Wonder Woman: The other side of the coin
So a friend of mine went to see Wonder Woman and told me he loved it, but….
Then he showed me this link:
And I have to admit, when I saw the movie I did noticed the Black amazons, and how they were not Hollywood’s beautiful like Gal Gadot, I said to myself, I get it, their amazons.
Yet They got Claire Underwood up in this looking pretty and powerful.
In all Fairness, I actually saw another article that had pictures showcasing some white Amazons who looked very muscular and ready for battle. It’s possible that they thought they were doing a good thing by showcasing these black amazons over the white one’s to show “diversity”
However once that “Mammy-like” amazon (I have to admit, I did not pick up on that at all) appeared chasing down Diana, I was like OK where are the Latinos, where are the Asians, where are the south East Asians? Before this article, I though maybe they went by too fast and I did not see them. Definitely a slight overlook of the filmmakers.
See, people give praise for Patty Jenkins putting a strong woman on the big screen (I applaud her as well). I just wonder if film director, Ava DuVernay was tapped to do this (DuVernay who was once tapped to do Black Panther cause she was black, but I would not be surprised if they did not even think about her for Wonder Woman even though she is a woman), would DuVernay have been more careful to diversify the amazons A little better?
One of my pet peeves was this. I’ll admit I like Wonder Woman, but I have not read the comics in at least five years (Than again I would say 93 percent of the people who saw the movie have never read one). Spoiler alert (Just in case): The movie states that Princess Diana’s brother is Aries the God of War (This is an important plot twist). As a Fan Boy this bother me just a little because in her original origin, Wonder Woman was on the same power level as all the other amazons (Just not the same skill level (So like Batman among her people), but in the movie she is a God like her brother, technically
The reason why I’m stating this is because if Princess Diana’s only specialty was being a Princess who was far better at roping the lasso than all the others it gives a better concept that any little girl can grow up to be Wonder Woman. As a matter of fact in the original origin, there was a contest the Queen of the Amazons gave to see who would become Wonder Woman, which I think would have been better than this origin. Plus showing competition with a diverse circle of females all trying to win the prize would have been a cool scene for all the little girls to see. I could be wrong cause I’m a man, but I think the original origin would have had more room for the sisterhood the article was talking about.
But I must admit, I’m indifferent about what the article is saying saying about Steve Trevor. She’s right about his last heroic effort though. The thing about DC superheroes is that they are suppose to be perfect. The idea that even the human among them, Batman can accomplished the impossible which in itself is a superpower considering the battles Batman has gone through. One of the things The DC Extended Universe is getting wrong is how flawed their superheroes are. On one point I get it, flawed brings out the human in the superhuman. On the other hand I think flawed is being mishandled.
I like to mention a scene in Spider-Man 2 when Spider-Man (One of the most flawed superheroes of all time) is stopping a train from crashing and killing everyone one on it. Interesting to me is that in the comic book there is a 50/50 chance that Spider-Man would not be able to stop that train, and knowing that about the web-singer makes the comic book more interesting. However, Spider-Man 2 is a movie, and in the movies, the probability increases 49 percent that the hero will save the day, it’s more so how he will do it that makes the movie so interesting.
And he Totally did it like he belong over at DC
The flaws of Spider-Man, especially in that film was a little bit more personal. Spider-Man’s difficulty was balancing real life with superhuman activity. It was easier for him to stop that train than it was for him to keep woman and a job.
This is something that they did in the Dark Knight trilogy (and most incarnations of Batman), with Batman always making the decision to be Batman vs. Trying to be Bruce Wayne, a person he has not been since he was eight.
If only Bruce lived in a time when a boy can change his gender to superhero.
Man of Steel on the other hand choose to make Superman flawed. The rookie superhero was unable to stop Metropolis and his home town of Smallville from being destroyed (That seems realistic but something the comic book version would not have let happen)
And this version.
Sucks that he did not get the Superhero part down packed, but was able to land a job and get a girl.
Plus (Spoiler Alert if you have not scene) the neck snap that had audience gasping for air. One of the biggest flaws of The DC Extended Universe is how easily these guys are able to take a life over their comic book counterparts. Although to be fair, it was a hard choice for Superman to do what needed to be done in the eyes of Zach Snyder who misconstrued Chris Nolan’s realness of The Batman as being dark when he used it to influence the Man of Steel.
As far as I’m concern, this was Superman being real
Now in reality (Ha!) Wonder Woman is not human, according to the film she is a God, so as such she should have been able to beat Aries stop his evil plot, and save Steve Trevor all in the same scene. Cause that’s what DC Superheroes do. What makes them interesting is how creative whosoever is handling it can do it.
But I should have known something was up when I saw this poster
As much as I loved the relationship between Steven Trevor and Wonder Woman in this film. It was my favorite part of the movie. I have to say that it’s not that Lois Lane could not have done the same thing Steve Trevor did (Cause I know she can) it’s the fact that Superman could beat the bad guy stop his even plan and save his woman.
Except this one
I’m iffy about nick picking Wonder Woman like this. I don’t want to take away from what Wonder Woman has done in general for all the ladies, considering that really young girls may not pick up on any of this and just concentrate on being Wonder Woman, which is what we want. At the same time you want to stop creating the images the article explains to assure that little girls are focus on being super heroes.
Get us out from under!!
Judge for yourself. Here’s the prospective of another Black woman who once to give credit to the overall concept and positiveness Wonder Woman is bringing to all women:
http://forward.com/fast-forward/373789/wonder-woman-hurts-people-of-color-thats-patronizing-stupidity/
