theparadiseproject

[theparadiseproject]

Frank Frazetta art 1988

[theparadiseproject]

no I just speak facts

People that have strong emotions about Cassandra Cain or Jason Todd are not people that ever have anything of value to add to any conversation about comics.

[theparadiseproject]

Also saying making someone a different race other than white "'makes them more complex" is stupid as hell and kind of racist

[theparadiseproject]

[theparadiseproject]

Superman could spare to spend more time dealing with dirty political work and mobsters and helping underprivileged citizens. They should fill his earthly lore with as many human characters as they can. Give Metropolis some life outside of Lex Luthor or just being the most advanced city. Show us corrupt government officials, the poorer side of the city, etc. Throw some life and character in there outside of just being this city of high tech and advancement and weird alien phenomenon. Show us the type of worldly connections that could lead Superman fighting corrupt politicians in South America after he followed them for a lead as a journalist. In fact emphasize that he is a journalist and a really good one.

[theparadiseproject]

Black Widow by Steve Epting.

[theparadiseproject]

I do love the diversity of Diana's rogue gallery. The women are from all around the world and are really genuine portrayals of what a character that supports American ideals of progress and liberty would be dealing with especially during ww2 times but the one thing that sucks is Marston's anti blackness. The only black people are portrayed as blackface caricatures of the time who were happy servants.

The thing people who want to lump all the portrayal of "poc" in Marston's comics is that he did not have Peterson simply draw people with features of another race. He did that for every race to accentuate the details of them and build character. The specific anti black sentiment in his comics was that unlike all the other flavor of war criminal that was touched on in the Golden Age comics the black characters were specifically a caricature. The only time a black person appeared was to be of service. They did not get written as the intelligent villain that is causing issues for the country working for another country. They also did not get heartfelt backstories that humanized them and told you why they were acting the way they did nor gave hope for rehabilitating their bad ways.

The black characters were solely the help in those comics. They were also comedically happy and aloof. There was no exploration of any black character from anywhere around the world. They were not humanized or written with any positive traits. Their were no villains from any part outside of Mediterranean Africa, any latin countries, etc. that you would expect to see an international black character from given the nature of the types of stories Diana would be involved in. The most egregious is that despite being an "American" comic the stories did not even humanize African Americans, despite being the one non white demographic you would almost certainly count on being included in a story like this.

It makes sense for there to be no major villains featured from a majority black country in a comic focused on the war efforts of America in WW2. The most talked about foes against the US at that time were Germany and Japan. The inclusion of Mexican villains like Pepita makes sense because the U.S. border just makes sense to come up for a character dealing with national defense. However it really is a testament to how nonhuman the black characters were portrayed.

[theparadiseproject]

Post Crisis Wonder Woman "fans" should get off their high horse. There is nothing more inline with Wonder Woman's actual values about Post Crisis Wonder Woman compared to the New 52. Post Crisis shares a few story beats to the original but its an entirely different character in everything but names and some similar iconography. There isn't even an attempt to be faithful.

Rebirth is the closes thing since Post Crisis to her character being written correctly and the Post Crisis fans are already doing everything they can to have everything about that abomination of a mythology be reintroduced into Rebirth and downplay and discourage the actual Wonder Woman mythology. They already want Steve to not be her boyfriend, they want her steeped in other mytholgy, Etta is no where to be found, they want her interacting with all those forced Wonder girl characters that don't even fit in her comic, etc.

[theparadiseproject]

Pete Marston, Her Creator’s Son Speaks / Shows His WW Memorabilia Collection

[theparadiseproject]

Bill J. Bonnstetter Interviews Pete Marston

[theparadiseproject]

Interesting how after all these years that Pete is the least talked about member of the Marston family among "Wonder Woman historians" despite having contributed to the actual stories as Marston son. Clearly, the entire family was in on the character. It really is a shame that the totality of the character and the people involved has never been adequately studied or documented while more of the family was alive, despite so much of the research that was done was done when they were alive. These "historians" are interested in putting forth a very specific narrative about the character that does not even tract with the things they are able to find out but its even more revealing when you realize how much of the character and her creator is ignored or sensationalized for the sake of criticism or hatred or just politicization.

Pete was actually a college age man during the time his father was writing Wonder Woman. There had to be tons of information he had that has never been told, thoughts about the character, etc. that no one was privy to whatsoever and no "historian" has even documented or focused on it outside of his involvement in the museum.

[theparadiseproject]

A note from Pete’s brother Byrne in his official obituary offers an inside peek at Pete’s role in early Wonder Woman comics:

My brother Pete was always a man of enormous imagination. As a kid, he was a dreamer. When we were teenagers our dad, who was often under pressure to produce scripts for his Wonder Woman superheroine, offered $100 to anyone writing a usable scenario for a Wonder Woman episode. Though $100 was a fortune at that time, Pete was the only one of us who could dream them up.

Pete seemed to have had a good relationship with his father. On top of pitching plots for Wonder Woman, Pete also left Harvard in the mid-1940s to return home and help care for his father. William Moulton Marston had polio and cancer, and passed away in 1947. It’s lovely that Pete created such a testament to his father’s creation with his Wonder Woman Museum. The museum is also a testament to the women who raised him; Pete’s mother, Elizabeth, gave Marston the idea to create a female superhero, and the Marstons lived in a polyamorous relationship with Olive Byrne, who raised the kids (Marston had two with each woman) and also inspired key elements of Wonder Woman’s look and personality.

Regrettably, I never got the chance to interact with Pete directly, though his daughter Christie was a great help when I was researching Wonder Woman Unbound and I know that Pete had a big hand in the materials that she sent me and the recollections that she was able to share. By all accounts, he was a kind and warm man; everyone who visited the museum (a guest list that included Lynda Carter herself!) seemed to come away with an appreciation and affection not just for its myriad wonderful items but also for the man who assembled it all.

-January 19, 2017

[theparadiseproject]

[theparadiseproject]

Don't kink shame Diana

[theparadiseproject]

Gotham City backgrounds

[theparadiseproject]

Wonder Woman is her own character with her own story, history, character, values, etc. Her status in the DC Trinity is about how well her Golden Age comics sold to be able to carry over into later ages and continue having a solo book. She is made of clay but that doesn't mean she should be reshaped to fit everything they do with Batman and Superman. Her height, appearance, themes, character, mythology does not exist for her to look good next to Batman and Superman. She does that on her own by being a good character. If you do not like the "optics" of her character represented properly next to those two then you are not a fan of her and you should go find a character you like instead of trying to ruin it for her fans.