Opinion: Why We Need A Wonder Woman Animated Series?
You can make a fair judgment that the biggest shortcoming of the DCAU, was its treatment of female characters & lack of female representation in its writers & storyboard rooms & as much of a super fan as I am of these shows & films, it’s absolutely hard to argue that sentiment. While the shows definitely wrote decent female subject matter, in terms of Sexism, Misogyny, Ageism & Abortion within the episodes without screaming the subtext, it’s disappointing that, despite the brilliant writing from the men, wasn’t able to share that with women who love these programs like I do.
Obviously, we don’t have a crystal ball or a 12th-level intellect that can predict these things or make them fall out of the sky, but for all of the male-centered programming spanning fourteen years of interconnected programming, there wasn’t a thought of a Wonder Woman show? Not one thought?
Understandably, if I can give the show runners a break, trying to mesh things with one another, definitely wasn’t on the minds of many, when they were in the process of pre & post-production, so trying to get a Wonder Woman, Hawkgirl, Big Barda, Batgirl or even a Supergirl series, was potentially not on the minds of the good people who worked for Warner Bros. Animation.
Get FilmWanderer’s stories in your inbox
Join Medium for free to get updates from this writer.
Corporate’s a different story. We know the “boys love action figures, girls don’t” talking points propagating the airwaves since Ike Perlmutter’s Toy Biz in the 90s for Spider-Man or when Kenner was making Batman: The Animated Series action figures during its Fox Kids days. Yet, Wonder Woman’s a third of the Trinity with Superman & Batman & because the room was male-centered, it silenced girls from having a female hero to identify with.
While there was a Gotham Girls webseries that rogue’s gallery of Superheroes & Villains ain’t a substitute for the genuine article. Diane Pershing, Arleen Sorkin, Tara Strong & Adrienne Barbeau are way more capable than to just be relegated to the Internet, considering people who grew up during the respective runs of DCAU content, grew up with those women as the voices of their characters. Classy trained, astute performers.
Which, speaking of astute performers, Susan Eisenberg’s been the voice of Wonder Woman for over 25 years throughout various DC projects from that of the DCAU, film adaptations from comic runs (Justice League DOOM, Batman/Superman: Apocalypse) & the Injustice video games. Just like Kevin Conroy became the voice of a generation, Eisenberg has carried that honor in a similar fashion.
I’ve never understood the sentiment of boys not being able to invest in a Wonder Woman show due to the character being a female. So? Powerpuff Girls, Sailor Moon & other female-led programming wasn’t just watched by girls. Not to mention films like Barbie, Wonder Woman (2017) & Captain Marvel making over $800M worldwide. Yes, Barbie was definitely carried by females, but us men showed up, too. It takes people of all genders to build a floor. Always has.
I don’t know if an animated show will be a possibility under James Gunn’s DCU. I hope it is. Another live-action endeavor’s definitely in the works (just don’t do WW ’84 again, please?) but one way to make Wonder Woman relevant in the zeitgeist is to make her animated just like the men. And we don’t have to revisit the DCAU to provide a full circle for said Trinity, when you can just do a modern take on the character as the world is currently.
Next up: 25th Anniversary of the Pepsi 400
