So I recently got a book for little Kidney (that's our current nickname for her) called "My First Wonder Woman Book". Gotta say, I love it.
Thick blocky pages and an ending featuring a tinfoil mirror so the kid can see their own reflection as Wonder Woman. Then I started thinking "I want more!" But... there isn't much more. There are LOTS of Spider Man, Batman, and Superman things floating around the book area, but not a lot of superheroines.
And really, are there that many to choose from? At least, as far as iconic ones go. From DC we have Supergirl, Wonder Woman, and Batgirl. Marvel we have Shadowcat, Ms. Marvel, Rogue, Jean Grey, and Storm. Supergirl is the only one to try a solo movie and Wonder Woman's 1970s TV show is so bad that it's something I plan on featuring on TGIS.
I do have high hopes for Lauren Faust's (the person who revamped My Little Pony) Super Best Friends Forever series and I'm hoping it'll become more than just a series of shorts and blossoms into a full blown show. I really need some more superheroine stuff for Kidney!
Joss Whedon is pretty open about the fact that he is a feminist, but is questioned a lot for making this stance. Oddly, a lot of this fire is from feminists. I'm not an expert on the subject, but I can't help but wonder that it might be that he considers all angles of feminism and not just empowerment. A great example is Xander from the Buffy the Vampire Slayer series.
Wait... my superpower is immunity to 3D?
Xander is a take on the man living in the feminist world. He is the only character by the end of the series who does not have supernatural powers. Almost all of the women have been gifted with magic or super strength and what happens to Xander? He loses an eye. All these empowered women around him... and he is just a man. But its important that he remain mortal. The concept at work here is that now that women are powerful, what becomes of masculinity? And Xander isn't alone in the Whedonverse.
"I am a large, semi-muscular man!"
In the Firefly universe, the relationship of Wash and Zoe stands forefront to this. He's comfortably in a relationship with a woman that Jayne would hesitate to make angry, and yet he struggles with this on occasion. As masculinity is essentially a concept based in strength, now that a man doesn't have to be so tough, how do you determine what is in a mans nature and identity? How much of it has been for show? How much of it is really just what a man is like?
In contrast, if you look at most superhero relationships, the man is either more powerful than the female or, in the rare occasions where she has more power, she has power that she can't control (Dark Phoenix, Sue Richards, etc). It ends up being this Darin and Samantha from Bewitched situation where she has amazing and wonderful abilities but the man knows best and a frown from him means she knocks off the shenanigans. The equally repellent flip side are books like Elizabeth Hayden's, where these strong powerful male heroes act like whiny emo bitches when around her heroine. (I'm all for peeling back the veil on a macho facade, but these men practically have split personalities!)
I suppose that's why I enjoy the relationship between Batman and Wonder Woman. Throughout the Justice League Unlimited series there is undeniable chemistry between the two. Sadly it's only a product of the cartoons and not canon, but I wish it was. Diana is one of the most powerful creatures on earth and Bruce is really just a man. And yet, his reasons for not dating her have nothing to do with feeling threatened by her strength, but are the more garden variety commitment phobic statements.
Like a lot of geeks, I tend to dig too much into the meaning of trivial things, and yet on some level I feel this is important. I think if there was more exploration in fiction of relationships with super powerful females where the men remain heroes you would still like to be, it could help with the weird identity issues a lot of guys deal with.
The Green Lantern movie gets a lot of crap. Out of a recent slew of Academy Award quality superhero movies, Green Lantern is considered pretty poorly rated. In a lot of ways, I feel this to be unfair. It wasn't great, but it wasn't horrible either. I was very confused. Then I realized what has happened: We're spoiled.
Disco is not dead! Disco is life!
You see, a friend and I were talking about how there were a bunch of really bad 70's TV superheroes. What is apparent in these shows is a desperate longing to be able to make these amazing adventures from their imagination come to life. Unfortunately, the technology was not there by any stretch of the imagination. What ended up on screen was awe inspiring due to the scope of its patheticness. You can't blame them too much really. They were called upon to recreate the Sistine Chapel using noodles and food coloring. When it was obvious they weren't even going to get remotely close, they just threw something together and probably got high. If Green Lantern had come out during this time, though, it would have blown minds.
Therefore, I feel it is my duty to feature and comment on some of these old episodes for the sake of posterity. I'm going to be having a regular weekend post called TGIS, short for Thank God it Isn't the Seventies. This allows me to comment on other aspects of the 70's if needed and it also allows me to put the content out on Saturday OR Sunday. Be ready.
Remember, those who fail to learn from history are doomed to repeat it. This can never happen again...
Thankfully this movie is amazing! I got to see it this weekend with H, my dad, and my stepmom who all enjoyed it as much as I did! Co-written, produced, and directed by Joss Whedon, this is the type of windfall success that geeks sorely needed. The failure of this would have doomed all of us to another decade of Hollywood feeling they could only trust their franchises to skeezy, frat boy Michael Bay clones and his style of low plot, low dialogue, low character development, high explosion, and hyper macho movie making.
Actual picture of Mr. Bay. If I have a daughter, she has permission to pepper spray men like this before they even talk to her. Or if they enter the same room as her.
The real hero of the movie!
Joss Whedon is loved by all geeks but has never really had box office success. Usually his shows and movies are unappreciated in their time, do not reach high numbers of sales, and really only hit their stride as cult classics. Buffy has been the one exception to this. However, there is only so long a person can coast on one hit and numerous unprofitable cult successes before Hollywood stops giving you opportunities. Just ask Terry Gilliam.
Hopefully the massive success of The Avengers will help us see an uptick in Whedonesque style movies!
