Posted: 09 April 2018 at 7:31am | IP Logged | 8
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As for Wonder Woman, her degree of invulnerability is one of those irritating questions forced upon us by the Shared Universe concept. As originally conceived, she deflected bullets with her bracelets because that was exciting and fun to imagine. It spoke of tremendous skill and dedication, not to mention talent. It was amazing and original. Having bullets simply bounce off her would have been imitative of another character's schtick. The character is better than that.
It also allowed her to be more vulnerable and closer to the human condition than her more over-the-top stablemate. She could be gassed, knocked unconscious, imprisoned... And had to escape by doing more than simply flexing in a single, spontaneous burst of strength. Except when she did, because, hey, that's fun, too. Usually she had to approach things moment by moment, taking her escapes a step at a time, demonstrating a sense of cleverness and patience.
The JSA was a rather loose assemblage of characters and the world in which they existed in the Forties was not too over-the-top yet, Dr. Fate and the Spectre's adventures notwithstanding. The need for each and every member to somehow conform to the physics and outre trappings of the other members was not held as sacrosanct.
Cut to later, when the fans have begun publishing their 'zines and their inquiring minds wanted to know why the Thunderbolt wasn't loaned out to other JSA members to assist them in their cases. Could Johnny Thunder give Dr. Fate T-Bolt to use against Wotan or a Lovecraftian beastie from below? What was happening in Gotham City when the Spectre battled Asmodus by smashing him with comets and the moon? If Superman flew to Venus, would he encounter the Gyno-Supremacist society of winged women Wonder Woman met there?
The answer, of course, was "no." That's a Wonder Woman story. Superman writers would be free to write a Superman story if they went to Venus. The simple existence of the JSA wasn't a story-killing gun to the head of every writer and editor at the company. The characters' bizarre worlds sort of came together in that one book. Otherwise, they were separate. The JSA was it's own feature with elements that defined it and carried over or didn't, just as Wonder Woman was her own thing, and Superman was his.
"Oh, dear. Oh, heavens. Oh, how ignorant of them all. Oh, dear, oh, dear," cry the Marvelites. "If only Stan had been there to save them. Multiple Cities of Atlantis. Multiple Circes and Cleopatras. Oh, dear, oh, dear..." Y'know, what? Everyone was fine. Really.
Stan was one editor with a small handful of features. It was easy to eventually come to the conclusion that they all existed in the same world. Originally they didn't. The Human Torch saying Ben reminded him of the Hulk was a comparison to a "comic-book monster." Stan only had, what? Eight books at first to mix and match characters between, and only himself to answer to as far as issues of consistency and control went. Also, he did a lot of continued stories, so he had to come up with fewer story premises and plots than the writers and editors at DC did with their multiple eight-page stories per issue. Being a small shop gave Marvel the ability to keep things bound together in a tight little construction. Once the Sixties-era Superman got rolling, the Weisinger titles held to a tightly wound set of premises as well, with concepts being shared throughout the Superman titles.
But only through the Superman titles. Aside from Worlds Finest, another Weisinger book, no attempt was made to foist these ideas off onto the Jack Schiff Batman books. Or Robert Kanigher's Wonder Woman. These were professionals. They could come up with their own creative ideas. Readers wanted imagination and a sense of something new in every issue, didn't they?
Well, yes and no. Fans wanted consistency. They wanted more of what they'd gotten before. They wanted everything to match. To some extent, DC's editors were willing to indulge them so the Phantom Zone projector began to the look the same each time it appeared. Superboy began to meet characters he'd meet later in life and share a knowing wink with the readers as to how it would all turn out for them. Gosh, Ollie's just hopeless with a bow and arrow, isn't he? It's okay, readers. We know he'll get better, right? Someday.
But imposing a company-wide continuity across multiple editorial offices? No. Only a fan would want that or think it was even a good idea. DC was publishing dozens of titles. Marvel wasn't. At least not at first. Once continuity was recognized by the fans as a valued commodity, it was incorporated into new Marvel titles as they were created. As the number of titles increased and the staff grew, they conceived of ways to tie everything together, because hey, the fans liked that. As more and more of those fans joined the ranks of the creators, it became a hallmark of quality to ensure that this month's Marvel Two-In-One fit seamlessly inside the ongoing spectacle of Marvel wonderment.
Over at DC, fans were infiltrating the ranks as well and wondering if they too couldn't retrofit this huge ship into a streamlined little Marvel-style schooner to more easily navigate the narrow confines of fannish demands and expectations. After all, the fans were now the company and the company was now the fans, right?
So, since Wonder Woman and Superman know each other from the JLA, and the JLA is NOT its own book, operating on its own premises, but is now instead a component of a vast, interlocking story structure, how can we re-interpret and re-contextualize everything to make sure the fans are happy? So that we're happy?
Recognizing the original intent has never been in the latter-day WW playbook, so now we either have to alter her signature move or we're stuck having to play to and recognize her comparative weakness to Superman. We have to draw attention to it. Have the characters discuss it. The original WW was human. Amazonian by birth, and yes, birth. She was born an Amazon once she was magically given life by Aphrodite. She is not now nor has she ever been a golem. She is not part clay. She was a fully human baby after her transformation. We are all derived from simple mineral and chemical compositions as well, and are no more golem than Marston intended WW to be. But what does that bum know, right?
The Amazons, being human, attained their phenomenal strength and skill through centuries of training. They are not naturally immortal. Paradise Island gives them that. But no, no, no... Marston is wrong, wrong, wrong... You can't lift a train or do anything WW can do if you're human. You must be a super-creature from a race of super-creatures. Marston's WW says differently, but f*ck that noise.
Being essentially human, Marston's WW would be killed if struck with a bullet. Deflecting them is necessary because only a man from outer space whose alien body chemistry is enhanced to unbelievable degrees by Earth's environment could simply stand in place and allow bullets to bounce off of his oil-drum sized torso.
But that was then. This is now. Now Amazons are a super-race and WW is a super-enhanced, god-gifted member of that super-race with a weird golem physiology, so what the hey. Ditch the bracelets. Let her just stand there and shed machine gun fire like raindrops. It's not like we want any of these characters to be their own things. We want them to be tiny little threads in a vast storytelling tapestry that we direct and control from the outside, sending instructions and fan theories to those among us who have woven themselves into the industry and now have their hand, OUR hand, on the loom...
Who cares how the character stands on her own or what she can accomplish by herself? How does she stack up against Superman? Or Spider-Man? Or Doomsday? No doubt about it. Shared Universes are the order of the day and have been for so long, we've forgotten that not every character was conceived and created under those constraints.
That's okay. We'll get around to changing them all so everything fits. Still a few rough edges we need to grind off these corporate components, but we've got them in the shop constantly these days. We'll have every unique element ground down to nothing eventually, not to worry. Utter and complete uniformity is within reach, we promise. The fans are gonna love it.
Edited by Brian Hague on 09 April 2018 at 7:39am
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