Wonder Wednesday - Cautious Optimism

Sooooo... here's some news about the Wonder Woman pilot's script courtesy of ComicBookMovie.com.

1. What's the main thrust of the show?

Meet Diana Themyscira. By night, Diana fights crime as Wonder Woman, a Los Angeles-based superhero. By day, Diana runs Themyscira Industries, which among other things, sells Wonder Woman-related merchandise to fund her crime-fighting efforts. And since the public knows Diana Themyscira is Wonder Woman, she's recently invented a secret identity, Diana Prince (complete with a Clark Kent-esque disguise involving contact lenses, glasses, pulling her hair back and a housecat named Desi), to allow her a more normal perspective on the world.

OMBC: Diana Themyscira?! I hate names that rhyme! (Or kinda rhyme.) And she's going to have THREE identities? That sounds terrible and overly complicated. And how does it involve contact lenses and glasses? And pulling her hair back? Fiendishly clever. And a cat named Desi? "No, I'm not Wonder Woman! See? I'm holding a cat! Have you ever seen Wonder Woman with a cat? Of course not!"

2. What does the costume look like? The script only details it as "a colorful spandex suit." It won't be the original, iconic costume though (don't worry, she still keeps it hung in her closet). Despite that look being the company's top seller, Diana insists her current outfit is a tad more appropriate.

OMBC: Look we all KNOW they're going to change the costume, so for them to at least acknowledge and include the classic stars and stripes bathing suit is a nice nod. Like!

3. What about her gadgets? The golden lasso of truth is there, as are her bullet reflecting bracelets. In lieu of an invisible plane (or being able to fly), Diana uses various sedan-sized aircrafts, made by BMW no less ("The Ultimate Air Machine").

OMBC: Meh. Apathy. Why can't she just fly? That's one of the few super powers that they've managed to make work on TV. Is it product placement? That's all I can think of why they'd go through the trouble. All I gotta say is those things better effen' have a stealth mode!

Okay, now get ready for the rest of this...

4. Who's along for the ride? Henry Demeter, the CEO of Themyscira Industries who harbors a crush on her; Myndi Mayer, Diana's press secretary/best friend; Etta Candy, her cheerful secretary; and Captain Ed Indelicato, Diana's contact at the LAPD; are among the prominent roles, as are "The Animals" (Ryan Miller, Austy Lyne, Jennie Weeks), a trio of techs Diana uses for her evidence analysis. And of course there's Steve Trevor, the government agent who crash landed on Themyscira, home of the mythical Amazons; fell in love with one of them, Diana; and brought her back with him to New York. They've since broken up as Diana now operates out of L.A. and Steve is a lawyer for the Justice Department. That's not to say she's over him (or vice-versa).

5. Who's the main villain? Veronica Cale, head of Cale-Anderson Pharmaceuticals, who despite beauty and success that would rival Diana herself, can't stand our heroine and aims to take her down. Her plan: well, let's just say it involves pharmaceuticals.

For the rest of the list, head over to The Futon Critic by following the link.

OMBC: Ugh. Pharmaceuticals? That sounds an awful lot like the plot to Catwoman!
NOT a good guideline for adapting comic book characters, PS! I think my main problem with all this is that it doesn't sound like ANY version of Wonder Woman from the comics and there have been MANY MANY takes on her character there.
All this corporate stuff sounds BORING and ordinary! I don't know how I feel about Wonder Woman being a public figure with her own corporation backing her and a tech squad and such. It sounds kind of Iron Man-y. No, it sounds COMPLETELY Iron Man-y! In fact, those BMW air ships seem like an effort to just give her some kind of tech gadgetry. (Stealth mode!)
Guess we WON'T be seeing anything like this scene on the show, since her arch enemy is a damn shady corporate executive, because that's never been done before. I will point out that Veronica Cale is actually from the comics. She was an attempt to give WW a "Lex Luthor" type enemy, but I just thought she was boring. Maybe at the very least, VCale will use her money to create/hire some more colorful rogues to send against Wonder Woman.
Optimistically, the fact that she is openly operating as Wonder Woman, an actual super hero gives me hope! Most adaptations seem to strip that aspect from their characters and they're just vigilantes in leather. I guess that's just the type of hero that's been adapted, but some like Wonder Woman, Superman and most of their Justice League cohorts (and on the Marvel side, The Avengers) are out there making public appearances, holding press conferences, shaking hands and kissing babies. It would be refreshing to see that type of super hero depicted in live action for a change.

So... yeah, some of this worries me. Fingers still crossed!