With the announcement that Wonder Woman is getting a new costume design for the J. Michael Straczynski run on the DC title, the level of nerd rage is at an all time high. In order to put everything in to perspective, we’re asking you to answer four questions for this very special Major Spoilers Poll of the Week.
Stephen Schleicher began his career writing for the Digital Media Online community of sites, including Digital Producer and Creative Mac covering all aspects of the digital content creation industry. He then moved on to consumer technology, and began the Coolness Roundup podcast. A writing fool, Stephen has freelanced for Sci-Fi Channel's Technology Blog, and Gizmodo. Still longing for the good ol' days, Stephen launched Major Spoilers in July 2006, because he is a glutton for punishment. You can follow him on Twitter @MajorSpoilers and tell him your darkest secrets...
26 Comments
Why am I normally unable to access or vote in a lot of the polls here since the crash? Almost all of the new polls automatically show me the results as if I’ve already voted, but I haven’t and it won’t let me vote. Odd.
Clear your browser cache. The crash actually caused several weeks of content to retroactively not exist, so new polls have the same identifying number as the old, and so you may actually have a cookie or whatever the hell they call it indicating that you voted already.
Didn’t give me the, “I honestly don’t really care. Doesn’t really matter, anyway, since this costume probably won’t outlive JMS’s run on the book.”
I liked what JMS did on Thor, but this whole deal with the costume and the Alternate WW history is leaving me not wanting to even give it a shot.
THIS IS NOT WONDER WOMAN. Maybe Wonder Girl, but not the woman who’d grab a ax and charge into battle. I can only speak for myself, but this story seems to be a slap in the face, and I will not pay $4 do have Di-Di-Didio do that.
I think I will go back and read the Golden Age advenures, even with the S&M overtones, for that is far better then this 90’s Dark Age sludge.
Read 600, it’s just a temp costume untill the “Odyssey” arc is over, not a big deal.
P.S.- Only the Wonder Woman & Power Girl story was any good…
Yup, hence the question asking if people actually read the story to put it all into context.
1. No
2. Yes (but a lot of that has to do with JMS taking over more so than a new look)
3. Yes
4. Didn’t vote because I don’t know if I like it yet. The old costume will always be a favorite though.
Yes
No
Only because I wanted to read Gails final story
Its perfect- for Donna!
I call bullshit on #4 – there’s no way the majority of readers on this site prefer the new look. No majority ANYWHERE likes the new look.
Read the choices it doesn’t say “we wholeheartly believe this is a better costume and all others should be burned to never return” or “whomever thought for even a second the costume needed change should be decapitated with rusty scissors” the questions read: “Yes. I think it is fine” or “I’m spitting bile, give me the old costume”.
I don’t like it but I don’t hate it enough to go with the second option so I voted for “I think it is fine”, specialy seen how it’ll last no more then 6 issues, 12 tops.
Voting “yes” in no way means we prefer the new look…
That poll question is what’s known in the biz as a push poll. Most people aren’t spitting bile over the new costume, so the number of people answering no is lower than if the options were “Yes, it’s fine” or “No, why change?”
The poll is closer to: ” do you hate the new costume?” or “can you live with it?”, I think it’s better this way. If Stephen had gone for which do you like better, the new costume would have gotten almost no votes and the comments would be nothing but nerd rage. This way we get more answers then “worst costume ever!”, sure it’s biased but it better this way I think.
The polls here sometimes seem to tend that way, in an attempt at humor (which I fully endorse). This conclusively proves that “funny” and “statistics” CANNOT exist harmoniously. ^_^
I like it as it seems like it’s closer to what a female would actually want to wear as a costume. In the end it doesn’t matter as it will only last a couple months, then the whiners will have their way again.
Personally, I suspect that some of the speculation is correct and the costume redesign is to make it easier to do a live action Wonder Woman movie. Because, let’s be honest, just as most male actors would look silly in tights for a superhero movie, most actresses would look silly trying to dress up in the traditional Wonder Woman costume; there’s just not that many actresses who have the combination of stature, athleticism, and physical presence to pull it off. Even Lynda Carter, who is still quite the looker even now, would, on occasion, look like a prepubescent girl with pipe cleaner arms in the costume.
That’s why some comments I’ve seen about how the old outfit was demeaning women by objectifying them are kind of funny, because this new outfit will actually let a live action actress look a lot sexier than she would in the old outfit. In the end, the new will be more objectifying than the old.
Perception is up to the individual. Where I personally do not agree with your statement because I find the current costume honestly not all that sexy. It looks like actual clothes to me. While the other looks like something a lady of the evening would wear, but thats my perception. Just as you think the new costume does the opposite.
Maybe it is a perceptual thing, because, truth be told, there have been plenty of images of WW in the old outfit that don’t strike me as terribly sexy, either. The sexiness of a particular comic depends really on the artist, not on what the characters are wearing. For example, there are pictures of Frank Cho’s Brandy (from Liberty Meadows) wearing a turtleneck sweater and jeans that a lot sexier than a lot of the pictures of WW I’ve seen.
My point was that in the real world, where there is no artist and we have to deal with real people wearing these costumes, I think the new outfit would actually look sexier on most women than the old one. As I said above, most women simply don’t have the combination of curves and muscle to really carry off the old WW costume. I honestly cannot think of a 20 something or 30 something actress today who would not look silly in that costume. Maybe Jessica Biel if she were in the same condition she was in Blade 3, but even there I think she’d look better in the outfit she wore in that movie, which actually isn’t all that different from the new WW outfit.
Making the costumes not look vaguely silly seems to be one of the regular hurdles in making a movie from a superhero comic book (it’s become almost obligatory to have some joke about the outfits in every movie), and I suspect this redesign was done with a mind to that.
New costume is horrible. Been collecting WW since 1989. WW 600 is my last until the change back. Its just not WW to me. It’s like some one else is in her book.
Think I have found the real reason people doesn’t like the new custom, hehe.
http://hillbuzz.files.wordpress.com/2010/06/screen-shot-2010-06-30-at-11-44-03-pm.png?w=510&h=383
Its amusingly similar if nothing else =)
Last night I saw a show where they quoted some bloggers who are claiming that the new outfit is being trotted out to be used in a movie and it downplays the American connection (like getting rid of the star-spangled bottom) in order to ensure greater overseas box office.
Don’t go out of your way to cite sources!
Last night I saw a show where they quoted some bloggers who are claiming that the new outfit is being trotted out to be used in a movie and it downplays the American connection (like getting rid of the star-spangled bottom) in order to ensure greater overseas box office.
Well, it’s an interesting theory, but there’s no basis in fact… Mileage, as always, varies on opinions.
I’m sorry that you didn’t give more options on the questions..
1. Yes, I’ve been reading it since Simone took over.
2. – Will I read WW going forward – Sort of – It’s going on a month by month trial basis and I will reevaluate in 3 months or so..
3)None of the above I bought it because I’ve been buying WW anyway, and I would have bought it no matter what for Amanda Conner…
4) I don’t hate the new look with bile, but I don’t particularly like it. I think the new costume lost too many of the iconic details, the jacket is hideously outdated (Why not go for a classic cut if you are adding a jacket?) and the feetypants are ridiculous.
1. Nope
2. Nope
3. Nope
4. It’s fine.
I’d like to start picking up Wonder Woman but my comic budget is already stretched as thin as I can make it. Curse you, Major Spoilers, for your double edged sword of telling me about more and more awesome comics!
honestly, I never liked the old costume, it’s always looked a bit too “american pride” for my taste and while there have been numerous explanations it’s never struck me as the attire of an amazon warrior. I think the anger most people are feeling is because they’ve grown used to wonderwoman in her classic costume but batman and superman have been allowed to develop their costumes (however slightly). The thing is that, for most people, wonderwoman gets third place in the DC holy trinity. She plays a backup role to “the worlds finest” and therefore hasn’t been allowed to gradually evolve in the same way in most peoples eyes. I say swallow it and hope that whatever costume she gets after this looks better that any of the ones shes had so far, even wonder girls “jeans and t-shirt” ensemble is better than the classic costume.
When I first saw the sketch of the new costume that has been published everywhere, I was not impressed to say the least. However, after reading JMS’ portion of issue #600 and seeing the suit in action, I like it a lot more. Seeing it here on the poll page, it makes the original costume look dated. Judging the new costume based solely on the publicity shot with the white background is like making up your mind about a superhero movie costume based on one of the still shots they release way before the film.
Also, I have read a couple interviews with JMS regarding Wonder Woman. One of the things he talks about was trying to let some of her heritage show through with the new costume. I think you can at least see how she might end up in this current costume.