Has Wonder Woman ever quite been an iconic character on the level of Superman and Batman? Not really. There are a few reasons for that. Superhero comics were always a boy thing, even if now a lot of the boys who read them don't look so boyish. So a female hero is swimming upstream.
But there's also the fact that DC, in their finite wisdom, has aggressively rebranded the character every few years, at least in recent decades. So there's little to grab onto. Superman is a benevolent alien and Batman is a noble vigilante, but their identities extend beyond themselves as individuals. Superman as Clark Kent has the Daily Planet crew. Batman has Alfred and Commissioner Gordon. Wondy's supporting cast, by contrast, always seems to be subject to fire-at-will.
This, aside from Joshua Middleton's nicely etched artwork, is what I like about Convergence: Wonder Woman #1, Sure, the plot is a tie-in to one of those convoluted crossovers both of the majors do on a regular basis. But it's nice to see the old Wonder Woman with her old support system. Steve Trevor is back to being a glorious and absurd flyboy hero, now snuggling with Diana. Etta Candy, drawn to look a little like Beatrice Colen, who played her in the seventies TV show, is again her regular gal best friend, even after sorta joining a cult. (Etta's basically Wondy's Jimmy Olsen.)
Odd side-fact about Wonder Woman. Samuel Delany briefly wrote her comic. It was in the early seventies, the white jumpsuit era. From what I recall he only completed one issue before they changed editorial directions and he was let go. Still, some interesting times.
2 comments:
wasn't aware of the 'support cast make-over' aspect of ww reboots, or the fact that delany wrote an issue :)...
most recent mainstream superhero reboot we've witnessed is the netflix daredevil series. unfortunately, as is usually the case with these things, the only somewhat interesting character was the villain (kingpin)...
movie-wise, the only reboot we've really enjoyed was, surprisingly enough, captain america. especially the first one...
I was definitely surprised by the Delany thing when I found out about it.
Daredevil is a strange case, because adaptations always want to go back to That Championship Season, i.e. the Frank Miller years. And the thing is, his deliberately dank and violent way of writing was good for the comics he wrote in the 80s, but it doesn't necessarily make for a fun movie, TV show. I'm not surprised the Kingpin is good, though. Vincent D'Onofrio can always hold center stage regardless of what part he's put in.
I'll keep your enjoyment of Captain America in mind. Have not seen it yet.
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