unharbinger:

I feel like there are a lot of people, both in DC and in Hollywood, who see Wonder Woman as a character that needs “fixing”.

They see her origins as too confusing, too complicated; her Amazon background as intimidatingly feminist. They see her as too powerful, not relatable enough for the average reader or viewer.

And so they’ll give her a secret identity, bring back the old Diana Prince alias - because a special agent tackling superhuman issues is naturally relatable for the ordinary person.

Or they’ll drop her into an alternate timeline, stripping her of her past, her friends and her home.

Or they’ll gut her origins, changing utterly her history and heritage, and turning the women who raised her into utterly monstrous feminazi caricatures.

Or they’ll transform her into a psychotic torturer and murderer who designs her costumes with merchandising in mind and, after a long day of superheroing, has a tendency to curl up on the couch and sob over The Notebook while mooning over her ex-boyfriend. (I will never not wtf over that TV pilot, seriously.)

It’s painful to watch sometimes.

And I’m not saying there’s nothing that could do with revision or improvement, and I’m not suggesting that it’s a bad thing for a writer to bring their own spin to the character. But when you get down to it, what Wonder Woman needs isn’t to be “fixed”, but rather a writer who understands and embraces the character and her history, rather than shying away from it or seeking to remake her into something she’s not.

And those are the writers who bring us the best Wonder Woman stories, the most powerful and the most memorable. The images of Diana facing down the dragon’s flames unflinching; or squeezing the serpent’s venom into her own eyes, blinding herself in order to overcome Medusa - they’re the ones that stick with me. That’s the Diana I want to see.

I hope I’ll see her again some day.