Sunday, April 3, 2011

Wonder Woman. My two cents




Ok, everyone has been blasting the Wonder Woman reboot that David Kelly is prepping for possible pick-up by NBC.  I have read numerous post about the casting of Adrianne Palicki as Wonder Woman. I have also looked at both the before and after pictures of the costume and have decided to put my two cents in.

First off, as a child of the seventies, I grew up watching Lynda Carter play the titular character on tv.  In many of our hearts the fabulous Mrs. Carter will always represent what the Amazonian princess should look like but come on people.  Series get rebooted and re-imagined all the time.

Lynda Carter as Wonder Woman

Look at Battlestar Galatica, it originally ran in 1978 with a small reboot in 1980, before coming back to the small screen.  When it returned to Sci-Fi, there was a major switcharoo with Starbuck, a character first played by Dirk Benedict, morphing into Kara Thrace and being played by the delicious Katie Sackhoff.  It worked.

Aside from Battlestar Galatica, how many Superman series have there been?  The 50's had The Adventures of Superman.  The 80's gave us the syndicated Superboy tv show that stared James Haymes Newman for the debut season before being replaced by Gerard Christopher for the remaining three.  The 90's introduced Lois and Clark, with Teri Hatcher as Lois Lane and Dean Cain as the man from Krypton.  Finally 2001 saw the debut of  the most successful of the bunch, Smallville , starring Tom Welling as a Clark Kent, learning how to use his powers and discovering himself, before he becomes the iconic hero.

Stargate was retooled for tv after the movie was a success.  How many Batman cartoons and movies have there been?  The La Femme Nikita reboot on the CW is awesome as hell and I can say that despite the fact that I am a total Pita Wilson as Nikita fan.

My point being, reboots are going to happen.  We cant judge the Wonder Woman reboot based on the past series.  So the comments about Adrianne Palicki not being as whatever as Lynda Carter, need to stop.  My God people, the show hasn't even hit the air yet.  At least give it a chance.  I happen to think she will do a decent job because she knows all eyes are on her and just waiting for her muck up DC's reigning heroine.

Now for the costume.  Well, I don't have that many positive things to say about the first plasticine incarnation of the new Wonder Woman costume.  It looked cheap, point blank, nothing else to say.  Well maybe a few more.  The original pants color was all wrong, the metal parts look plastic and it looks hot as hell.

It looks like NBC paid attention to the outcry from fans, because they made a few corrections.  First the pants are darker and no longer look plastic.  The boots are now red and not killer heels that I was afraid Ms. Palicki would break her neck in the first time she had to chase someone.


After and Before. New W.W. costume

With that said, the costume still has that plastic metal looking vibe going on, and the top looks like some wonder boobs might spill out of it at any moment, but I think it looks a lot better.  What bugs me is the way super powered females are outfitted more for the stripper pole, than functionality.  When DC retooled the Amazonian's costume I for one thought it was about time.  She dropped the spanky's and got a leather jacket and pants, which makes more sense to me.  Leather holds up in a fight and offers some protection.  Pants offer more protection that a pair of star covered underpants. And I LOVE the bracers!

Present W.W. costume


Work on that top NBC.  If she's gotta have it, give the girl a leather jacket like the comic book please.  Or something that looks totally cool like this one.







3 comments:

  1. wow, another wonder woman series.
    Im not really a fan of hers, but when I was like maybe in elementary I always only watched cartoons about batman and spiderman as it was always replaying on tv.

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  2. the entire problem with WW is that no one takes it seriously. Lynda Carters WW ran for 3 years, not because of the story lines, but because she was portayed as a real person. WW need story lines that a male character (SM or BM) would be needed to solve. Again, the costume has to go. What are they smoking? Again, not taking her serious, their WW looks like plastic!!!!!!!!!!
    If Diana (WW) is as strong as SM, why change the uniform at all? Why not explain why the uniform is the way it is. For the Actress, she needs to look more natural. Be careful of the makeup. Stop making her face look plastic also.

    I have always loved WW, but I have not yet decided if I am going to watch this version. Reboots are fine, but remember NBC rebooted the Bionic Woman, and it was a diaster.

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  3. @gking0744 I understand what you are saying about Lynda Carters portrayal of WW and you are right.

    So far as NBC's reboot of The Bionic Woman, I was a fan of the show and think that if the writers strike wasn't going on at the time, the network could have made it work.

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