The Progression Of Wonder Woman's Production

The stories of Rucka’s run needs to be framed on the lasting influence of the terrorist attacks on the World Trade Center in the US which took place in 2001. The first issue of Wonder Woman written by Rucka came out in Oct 2003, #195, two years after the 9/11 attacks. Consequently, Rucka’s stories mirror the doubts, uncertainties, beliefs and policies of America as a nation which faces the dilemma of answering terror with either terror or diplomatically since the two years were not time enough for the pain and suffering caused by the attacks to heal. The story written by Rucka almost exclusively focuses on Diana as Themyscira’s ambassador to the Man’s World and the problems that this role brings. It interspersed among other arcs like Themyscira’s refusal to give up their technology, Diana’s killing of Maxwell Lord, her fighting as a champion for the throne of Olympus, her battle with Medusa and her struggle with Veronica Cale.

Diana writes a book explaining her ideals and way of life. Diana and her publishers have different ideas about the cover and title of the book. The publishers want to name her book “Wonderful Words: A Goddess Speaks” with a cover page in which she is lying naked on a sofa, wearing only her bracelets and tiara, and covered by a cloth at her hips. The publishers think that this cover promotes the book without being exploitative and shows “who she is, her thoughts, her emotions and her passions” (WW #195 Oct 2003). Diana, however, just wants the cover to be in plain white depicting only her lasso. She titles her book “Reflections: A Collection of Essays and Speeches”. This results in the portraying Wonder Woman who is simultaneously tough and sexual and violent and desirable which allows the publishers to increase the sale of her book all the while catering to the voyeuristic interests of their key consumers. This is true for the Wonder Woman comics itself. The assumption remains that male readers will be attracted to the image of the fetishized female action heroine. The sexualized visual representation of Wonder Woman is an important aspect of marketing and packaging her for potential consumers as the eroticized images mark her as object for male consumption. Her eroticization enhances her value as commodity fetish alongside with their sexual fetishization (Brown 2011).

The proclamation of her beliefs through her book causes immense controversy and brings up such fear and hatemongering, the depths of which Diana does not fully grasp until it’s too late. Veronica Cale who resents Wonder Woman for finding acceptance in Man's World through her message of peace, forms and executes the idea of bringing down and discrediting Wonder Woman by selectively using the religious and philosophical ideas contained in her book as weapons against her. Her collaborator in this endeavor is a man named Darrel Keyes who claims to be the “Executive Director for Protect Our Children”. He starts by writing a letter on the Editorial page of The Times newspaper about the after school and foundation sponsored clubs based on the ideas propagated by Wonder Woman.. This is followed by the dismantling and prohibition of any student, teenagers and children club bearing the name of Wonder Woman by the authorities. Keyes leads some concerned parents into shutting down one such meeting where topics like fund raising and literacy campaigns were being discussed. The group meeting is called names like “perversion”, “cults to Wonder Woman” and to “worship of her false gods” and the posters of Wonder Woman are torn up. Keyes insists that they are doing this for the good of the children and to protect them (WW #196). Keyes and his supporters close down eleven such clubs and Diana’s ambassadorial staff fear that more are going to face the same fate.

The members of “Protect Our Children” protest outside one of Diana’s book signing event holding placards of “Amazon alien” and “You don’t like it, Leave” and sloganeering like “keep your advice”, “away from our children”, “our lives, our choices” and “abortion is murder”. They call Wonder Woman a “pervert”, her way of life as “depraved” and ask her to “go back where you came from”, calling (WW #197).

A video of Diana talking about the necessity of a forest fire and the cycle of death and rebirth is edited in such a way that makes it seem like she is unconcerned about the residents close to the burning forest and sees death of people as a necessity and a blessing. In reality Diana was asking the Flash to allow the forest fire to burn as fire is necessary for the renewal of forests. The news analyst doubts this video along with the controversies surrounding her book “reflect a change in Wonder Woman’s agenda” and uses hyperbole like whether what Wonder Woman truly saying is that the life of a tree is more important than the life of an unborn child (WW #198)..

Keyes gets treated as credible expert is called upon a news show to discuss Wonder Woman’s beliefs and how it leads to negative consequences for children and the society (WW #198).

Cale tortures Dr Psycho into killing Keyes which casts more suspicion on Wonder Woman. Dr Psycho who can control minds also causes mass hysteria by poisoning the minds of the protesters both of those who were against Wonder Woman and those who supported her. He puts the thoughts into Wonder Woman’s supporters that those against her are calling her “femnazis”, “cheap whores”, “babykillers”, “liberal degenerates”, “homo”, “pornographers”, “mongrels” and so on (WW #200 March 2004).

The battle for the throne of Olympus between Zeus and his daughter Athena coincides with the campaign for discrediting Diana with the Amazons becoming collateral damage. Upon finding her husband, Zeus spying on the Amazonian Artemis, Hera in her anger crashes Themyscira into the sea. As Themyscira was blessed by the gods, it used to float over land. It causes extensive property damages to Themyscira and hurt to visitors from Man’s World. (WW #200).