Saturday, July 18, 2009

Introduction



1. Why do you like Wonder Woman?

I was introduced to Wonder Woman after reading George Perez's run on the title due to myself getting into comics and wanting to know more about some of other superheroes in the DC Universe besides my favorite at the time, Superman. I loved what George Perez did the character and her mythology by making Diana a likable, compassionate, and strong woman, the supporting cast featuring many who has become some of my all time favorite side characters in comics like Julia and Vanessa Kapatelis, and going back to her roots in Greek Mythology by having many of the stories tie into the Ancient Greek Myths and her Amazon background. In fact it was reading Wonder Woman comics that got me into Greek Mythology and culture. However sometimes due her not wanting to just combat the forces of evil but also to inspire love, peace, and hope to humanity, some of the stories dealt with her dealing with real world issues like drugs and teenage suicide. Thus over time Wonder Woman became one of my favorite characters. However it wasn't until I read Phil Jimenez's run in which Wonder Woman officially became my favorite character.

I dare to say the Jimenez's run on Wonder Woman is probably my favorite interpretation of the character and is even slightly better George Perez's run because of this factor. Unlike in most interpretations of the character in which she is either portrayed as a man-hating, head slicing barbarian (Bruce Timm interpretation), a hypocrite (Geoff Johns interpretation), or a sex object (John Byrne interpretation), Diana is depicted as a kind, loving, forgiving, compassionate woman yet who is also strong, wise, and noble. She was the ideal role model for not only women but men as well. However she was also human. She is capable of making mistakes and of sometimes even failing. She doesn't play superhero all of time and does know how to have fun. She doesn't just do speeches at UN meetings about peace but also gets involved in helping people all across the globe no matter what race, gender, culture, or age. She isn't doing this to prove that she is perfect; she is doing this because she cares so much about people and treasures human life. She treasured human life so much, she wouldn't dare take a life of anyone no matter how vile or evil they might seem. She would rather spread her message of love then to go beat up some bad guys. Jimenez didn't need to have her panties be crawling up her ass or her breasts shoved in our faces to prove that she is sexy. Her wit, charm, intelligence, dignity, and grace were what made her sexy.

Diana is one of few characters in fiction that I actually look up to and try to inspire to be. For that is her greatest superpower not being able to lift skyscrapers or run across the globe in a blink of an eye, but inspiring hope, love, and peace to a world that truly needs such ideals.

2. Why did I write this script?

When William Moulton Marston first created the character in 1941, the purpose of Wonder Woman was a superhero who can stop the forces of war and hate with love and compassion but when push comes to shove she able to stand toe to toe with the most powerful villains in the DC Universe like Darkseid and Neron for she is an Amazon.

However in recent years, people seem to think that she is a bad ass Amazon warrior who wouldn't mind using lethal anytime it's "needed" like Xena. She isn't Xena or Sarah Connor, she is far more then that. She is a noble, heroic, and inspiring superhero like Superman or Luke Skywalker. This is what separates her from most comic book female superheroes who are either portrayed as being bad asses or bimbo sex kittens. People don't seem to get that due to what has been done to her in the recent comics. The best example is when she killed Maxwell Lord in order to free Superman's mind without regret or hesitation because it was the "only way."

She has resisted killing enemies who have done far worse like Darkseid, Ares, Circe, and Neron. What these guys have done makes Maxwell Lord look like a kid who stole candy from a 7-11. She did have other options like she could have showed through the lasso of how Max's actions would only hurt himself and the world or looking into his soul through the lasso and show him how wrong he is or knock him out and take away his mind control powers. Max wasn't the Anti-Christ, he did have redeeming qualities as shown when he helped save world many times when he was with the Justice League International. He was simply extremely misguided.

I saw many striking parallels in that story to the infamous Green Lantern story, Emerald Twilight which like this story did to Diana, destroyed Hal Jordon as a character. Unlike Emerald Twilight, most fans supported this and used the argument "she's a warrior damn it!!" Yes, Diana is a warrior but not a barbarian. Being a warrior doesn't mean who have to kill enemies, being a warrior means you are able to defend yourself and be willing as well as capable of going toe to toe with an enemy if needed.

If that wasn't bad enough, Geoff Johns when writing Infinite Crisis depicted Diana as someone who doesn't know what it is like to be human, had zero faith in humanity, that she's only in the whole mission of peace business because she wants to shove in people's faces how perfect she is, and her mission of peace is a "joke" or is pointless. Not to mention tending to write her as being also exact opposite of how she's supposed to be to the point where she is almost like a villain. As a result in One Year Later, she became a metahuman fighting U.S government secret agent in a tight white jumpsuit in "order to understand humanity". That's a job that we can all relate to and makes sense for Diana to go from Ambassador of peace, love, and hope to a hired gun for the U.S. (Sigh)

One of the things I wanted to show in this treatment is that Diana is and always has been human, what separates her form other Amazons is that she has so much faith and hope for mankind, and is preaching her Amazon ideals of peace because she knows it is better then doing nothing and she doesn't want anyone to experience what her sisters did at the hands of Ares and his armies. Wonder Woman is example of what woman or immigrants (since like many immigrants, she came to America as an adult not a baby like Superman did)or even everyone of us can accomplish if they put their minds to their goals because her being a ambassador of peace and becoming hero looked up to by the superhero community as much as Superman took a lot of work and effort. In the beginning of her journey in the story, she is naive, wide eyed, innocent little princess in a strange new world but by the end of the script is a proud, confident woman.

If that wasn't even bad enough in the recent Wonder Woman animated direct to video film, Diana was depicted as a man hating, blood thirsty, trigger happy spoiled snob who was always whining about how horrible men are and how her saying her dreams of communication with the outside world were childish. Not to mention reducing her powers to the point where she was poor man's Xena and made it seem as though that any of the Amazons could have done what she did. She was such an unlikable protagonist you were almost rooting for Ares to win. This was one of the movies many problems and I was shocked at how much praise it got from fans.

Frustrated at what has been done to my favorite superhero, I wanted to write my own treatment for a Wonder Woman film whether live action or animation on how I personally believe it should be done instead of just giving up on her.

3. Why did you use the costume she wears in the comics rather then the Greek armor battle skirt look?

Wonder Woman costume in the comics is probably one of my all time favorite superhero costumes because it is quite sexy and stylish but not to the point of being raunchy and it combines her honoring her Amazon heritage and her pride for the nation she now calls her second home, the United States. Though she is proud of living in America, she wouldn't play favorites and swore allegiance to the U.S only. Though in the comics it is to honor fallen American pilot Diana Rockwell Trevor, in the script she believes the colors and symbols of the American flag mean many things about the history of Amazons and their ideals (read the story to find out what they represent). Her costume is just as iconic as Superman's. If Superman can get away with wearing red underwear outside of his blue tights, then Wonder Woman can get away with her costume.

I always her everyone saying she should wear armor and a battle skirt because "it what an Amazon should wear". However in Ancient Greece, wearing revealing clothing wasn't as tabooed as it is today. In fact, it was highly popular. Hell, Spartans fought battles half naked for God sakes. Also the battle skirt makes her look less mature and feminine and more like a barbarian. Also how can Diana show off her speed and flexibility wearing that bulky armor and skirt? Her wearing the classic costume shows that she is proud of her body and not afraid to show it. Also people always say it is impractical, well many superhero costumes are impractical. I find it funny how people are willing to accept Silk Spectre to wear a more revealing costume then she did in the graphic novel on film but not allow Wonder Woman to wear her costume which quite modest compared to the one Silk Spectre wore in the film.

Oh and the high heel go-go boots, they look great and stylish while making her look feminine. Every other female superhero in comics and in movies has been able to get away with them, why not her? Anyone who can fight crime in high heels is a "wonder woman", let alone the one and only Wonder Woman. Also she can fly, she doesn't need to worry about tripping and in battle, it adds more "bang" to her kicks. I’m just saying.

4. Why did you chose Ares as the villain for this film treatment?
The reason why chose Ares as being the villain of my Wonder Woman film treatment was because Ares has always been my favorite Wonder Woman villain due to he is bodies everything that Wonder Woman tries to fight ad rid the world of as well as he's an awesome visual. I believe Phil Jimmenz summed on my feelings perfectly on why Ares is such a great foe for Wonder Woman, "Literally, Wonder Woman’s most powerful, most personal rogue is the embodiment of massive, bloody, violent conflict, housed in the shell of one of the most powerful gods in Greek mythology. No other hero JLAer can claim such an impressive counterpart, in terms of physical power and global reach. And for that, she leaves me in awe!".

I always thought of him as being Diana's Lex Luthor or Joker because

Superman is justice and is physically powerful and almost unstoppable while Lex Luthor is injustice and is financially powerful and almost "unstoppable" for this reason.

Batman is order and darkness while the Joker is chaos and "joy".

Wonder Woman is peace, love, and truth while Ares is war, hatred, and hyprocritism.

To me, Ares wishes not only to spread the flames of hate across the world but also make Diana fail her mission and make her no different then his "worshipers".He wants to prove that all people are blood thirsty monsters including Amazons and Diana herself. He taunts Diana throughout the film especially in the final battle in how her mission of peace, love, and equality is pointless and childish and tempting her to kill him knowing that corrupting Diana into taking his life would his greatest victory.

To Ares, the greatest victory for him is Diana losing faith in humanity, losing faith in her mission of peace, or taking a human life or his own. That kind of victory is greater to him then him just simply killing Diana or defeating her in battle. For though Ares is a physical threat with godly power and might along with his loyal minions like his fellow goddess of war and hate and lover, Enyo (who much to Ares as Harley Quinn and Mercy Graves are to The Joker and Lex Luthor) and his overwhelmingly vast armies of demons and monsters, Ares is also mental and emotional threat for he challenges everything that Diana is about and tries his best to push Diana to the absolute breaking point in her morals.

I loved how in Rucka's version, how smooth and charming Ares was. Rucka was the closest to make Ares an actual character or how I envision the character of Ares who actually was Ares. Sadly the closest the comics have gotten to how I envision Ares has been with another character, Neron. The idea that this guy looks and sounds so smooth, handsome, and charming but at the same can tear your organs out of your body and paint them all over the room is a element I wish was with Ares.

I wanted to give Ares a personal connection with Diana and the Amazons by making him the one responsible for sexually wronging the Amazons instead of Hercules and to some extent, make him Diana's "father". To me, this adds even more juicy material to the negative relationship Diana has with Ares because it makes the audience love to hate Ares even more and ask "Why wouldn't Diana kill this monster!". Her at the end of film when Diana's irrepressible compassion triumphs over Ares' silver tongue and threats goes to show you just how heroic Diana is.

Ares I always thought is the kind of villain you love to hate. You hate because what has done, what he represents, and shows no remorse over these actions which if anything he takes pride in but you love him due to his charm from with silver tongue, intelligent wit, his sense of class, and is his charming looks from his chiseled face, long flowing blond hair, and evil smile. However he still looks and feels the deprived maniacal man (god) thirsting for power and blood he is. He's the kind of person that can drink a glass of wine with you on a romantic evening but if he wanted to can snap your spine with his bare hands. He doesn't look like a supermodel. Even on the battle field he has gallons of charisma and confidence. He's the kind of villain you'd like to be.

In this film treatment, the story is as much of an origin story of Ares as it is Wonder Woman. We don't even get to Diana's character till like the second act. The rest is just building up that world which she comes from.

5. Before reading the script, you should know that.........

- I took many liberties when doing the story of the Amazons and with the Wonder Woman mythology in general. I wanted to do something new and fresh but still stay somewhat true to the mythology of the comics and have the same feel as the comics.
-Many scenes are heavily inspired by the comics, my feelings about the character, as well as comics and movies that don't have to do with Wonder Woman. I tried to mix them all into one huge boiling pot so that I come up with something that is hopefully fresh yet still faithful.
-This is only my second time writing a script or fan fiction.
- This is more of a treatment rather then a script. Though there are many parts that read like a script.
- I'm only 16
- Lot of times I have an idea in my head and when I write down on paper, I'm thinking more about the idea rather then spelling and grammar. Though I did some edits to this, there might be some grammar and spelling errors.

So now, I present to you my Wonder Woman treatment for either a live action or animated film. I hope you enjoy it.

May the Glory of Gaea be with you!