philippos42 ([personal profile] philippos42) wrote2011-01-20 08:33 pm

Not the One

And Entertainment Weekly had a huge feature a couple months ago, in which luminaries including would-be Wonder Woman director Joss Whedon talked about the difficulties bringing the princess to the screen — with Whedon saying that we need more wonder women, but not necessarily more Wonder Woman.

This. I would like to see Warner Bros. bite the bullet & take a chance on a Wondy movie, but it's not something that needs to happen. Just as we don't really need a Mr. Terrific movie or a Captain Comet movie.

But what we do need are good female protagonists. Remember Xena? Buffy? The tv series Dark Angel? Heck, Cleopatra 2525?

And it doesn't have to be fantasy. If The Chicago Code works well, that's perhaps more important than making a movie about some goofy gaudily-clad superchick.

But we need strong women, women who can lead, who can stand tall, who can fight. We need them especially in realistic settings—though if we're doing fantasy we should have them there as well—and we need lots of them.

Wondy can be a sort of female Superman; a silly old concept that's become an institution. But she doesn't need to be, should not be, the One. Anymore than Batman should be the one dark detective or Spider-Man the one superhero with an everyman attitude.

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