Comic Writer Grant Morrison Criticises Big Screen Wonder Woman

The few brief glimpses of Gal Gadot in action as Wonder Woman in the recent trailer for ‘Batman V Superman: Dawn of Justice’ have allayed the fears of many naysayers - but not everyone is convinced.

One rather notable figure to speak out against the approach the DC Cinematic Universe appears to be taking with the original superheroine is esteemed comic book veteran Grant Morrison, whose extensive CV includes runs on DC’s ‘JLA’ and ‘All-Star Superman,’ and an in-the-works Wonder Woman title, ‘Wonder Woman: Earth One.’

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The Glasgow-born writer is also quite the superhero comics historian, having written a history of the genre in ‘Supergods: Our World in the Age of the Superhero,’ and fears the manner in which director Zack Snyder and co are handling Wonder Woman is not true to the character.

Morrison tells Nerdist that, in approaching the character for ‘Wonder Woman: Earth One,’ “I thought, ‘I don’t want to do this warrior woman thing.’ I can understand why they’re doing it, I get all that, but that’s not what [Wonder Woman creator] William Marston wanted, that’s not what he wanted at all!

“His original concept for Wonder Woman was an answer to comics that he thought were filled with images of blood-curdling masculinity, and you see the latest shots of Gal Gadot in the costume, and it’s all sword and shield and her snarling at the camera. Marston’s Diana was a doctor, a healer, a scientist. So I went back to those roots and just built it up again.

“What would a society of immortal women that’s been around for 7,000 years have done? They wouldn’t still be chopping men’s heads off; they’ve got art and architecture and philosophy and poetry and it’s got nothing to do with men.”

Given how much criticism has been hurled directly at Gal Gadot herself since her casting was announced in December 2013, it’s almost refreshing to see the overall interpretation of the character herself called into question, rather than the choice of actress.

Whether it’s fair to deride a modern interpretation of a character for not conforming to the original writer’s model is another matter. Like any comic book character, Wonder Woman has naturally developed over the decades, across her different representations in comics, TV and pop culture overall; inevitably the first big screen take on the character (assuming we don’t count her brief appearance in ‘The Lego Movie’) would seek to offer another new interpretation.

In any case, given that we’ve seen barely ten seconds of out-of-context footage of Gadot’s Wonder Woman in action thus far, it’s surely premature to cast aspersions on what the DCU’s vision of the character really is; indeed, it seems likely we won’t get a full sense of that until the ‘Wonder Woman’ solo movie arrives in 2017.

Before that, Gadot’s Wonder Woman will debut in ‘Batman V Superman: Dawn of Justice’ on 25 March 2016. Watch the trailer below.

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Picture Credit: Warner Bros, WENN