Monday, April 13, 2015

Single Female Amazon

For decades Superman and Batman have ruled over the silver screen, well move over boys because there's a new girl in town and her name is Diana! "Wonder Woman" is the next Pitch for The Panel Biter's DC Cinematic Universe! This one's for you, Sarkeesian. That was a joke.


Since the days of Greek Mythology the island of Themyscira has served as both a home and an exile to the Amazons, powerful warrior women feared by men and gods. The queen of these Amazons-Hippolyte-mentored her fellow sisters in arts of combat and philosophy so that their eternity on the island may be peaceful. In order to breathe new life into this land, Hippolyte sculpted a child from clay and prayed to Hera to give it life, thus giving birth to Diana. After years of training with both her fellow sisters and-unknown to her sisters-with the Amazon's captive Ares, the now grown woman Diana discovers the crashed plane of U.S. soldier Steve Trevor on the island of Themyscira. As Diana and her fellow Amazons argue over what should be done with this man, a traitor among them frees the mad God Ares and the two plan to destroy both the island and the mortal world. Named "Wonder Woman" by her mother, Diana must summon her strength in order to stop Ares and defeat his now-gargantuan Amazonian minion, Giganta.
Focusing more on myth and fantasy this movie would be very different than "Superman" and "The Caped Crusader". The Amazons would be shown to be strong and brave, but have a moral compass that allows them to be more than brutes. What makes Wonder Woman different is that her conception of birth and praise among the Amazons gives her a competitive weakness, to always prove she's as great as her mother says she is. Her costume would be more based off her original costume from the 40's, as for it's origin, during the 1940's Hippolyte would use this costume and the name "Wonder Woman" to fight in War World II against the Axis powers. She did this purely for entertainment away from her duty as queen, but gave it up after Hera's warnings of stripping her of Themyscira. Passing the mantle on to Diana allows Hippolyte to retain her responsibilities while also giving Diana freedom beyond the island. She'd pass on the Lasso of Truth, the Magic Tiara, and the Bracelets of Zeus to Diana, as well. Also, Linda Carter would play Hippolyte. Steve Trevor would be an agent of the U.S. government shot down by terrorist fighter jets and his personality would be a bit piggish, but would improve over time after realizing he'd be setting the standard for mortal men towards the Amazons. The origin behind Ares' imprisonment, his tutorship of both Diana and Persephone (the would-be Giganta) would all be given context to show Ares as a complex villain. Now engraved into the human society, Diana decides at the end of the movie to stay in the U.S. with Steve Trevor. Meanwhile-after the credits-Steve would be recruited into the Advanced Research Group Utilizing Superpowers (ARGUS) by Agent Amanda Waller and ordered to keep Wonder Woman under U.S. control.
Taking elements from both the old and new Wonder Woman stories, this movie Pitch was a bit more challenging to create as Wonder Woman is the least well-known hero out of DC's Trinity. I wouldn't want this movie to be a gender-fluffing romp, but more a classic mythology tale blended into modern society. Unlike Superman and Batman, I fully believe WW's backstory needs presentation if movie viewers want to understand the character and enjoy a different kind of superhero.
I had a lot of fun with this one and I'm glad to step out of the more well-known superheroes for a while. Now I can move on to characters who haven't gotten the caring storytelling they deserve. The next PBDC premise you're getting is for "Green Lantern". Thanks for reading.

Facebook: The Panel Biter
Twitter: @ThePanelBiter

No comments:

Post a Comment