Wonder Woman and mythology: How much is to much.

[mathew101281]

I read alot of post on this board, and one issue keeps coming up. Some people believe that their is too much mythology in Wonder Woman. This seems strange to me because no one says that their is to much SciFi in Green Lantern or to much pulp in Batman. If it were up to me I'd tie her into the magical side of the DCU as much as possible. Wonder Woman and Captain Marvel should cross over more. The tone of the new Wonderwoman book fits better with the DCU dark/Vertigo side of the DCU then with the other Jutstice league books. so I ask the question how Mythological/magical do you want your Wonder Woman book to be?

[Eliseu Gouveia]

I´ve always found mythology dreadfully boring in WW, to be honest.

Azz managed to get me fascinated by the ancient greek gods once again and that´s no easy trick, but at some point I would like to see the return of human supporting characters and the "mortal sphere".

[mathew101281]

I´ve always found mythology dreadfully boring in WW, to be honest.

Azz managed to get me fascinated by the ancient greek gods once again and that´s no easy trick, but at some point I would like to see the return of human supporting characters and the "mortal sphere".

I think the reason why the mythology element in Wonderwoman always seemed so boring is because it was such a neutered version of mythology. Most of Western story telling is influenced by Greek Mythology in some way so I don't think themes of Greek Mythology have to be boring.

[The Man From Room X]

No amount of mythology is too much when it's Azzarello and Chiang on Wonder Woman.

[hellacre]

This is quite enough for me. I like that Azz seems to have cracked it by making the mythology accessible with a kind of simplicity in the story telling and using themes that are very human that we recognize but I really do not want to see Diana being more alienated by leaving to go to books like DCU Dark. She has always been a part of the JL. That is iconic. And her story is about coming to our world and living amongst us. You take away who she is by ignoring or removing that. After the dust settles with Diana in this new reboot, she needs to be a protector to the people she lives and works with. Normal ordinary people and deal with other kinds of villainy as well. Not only magical or mythical. She could/should be versatile.

[Legato]

It's only too much when it becomes boring. Personally I don't mind mythology in Wonder Woman as long as a writer makes the mythology interesting, which is what I find lacking in WW as the mythology in the series seems mediocre

[Alex Keller]

If it were up to me I'd tie her into the magical side of the DCU as much as possible.

Same here. I think the mythology is a perfect fit, no matter how entrenched.

[Boonciaver]

Eh, there's no point in sending her to Man's world if you want her to fight mythological threats. I'm not saying that her mythological foes can't show up once in a while, but still overall she was sent to Man's world to help deal with Man's threats (like the Nazis for example) all the while teaching mankind a better way of living.

[MuhollandDriver]

As long as the storytelling is good, I am fine either way.

[BnL]

At the end of the day, this is a superhero comic, not D'aulaire's Book Of Greek Myths. I think there needs to be variety in Wonder Woman's world, and I think there's already a good ratio of villain types in her rogues gallery. Some are characters directly taken from mythology, like Ares, Circe, and Cronus. Some are contemporary mortals with touches of mythology, like Cheetah, Dr. Poison, Nikos Aegeus, and Helen Alexandros' Silver Swan. Others are more straightforward, traditional supervillains, like Dr. Psycho, Angle Man, and Dr. Cyber. There is no need to pigeonhole Wonder Woman by weighing her down in all myth, all the time. She should be able to fight Deimos and Phobos in one story, and Giganta in the next. And no, not Giganta re-imagined as a mythological giant.

[Boonciaver]

At the end of the day, this is a superhero comic, not D'aulaire's Book Of Greek Myths. I think there needs to be variety in Wonder Woman's world, and I think there's already a good ratio of villain types in her rogues gallery. Some are characters directly taken from mythology, like Ares, Circe, and Cronus. Some are contemporary mortals with touches of mythology, like Cheetah, Dr. Poison, Nikos Aegeus, and Helen Alexandros' Silver Swan. Others are more straightforward, traditional supervillains, like Dr. Psycho, Angle Man, and Dr. Cyber. There is no need to pigeonhole Wonder Woman by weighing her down in all myth, all the time. She should be able to fight Deimos and Phobos in one story, and Giganta in the next. And no, not Giganta re-imagined as a mythological giant.

Pretty much this. Excellent post BnL!

[BnL]

Pretty much this. Excellent post BnL!

Thanks.

[Eliseu Gouveia]

Eh, there's no point in sending her to Man's world if you want her to fight mythological threats. I'm not saying that her mythological foes can't show up once in a while, but still overall she was sent to Man's world to help deal with Man's threats (like the Nazis for example) all the while teaching mankind a better way of living.

The one thing I liked about Perez run was the idea of sending her to help humanking fend off Ares.

They should play that angle, WW as the amazons´mythbuster sent to man´s world to defend it from mythological threats.

Amazons defeat mythological threats every other monday, wednesday and friday if it´s cloudy, but regular humans don´t know the first thing on how to beat a rampaging hydra.

[Boonciaver]

Amazons defeat mythological threats every other monday, wednesday and friday if it´s cloudy, but regular humans don´t know the first thing on how to beat a rampaging hydra.

True, but did mythological threats even attack Man's world before Wonder Woman had entered into it?

[mathew101281]

At the end of the day, this is a superhero comic, not D'aulaire's Book Of Greek Myths. I think there needs to be variety in Wonder Woman's world, and I think there's already a good ratio of villain types in her rogues gallery. Some are characters directly taken from mythology, like Ares, Circe, and Cronus. Some are contemporary mortals with touches of mythology, like Cheetah, Dr. Poison, Nikos Aegeus, and Helen Alexandros' Silver Swan. Others are more straightforward, traditional supervillains, like Dr. Psycho, Angle Man, and Dr. Cyber. There is no need to pigeonhole Wonder Woman by weighing her down in all myth, all the time. She should be able to fight Deimos and Phobos in one story, and Giganta in the next. And no, not Giganta re-imagined as a mythological giant.

But GL is a superhero book, and a Sci-Fi book. Playing up the mythology part of the book doesn't mean that the book stops being a superhero book. The Superhero genre is the ultimate amalgam genre in that most superheroes take the trappings of the superhero genre and mix it with the tropes of other genres.

Green Lantern = superhero in scifi trappings
Thor= Superheroes in Norse Mythology trappings
Batman= Superhero in Pulp detective trappings
Spiderman(and most of the Marvel universe for that matter) = Superheroes with soap opera trappings. A lot of people forget that before Lee and Kirby created the Marvel universe they were creating Romance comics(essentially Soap Opera comics) and Monster comics, and a lot of the elements of those comics were graphed onto the superhero genre to create the Marvel style. It’s actually almost impossible to find a superhero title that isn’t an amalgam. The Wally West Flash is perhaps the only example of a Pure superhero story that isn’t a mixed with any other genres.

To me Wonder Woman should be =superhero with Mythological trappings. Notice I didn’t limit it to just Greek Mythology. Most of Wonder Woman villains are either out and out taken from mythology(Circe Ares) have mythological elements to them (Cheetah), or have visual ties to Mythology (Giganta and Silver Swan). Wonder woman herself is Mythological in origin. I feel the elements in Wonder Woman that aren’t mythological based should either be remolded into that vain or reimagined in a way that makes sense in a myth heavy book.