A Long, Confused Ramble About the Wall
You know, I always tend to have weird timing. I mean, as an example, here I am on a massive Marvel kick, when DC is having its big reboot (and apparently doing really well in the sales department. Though the only thing I really care about is that Marvel isn't trying to follow in the reboot footsteps. Another Ultimate Universe type thing is fine, but I LIKE my idiotic continuity!).
I've been keeping up with some of the New 52 sporadically, though until now, I'd thankfully missed the new Amanda Waller design. I think it should make me angry, but really, it just makes me sad.
It'd be one thing if Etta Candy or Julia Kapetalis or Ma Hunkel, or other ladies who don't fit the standard stereotypical mold were visible anywhere in the new DCU (I'm still holding out hope for Etta Candy appearing in Wonder Woman), then remolding Amanda Waller to look more like the actress who played her in the movie wouldn't bother me as much.
Well, no. Honestly. It'd still bother me. In the same way that Batman wouldn't look right as a 5'3" man with a handlebar mustache, Amanda Waller doesn't look right as a slender young thing. It's not her design, and when you're dealing with an entirely visual medium, that's important.
It'd be one thing, maybe, if this were a big deal. If it was revealed later that Amanda used some drastic technique to look like this for the sake of a mission. Or even that she really wanted to be in a more conventionally attractive shape and got her way there. That...wouldn't entirely save it for me, but it'd mean something.
If Superman suddenly showed up with a platinum blond dye job, I'd expect an explanation. And okay, Superman is a vastly more important character to DC than Amanda so that comparison doesn't fly...but hell, we got an explanation for the loss of Guy Gardner's bowl cut. And Guy, much as I love him, isn't really an A-lister either.
I suppose it'll depend on next issue. If next issue has an explanation, or even better, shows that this new body is a trick of some sort (holographic projection?), I'll rescind my complaint, as I am prone to do. :-)
I've been keeping up with some of the New 52 sporadically, though until now, I'd thankfully missed the new Amanda Waller design. I think it should make me angry, but really, it just makes me sad.
It'd be one thing if Etta Candy or Julia Kapetalis or Ma Hunkel, or other ladies who don't fit the standard stereotypical mold were visible anywhere in the new DCU (I'm still holding out hope for Etta Candy appearing in Wonder Woman), then remolding Amanda Waller to look more like the actress who played her in the movie wouldn't bother me as much.
Well, no. Honestly. It'd still bother me. In the same way that Batman wouldn't look right as a 5'3" man with a handlebar mustache, Amanda Waller doesn't look right as a slender young thing. It's not her design, and when you're dealing with an entirely visual medium, that's important.
It'd be one thing, maybe, if this were a big deal. If it was revealed later that Amanda used some drastic technique to look like this for the sake of a mission. Or even that she really wanted to be in a more conventionally attractive shape and got her way there. That...wouldn't entirely save it for me, but it'd mean something.
If Superman suddenly showed up with a platinum blond dye job, I'd expect an explanation. And okay, Superman is a vastly more important character to DC than Amanda so that comparison doesn't fly...but hell, we got an explanation for the loss of Guy Gardner's bowl cut. And Guy, much as I love him, isn't really an A-lister either.
I suppose it'll depend on next issue. If next issue has an explanation, or even better, shows that this new body is a trick of some sort (holographic projection?), I'll rescind my complaint, as I am prone to do. :-)
posted by kalinara @ 10:17 PM
4 Comments:
At September 19, 2011 3:14 PM,
Anonymous said…
Even if next issue has an explanation, it's too late. They lost me already. How can you have Harley Quinn and King Shark and still not manage to be even a little bit funny?
-- Jack of Spades
At September 19, 2011 3:49 PM,
SallyP said…
Yeah, it was a pretty dreadful comic. And I love King Shark. AND Deadshot, and they took his magnificent mustache, which has me almost as upset as what they did to Waller.
Amanda Waller was pretty much unique, and it is a darn shame that they felt they had to pretty her up. I also am astonished to learn that the apparent explanation, is that she's "younger". Well, for someone with Amanda Waller's experience, she can't be TOO young, or it just doesn't make any sense.
At September 19, 2011 4:21 PM,
Diabolu Frank said…
Amanda Waller has got to look like a wall in the same way Superman can't be a lanky Gomer Pyle looking dude and still be Superman. There are tons of middle age white military dudes who act pretty much exactly like Waller. The difference is that they're the "masters of the universe," entitled by society to be mega-jerks. As a fat black middle aged woman, you know The Wall had to take everything she had by force and brains. Nobody handed her anything, and that doesn't come across when she looks like Angela Bassett.
At September 19, 2011 5:07 PM,
Seangreyson said…
I kind of agree that if this is just a stunt to drum up some controversy and next month we discover she's using DC-equivalent LMD's then I'm fine with it.
But it's a weird design decision to make to completely change the look of a character like that, without an explanation.
Never read Suicide Squad myself, but Waller in the Justice League cartoon was one of the best characters out there. And considering that her voice in the cartoon is playing pretty much the same character in Warehouse 13 (and is equally badass) proves that it can work even in a live-action medium.
So I guess my reaction is...why bother to change?
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