Wednesday, February 25, 2015

Hero 5: Wonder Woman

Our next Romantic hero is actually a Romantic heroine. Princess of the Amazons, Diana Prince is the Wonder Woman. And no, Wonder Woman is not just a female Superman like Supergirl, or how Batgirl is the female Batman. She has a much different backstory and powers than Superman.
So one of Wonder Woman's most Romantic qualities is her backstory (far different from Superman's). I talked in my post about Thor that certain characters are Romantic by classical allusions. So let's take a look at Wonder Woman's backstory and see if we may be able to spot a classical allusion or two...
Diana (the name itself is the Roman Goddess of the Hunt) was born as the Princess of the Amazons (a band of warrior women in Greek mythology) under the Queen Hippolyta (Queen of the Amazons in Greek mythology). She was made out of clay and was gifted life by the Greek goddesses. She then received powers by the Greek deities (strength from Demeter, wisdom and courage from Athena, animal communication from Artemis, love and beauty from Aphrodite, fire from Hestia, and speed and flight from Hermes). Do you get the classical allusions? They are just slightly less obvious from Thor's Norse allusions.
She has certain ties to nature, she was born of clay and is the sister of fire (due to Hestia). So she can be seen as a superior being from nature like Aquaman.
One of her (in my opinion) coolest Romantic qualities is her Lasso of Truth. The Romantics believed the imagination would bring out truth. Wonder Woman is an idealized heroine, a figment of William Moulton Marston's imagination while he was writing at DC. Her lasso (part of the imaginary Wonder Woman story) literally forces the truth out of people. The imagination brings out truth.
And, oh, almost forgot. Superhero individualism and bravery. It's there just like the rest (Deadpool is debateable).
So there's Wonder Woman. A strong female character fighting for good with Romantic ideals of nature, classic allusions, and truth from imagination. Last time, Craig posted that he wanted to see a breakdown of Superman, so the Man of Steel is on the hot seat next.

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