(Fair
warning, this post discusses the recent announcement-ish of the
villain for the Wonder Woman movie.
If you want
to remain entirely unspoiled, turn away now.)
Its bloody
Ares.
Let's be
clear: as unimpressed as I am by the very obvious, very dull choice
of villain I am still interested in this movie. There are plenty of
good ideas: putting Wonder Woman in the ultimate “man's folly” of
the First World War; having a Suffragette Etta Candy; filming in
something approaching colour... these are all things that interest
me. However...
Setting
aside the questionable taste of having a comicbook God Of War turn up
in very real human tragedy of the Trenches (and likely being somehow
responsible), isn't it just a bit obvious? A bit generic?
I mean, I
get that there isn't a deep bench here. Wonder Woman's rogues gallery
is a mess... as is her supporting cast... and her status quo... look,
every creative team for 75+ years has felt the need to reinvent the
wheel to the extent that the big Rebirth hook for her title is Greg
Rucka hyperventilating into a paper bag trying to rationalise it all.
And honestly? That gave me hope for this film.
You see,
there's no Wonder Woman equivalent of The Dark Knight Returns
or The Death Of Superman. No story that DC fandom has
obsessively made the basis for the character.
Wonder
Woman, funnily enough considering her real world origins, is not tied
down to any one dominant interpretation and that was born out when
they decided to shift her origins back a World War and play with the
idea of her meeting the Suffragettes.
And then
they decide Ares will be the villain. The God Of War versus the
warrior princess...
… yeah. It
is a pretty standard go to for the genre. Again, I get that there
isn't a deep bench here. Doctor Psycho and Egg-Fu are all kinds of
problematic; guys like Angle Man and the Cavalier are a bit low rent;
and, otherwise, its mainly just more classical gods.
But still,
isn't Cheetah meant to be the iconic villain these days? Circe's
there if you want a supernatural threat; Veronica Cale offers a lot
of interesting angles; and, Giganta offers interesting visuals.
But, no,
Ares.
Ugh...
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