Wonder Woman in Pants & Shorts

Newsarama has photos of the Justice League #1 and variant (by David Finch).  They feature Diana in shorts (and pants).

Go here to see:  http://www.newsarama.com/php/multimedia/album_view.php?gid=3490

Wonder Woman: Stop Fussing about it, Just Do It

From Comicbook Resources.com

In his response to ICv2′s question about whether Wonder Woman is a cursed concept, Tom Spurgeon suggests that they — and everyone else — may be overthinking it.

Sure, an invisible airplane could look dopey if you do it one way, but I imagine it could be the coolest thing in the world if you do it another. I’ve said this before, but once you realize that Wonder Woman could absolutely get over if she were to crash that invisible airplane of hers into the front of Wayne Manor and beat the holy guano out of Batman for 15 minutes in the middle of his next movie, just punching him right down long hallways, it becomes clear that there are several ways for a character like that to work. You have just to stop fussing over the character and do one of them.

I agree for a couple of reasons. First of all, though I have a ton of respect for the recent Wonder Woman writers who have spent a lot of time thinking about who the character is and what a story about her should focus on, there comes a time when you have to put that aside and — to paraphrase Gail Simone — just have her fight some talking gorillas on top of a waterfall.


While it’s important to know the character you’re telling a story about, the story itself doesn’t have to be an overt demonstration of how you’ve figured that out. In other words, know who Wonder Woman is and why she came to Man’s World, but you don’t have to make the story about who she is and her mission here.
Related to that, ICv2 is focusing on the wrong part of Robert Greenblatt’s explanation of why NBC passed on the David E Kelley pilot. Rather than his idle musing about Wonder Woman being cursed, the more pertinent comment he made was in an interview with TV Line where he said, “It was tricky for me to step back and take a look at it and see if this was going to be the right take on this show. With this kind of audience, you have to get these things absolutely right; there’s no room for error. At the end of the day, I didn’t think we had done that.”

In other words, they overthought it. Those who followed the development of the pilot know that it was full of tweaks to the Wonder Woman concept in hopes of making her more applicable to modern culture. Joss Whedon’s failed script reportedly did the same thing. When you go down that road, you very much have to worry about “getting these things absolutely right.”

If there’s a curse, it’s the tendency of writers to “figure out” Wonder Woman to death. Why can’t she just be a strong, confident woman who beats the crap out of bad guys?

WB TV CEO on Why Wonder Woman Pilot Failed

Since the announcement that NBC wouldn't be picking up the Wonder Woman television show, many have speculated as to why the Peacock decided to turn down the Princess. And it's not just NBC who had a stake in the high-production pilot--Warner Bros., the owners of DC Comics, clearly did not want to see one of their star properties fail before given a chance to be on prime time.

Warner Bros. Television CEO Peter Roth recently spoke out on why he thinks NBC turned the series down. And while his words are fairly diplomatic with regard to NBC, he actually puts more blame on viewers who he thinks wouldn't be able to embrace the show's concept. Check out his quote below.

"I think Wonder Woman was a very well-crafted pilot...But after seeing the announcement of the NBC schedule, I now understand and agree with Bob [Greenblatt, NBC executive] that it doesn’t necessarily fit particularly well with their schedule. As well-crafted and contemporized as it was, it was a big and radical shift for viewers to embrace this new idea — and that may, to some degree, have had to do with why it didn’t make it."

If you didn't get the chance to read the leaked script for the Wonder Woman pilot, then you may have caught Tanit Phoenix's Youtube audition video, in which she reads directly from said script. If not, give it a look. Based on this, you might notice that the characterization of Wonder Woman in David E. Kelley's pilot- a corporate executive by day, super-heroine by night (who is self-aware of her celebrity status) is a far cry from the Princess of Themyscira we see in the comics. That's not to say the idea couldn't work, but I have to wonder (no pun intended!) if they had stuck to the subject material in the comics, would we be watching a Wonder Woman television series on NBC this fall? Was The Cape so awful that it scared NBC executives from taking a chance on another superhero TV show?
Just because NBC turned down this gem doesn't mean that Wonder Woman won't find a home on a different network, something Roth could neither confirm nor deny at the time of the interview. A Wonder Woman television series can work; all it needs is a few comics-savvy producers and writers who can breathe new life into this classic character. Oh, and maybe tell the costume department to lay off the shiny latex. I think we can all agree it was not a good look.

The Amazon's of Themyscria

Queen Hippolyta of Themyscria



Hippolyta and the Amazons of Themyscria were created by the Olympian gods from the souls of women slain by men. Hippolyta was first born and thus she became Queen of the new race. The second Amazon to break surface was her sister Antiope and she ruled as a second to Hippolyta in all affairs. Each of the goddesses that created the Amazons blessed them with personalized gifts: hunting skills (Artemis'), wisdom (Athena's), warm homes (Hestia's), plentiful harvests (Demeter's), and beauty inside and out (Aphrodite's). As a symbol of their leadership titles, the gods gave Hippolyta and Antiope each a Golden Girdle of Gaea which enhanced their strength and abilities significantly. The Amazons eventually founded the city of Themyscira in Anatolia and became known as fierce warriors of peace in Turkey, Greece and Rome.

Ares, jealous of the new race, bade his brother Hercules to steal Hippolyta's golden girdle. He and a troup of men took Themyscria, bound Hippolyta, and raped many of the Amazons. Hippolyta begged Athena for help and she agreed on the condition that no male be harmed. She agreed but Antiope and a contingent of Amazons killed many of the men. They abandoned the Olympian deities and founded the Bana-Mighdall tribe.

As penance for the death of the men, Hippolyta's amazons were tasked with protecting the gateway to the underworld. During this time Hippolyta begged the gods for a child and the goddesses gave life to the baby that would be Diana. As the only child on the island the Amazon sorceress Magala created a duplicate of the princess to serve as a playmate. This duplicate would become the heroine Donna Troy. Donna was abducted by one of Hippolyta's enemies and all would forget her existence until many years later when Donna was properly restored to New Earth.

Hippolyta would assume her daughter's role of Wonder Woman during a time that Diana "died" and became the Goddess of Truth. Hippolyta took the role as penance for causing the death of another amazon and unintentionally causing her daughter's death as well. During this time Hippolyta was transported back intime to the 1940's and as Wonder Woman became part of the Justice Society of America.

Eventually Diana gave up her godhood and returned to her role as Wonder Woman.  Still clinging to her newfound sense of freedom, Hippolyta did not wish to relinquish her title as Wonder Woman (even though she admitted her daughter looked "better in a bathing suit" than she did), leaving two different Wonder Women acting in the same role at the same time. Diana was often unhappy with Hippolyta's continued role as Wonder Woman as she felt Hippolyta was ignoring her true duties as ruler of Themyscira, thus further inciting the antagonism between mother and daughter.

Around this time Hippolyta discovered that the hero Donna Troy was actually a mirror image of her daughter Diana, brought to life through Themyscirian sorceries. Though Hippolyta had met Donna on previous adventures, when the two women met again after learning this fact, Hippolyta accepted Donna as a second daughter and held a coronation on the island, proclaiming Donna to be the second Amazon princess and an heir to the Themyscirian throne.

Hippolyta herself would be killed during Imperiex's attack on Earth, only to be resurrect by the amazon's enemy Circe for a diabolical plan.

Wonder Woman Costume News

When the first photos of Wonder Woman star Adrianne Palicki emerged from the pilot’s set a couple of weeks ago, it seemed that NBC had reacted to the outcry over the initial publicity still and swapped the shiny vinyl costume for, well, something far less shiny.

But that isn’t what happened at all. Oh, the network heard the criticism; it just didn’t respond to it. Instead, it kept to the plan, which apparently is for Wonder Woman to wear three costumes: the shiny one that virtually everyone hates, the one we saw in the set pics, and one that will be … slightly more familiar.

“There was an initial outcry about the long pants – you know, skintight pants as opposed to those little shorts [worn by Lynda Carter in the original TV series],” NBC Entertainment Chairman Robert Greenblatt tells TVLine. “But the shorts were always planned. They are actually used in the final confrontation when she beats Veronica Cale (played by Elizabeth Hurley). [...] We haven’t made any changes from what was planned. But it’s always good to hear the feedback. I’d rather have people really passionately engaged in conversation, even if they hate something, than be kind of bored.”

So if Wonder Woman makes it to NBC’s fall schedule — “I’ve been doing this long enough to know that nothing is a safe bet,” Greenblatt concedes — fans may end up seeing a version of those star-spangled shorts after all.

Blake Lively talks Green Lantern at Wondercon 2011

Flushed from the excitement of an overwhelmingly successful WonderCon movie footage debut, "Green Lantern" star Blake Lively sat down to chat about her character Carol Ferris and the important role she plays in Hal Jordan's (Ryan Reynolds) life. We only see Ferris for a brief flash in the four minutes of footage screened for gathered con attendees, but there's a lot of character to develop -- not just for this story, but for the larger mythology of the DC Comics ring-weilding superhero, as Lively is well aware.

"[Carol] has this relationship with Hal. They're each other's first love, they've known each other since childhood, she witnessed his father's death with him," she said. "So there is that history."

It's more than just history, though. In the comics, Carol eventually clashed with Green Lantern as the super powered Star Sapphire, a fact that echoes through the character written for Lively.  "Keeping in mind the fact that she becomes a villain, you have to have those kinds of teeth apparent in the beginning so that it makes sense that her arc goes there. There were a lot of different levels to play with her, and I really appreciated not just being the damsel-in-distress."

Lively's chemistry with Reynolds is what nailed her the role, but it was her performance as the "pain-riddled, drug-addicted, drug mule mother from Boston" in "The Town" that opened the door. "I think that they saw from my role in 'The Town' that I was able to be dark and angry, and be a villain."

After that, it was simply a matter of putting the two actors in a room together and seeing if they clicked. They worked so well together, Lively only tested once with Reynolds, "to see if we could spar against each other and have that rivalry and tension, but also that kindness and caring."

Unfortunately for those hoping to see Star Sapphire crowned, it seems that Carol's darker underpinnings are only foreshadowed in "Green Lantern."

"If this movie is successful and we do a few more films, I'm pretty confident that Star Sapphire would show up," Lively said. "All the conversations are very guarded and protected, even with [the actors] because nobody wants to commit to anything, but I can't see Star Sapphire not showing up if we made more films."
Purple alter-ego or no, Lively was completely on board with honoring the source material for her character in every way possible. "There was a question [of whether] my hair was going to be blonde or brown. To me, it was never a question."

"Carol Ferris was a brunette and she had to be a brunette," she said firmly.

"When a story has been developing for so long -- this is one of the longest [running] comic books of all time -- there's such history there and there's a lot of responsibility to do it right and to do justice to these characters that people love so much."

Even if Lively wasn't familiar with the comic when she came to the production, she understands something about the importance of delivering a translation that appeals to an established group of fans. "I'm such a fan of 'Harry Potter,'" she said, laughing. "It's not healthy."

"When the books were over, I thought I may as well end my life. And now that the movies are ending, I don't know how I'm going to continue on. I sometimes fantasize about another J.K. Rowling [who] could create another character like Harry Potter."

Understanding fandom is important if you're going to be in a movie like "Green Lantern," a fact Lively seems to fully understand and appreciate. "To do something that brings people happiness and excitement, you only feed off of that energy."

Wonder Woman Biography

From Comicbook Resources Website

Standing alongside Superman and Batman as the third member of DC Comics' trinity of flagship characters, Wonder Woman is by far the most popular and well known female superhero in comics today. Created in 1941 by Dr. William Moulton Marston and artist Harry G. Peter, the character's roots stretch back to the original superheroes - the Greek Gods - and the tribe of female warriors known as the Amazons. Originally created as an answer to the male-dominated superheroes of comics of the time, Marston portrayed Wonder Woman as a statuesque titan, capable of besting hr "equals" through a mixture of superior physical skill as well as mental acumen. As the emissary from the perfect females-only island paradise of Themiscrya to the modern world of Man, Wonder Woman has fought everything from World War 2 dictators and spies to supervillains, superheroes and even her own Amazonian sisters. At many times, the character's roots in Greek mythology have proved to be fertile ground for adventures and antagonists, with the war god Ares being chief amongst those.

Over the course of her nearly seventy years, Wonder Woman has been the subject of numerous creative directions, both in and out of comics. At times, she's taken up the human identity of Diana Prince in order to learn more about mankind, even going so far as to renounce her powers for a brief period in order to better understand humans. In the mid 1970s, Lynda Carter portrayed the Amazonian princess warrior in a television series which popularized Wonder Woman to the world-at-large. Indeed, the character's television series remains fondly remembered by fans and Hollywood alike, with DC and Warner Bros. attempting numerous times over the last decade to get her to the silver screen. Wonder Woman was also a core character on the long-running "Justice League" animated series based, as well as the titular star of one of Warner Animation's direct to DVD animated movies.

Wonder Woman has superhuman powers akin to her frequent teammate Superman, as well as the hand-to-hand combat skills of Batman. She frequently utilizes a golden rope called The Lasso of Truth, a lariat magically imbued with the ability to make those bound with it unable to lie, as well as a set of indestructible bracelets. As one of the founding members of DC's flagship superhero team the Justice League of America, Wonder Woman remains consistently at the center of DC's universe and its events. - Chris Arrant