Why Hasn't There Been A Wonder Woman Movie? Part II

Hi everybody!
First, some extraneous business!
* I listed Christopher Reeves (sic) instead of Christopher Reeve yesterday, my bad! :(
A shout out to Chloe Grace Moretz, the hero's sister in 500 DAYS OF SUMMER, whose wise-beyond-her-years delivery reminded me of Jodie Foster during her BAD NEWS BEARS days (which is the highest compliment, my friends)! I would love to have Chloe Grace in WONDER WOMAN: AT LAST!
* An additional shout out to Minka Kelly (of FRIDAY NIGHT LIGHTS fame) also in 500 DAYS OF SUMMER as the upgraded potential soul mate Autumn. Always a smart actress, Minka brought a welcome architectural job hunting coolness to the wearing-a-bit-thin quirkiness of this clever movie. In fact, I would love to see the INFINITE DAYS OF AUTUMN sequel!
A third shout out to Evgeny Sidikhin who beautifully underplays a Russian major in A WOMAN IN BERLIN opposite the tremulous Nina Hoss. Sidikhin delivers the kind of performance that transcends subtitles and eschews voiceovers: bravo!
* Lastly, happy 25th anniversary to the magnificent Cirque du Soleil! They came to give a free performance at The Grove in Los Angeles, and they rocked the house in large amounts! I sat behind the open air stage just in front of the bridge overlooking the water fountain, and arrived early enough to see the performers arriving in street clothes to rehearse their routines. Of course, Cirque du Soleil has reinvented the modern circus by not using animals, by composing their own music and by creating narratives which overcome language barriers. I believe that there is no better theatrical or concert experience in the world, and if you have not seen them, you owe it to yourself to do so! Cirque du Soleil performed a 10 minute act from each of their 6 permanent Las Vegas shows: MYSTERE, "O", ZUMANITY, KA, LOVE (featuring Beatles music) and BELIEVE. The temperature in L.A. was in the 90s, and by mid-afternoon, they were icing down the stage so that the performers would not burn their faces while doing their amazing acrobatics. Not only is Cirque du Soleil vastly entertaining, they are complete professionals!There was one lady who performed in black lace and panties from ZUMANITY (their most provocative show) whose laser beam focus while twisting herself into my favorite pretzels made me think that she was doing it all just for me :). After her set, she put on a silk robe (of course) and took some photos with a young man in a wheelchair and I thought that I should point out to her that I was feeling a bit weak in the knees, myself, and could I have a little bit of that, please?! That may seem salacious but this girl was outrageous! Anyway. Make your way to Cirque du Soleil!
Okay! Now on to today's business!
Why hasn't there been more character development for Wonder Woman since 1941?
Wonder Woman was created by William Moulton Marston, who is best known for having invented the Lie Detector. Instead of basing Wonder Woman's heroic motivations on Amelia Earhart, Marston created the Amazon culture.
Amelia Earhart was an aviator, author and entrepreneur who disappeared on an attempted solo flight around the world in 1938. Her fame was approaching that of Charles Lindbergh and she was the very model of the New American Woman that Marston was (reportedly) trying to extol. Had Marston based Wonder Woman's background on Amelia Earhart, he would have had a credible psychological foundation upon which to build her heroic character. Instead, Marston chose to create Wonder Woman's personality out of the whole cloth to advance his own psychological theories.
While creating the Amazon culture gave Marston a ready supply of adversaries and allies for Wonder Woman (the Olympian gods, some of whom bequeathed her powers, others of whom opposed her efforts for peace), this failed to give her a credible civilian identity. Compare this to Captain Marvel (Shazam), whose civilian identity as Billy Batson; newspaper boy; allowed the character to find his lost lost sister (Mary Marvel) and befriend Freddy Freeman (Captain Marvel Jr.), leading to a wealth of interlocking characters which inspired hundreds of stories. Making Wonder Woman an Amazon princess further alienated her from ordinary experience, leading to a distorted supporting cast.
Steve Trevor never succeeded as a romantic partner and served more as a scolding father figure in the stories who always got into trouble. Etta Candy was less a best friend than an enthusiastic cheerleader who sometimes assisted in solving crimes. But there was never a strong emotional connection with either her civilian or superhero identities made.
Marston died 7 years after creating Wonder Woman, so the writing was given to the great Robert Kanigher, who managed to muddle her character developing even further. Marston had told several stories in which Queen Hippolyta had imitated being Wonder Woman in place of her daughter, which was weird enough. Kanigher over the 25 years as her writer created Wonder Girl and Wonder Tot on top of that. These proved to be not earlier versions of Wonder Woman, but SEPARATE PEOPLE from Wonder Woman.
The bottom line is this: instead of struggling to integrate the different ages and experiences of Wonder Woman into a unified whole, DC Comics had completely different people existing as Wonder Tot, Wonder Girl and an older Wonder Woman, so they never had to address her childhood, her teenage years or her dotage in a serious way. They could field test Wonder Woman's boyfriends with Wonder Girl, Wonder Girl could get married and have a child, Wonder Girl could have her husband die and go all cosmic on us, and NONE OF THIS happened with Wonder Woman. The older Wonder Woman could turn her back on humanity and declare war against America, the older Wonder Woman could die heroically in ultimate battle, and NONE OF THIS happened with Wonder Woman. Wonder Tot could be a disobedient toddler, Wonder Tot could playfully get into all kinds of trouble, Wonder Tot could have imaginary friends who turned out to be all too real, and NONE OF THIS happened with Wonder Woman.
The only time Wonder Woman's real-time personality was explored in the comics was during her DIANA PRINCE: WONDER WOMAN years from 1968-1973, and no less a personage than feminist leader Gloria Steinem put the kibosh to that experiment.
So with her creator Marston failing to give her a grounded background, and her benchwarmer Kanigher failing to integrate her experiences, Wonder Woman was rudderless from 1941-1968. That's a long time to not receive a serious makeover. And during the most creative period of the Silver Age of Comics (1968-1973), Wonder Woman was stripped of her powers and denounced by Gloria Steinem.
So in the 21st century, Wonder Woman remains an icon without a brain or a spine. That might work for the Incredible Hulk, but Wonder Woman needs a lot more than that to make a movie around her succeed!
Tomorrow, more goodies! Be good out there!
Brad