Artwork by David Finch
In a recent interview with David and Meredith Finch for Comic Book Resources, David Finch (who will be the new artist) told the interviewer that he didn't want Wonder Woman to be a Feminist.
His exact quote is:
I think she's a beautiful, strong character. Really, from where I come from, and we've talked about this a lot, we want to make sure it's a book that treats her as a human being first and foremost, but is also respectful of the fact that she represents something more. We want her to be a strong—I don't want to say feminist, but a strong character. Beautiful, but strong.
So if she was Strong she couldn't be Beautiful. Um...hasn't Wonder Woman always been a Feminist Icon. But now all of a sudden you don't want her to be recognized as such. When did Feminism become a bad word?
Well, the thing is Wonder Woman has always been seen as a Feminist Icon, the character's creator William Moulton Marston intended for her to be the equal to both Batman and Superman. I think feminism is sometimes misunderstood, it's about equality for everyone and not about hating anyone.
His statement doesn't have me seeing this new direction for Wonder Woman in a good light. The funny thing (and not in a good way) is he's not even the writer for the series his wife Meredith is. Shouldn't the writer be the one to actually speak about the new take and direction of this iconic character. Throughout the interview, he spoke a lot on the new direction for WW.
Here is another one of his comments that just makes you want to shake your head:
Well, for my part, I'm pretty visual and I'm really interested in that. She's got a great costume and she's got a lot of history -- I'm really very visually attracted to "Wonder Woman." She just looks great on the page.
I don't really have too much faith in Meredith as a writer she doesn't have a lot of writing experience (she's only wrote three one-shot comic books for Zenescope Entertainment) and in the interview she said "It's been a huge learning experience" in regards to getting the job as writer for the Wonder Woman series. From reading the interview, some of her comments makes it seem as if she really hasn't figured out what to do with this series (as if she's waiting for DC to tell her what to do first). It also sounds like she going to rely far too much on David's experience instead of trying to figure things out for herself.
One of her comments will make you wonder if she has even read a comic book let alone a Wonder Woman comic:
We're definitely going to steer the book a little more into a more mainstream -- I guess I'd say there will be some superhero stuff in it.
Gee, I hate to be sarcastic but come on, you're going to be adding "some superhero stuff" into the series. Really, hard to imagine a superhero comic not having some superhero stuff in it.
This doesn't bode well for Wonder Woman. Since the New 52 began, none of the writers seem to understand who the character is so they have changed her to be how they think Diana should be. The only one who has done a great job with the character is Brian Q. Miller who is the writer for Smallville Season 11. His Diana is exactly how you want her to be. She is smart, strong and beautiful (see she can be both).
The interview also mentioned that the Superman/Wonder Woman relationship will be included in the series (well I guess issue #35 will be my last issue, I'm am so tired of that fauxmance being featured throughout the DCU. They need to give readers a break who don't want to see it).
David Finch has recently apologized through Twitter but even his apology makes it seem as if he still doesn't understand:
I wasn't saying Wonder Woman is not for being equal, and therefore a feminist. I just want her to be a human being, fallible and real.
I guess feminist aren't real nor human beings. Does that mean Gloria Steinem is not real?
I want to be objective, so I will give issue #36 a chance. Hopefully, I will be proven wrong and the writer actually does a good job.
Related Posts:
Comic Book News: New 52 Wonder Woman Series to Get New Writer and Artist
Wonder Woman is Getting a New Comic Book Series!!!!
Is Wonder Woman Losing Her Popularity? Part One: Possible Cause: Her Origin
Is Wonder Woman Losing Her Popularity? Part Two: Possible Cause: New 52 Comic Books
2 comments:
I wonder how long it will take before sales start to drop with this book?
Thanks for posting this.
Hi, Mimi thank you so much for commenting.
Honestly, I think the first issue will probably do really well (mostly due to curiosity) but if the writing is bad then sales would most likely go down pretty quickly with the following issues.
It's really going to be up to the writer to keep any new readers or try to win back the ones who may leave once the new team takes over.
So, she definitely has a difficult job ahead of her.
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