Results tagged “Wonder Woman”

UPDATED -- SEE BELOW

If you were ever in love with TV's Wonder Woman, you may want to skip this item. (Also, it depends on your politics.)

Asked simply what she thinks of Sarah Palin, Lynda Carter goes off on a rant.

I can’t tell you how crushed I am to hear such paranoid, hateful nonsense from someone I’ve loved since I was 7. (Yeah, loved. Lifelong. For the last thirty years, you say "Lynda Carter", my heart jumps a bit.)

The day Palin was announced, I immediately thought, “Oh my gosh… It’s DIANA PRINCE!” I went on a Google Image search trying to find a matching pic of Lynda Carter so I could put them side by side on the MD blog. (Tried and failed. Found a bunch, none of which had similar enough glasses or pose.)

And now this.

Hey look, Lynda can believe what she believes and say what she says politically. But she could have done the smart thing and not pissed off half of her audience. The problem with Hollywood is that it's so insular that many stars convince themselves that all of their audience must be of the Left. Sure, there's a huge bunch of hicks in the middle of the country but those people don't go to movies or watch TV, they just read their bibles and handle snakes. So why hold one's tongue when surely all of her admirers share her politics?!

How hard would it have been to say simply, "I don't agree with her politics but I'm sure Wonder Woman would be proud of her Amazon sister" or something gracious of that sort? Instead, it's a long complaint about how Palin is so un-Wonder Woman.

Sure, Lynda Carter got to portray Wonder Woman once because she had a stunning smile and a fantastic rack, but she’s not William Moulton Marston nor is she the legal owner of the character. DC Comics may be a bunch of left-wingers but how much leeway are they going to give an actress to go out using their licensed character to defame a political figure?

Lynda does not own Wonder Woman and she doesn’t really know the character that well.

The Amazons are hunters. Palin is too, Hillary isn’t.
Wonder Woman is known for her own actions, not for being the wife of someone famous.

Wonder Woman, by the way, is a worshiper of the Greek Gods who is absolutely certain of her religion. (Well, why not, she's MET them.)

AND she was sent to Man’s World to constantly nag everybody about trying to live in peace and behave like her people. That is, in fact, Wonder Woman's primary mission: lecturing everyone else on how to behave.

I'm not even saying that Palin IS the ferocious religious nut that Lynda believes she is... but even if it were true: so is Wonder Woman!

Hollywood has been sitting out this election, perhaps realizing that all their mouthing off in the past didn't help their candidates... but Palin is driving them nuts and they're coming out of the woodwork. Don't believe me? Check out Dirty Harry's Place and just keep scrolling.

Hat tip: Dirty Harry

P.S. What say you? Should I post all the Diana Prince pictures I did find?

UPDATES
First off, I removed the photos because my buddy Lance pointed out that the picture of Sarah Palin was erroneous; it was a spokesmodel who had been misidentified as Palin on some blog. (Side-by-side with the real thing, I still couldn't be sure. If you've ever compared Cindy Crawford in normal lighting to one of her professional glamour photos you wouldn't know it was the same person either. But I trust Lance's word.)

And I'm not going to bother responding to all the Palin hate in the comments section, because this post was never about Palin. If it weren't about a DC Comics character and the TV actress portraying her, and how vacuous her comments are, I wouldn't put it on Monitor Duty. I could be wrong, but I don't think I've said boo about Barack Obama this year, and believe me I could say a lot but this isn't the blog for it.

I will say...it's tempting to do a lengthy, deep post about Wonder Woman, feminism and Sarah Palin, especially in light of the old women's magazine cover with Wondy on it. But if I'm going to devote time to this blog, I'd rather keep it off politics and more about comics. So as far as the Palin-hating goes: you're wrong, you're nasty, you're mean and in November you will lose.

My buddy Rob says he's never seen a live action Wonder Woman. I boggled... then remembered that hey, I barely caught Wonder Woman myself. I wasn't even ten when it was on...and Rob's a decade younger than me.

Still...with DVD box sets, there's no excuse to not at least watch it sometime. I mean, aside from the dumb plots. But here's what Rob is missing:

Yeah, it's dumb, it's dated, the robots and aliens are lame, and Debra Winger as Wonder Girl doesn't even know how to spin...

But there's one main reason to watch Wonder Woman. (And no, I won't even make the "okay, two" joke. It's disrespectful to the awesomeness that is Lynda Carter.)

So, okay, Wonder Woman is basically the 1970s version of Baywatch. I was about to tell Robert that, when he sends me this message:

[16:46] Rjbav: So, WW is like Baywatch from the 70s?

Sometimes I'm not as clever as I think I am. (Sometimes? Probably most of the time.)

She was made to wear the starred shorts. (Heck, she even wore striped shorts when she was Miss America.)

So, no excuses. If you haven't seen it: SEE IT!

The best Superman comics ever made are also the most fondly remembered and the most widely derided. The Silver Age Superman, stewarded by Mort Weisenger, basically defined the Superman universe as we know it: the Fortress of Solitude, the Bottle City of Kandor, Bizarro and Braniac, Supergirl, the Legion of Super-Heroes, Legion of Super-Pets (and the Space Canine Patrol Agents with their immortal rallying cry: "Big Dog, Big Dog, Bow-Wow-Wow!"), Titano the Super-Ape, Metallo and the Kryptonite Man, the mermaid Lori Lemaris and Superman's Kryptonian sweetheart, "emotion-movie" star Lyla Lerrol.

During this period, Clark Kent fought Al Capone (Superman # 142: "Superman Meets Al Capone!"), Jimmy Olsen became convinced that he was the reincarnation of the greatest traitors in history (Superman's Pal, Jimmy Olsen # 110: "Jimmy Olsen's Blackest Deeds!"), and Superman wore a number of amusing hats in order to cleverly conceal the presence of a third eye brought on by Red Kryptonite (Action Comics # 275: "The Menace of Red-Green Kryptonite!"). This is the era that saw Superman transformed into a lion (Action Comics # 243: "The Lady and the Lion!"), an "old duffer" (Action Comics # 251: "The Oldest Man In Metropolis"), the Superman of the Future (Action Comics # 256: "The Superman of the Future!"), and even Alfred E. Neuman (Superman # 126: "The Two Faces of Superman!").

There are a number of reasons why people don't like these stories. They think they're silly. They think they lack polish. They're the products of censorship, the neutered concept of the superhero that emerged in the wake of the Comics Code Authority. And to all that I say, hogwash!

These stories are great! The hallmarks of fantasy literature! And, over time, I hope to revisit some of these great stories and tell you why I love them, and what makes them tick. But if I may take this moment to address another common complaint about The Greatest Superhero Comics Ever Made...

People say that the Silver Age Lois Lane is a misogynistic mish-mash of a character. That she's a projection of the hatred and anxieties of the male editor and his male writers towards women. And to that I say: hogwash!

Lois Lane is the crowning achievement of the Weisenger Era.

The New Gods are the creations of Jack Kirby. Originally, they were supposed to exist in their own continuity, separate from the DCU. What's more, Kirby intended to give the entire saga a beginning, middle and end, stretched across four different titles, and then leave it alone, never to us the characters again afterwards. Today, this would be known as a "limited series" or a "maxi-series" of some kind. Back then, it was unheard of and Carmine Infantino at DC Comics wasn't a fan of the idea. When he gave Kirby the title JIMMY OLSEN, it was Kirby's way of organically introducing some New Gods stories little by little. By the time FOREVER PEOPLE #1 came out, Infantino wanted Superman to guest-star in order to give the title a sales boost and Kirby conceded, firmly establishing the "Fourth World titles" as part of the mainstream DCU (just in case there was still any doubt). The four different Fourth World titles were NEW GODS, THE FOREVER PEOPLE, MISTER MIRACLE and SUPERMAN'S PAL, JIMMY OLSEN.

Kirby never finished the Fourth World saga, returning to Marvel Comics to work on other projects instead, and other writers down the years brought the New Gods more and more into the mainstream realm and added to their history.

So who are they exactly?

For the second time, I made the two hour trip from Buffalo, New York, to Toronto, Ontario, for the Paradise Toronto Comicon. The convention was held Friday-Sunday, June 8-10, although I was only there for Saturday. It was held at the Direct Energy Centre, which people in the area will know as the building that is just inside the Princess Gate on the Canadian National Exhibition grounds. It was quite an enjoyable day, and I highly recommend it to anyone who lives a reasonable driving distance away.

For more on my time there, including notes on the Birds of Prey and Teen Titans panels I attended, click on the extended entry.

And here is the conclusion of our look at Wonder Woman.

This is continued from Part 2.

Gail Simone has been officially named the new writer of Wonder Woman. Her run begins with issue #13, which follows a 2 issue arc by writer J. Torres.

When the dust settles from the upcoming "Amazons Attack" story, Gail Simone will be taking over the writing of Wonder Woman. Simone is a fan favorite, probably best known for her time on Birds of Prey. Her first issue of Wonder Woman will be issue #13. For more on her and the title, see this Newsarama article.

Some of you may have noticed that I have not posted for a while. There are a variety of reasons for this. A situation at work forced me to focus more time on things less enjoyable than writing Monitor Duty articles. My uncle Ben died, a good man who worked on ground control during the Apollo 13 mission. And my friend science-fiction writer David Honigsberg died the week before that of a sudden heart attack (his second one ever).

But I'm back on track now. The final part of the Wonder Woman article will be up this weekend. And I have some great news. I will be doing another on-camera interview as a "comic book historian" for a DVD that is coming out in the next year. I will give you more information on this when I can.

Thanks to everyone for their support, including especially Michael, Chris and Tom. You're all good folks and we have very patient readers. That's all for now.

If you are interested in sci-fi writer David Honigsberg or recall perhaps reading stories of his, such as the story "SAMBATYON" that was featured in the ULTIMATE SILVER SURFER anthology published in the '90s, feel free to check out his web-site. He was a country singer/rabbi/sci-fi writer and when he died, his wife and I had the same first thought ... "But now he'll never see the Silver Surfer on film!" He will be missed.

David Honigsberg

Until next time, cheers!

I picked up the first issue of the Heinberg-Dodson run of Wonder Woman, not because I was a fan of the character or those creators, but to give the character a shot. I was, to put it nicely, decidedly underwhelmed, and I was not surprised when I heard Heinberg was getting yanked from the book.

What did surprise me-- and excite my interest-- was the announcement that novelist Jodi Picoult was going to be writing it. She's a very popular writer and, from what little I've read, very good with complex issues of identity and morality. She's lauded for her convincing female characters, and so I thought I'd give it a try.

As always with Wonder Woman, I found myself once again underwhelmed.

While taking a break from the Wonder Woman profile (which hopefully will be up monday night), I took an hour to update the MARTIAN MANHUNTER PROFILE. It now has more information in it, such as the fact that there was a previous character named Roh Kar who was described as a "manhunter from Mars" in a Batman story and the fact that J'onn's daughter was named after Ostrander's late wife. It also has an update on the new character Miss Martian and the new AJ Lieberman series.

If you're just interested in J'onn's recent appearances on SMALLVILLE, skip ahead to PART TWO.

That's all for now. Enjoy!

So apparently, people out there care about my opinion despite a complete lack of credentials. :-P

There's a documentary being filmed concerning comic book adaptations into films and TV. One focus of the film is Wonder Woman, as there's quite a lot of talk about whether or not her movie is still happening and what should or shouldn't be done with the character. Apparently, Lynda Carter, Tom Mankiewicz (writer and creative consultant on Superman), and Jack O'Halloran (star of Superman and Superman II) have agreed to be interviewed by this same documentary.

At the moment, the documentary is still being shopped around to different studios. If for some reason no one actually picks it up, the producers intend to submit it to film festivals at the very least.

This past weekend, I got an e-mail from the folks involved in creating the documentary. They are aware of my being a "comic book historian" and want to interview me this week concerning my thoughts on Wonder Woman, as well as on comic book movies in general, which ones I think were done well and what I think should be kept in mind for the future.

They want to interview ME in the same movie in which they will interview Lynda Carter and Tom Mankiewicz. Who the Hell am I? But, apparently they're impressed with my articles on www.MonitorDuty.com and want me for the project. For all I know, my segment (assuming I even make the final cut of the film) will just be a minute or two, but still, I consdier it very cool as an opportunity and an offer.

So obviously I said "sure." I'm a mixture of being flattered and kind of bewildered by the whole thing. I mean, I interview OTHER people, no one interviews ME.

The interview is happening this Thursday. I'll let you all know how it goes.

I'd be interested to know if any of you score lower than 18%. (Or is that "higher"?)
By the way, the only reason I scored that badly is that they count "I have fired a gun and liked it" as being evil. Sorry, but I never shot a gun until I was 36, and my dad was showing me how so it was kind of a bonding activity...and I scored a direct hit on my first shot. How was that evil?

You Are 18% Evil

You are good. So good, that you make evil people squirm. Just remember, you may need to turn to the dark side to get what you want!

Oh, and I'm Superman, apparently.

You are Superman

Superman 90% Spider-Man 80% Supergirl 70% Robin 60% Hulk 55% Iron Man 50% Batman 50% The Flash 45% Green Lantern 40% Wonder Woman 20% Catwoman 20%

You are mild-mannered, good, strong and you love to help others.

Continuing the history of Wonder Woman.

So to recap. We had a cool woman from Paradise Island who was several times stronger, faster and tougher than the best human male athlete and who fought Nazis and several different villains. Then she was revamped slightly for modern times and given a boost in super-strength, along with the ability to glide on air currents. And then she had all her powers taken away, was given a wardrobe full of white outfits, and acted as a sort of private detective/professional adventurer who trotted around the globe looking for trouble to fight.

So what happened to bring her back to her roots? Let's find out!

Chris Arndt AKA Blue Spider broke the story here a while ago about how Joss Whedon is no longer attached to write and direct the Wonder Woman movie. This was, as you'll recall, due to the fact that his idea for the character came into conflict with what the studio wanted. For instance, he wanted to emphasize Diana as a younger woman trying to come into her own, whereas the studio wanted a woman who was already an adult and confident. What's more, Whedon wanted to dismiss the costume from the comic books and wanted to invent a villain himself rather than use one from Diana's rogues gallery, which he described as weak.

Now, although the previous post on this site told you folks how Whedon's no longer attached, it didn't explain who IS attached now and what the circumstances are. So for those who are curious, let me explain.

Whedon's release from the project came at the same time that Warner Bros. purchased a script from newcomers Matthew Jennison and Brent Strickland. According to various sources, this script has a few major differences from Whedon's. For one thing, Diana is not as young and still wears her costume.

The other major difference? While Whedon's script was set in the present-day, the script by Jennison and Strickland takes place during World War II. It also apparently stays closer to the original version of Diana's origin.

Producer Joel Silver has said that he has no interest really in making the Wonder Woman movie a period piece, but the script came to his attention after making several rounds and executives were very impressed with the writing. Part of the reason they bought it was to protect themselves against any possible lawsuit later in case there are plot element similarities if the Wonder Woman movie gets made with a story from a different writer. This way, the studio can say they didn't steal or rip-off anything because they own Jennison and Strickland's script too!

But there are several involved who like the idea of having Wonder Woman face off against Nazis such as her Golden Age arch-enemy Paula von Gunther. And as said before, they were impressed with the writing. So a period piece is not out of the question and even if the studio does decide to set it in the present day, that doesn't necessarily mean they won't just ask Strickland and Jennison to do a re-write.

So let's keep our fingers crossed that when our Wonder Woman movie comes soon and that it kicks some ass.

Alan Kistler is a New Yorker in his mid-twenties who works freelance as a “comic book historian”, a label he got from several of his readers and from articles of Wikipedia.org. His recent Profile on Wonder Woman's History in Comics and Media can be found at THIS LINK.

Other articles by Alan Kistler, including various other Profiles posted on Monitor Duty, can be found HERE.

I have updated my AQUAMAN, POWER GIRL and DONNA TROY profiles to contain information regarding what happaned to them Post-Infinite Crisis, including who the new Aquaman is and what his connection to the original involves, as well as what the deal was with the cancelled MERCY REEF live-action show and what I thought about it.

I have also, upon request, updated my PRE-CRISIS MEMORIES OF THE DCU article so that it now references each single comic book issue in which the events I wrote about originally happened.

And I added a couple of details to Part One of the Wonder Woman Profile to include info I somehow left out. If you already read that profile recently and don't want to re-read it, just go to the next section of this post and I'll explain briefly the new information that is now there.

If you want to look at any of those other updated articles, click on the link to MY LIST OF ARTICLES.

Thanks for your time, everyone. Cheers!

This is a continued from PART ONE.

So we've explored how he's been treated in the comics. What about on television? Here then is ...

Mike Evanier reports that Bob Oksner has passed away.

Bob worked on newspaper comic strips including Dondi. Bob did a lot of work on funnybooks, from Adventures of Dean Martin and Jerry Lewis to Ambush Bug, but he also worked on Superman, Wonder Woman and even Elvira when she hosted House of Mystery. He retired from art completely in 1986.

Bob Oksner, 1916-2007. R.I.P.

Everyone’s got an opinion on her. “She’s an American ideal.” “She’s a symbol of Greek myth come to life.” “She’s a strong feminist icon.” “She’s all about power.” “The lasso’s silly and she looks like she’s gonna fall out of her top.” “How can someone fight crime in bikini briefs and heeled boots?” “She can kick Superman’s ass.”

She's a star-spangled beauty who is a strange mixture of mythic and modern day elements and who has been all around the world in comics, television, video games and cartoons (and certainly on underwear and Halloween costumes). Even if you’ve never read a comic book in your life, you know the name “Wonder Woman” and have a take on her.

But how’d she start out? And what made her the person she is today?

Let’s begin, eh? Here then is the HISTORY OF WONDER WOMAN!

I am surprisingly apathetic about this.

In other news that I am apathetic about: