Sunday, June 4, 2017

The Comic Books of My Childhood Continue to Come to Life, Again


Wonder Woman the movie starring Gal Gadot and Chris Pine was wonderful and an awesome delivery pumping life into another character I relished reading on four color pulp. While other girls were reading Nancy Drew or Bobbsey Twins books I read comic books. Superman was my all-time favorite, the variety of characters and their personalities were so engaging to my childhood perspective of the “real” adult world, except I knew there was no real-life caped hero, Mighty Mouse taught me that little fact.

The DC and Marvel comic universes have successfully delivered pop culture comics from pulp to film much to the extreme pleasure of those of us who would rather fall in to the thrilling fantasy of graphic depictions with text filled bubbles of dialogue and tagged blocks of portending action than the chapters of mysteries to be solved by Nancy Drew.

The cinematography in this film tells the story as much as the clever dialogue. It has taken Wonder Woman’s iconic Amazonian battle ready stance and transformed it right in front of your eyes as if it was slipped from the paper to the silver screen.


The setting in World War I Europe gives the look and feel of chaos and hopelessness – it’s muddy, messy and there is lots of hunger and pillage at the hands of invading Germans hoping to rage on and scurry any plans for a peaceful armistice.

Through all that chaos arises the powerful image of Princess Diana of Themyscira clearing a path for resistance fighters who have been hunkered in bunkers waiting for an opening to advance on the enemy. Wonder Woman makes that opening for them while fending off bullets with her magic cuffs and shield.

This film is a good springboard to the upcoming Justice League movie that unites Batman, Wonder Woman, Superman, AquaMan, the Flash, and Cyborg to save our planet from a catastrophe. It’s a most fitting theme for the current times.

See the movie Wonder Woman. Gal Gadot is a charismatic Demi-goddess and believable in her portrayal as sincere strong woman who has hope for peace in our world. Chris Pine as Steve Trevor is eternally handsome and heroic and just plain funny at the just right times.

This movie is not just about “girl power”, it is about strength, conviction in truth and respect for humanity. If that sounds too deep, there are a few chuckles along the way that remind you we are all very human.