No, I have not seen the Wonder Woman movie, which some friends tell me is spectacular and others say they liked about as much as I like cole slaw. Maybe I'm wildly outta touch with society today but I can't recall the last time I rushed to see any movie. It would probably be before the rise of home video ensured that they'd all be around and readily available for viewing at any time.
There are those who feel somehow disconnected from society if they haven't seen the movie everyone's supposedly stampeding to experience. Me, I sometimes have a sense of urgency to see a given play or other live performance because those things go away. Movies don't. I always figure a movie will be there when I'm ready for it. I don't have to go when it wants me to see it.
If I did camp out to see a movie, it wouldn't be a Wonder Woman movie. Years ago, after dragging myself through way more issues than most people ever experience, I gave up for a long time trying to read any comic books about the lady. I like the name, the costume, the way Lynda Carter looked in the costume, the way the character functioned in brief guest-star appearances or comics like Justice League of America where she only played a minor role…but that's about it. When a pal told me this new film "is faithful to the comic book," I thought, "Oh, for its sake, I hope not."
I would say I've enjoyed less than about 5% of all the Wonder Woman comics I've read and I've read a lot of them. Still, even during periods when the comic book was the only place the character existed, I was fond of the character. I will gladly explain why this is just as soon as I figure it out for myself.
The 5% would include close to 0% of all the issues supposedly written by the strip's creator, William Moulton Marston. Even when I was younger, it wasn't because it was about a "girl," as we called them back then. I liked Supergirl just fine. But Wonder Woman's feature just never struck me as being grounded in a mythos and premise as primal and appealing as those of Superman or Batman or many other comics I enjoyed. It was like Dr. Marston said, "Hey, a female version of Superman would be commercial" so, despite not really having an idea for one, he whipped one up anyway.
Yes, yes…I know that's not the way it happened — a brief history of Mr. Marston and his Amazon Princess can be read here — but that's the way the comic always felt to me. Never cared for the art by Harry Peter, either. It seemed ugly, and I don't just mean he made Wonder Woman unappealing. I thought he made everyone unappealing, plus you were never far from a pointless bondage scene and some gratuitous lesbian innuendo.
When I was younger and reading Wonder Woman, I used to spot the kinda-kinky elements and think, "Well, maybe when I get older, this will all have some meaning to me." When I got older, it didn't. They just seemed like themes that couldn't be developed or resolved in a comic book for kids, plus they undermined the scenes with Steve Trevor or any potential romantic interest. You would think a comic book created by a psychologist would at least have a convincing male/female relationship but it always seemed like a muddle to me.
The 5% also did not include the issues written by Robert Kanigher, who took over when Doc Marston died. Kanigher was the writer-editor of Wonder Woman from 1947 until 1968 and the writer of many, many issues thereafter. What's still amazing to me about Kanigher's stint was not just that he did it for so long. It was that he did it so long without doing anything I thought was particularly good. Having never, in all the years I've been around comics and their collectors heard anyone express any fondness for them, I don't think I'm alone. I think the name, the look (for which Mr. Peter deserves credit) and the sheer idea of a female super-hero carried the comic for decades.
This is not to knock Kanigher, who demonstrated in the other comics that he was a fine writer. Most of them, like Sgt. Rock and Metal Men, were quite gripping. Many, unlike his Wonder Woman, won rave reviews and huzzahs. This always made me feel that it was Wonder Woman the feature that was flawed, not its writer.
The first Wonder Woman comics I ever really liked formed the 1968-1971 story arc done at first by Denny O'Neil and Mike Sekowsky and then by Sekowsky alone. Sales had slipped to the point where it should have been canceled but they couldn't do that. Under the terms of Marston's contract, if they didn't publish a specified number of Wonder Woman comics each year, the rights to the property would revert to his estate. This was when Batman was raking in a bat-cave of money due to that TV show and there was interest in (and one unsold pilot) of Wonder Woman. There was also increased merchandising of her as an adjunct to all the bat-toys and bat-shirts and bat-tchotchkes.
DC, of course, didn't want to lose her…but they also didn't want to publish her comic at a loss. The solution? They removed Kanigher and we got a somewhat different version of the character, one connected to but quite unlike Marston's vision. They de-powered her, took her out of the famous costume and even did some of Marston's mildly-depraved stuff better than he had. The book shot up in newsstand sales for a time…and then when Sekowsky quit or was fired (long, ugly story there), it neatly coincided with an increased interest in classic Wonder Woman as a feminist icon.
That movement was gaining traction and the "old" Wonder Woman was on the cover of the first issue of Ms. magazine…so the comic went back to that version. Since then, it's been handled for a while by darn near every editor and writer who wandered within six blocks of the DC offices and wasn't me, and she's still to this day passed around with (mostly) short runs by different creators. Some of them made her interesting, many did not, but with so many people trying, there had to be some good ones. That's when I began sometimes reading it again and got most of my 5%.
Three times in my life, by the way, it could have been me. The first time I was offered the job of writing her comic, I was new in the biz and landing that assignment would have been impressive. Still, I declined. I was expected to write the then-current Wonder Woman, not reinvent her, and I hadn't liked enough previous non-Sekowsky issues to be sure what a good Wonder Woman story even was. When the other two offers were made, I still wasn't certain, and I still view the good issues as exceptions that prove some kind of rule. Compliments to those who did them. I doubt I could have done one I'd want to read.
If the new movie is as sensational as some say, great. Maybe someone really has rethought the character and made her more than a great name and look. In the past, fans have bemoaned movies and TV shows that adapted a comic book and didn't get it "right." Lately though, we've had some movies that redefined a property and got it "right" in a way that the comic rarely did. If that's the case here, I'll be thrilled to see the film but I'm going to do that when it's convenient for me. Like I said, the movie will be there when I'm ready for it.
And besides, I started reading Wonder Woman around 1962 and I've waited this long to really enjoy a story about her. I can wait a little longer.