OK you know me here. I speak on the economy and coaching, trends and career issues, and deep media analysis. Now and then here, at WTF Friday I let go and rant a bit. But I don't often touch on highly specific areas of stupidity.
I'd like to touch on Wonder Woman. Not in the way Steve Trevor would, but on the latest incarnation:
To which I can only say "What. The. Hell?" Multiple identities, romantic pining, a bunch of songs, a weird Iron Man riff, and . . . well, go read. I'll wait.
Back yet?
OK, Look, Smallville intrigued me as it was essentially in interpretation of Superman. Sure it turned out to be often ill-planned, erratic, and mixing great with the truly awful. It suffered from unsurety mixed with excellence. But I'd say at least out of the gate it did well, and to this day has its moments since it's really another take.
This is not starting well. It's not a "take" on Wonder Woman, it's Pile Of Stuff theater. It's some Wonder Woman, as well as Batman, Iron Man, Hannah Montana, and I'm not sure what else. It's Wonder Woman made out of spare parts of everything else, with the name slapped on it.
This is a bad idea. There's no way to really cut it, but it's a bad idea.
Now I'll give people this, Wonder Woman is a difficult character to write, half World War II hero, half mythological – io9 explored this issue quite well. But you don't deal with it by . . . doing whatever this is.
I strongly suspect Warner/DC's issue is they want to get something out with one of the Big Names, but she's a difficult character to work with, so they're just doing whatever. I don't think it's a good idea because something like this, if it's as bad as it sounds, is going to just delay doing anything else with the property for many more years.
The point? Well . . . OK this is Frustration Friday. But the point really is that sometimes, it's better to do nothing than do something bizarre that will fail, and frankly this has a chance to be a big black eye. It sounds vaguely sexist and will turn off a diversifying audience, it sounds bad anyway, and it's really not needed.
I'm sure Wonder Woman can make it to the big or small screen, but this isn't the way to go.