Tuesday, 11 Dec 2007
I’ve been thinking about the discussion of whether the NY Times was incorrect in calling Gail Simone “the first woman to serve as ‘ongoing writer’ in the character’s 66-year history.”
Now, when I read those words in the Times’ article I didn’t blink. I’ve seen a few “Has there been any female Wonder Woman writers?” threads on usenet years ago and I knew about Mindy Newell and Trina Robbins but, from what I recall, the conclusion of those discussions was that Newell was a fill-in writer while Robbins’ contribution was a mini-series and not a full series. Kurt Busiek, however, contradicts that, however, saying that Newell was the regular writer for six months before the post-Crisis relaunch. (Though I only found three issues credited to her on the Grand Comics Database.) Newell also wrote 11 issues of the post-Crisis Wonder Woman, starting with #36 - 46. She’s credited for the script while George Perez is credited for the issue’s plot.
While, I hate saying that their work (as well as Jodi Picoult’s recent run) doesn’t matter but in some ways it doesn’t. I keep thinking back to a story a friend told me once about an article he read about Samuel Delaney. Delaney contributed a few stories to the “Emma Peel” run of Wonder Woman when the Amazon warrior joined the relevance trend. My friend paraphrased Delaney’s summary of that era as, “They wanted a feminist take on Wonder Woman but they didn’t think about asking any feminists.”
That, overall, seems to be the lasting legacy of Wonder Woman. She’s a feminist icon, who’s fate has entirely been under the control of a man. (Though, if you’re entirely cynical that just might make her an even better symbol for feminists’ struggles.) Has there been a time when a woman had the power over the character’s long-term direction — or, at least, a time when a woman was the public face of what was happening with the character? (Perhaps there was a time when Karen Berger ever perceived as having as much power over the character’s direction as George Perez?)
Anyway, to me the greater point is that this is the first time a woman (at least, as far as I know) has been put in charge of plotting Wonder Woman’s destiny since the character was declared a feminist icon. That is rather landmark, even if a good part of that landmark is one that would have us note that DC seems pretty behind the times.
December 11th, 2007 at 3:20 pm
>> Kurt Busiek, however, contradicts that, however, saying that Newell was the regular writer for six months before the post-Crisis relaunch. (Though I only found three issues credited to her on the Grand Comics Database.) >>
The book was bimonthly at the time. It was July-December 1985.
>> Anyway, to me the greater point is that this is the first time a woman (at least, as far as I know) has been put in charge of plotting Wonder Woman’s destiny since the character was declared a feminist icon.>>
She was declared a feminist icon in the early Seventies.
kdb
December 12th, 2007 at 8:17 am
“The book was bimonthly at the time. It was July-December 1985.”
Thanks, Kurt, I remember that but forgot about it. I was confused when I tried to reconcile that with some quick research.
“She was declared a feminist icon in the early Seventies.”
I’m confused about this comment, tho. Are you saying that Newell’s run comes after the first issue of MS. magazine? That’s not my point, I’m saying that at the time when Newell was writing the series (towards the end of Crisis) as far as I’m aware DC was looking at another writer to determine the long term path for the character. If there’s a female writer who might have had a voice what in the post-Crisis WW would have been (though, at that point, I’m sure Karen Berger had a say) I’d love to learn about it.
December 15th, 2007 at 7:09 pm
This is a very nice thoughtful piece, and I appreciate the sentiment.
But I don’t think there’s a way to make the “first female to write the ongoing series” comment true no matter how you slice it, and I wouldn’t want that to be the focus of the story in any case. I’m not sure exactly where the notion comes from, but I know you don’t achieve honest success by stepping on or playing down the achievements of those who came before you, and I would be a poor feminist indeed if I helped sweep the names of the women before me under the rug for some easy PR.
It really doesn’t matter to me if Mindy was ongoing writer for fifty years or fifty seconds, she was before me, that’s all that is needed to make the claim untrue.
Thanks though, I do appreciate your point.
Gail
February 26th, 2008 at 11:06 am
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