Wonderment?

It seems like quite a long time since my last blog post! In the last few weeks, we had the National exams in the senior school and the change of timetable with new classes in the senior school. I also attended my mum's birthday party in Glasgow and bumped into an old acting pal on his stag.

Next week , as part of late spring school events, I'm one of the leaders on a cinema trip to see Captain America: Civil War. It's my second time so a review post will probably follow. Today however is a catch-up and also a crossover with my Materioptikon blog.https://materioptikon.wordpress.com/2016/05/21/wonderment/ ‎

DC  Comics Earth-One initiative is a a series of hardback -then-softback -graphic novels, offering  "re-imagined" and modernised takes on iconic DC characters. It's a similar premise to Marvel's now-defunct Ultimate line of the early Noughties. In fact, Marvel appeared to have imitated Earth-One with the  Season One line. But that initiative has been liquidated.

I've been fairly positive about the naturalistic and gloomy Batman graphics that seem to have been a major inspiration for tv's Gotham. I was much less enthusiastic about the sci-fi flavoured Superman that was echoed in Man of Steel. The E-1 Teen Titans book was a very fresh take but seemed confined by its page count.

One of the few positives I could find in Snyder's sequel to Man of Steel was its ecotically stylish Diana Prince and grim warrior maiden Wonder Woman. http://somefantasticplace-dougie.blogspot.co.uk/2016/03/cruel-and-unusual.html.

 Now we have Earth-One Wonder Woman by Grant Morrison, a writer whose work on Animal Man and Flash I really enjoyed in the 90s. I've been less enamored of the willfully bizarre Doom Patrol and the cruelty and horror in his various Bat-series and Seven Soldiers. However, I can see the appeal in WW's creator for Morrison: Marston, the bondage-loving polyamorous psychologist with the female supremacist viewpoint.

Ironically, despite Morrison's ambitions to deliver "representation", the graphic has an entirely male creative team. WW looks like a male fantasy figure, haughty but lushly curvaceous. At least she isn't the castrating fury of Miler's All-Star Batman, I suppose, But the bondage cover image isn't very heroic.

The book also opens with an ugly rape scene, which, granted, might be mythologically authentic but still repellent and sensational. Amazonia ( no more Paradise Island) is an openly gay society, with sorority hazing and misrule out of Donna Tartt and Nazi-esque flirtation with Theosophy and lost civilizations.

The Amazons are big on body shaming too, when we meet Beth Candy (clearly inspired by Australian comic actress Rebel Wilson), a fan of the Woo Woo cocktail. The Byrne and New 52 goddess versions of WW are thankfully dropped here. I suppose retconning Diana as the daughter of Hercules makes her more relatable than  a clay golem. I also liked the nod to the George Perez WW with the appearance of the monstrous Medusa.

Steve Trevor, now a black military man, is the most appealing character in the book but his speech about slavery is unsubtle and awkward. Submitting him to Diana's crotch-grabbing isn't exactly enlightened. either. I can't quite decide whether the genitalia imagery of the invisible plane is audacious or risible. What next? A version of the Cheetah using a menstrual blood ritual?

On balance, Morrison's  message is goofy but a fairly positive one and this iteration manages to transcend both WWII and gung-ho American patriotism. However, I don't think I would promote this book in school. This version of WW seems preferable to me.

Coming soon: Steed and Peel- the comic strips on audio.
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