Wonder Woman Celebrates 600 Issues By Putting On Pants
June 30, 2010 by Kate Whittle · 13 Comments
DC Comics character and feminist icon Wonder Woman–who graced the first stand-alone issue of Ms.–has been revamped for the first time in 69 years. She’s traded in her all-American leotard for more practical attire: badass jacket, red bustier, black leggings and motorcycle boots.
This is exciting, and not just because it will now be much easier for real-life women to go as Wonder Woman for Halloween.
This be-pantsed incarnation is part of a re-imagining of Wonder Woman by writer J. Michael Straczynski. The woman superhero’s comics have never sold as well as those of Superman or Batman, but Straczynski intends to change that:
Wonder Woman is a strong, dynamic, vibrant character who should be selling in the top 20, and I’m going to do all I can to get her there.
Artist Jim Lee designed the new look, telling The New York Times:
When these characters become so branded that you can’t change things, they become ossified.
A woman wearing pants isn’t controversial these days unless she happens to be Wonder Woman. At Huffington Post, bloggers Diana Nguyen and Jen Wang of Disgrasian were astonished:
It’s like seeing Lady Gaga in pants. It’s like seeing the Queen of England in pants. It’s like you forgot pants existed in her Amazonian universe. It’s as though they were as invisible as her airplane.
Naturally, some traditional comic fanboys are unhappy with the change. At Entertainment Today:
GRRRR. I am ALL for updating classic comic book characters to give them a new look for a new time but I am really not feeling this outfit…. When I was a wee lad, my first love was Lynda Carter as Wonder Woman on the hit 1970′s live-action TV series of the same name. … To me, she seemed like the ideal wife. …
Gee, dude, sorry Wonder Woman won’t look like your ideal wife anymore. But the new Wonder Woman might be coming to a theater near you:
Given the hope that the character will one day have her own international film franchise (a feature has long been gestating at Warner Entertainment, DC’s parent company), one test of the design was to imagine how it would look standing next to, say, Batman’s politically neutral ensemble. “The original costume was the American flag brought to life,” Mr. Lee said. “This one is a little more universal.”
The entire relaunch seems to be about making Wonder Woman more accessible for a broader audience. If she isn’t a walking American flag, she’s easier to market in other countries. And if she’s in pants, she’s potentially more appealing to women comic fans–the press release describes the outfit as partially an answer to female fans who’ve asked how she fights without pockets or much clothing. Marketing comics to women is still something of a novel concept, but one whose time has more than come.
UPDATE: Gloria Steinem weighed in on the new Wonder Woman in comments to the Associated Press.
As in the late ’60s when Wonder Woman creators took away all her magical powers — and would have perished along with them, had not Ms. magazine come to the rescue with a lobbying campaign to restore them — I wouldn’t be surprised if it happens again.The original Wonder Woman was changing the world to fit women. This one seems changed to fit the world.
ABOVE: New Wonder Woman courtesy of DC Comics. BOTTOM: Ms. July 1972 cover.
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Pants aside, I’m not sure how I feel about the new outfit, and I most certainly do not trust Straczynski to re-imagine her character. I have not been a fan of many of his female characters in the past.
But people tried to modernize her wardrobe before (Cathy Lee Crosby) and that failed too.
It fails when Superhero’s costumes get toyed with regardles of gender.
The Batman movies where Schumacher was at the helm and toyed with the guys costumes were incidentally also the ones which bombed and prompted the franchise reboot with Batman Begins–and the return to the original and classic costume.
So I’m thinking Wonder Woman is again going to need a simmilar costume repair.
I actually wrote a piece today called “Wonder Woman in Pants is Not a Feminist Win” over at the Women’s Media Center: http://ht.ly/25MEg – I hate the new makeover!
Wonder Woman was created as a specifically feminist heroine – Amazonian protege of the goddesses, a powerful mother and sisters, and the understanding that violence breeds more violence – and this feels to me like an attempt at commercialization that takes her further away from her feminist roots.
I think it’s sad she’s gained pants and lost her muscles and her classic ‘W’ emblem. The original Wonder Woman was sexy precisely because her powers were not derived from her appearance – she could kick some serious butt, hold down a job and a relationship and her appearance seemed, like it should be, an aside.
But more than the costume change, I’m disturbed that they’ve changed her backstory. The original Wonder Woman grew up with her mother, Queen Hippolyta, and her powerful Amazon sisters on Paradise Island, where gender equality was a given, and she could return to restore herself and learn more skills from her sisters. Now, she was smuggled out of Paradise Island as a baby as it’s being destroyed. In this new version, her powers are derived from supernatural forces rather than from sisterhood – a serious detour from her feminist roots.
If you hate it too, I started a Facebook group called ‘DC Comics: Bring Back the Original Wonder Woman!’: http://ht.ly/25Uau
I think this is such a positive step for WW and hopefully a start for other classic comic hero-women. I think it looks tough and no-nonsense but you can still def. tell it’s HER.
I will say this again, to quote an old song and list of no-no’s
You dont tug on Superman’s cape, you dont spit into the wind,
You dont pull the mask off the ole Lone Ranger and you dont put Wonder Woman in pants! (LOL) and make her look like any common cartoon character llike Shee-ra, Hellcats, Transformers, take your pic. She had class and style and if you get the costume women do NOT have trouble being her for Halloween. She was my childhood hero and I even had the underoos! If you want to revamp her make her look more like Lynda Carter,, that is always the image of her in my mind.
Showed her to my hubby he said “eww she looks to witchy and almost scary”
No classical greek hero would dress this way – pants, to classical Greeks and Romans, were a sure sign of foreigness, therefore of “barbarian” status. WW would not feel cold even in heavy snow, and would wear clothes that allow for highly athletic fighting. Her original costume has very similar body coverage to old greek armour, excepting possibly protection for the upper chest/throat – fix that if you must “fix” anything. And WW wouldn’t give a flying F. what modern folks thought was “proper” clothing, or what any observer thought of her body. This costume change is a stupid mistake – but something this dumb can’t stand the test of time, thank Athena.
To me, this IS a feminist win. I don’t care if its just a comic, etc. I have always felt weird about Wonder Woman as a feminist icon because she was so sexually objectified, she looked more like a lads mag icon. I could never see how I could really take seriously a female super hero in underwear. She does look WAY more bad ass now, and she isn’t just a flesh flag. I like the anti-nationalism and I like the humanism. All we need now is for her to be featured smashing the patriarchy in her comics, and then she’d really have a new fan. Good job!
Oh and Melissa? People have been calling powerful, autonomous women witches for too long now.
This makes me ill that people tampered with a good thing. I had dressed up as wonder woman for halloween. I made myself dizzy twiring around for hours when I was in elemetary school. Destroying the childhood of so many girls is wrong.