Still, some folks probably haven't been spoiled yet, so if you don't want to know, you should probably skip this post for the next 5 weeks.
Of course, one can question whether it actually is a "spoiler", philosophically, since it's the company that is publishing it that very publicly released the information via a major newspaper, and repeated that information on their company blog.
One could also question why DC would choose to reveal this particular information--it doesn't seem that newsworthy, or likely to increase sales. And even if it were that important, why they chose to reveal the plot twist before issue #2 even comes out, and a full 37 days before #3 is to be released.
Still, a spoiler is a spoiler, so after the random pictures of Diana, I'll be referring to that forthcoming Wonder Woman story.
OK, so, Wonder Woman now has a daddy.Instead of being crafted of clay and imbued with life by her mother's prayers to the gods, it will turn out that the Flushpoint version of Diana is the daughter of Zeus. (Is DC still pretending this wasn't a reboot?)
Now, I'm certainly more than willing to give this tale a chance. I enjoyed WW #1 enough to give Brian Azzarello the benefit of the doubt until I read the story. And, Zeus was known for spreading his seed around, as it were.
Plus, I'm not not particularly married to the whole clay thing, which was a Silver Age retcon (thanks, Robert Kanigher!). It's also a facet of her character that hasn't been addressed very much, especially in recent years, so it's probably not a huge loss.
Still, I think that there were things that could have been done with that idea. There's been a story that has been percolating in the back of my head for awhile, and since it's now out of bounds (until the deboot), I thought I'd share it with you.
In a lot of respects, Diana's "made of clay" origin has a lot of similarities to creature from Jewish folklore, the golem. Inanimate matter molded into the form of a human and given life? That's a golem, all right.
So, in my story, after that aspect of her origin becomes public knowledge, Diana would be approached by a wizened rabbi, who tells her that her origin sounds just like a golem, and asks her why she's off fighting Despero and Starro and not defending the Jewish community and serving God and stuff.
Diana deals with this easily enough--different culture, different gods, yada yada--but the persistent rabbi has started her thinking about her origins, and her status as one not "of woman born."
This leads to an unease, which causes her to seek out other "artificial" beings in the DC Universe, to compare notes and to try to come to grips with her "non-natural" status (and for a MacGuffin I shan't reveal here--I have to keep some secrets in case DC hires me someday). She would seek out Frankenstein, Red Tornado, Brother Power The Geek, Uncle Sam (!), Zauriel (!!)...and a few others I won't reveal because a) it involves some surprises in some folks' origins; b) involves a bit of time travel; and c) involves an...otherworldly...jaunt.
In the end Diana gets her head together, she and the motley crew she's assembled deal with the MacGuffin, and it's revealed that the wizened rabbi was really...well, there's no way I'm giving that one away!
So, no real point here...just this new news about Wonder Woman put me in mind of this story that's been rattling about in my head. Plus, it's pretty conclusive evidence why I'll never be hired to write comic books.
Diana's origin as a clay sculpture first appeared in Wonder Woman #1, 1942.
ReplyDeleteRobert Kanigher actually retconned her with a father killed before her birth, Prince Theno, in the late Fifties; then he retconned the retcon back to the original. If that didn't happen with his faux Golden Age stories in the mid-Sixties, then certainly he used the clay origin when he returned as editor in the early Seventies; WW's "sister" Nubia was the first statue Hippolyta made.
To be more precise, Martin, WW #1 says that ALL of the Amazons were created from clay. In my view, that's substantially different from from the later Kanigher interpretation that the rest of the Amazons were of normal origins, and only Diana (yes, and Nubia) were of clay.
ReplyDeleteA fine distinction, perhaps, but I see a vast difference, emotionally and thematically, from having Diana be one golem among many, and someone who is really a unique outsider in her own community. During Simone's run, for example, one faction of Amazon's considered Duana, because of her origin, to be a "monster" and an "abomination," something that wouldn't be true under the 1942 origin...
Love the concept, snell. Love it. It begs to be written.
ReplyDeleteSnell, your Wonder Woman story sounds a hell of a lot more interesting than the "Hal Jordan is a jackass with no job" or "Fox news...uh... I mean GBS took over the Daily Planet" or "Lex Luthor's medieval torture show" stories I read this week.
ReplyDeleteI think they should just reorganize the entire DC universe as "Sinestro is Emperor of the World and Batman fights him behind the scenes." That might...maybe...be vaguely interesting.
But I really would like to read that golem Wonder Woman story. Perez could draw it. Or my current favorite, Coipel. I think interesting set piece stories might be better than the rehashed serialized stuff that is coming out right now.
Borrrrrinnnnng...zzzz.
ReplyDeleteLol, sorry, but "...it's pretty conclusive evidence why I'll never be hired to write comic books." is a "Yeah".
This one's a clunker...you have some neat ideas and cool insights throughout your posts, but this particular one is boring, random, haphazard and stupid, almost pure Geekiness that strains itself to make the flimsiest of connections between people, characters and plot points and fails to understand the *hearts* of the characters (at least imo).
In Greek mythology, *ALL* of humanity was made up of clay...that was the *point* of having her be made of clay, that she's one of *US*, like all of us, like one of humanity which we're all a part of, nothing more, nothing less, that we can all hope to strive and aspire to...see?
It's the same with Superman, whose worst interpretations come from his supposed alien heritage when in reality he's always been a down-home hick farm boy from planet earth...I mean, he's from KANSAS, for Christ's sakes!
Besides, the Golem was an *automaton*, not a human being with free will who continued living after his initial assigned duties were accomplished. He was called to life by a magic word and turned back into in inanimate object by the same, with no indication that he was anything other than a tool to be used by humans...Jewish human, in this case, I guess.
Either way, Diana is most definitely *NOT* an inanimate statue who gets called on by someone else when there's trouble or danger, etc. etc. etc. She is a living, breathing, heroic champion of the world with her own mind and her own thoughts and her own free will...you see the difference? I do, and so would Diana instantly without having to "discover" anything like it vis a vis anything in a storyline like this.
And the whole "you sound like a Golem, you must be Jewish" thing? That's the stupidest part of all the assumptions in the story outlined here (again, imo)...basically, the way the Golem story goes, it can be implied that if Hitler made a Golem (using Jewish mysticism) then that Golem would do whatever it was told to by him, including attacking Jews. It's a tool, to be used by whoever creates it, and can be perverted in exactly the same manner. It isn't an icon or symbol or emblem. God did not say "I send you this Golem as proof of my protection over you", etc.
Sure, there may be some cool stories exploring themes extending from there (ie: a Golem *does* develop free-will and intellectual thought, etc), and it is implied that Golems are imperfect because they are created by Man, whereas Adam and subsequently the rest of Humanity were created by the hands of God himself (which accounts for the their fundamental differences and exactly *why* Man has free will, etc. while Golems do not, etc), but the basic storyline is that it is an inanimate chunk of rock to be used by its creator before being sent back to the void of inanimate-nothingness, nothing more, nothing less (and whose original creator actually loses control of in a destructive manner, incidentally).
So, although it certainly wouldn't be out of place for either Wonder Woman (who's been depowered and reimagined as a judo-queen) or DC in general (where the JLA fights an actual legion of heavenly Angels)...but quasi-mystical stories of Jewish golems regarding faith and belief and self-identity via Wonder Woman (and a gimmicky, extraneous and somewhat *strained* supporting cast)? That's a "No", for me, sorry, lol.
ReplyDeletePS: As an aside, that one particular "hook" of the Golem story, with the one-letter difference between "truth" and "death"? That's *always* been one of the worst, schlockiest, most contrived and gimmicky ideas that I've ever read in a story, and it doesn't even made sense...I mean, what? Is "Truth" the opposite of "Death"? Nah, it's a simple, silly and stupid superstitious play on words that's quite similar to other concepts (like the whole Chinese "number four/death" thing), etc.