Hola, little sister!

[philippos42]

Rassin' frassin' freakin' Amazons.

For years, the Amazons in my head have called each other variations on "sister" because, well, because of the way Artemis called Diana "little sister" in Artemis: Requiem. Well, yeah, they are a sisterhood, right?

More recently, & actually before I got so mentally drawn into this "Wild West Wonder Woman" idea, I've been playing with how that varies to variations on "daughter" when Amazons have daughters who are also Amazons, or talking to younger Amazons who they may have substantially raised; and complementarily, variations on "mother."

But here's the thing. I may not have realized when I first read Requiem that Diana & Artie are actually, legally, sisters. Artemis was adopted by Hippolyta, at least according to Loebs, who wrote the first Artemis arc as well as Requiem. That's a big part of how the two Wonder Women's relationship is defined: two sisters who sort of resent & hate each other.

So am I stretching the meaning of the word too far? I'm going to have to dig out & reread some old comics, & I'm somehow a little annoyed by this.

Comments

[marcelo]

I'm not well versed in Amazon canon, but weren't they a sort of demographically static society, with Diana being the only child in who knows how long? (Although Planetary's not!Amazons had cloning techniques with some engineering to allow for diversity, and DC's have the Purple Ray, so it's not like they aren't advanced enough for something that.)

[philippos42]

In several versions, they're pretty static, as you say. The most extreme form of this is the Grant Morrison "Earth One" version, which shows Paradise Island as a place of stasis & repetition in its ostensible perfection.

That's not how I'm playing it.

Some of the Harry Peter comics had other children on Paradise Island besides Diana. I think there was one Amazon who joined the group in the 1940's, as an adult (Paula).

Wonder Woman comics in the Golden & Silver Ages showed Amazons who interacted with an outside world, & even had some amount of space travel; things happened around them & with them in their midst.

The version of the mythos introduced in the late 1980's set the Amazons as demon-fighters, who had lost sisters in their long war. There was an infusion of younger Amazons circa Zero Hour, as a different tribe was relocated to Paradise Island alongside Hippolyta's.

I've been interested in the idea of a deep history. My Amazons vary in age & have been through some stuff. My lead (as I see her now) is at least second-generation, although she's still older than she looks.

[marcelo]

I love the deep history aspect of it. There's a sense of strangeness to that sort of society that I find fascinating.