then in 2010 an original video animation based on the revised SuperFriends
franchise by Fischer Price. Tho despite being a heavy homage to the Challenge of
the Super Friends season of the 1970s, she only appears in the title sequence and
not in the actual show.
49

On the animation side, wonder woman would appear on a semi regular basis
on the animated series young justice animated series that eventually included wonder girl too. Surpisingly the show became wildly successful among young females,
which lead to its ultimate demise. Whats that you say? Thats right, they canceled
a super hero TV show because to many girls where watching it.

in 2013 Cartoon Network decided to explore more of the DC characters via

animated shorts, that included animal man, amethyst, batman, etc wonder
woman got her her first own solo animated shorts three episodes aired.

50

Unable to secure anyone to produce her solo movie, wonder woman made her
debut in the silver screen for the first time in 2014 when she was revealed to join
batman and superman in The Lego movie. Making that movie her first official big
screen debut.

During these days The CW announced that a new Wonder Woman Pilot titled:
Amazon. It was poised to explore the origin story of Wonder Womans alter ego
Diana of Themyscira. The network announced in September 2012 that it was
teaming with Greys Anatomys Allan Heinberg to develop the story. The script
was redeveloped in May, with Heroes writer Aron Eli Coleite taking a new stab at
the story, and the network was poised to take the project to pilot for a potential offcycle pickup. But that no longer will happen.
CW president Mark Pedowitz told The Hollywood Reporter, that while Amazon will not move forward he was open to taking a second stab at the iconic Wonder Woman character if the right material were to come along.
It all depends on the script. We were very careful with Arrow, and were being
very careful with Flash, Pedowitz said of the Stephen Amell series and Grant
Gustin Flash pilot in the works at the network. These are iconic characters, so
were going to be very careful with Wonder Woman. You only get one shot before
you get bit.
51

By 2014 Batman ended his second movie series with The Dark Knight Rises
and in 2012 Superman released its reboot movie franchise with Man of Steel..
which despite the heavy criticism secured a sequel a sequel that would feature both
Batman and Wonder Woman alongside him.
Making her first live action debut in the movies looking like the glorious warrior she is!

52

While I think there should be a scream for victory here, for the character will
finally make its first live action movie debut in 2016. It just seems like its kind of a
muted victory, outweighed by the amount of corpses of dead projects and the
thought of loss opportunities. And while there is a solo movie is in the works for
her (as always) it just seems like too little to late.Or as better ilustrated by hitokiridriver over at Reddit (here with a more accurate -tho not less heartbreaking- update).

53

CHAPTER 7

7th Stage of
Development Hades:
Isles of the blessed

According to Greek mythology, the islands were reserved for those who had chosen to be reincarnated thrice, and managed to be judged as especially pure
enough to gain entrance to the Elysian Fields all three times.
Now that I have visited the entire history of wonder woman in the media, I can
conclude this:

54

Wonder woman is thought of by the public as symbol more than a character,

but what is worrying, is that as symbol, she is not the one most people think she
is And that really scares everyone.
Essay detailing train of thought follows.

1. Wonder woman was not

created, she was crafted.

To the questions: Why is there no wonder woman movie? Tv series? animated

series? radio show? webcomic? video game? Why if she is consider part of the
trinity like superman and batman, does he get so significantly low media exposure?
We should remember how is it that wonder woman ensured her place among
the dc trinity? what has placed her above others like Aquaman, Flash, Green
Lantern. You see, during the golden age,when superheroes arrived there were no
expectations, no restrictions but those of the unknown. Comics as medium, largely
55

unexplored. Thats why things like superman were allowed to bloom. They could
be as violent, sexualized and self righteous as they liked; its this non-censorship
state, I think, that allowed kids and teens those days to get invested in this medium
so fast and.
Superman was sincerely un apologetic to do whathe (and therefore its creators)thought was right, without any physical restraint, no matter the problem
faced, weather was a bully in school, a husband beating his wife, organized crime
or corruption in a third world country. There was just freedom for the character
toddle with it as he saw fit. Batman on his hand wouldnt doubt to kill villains, or
punish any wrongdoers, violate any kind of law.
Sexually things were free of judgment, no one caught on that having a 15 year
old living with a rich grown man in manor would imply something, while no one
caught one that the Superman/Clark Kent double life might have served as a faade to sexual Sadist/Masochist role-play, superman might have or not enjoyed being cruel to wrong doers but he obviously enjoyed being whipped and submitting
to an dont like type girl like Lois Lane in the bedroom (man she is an emasculating bitch at times).- The latter seems to be an intentional sexual subtext that cocreatorJoe Shuster imprinted in his character). So if you ever see someone questioning why Superman, would let himself be treated like a (for lack of a better
word) a bitch by Lois or let himself be ridiculed publicly by the likes of Steve Lombard or Whitney Fordman, the answer could be simple: It turns him on. -
What is interesting is that while those two characters were not part of constructed medium with an ideological agenda during their creation but merely put
out there for self indulgence, sheer entertainment or for lots o'money, Wonder
woman creator William Moulton Marston did see the medium with a ideological
agenda. He wrote about comics influencing kids, and there fore generations. He
did saw potential for these ideas to be spread in the comics and created Wonder
Woman to increasingly play on the sexual and gender ideas that were being consumed by mostly boys those day.
And with that in mind, I dont think its wise to deny the inherit sexual tension
the character was created with. Marston is now known as not being a sexually tra56

ditional man, but at the time he

created what was the quintessential sexually non traditional
character. In wonder woman
there are a lot of nontraditional sexual elements,
theres of course, the girl only
inhabited island, a lot bondage
and binding bracelets, but there
is also a lot of gender role-play
and mixed messages. Women
are portrayed as superior human beings at times, as docile
and sub servant others. Not
only that, their superiority is displayed through theirwillingnessto be submissive when the
story demands it and at the
same time with punching bog
strong men when there is no
choice.
This means wonder woman
lets herself be bound quite often yes, with lets herself being key to that sentence, its almost her device to solve the
situation she gets into, because
Wonder Woman always breaks
free and conquers the obstacle
and goes on to doing a lot of
ball busting on the bad guys.
This constant submission and
57

subsequent self liberation and display of strength plays on the senses of transgression of any reader, and at the same sends a mixed message to everyone who reads
that 1940s wonder woman, even today. Its puzzling, intriguing and completely
non-traditional.
It would be my guess that this play on the senses, of watching this woman being in this completely extra ordinary situations during the 40s was at least part of
what caught the attention of the public then. This was her success and her biggest
obstacle. This intentional transgressions by Moulton would be of course be a big
no-no if translated to other, well established media such as the movies.Because
wonder woman was designed to symbolize a new status quo of gender roles in society, and maybe even in the bedroom.
Now, you might be thinking, cos I am, that a society as patriarchal like the USA
of the 40s, it would not tolerate a wonder woman movie serials how was the character allowed to survive?Thats becausewonder woman was a Trojan horse disguised as a patriotic symbol.
So you could sum up DCs trinity like this:

1. Superman: Created by teenagers, artists, original and fresh.

2. Batman. Designed as monetized version of the same idea by a business man and a creative artist who knew who to shape it and sell it.
3. Wonder Woman. Crafted by an academic, a scholar, that uses the nave original idea, and carefully manages to promote an ideological agenda.
All other DC superheroes from the golden age are mostly a derivate version of the trinity, not only character wise but intention wise.
Its no wonder why so few of woman super heroines of the golden age survived,
other even more gender-role bending characters such as the Black Cat were lost
into oblivion. Moulton had the brilliant idea of dressing up her agenda driven female super hero in the American flag, why? to play on the patriotic feelings of the
public as the second world war raged on. Once the USA entered the war, wonder
woman gained even more popularity, maybe even more that some of the others,
because unlike heroes like Batman and superman, green lantern, or flash her cos58

tume screamed patriotism like no other in the National Comics roster That
made the character become alive.
What made the character remain and become part of the trinity till today. is a
combination of factors. First is that part of her ideological agenda made it so that
when Moulton sold the character to DC, he made sure it would not be left to die
and live on, even after the patriotic war inspired phase had faded; there is a little
clause that states that DC comics has to publish at least 4 comics of wonder
woman a year or they lose the rights of the character. That sustained the character
through the ages, DC not risking losing it, has never ceased publication of the
character.
The other reason wonder woman, has always been in, with the trinity, is that
she symbolizes women, and that after all is the other 50% of the market. Having the long publication run made it the first choice to make it the GIRL among
groups of heroes. She was the first female member to join the JSA (even if as secretary) and later the only female founding member of the JLA.
While there are other merits
to elevating Wonder
Woman to trinity status
like, she was the character
that introduced the concept
of parallel universes (yeah
historically she discovered
the freaking Multiverse!) the
fact remains that she is the
first and most successful female Superhero and quite
frankly the only one on her
own right (since she is not a
derivate from a male hero like, Batwoman, Batgirl, the Huntress, Supergirl, Power
Girl, Zatanna, Jade, etc. nor she was antagonist or companion to a male superhero
like Black canary or Catwoman).

59

2. Wonder Woman is not generally

thought of as a Character but
mostly as a symbol
The thing with symbols is that they exist in context. Without it they mean
nothing.Everyone thinks Wonder Woman represents women and feminism.
For years she has served as the prime example of therearewomen superheroes but also has been the scape goat of everything that does not suit that
agenda.
Feminism as a movement, can be thought as a waves as the set of ideas it represents has evolved.
The first wave that represents the recognition of woman as citizens, is not exactly the cause wonder woman fights for, she is not leading the campaign for the
right to vote, or to end household violence. In many aspects wonder woman gives
this wave of feminist ideals as a given.
At the moment of her creation wonder woman,was in fact ahead of her time,
she represented 2nd wave feminism ideals when women world wide had recently
conquered the first. The second wave demands total equality in choices and opportunities, same salaries and cultural freedoms. Wonder woman was a pioneer of the
second wave, She is equal to Superman, power wise, Amazons in her stories are a
second wave feminist civilisation where all womenareequal, they have all kids of
jobs in society, the scientists, leaders and warriors.
Third wave of feminism, seeks now to eliminate differentiation of women in society, It proposes that the concepts and ideas of what constitutes feminine/girly/
womanish are actually socially constructed and apply to everyone regardless of
gender or race. Everyone that identifies with this concepts should be treated
equally.

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The problem here is that Wonder Woman represented the ideals of the second
wave feminism at her birth, but with the death of her creator she was pushed back
to one wave; during the fifties she merely represents women as able to exist in this
medium of superhero comics. She is being feminist still by being part of the community, member of the justice league and all, but definitely reverted.
In the 70s Wonder Woman was re-imagine by Dennis O'Neil, who decided to
change the character right to its foundations, and he decided to do with the character something that had not been done before, for this, he thought about what
could be done that had not been done before. This resulted in him working the
character not only past the first wave feminism ideal s but even past second wave,
he saw the character as not superpower by nature, she had to fight on her own.
Dennis ONeil wonder woman is more character focused than any wonder
woman generation before him, he was not following a feminist agenda. She wasnt
making her statement as equal to the other super powered heroes. She was being a
character that was dealing with a situation like any male or female character
would.
This creative move, I would say, is the first
example of third wave generation feminism.
The reasoning of Diana being no longer wonder woman, because she was made to be, but as
a real person that made herself wonderful, regardless of her gender or birth condition, applies to everyone. In this series she was no
longer a demigoddess, she had no amazon sisters and no super powers. She had to learn to
fight again, and the fact that her mentor was a
man was irrelevant, because she was as capable
a woman as the next man. More importantly
the story and the character of Wonder Woman
had moved on for the first time in decades since
its conception, Steve trevor died and anew state
quo was embraced.
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Unfortunately, this time being ahead of its time, when the feminist second
wave movement was taking place in the real world of the 60'sand 70'swas looking
for symbols of female empowerment, and theoriginal2nd wave wonder woman
was well, nowhere to be found. There was criticism.
This emotional, hard working, independent, convoluted wonder woman was
not what the feminist movement needed to symbolize equality at the time her stories were written. They saw a mopy non-powered boutique-owner secret spy no
matter how interesting the story might be, the feminist movement very openly denounced that whatwasonce a symbol of female empowerment and equality had
been totally de-powered and made different.
Its clear now that the wonder woman they objected most was that of the 50s
and 60s which while fully powered was submissive and relegated, she worked as a
fashion model, movie star, and a lonely hearts columnist for a newspaper. And
was content with just being recognised as existing. They should have protested that
and not the 70s version that while unpowered would look for a machine gun.
The truth is, if superman had lost his powers, closed his fortress, had Lois die
in his arms, trained to be a super spy and opened a his own underground independent sports store, it would have made one of the most interesting superman periods ever!
Things being, that after the outrage of the feminist movement at this depowered wonder woman, that was not in tune with the current feminist move, lead
to what I believe was one of the most hurting things that can happen to a media
franchise. Wonder woman was restored to her status quo to prove to women that
they could have an equally super heroine the ranks, a totally equal superhero like
she was created to be.
The consequences of this restoration, that took place not because of an artistic
decision, but because of an imposed ideological agenda, set the character not forward but back. The public'sdemand for a static wonder woman marks a cornerstone in the way she is perceived and would be treated by the public on. This need
for a 2nd wave symbol, stablished that, more than a character in a story, wonder
woman could not deviate from the symbol she had been conceived to be.
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Media franchise characters have highs and

lows. Fans and people are free to point them out.
Superman Musical TV special? Legends of the
superheroes? Superman and Batman have gone
to really disappointing places, and susceptible because there is a need to play with their status
quo. Either by having children out of wedlock or
resigning a nationalities, having a mullet or losing their briefs. But their characters remain fascinating; Wonder woman doesnt dare often to go
there, because it might be offensive, demeaning,
retrograde. Wonder woman is not a 3rd wave
feminist often because there is a demand for her
to be what she was created to be, but authors
who actually treat the character and fans who
read it do demand it.
Regularly during the years and specially since
the rise of the internet people have looked
every so often to Wonder Woman as representative of women in this overly manly populated medium of comics, and come out often
disappointed. She has become the scapegoat
to many of the illnesses in the comic book industry to the point she nearly represents everything that wrong, rather than whats right,
tosymbolize the lack of or the abuse of
women in the mediumrather than the presence of to women in it.
Putting it in pictures, heres what people think
wonder woman represents and what they hope
to find. Completely out of any context of
what the story might be.
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The need to keep the character as a symbol, also applies to the fact she was created as part of a propaganda scheme. In fact the character is so associated in the
minds of people as a symbol of patriotism that during her 2010 reboot byJ. Michael Straczynskiwhen they changed the characters status quo and more importantly the outfit, this was the headline:
Fox News:
Wonder Woman may have finally been given a pair of pants, but has she been
stripped of her patriotism?The new and allegedly improved Wonder Woman
(a.k.a Diana Prince), has been given a head-to-toe makeover by artist Jim Lee, replacing her signature American flag decorated briefs with skintight black pants
and purging the super hero of all her trappings of Americana.
Wonder woman was under the scope becauseshe deviated from another symbol she was thought to be. A patriotic symbol.
Its hard for people to accept that Wonder woman got her outfit because because its creator wanted to sell an idea of a powerful woman and exploited the patriotic sentimentalities of the time to accomplish it. Thats not to say Marston
wasnt a patriot, he surely was, but its clear his reason to create wonder woman
werent directed towards the war efforts, he wanted powerful women in a new uncensored media. Nothing of the character besides its costume speaks to patriotic
ideals.
First, there is the fact that Wonder Woman is a Greek demigoddess and not an
American. Greek. That means that she probably even has an accent when she
speaks. Then theres the fact that the within the story she picks her costume more
because Steve Trevor coincidentally was American than because she adhered to
American ideals, one could argue had she arrived in Russia, her costume wouldnt
have changed much (the USSR flag also had a star) The fact remains that, unlike
Superman, she was not created to uphold Midwest American values but instead
tobring the Amazon ideals of love, peace, and sexual equality.
Geekosystemwas smart enough to name some of the reasons why Fox news
SHOULD call the character unpatriotic.
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 Shes not American. Shes from a small magical island utopia. She probably counts as an illegal immigrant.
Shes from the worst kind of hippie commune: an all female hippie commune that preaches free love and sexual equality.
Shes a polytheist. The Greek gods breathed life into a clay form, and
thus Diana was born. She regularly calls on the strength of Greek goddesses in
battle.
Shes pro-gay rights. Ok, so I dont know if this has ever been confirmed
by a comic, but I defy anyone to come up with a compelling reason why she
wouldnt be. The Amazons are a race of all female immortals from ancient
Greece. You cannot convince me that they would have a taboo about such things.
Shes pro-the UN. Her mission, ultimately, is to be an ambassador, bringing the Amazonian way of life to Mans World.

Shes a pacifist.

And, perhaps the thing that sets her at odds with Fox News most of all,
she reveres the truth, no matter its content.
By 2011 when the new 52 wonder woman rebooted once again, the controversial pants were removed and a more traditional costume was used, but the changes
of the character where even more radical to those of the 70s.
What also was motioned a lot during the time was an unnamed DC comics
source that claimed the wonder woman costume was changed to market the movie
over seas. While its true the way the world looks at The US since the 40s has
changed and that this characters were reflection of American culture of the 40s
these characters have been around a lot. Hundreds of authors and millions of
readers have appropriated the characters into their childhoods and cultures.
Theres that Korean wonder woman anime for instance. From a personal perspective I can say I love these characters and never in 13+ years of reading comics
felt them foreign to my mindset. Unlike Marvels characters who are set in distinctive American cities I havent visited yet, places like Metropolis and Gotham
65

are common abstractions of cities with buildings that can belong anywhere in the
western world. Unlike superman and batman its true that we have seen her adventures set in actual cities of the US, but the fact that she is an illegal immigrant at
odds with what she encounters always allowed for reader overseas like myself to
find a way to identify.
Now in my own personal case, I grew up with a wonder woman that did not include star spangled briefs at all (Colombian toymakers must have thought it too
time consuming to paint by hand) Still I never once doubted she was Wonder
Woman. The high percentage of yellow (gold) in the design, makes it easy to distance yourself from the sole American flag wrapping her concept, to see it for
what it really is, a golden armour: belt, bracelets, breast plate and tiara adorned.

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The first animated wonder woman ever did not include the stars on the briefs
either!
Finally one could navely think, that she is also a symbol of women who buy
comics", femalegeeks or more realistically what we should call girls as in opposite to boys.
People think from a product / marketing point of view, that she is symbolises
of the character you sell to girls. That she represents a demographic. That everything made by companies, toymakers, animation studios that regards wonder
woman is designed for girls.
But the truth is no one is really jumping at the young female market with wonder woman, there seem to be no attempts whatsoever to make her a girly appealing character. She was refused the treatment other female heroes have, like She-Ra
or Sailor Moon, she doesnt have a shojo series or a recognisable doll line.
There is an interesting theory here: FEMALE SUPERHEROES WORST ENEMY? TOY SALES
A reason for the lack of merchandise might be that boys buy more toys than
girls. It was certainly true in my house, I was the only boy of 4 and still outnumbered my sisters toys a stretch. But then again there was not wonder woman on
the media that could grab their attention. Its really just a matter of a self fulfilling
prophecy. I wont do wonder woman toys, cos she is nowhere to be seen, and she is
nowhere to be seen cos she does sell enough toys.
So the market for wonder woman is really men and boys, and while it might
seem impossible there are known cases of female leads in media franchises directed at men. These merchandise can besold to them in three ways. As an action
figure, as a nostalgia item and as a mild erotic fantasy icon.
But as far as female superheroes go, the character isnt really marketed to as an
action figure. Since the 70s the only mainstream children toys and dolls released
have been under an ensemble. Because she is part of The justice league action
figures or the Supefriends.Society might still be chauvinistic, and having boys
play with a feminine toy is just not widely accepted.
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In fact just google: wonder woman toys and you'l see most is not actually a
toy, but statues.The words collector and limited editions heavily emphasised
in whatever official licensed Wonder Woman product you can encounter. Some
are rather beautiful looking and it does come out at a decent regular basis. But its
clearly not targeted at young boys.
Once we clear dolls toys and action figures what we are left with is the generic
merchandise that features wonder woman art. shoes, shirts and accessories.

And all these accessories will show you that most feature that beautiful retrolooking art. Probably directed to long-time fan boys and girls who grew with the
TV show and are making a nostalgia buy.
You would think that wonder woman, bad publicity as a befallen feminist icon
would leads to think she maybe is perceived asa teenage boy wet dreamrather
than a Barbie doll, but I wonder how many boys areactually fapping to wonder
woman; butnever mind what amount that might be, its clearly not massively marketed to young horny men either.
There have been recent attempts tho, like your ame comi wonder woman
statue and comic, that plays with their characters with the classic over sexualised
Lolita complex. But the sleep pillows, dating games, henry statues, that characters
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from japan have been subject too i nowhere to be seen. Can you imagine a wonder woman RPG dating game? This is way to forward thinking for a character everyone thinks is directed towards little girls.

Parents feel awkward buying the stuff for their sons, company dont make stuff
for the girls, young men are not sold the image they want to fall in love with, and
older men are stuck on pricy merchandise from the little stuff actually gets out
based on things the character did long time go.

69

3. What wonder woman should be.

I realize, we might have a deeply misinterpreted, under developed character in
the media alongside a deeply confused audience. The evidence is in the number
of posts, articles, and websites claiming for a wonder woman movie, and the completely brash, negative, nitpicking and overall offensive reviews, columns and articles regarding any wonder woman media production weather it saw the day or
light or not. At the top of my head you can read the scoop article on star ridersby
Sarah Dyer, which tho admittedly fascinated by the line was also downright pessimistic by saying
I cannot see how this line or show, could possibly have done well, or actually
have even been done well the proposed mixture of Etheria-style action and adventure with modern-day teenage existence just does not seem workable. And a
failure on this level could have really hurt the marketability of female action characters for quite some time, so Im sorry to admit that Im actually kind of glad that
WW and her pals never made it to shelves.
The reviews of the 2011 wonder woman pilot were vicious, likeon Gawkerwho started their review by saying:
The few who had seen the failed pilot for NBCs Wonder Woman a proposed series about the DC Comics super heroine from Ally McBeal-creator David
E. Kelley said the network had laid a pterodactyl-sized egg. Campily, laughably
terrible. Which didnt come as much of a surprise to anyone.
Or io9s review byCharlie Jane Anders:
But the thing you dont expect from this pilot is how tone-deaf it is about superheroes, and how smug and brutal Wonder Woman is. You get the impression,
watching this thing, that nobody has ever really read a good superhero comic, or
gotten the slightest idea why superheroes work.

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There were of cause some favourable reviews, but even in these, they were mystified about something they found solid even reaching for the inexpressible and
uncomprehendable. like the oneby iFanboy, whichconcludes:
Overall, its not a total surprise that NBC passed on the show. While the pilot is
really solid and lots of fun, it wouldnt blow anyone away and when youre talking
about a show that would be as expensive to produce as this one, the first time out
of the gate it has to be spectacular. To steal a line from a friend who also saw the
pilot Id still like to see more but its missing something. It sounds corny to say, but
I think it needs a little magic, a little WONDER.
A little WONDER? What the hell does that mean? I think they want something exceptional from t, but exceptional work, is hardly the result of luck or
magic. You can get exceptional content out of Batman, because its a character
thats been worked over and over for the past years, there definitely is somewhere
to draw magic from but expecting wonder for character that'sbeendead in
that media, and in the hand of artist for over 30 years?
This trend of over-expectations goes as far as the articles that talk about the 90
series pilot.The Comic code would say
it just sounded awful! LeVine had been instrumental in making Lois & Clark
a success, so she clearly had made some good choices with that character, but as
far as Wonder Woman went it sounded as if she was deliberately moving away
from the comics and the Lynda Carter show; the two elements behind Wondys
continued popularity! BUT WHAT IF? If there had of been a TV series based on
Wonder Woman during the 90s then then ermaw hell, there shouldnt have
been one! And if there had have been, then Xena actress Lucy Lawless should
have played Wonder Woman.End of discussion.
the Todd Alcott script of the early 2000s that was leaked to IGN, was reviewed it like this:
I suppose if I was a die-hard Wonder Woman fan I might have been mortified
by this re-imagining. Instead, I was just left with a greater ambivalence about
the project. This story recycled already overdone genre elements that recalled far
too many (better) comic book and adventure movies.
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I can go on and on looking for reviews of wonder woman in the media and
find the same thing all over the internet regarding basically ANYTHING that has
attempted feature Wonder Woman. There really isnt any positive feedback or
hype that surrounds the character, nothing to motivate casual spectators, consumers, children, mothers, fathers, geeks, creatives or creative directors to move on
and toy with this character.
Wired Magazine published an in-depth interview with writer J.J. Abrams some
time ago about his life and career. In one part, Abrams talks about how the internet killed off any chance of his Superman script being made into a movie
In some cases, spoilers dont just prevent the intended experience of something, they prevent the very existence of it. Case in point: I had spent close to two
years working on a version of a Superman script for Warner Bros. Then an early
draft was leaked, reviewed, and spectacularly decimated on a Web site that I still
adore and read daily. It wasnt just that the review was bad. Which it was. I mean,
like, kraptastically bad. And probably deserved (Im the idiot who made Lex Luthor a Kryptonian). What was so depressing wasnt just that the thing being reviewed was an old version of a work in progress. What killed me was that the reviewer - and then readers of that reviewer - werent just judging my writing. They
were judging the movie. A movie that was barely in preproduction and many
drafts away from final. A film that ultimately never got made - in small part because that review, and subsequent posts, made studio decision makers nervous.
The fact is, that Superman film might have been awful. Or it could have been
something else. Well never know.
You can read the complete article at Wired.com
Makes me wonder what exactly is the role of internet in the development of
movies, such as Wonder Woman.Its the misinterpretation of the character as a
symbol that has set the expectations of everyone in the wrong direction. The reason why creative cant deliver products that producers want to make.
Its clear to me that wonder woman was intended to be a feminist agent in the
new medium of comics, but the context of both have changed, feminism has a
new agenda and comics are not longer a new medium. Wonder woman could be a
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great character if they she were allowed to be what she was supposed to be,
anewsymbol, fornewideas, if she could evolve and subvert the established superhero model alongside any associated paradigms. If she was allowed to transgress
conventions like she was designed to be.
By allowing her to be a 3rd generation feminist icon, there should be no worries if there is a female audience or not, or weather she portrays woman in good
or bad light, she should be treated like any other male superhero and allowed to
be explored it really almost incomprehensible that they have decided in recent
years to cancel shows like young justice, because more girls than boys where watching it, specially while simultaneously, my little pony was gaining more and more
strength popularity because more boys where watching it.
Wonder Woman was also meant to blend in with popular feelings to deliver
that agenda and allowed her to survive, if the patriotic colors are or arent what is
popular right now, let her ditch them or embrace them as it suits her. She was designed to accommodate to mans world, both literally and figuratively. I would let
her do it.
I see we find ourselves with a Wonder Woman that has been living some kind
of a lie for the past 30 years; And producers, writers, industries or the public are
not to be blamed. Its the entire ecosystem that surrounds the character that is just
not clear on what the character is. This confusion has her stuck in an out of context symbol, not being allowed to be explored and become part of the culture.
When I read Cliff Changs and Azarellocurrentrun of the Wonder Woman
book. Which makes some fundamental changes to the character origins, not to impress, or revamp, sell o make statement but to genuinely explore both literally and
figuratively my proposed statement: Wonder woman should finally free from her
publics expectations both as a character in a story and as a fictional figure. In the
rerun neither Diana nor Azarello are worried about what wonder woman might
symbolise, she is not subject to what she is supposed to be or apologises what she
has done. In it she also found out she has been lied to about who she is, and it
mirrors the reality of the reader who has been lied about what wonder woman supposedly represents.
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I started writing this article a long, long time ago, it was proposed as my communication graduation thesis, then wanted to public it as a mini website, I followed the development process of the movie for year on a blog, and then evolved
to a youtube script. and finally decided to publish it as it is, to make sense of the
confusion that surrounds this character for which I personally cared for a long
time, only to finally come to the realisation that it barely really exists now days.
Will the character ever be as prominent as people, designed it, want it or expect it
to be? That wont happen unless there is room for experimentation, diversity and
more importantly not taking the character as seriously as it has.

74

Written by Santiago Arciniegas

originally published on
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