Tuesday, June 24, 2014

Wonder Woman Concept rewrite

I'm not a massive fan of the wonder woman character. The more I find out about her myth the less I like. So here is my idea of a conceptional rewrite.


Modern Day. The Ancient Greeks Gods are dead. Only relics remain.

Diane Prince (AKA Wonder Woman) is the next in line to the throne of Thermscyria. However she is a dismissive 20 something-brat-teenager character. She is expected to live up to her reputation by competing in tournaments to earn powers, but she purposely drops out. Her mother, the Queen of the Amazons, sets Diane the task of going to the world of man and studying it. Its a ruse, that Diane would find the world of man horrible and come running back, seeing the errors of her ways.

But Diane takes the opposite view. She begins to see Thermscyria as a bubble trapped in the past, whilst she can make a real difference on Earth. So she starts competing in tournaments for mythical artefacts which grant the wearer super powers, then returns to earth to beat up drug lords and terrorists etc.

She gets found out by the CIA, who coerce her to work for them. So she works along side the CIA and military as a super spy, but at the same time going off mission to complete her own agendas. Then some monster like a Hydra turns up in New York. Diane rushes in and kills the beast in front of the press.

Diane is then given the title of "Wonder Woman" by the press and she has her 15 mins of fame. A little while later though there is a Coup in Thermscyria.  A farmer (no one really noticed before) now rules the Amazons and leads them to invade Earth. Diane from what she has learnt, leads a resistance gorilla style war against the Amazons. For a while it works but too many people are dying.

To stop the blood shed, Diane agrees to fight the evil Amazon 1v1, winner takes all. They fly around crashing through building etc, till Diane gets the upperhand and stabs the evil Amazon leader. At which point Athena's owl, (that another amazon won in a tournament) flies over to evil Amazon. Everyone reasons she is Athena. Athena cackles and tells them that its their destiny to be the new Gods of Earth. Diane refutes that too many people have died for the Gods and that peace and harmony should reign. Athena accuses her of being a fool and dies.

Diane then monologues about rebuilding and coxisting with man. She then talks of the legend of Prometheus. That as punishment for stealing fire from Zeus, he was chained to a rock and had his intestines eaten by vultures only to regenerate the next day to suffer the same fate for eternity. As a second punishment Zeus commanded Hephaestus and Athena to create the first human out of earth. Her name was Pandora.

The evil Amazon bursts out of a morgue locker, writhes around in pain as her body regenerates, she then exits the morgue. Diane is waiting outside. She indicates she knowns Pandora is Prometheus's daughter and that Pandora was testing them. Diane askes Pandora to join her but she refuses. Diane asks her about the "box". Pandora corrects her, humanity was the supposed evil and she was the vessel of hope. Through some back and forth Pandora reluctantly grants Diane her regenerative power, but she herself considers it a curse.

Additional rewrites

The lasso of truth is possessed or an actual living thing. So it can talk and morph between being a wip and a lasso.

Instead of calling "hera give me strength" its her suit of armour and the trigger line is "gaia give me strength" one of the Titans. That leads her to study history more and figure out Pandoras past.

Although Pegasus was the last flying horse, the Amazons make more out of clay.


Explanation

To me, the idea that a woman has lived since Ancient Greece yet is still young and puppydog eyed makes no sense. So I've split the myth to two different characters.


Pandora is the 'Eve' character of ancient greek myth. I think its nice to re-write history so she is effectively a Christ like figure.

Diane's storey is akin to Hercules, where she is mortal and earns her way up to being this demi-god Wonder Woman figure.

Likewise that Diane doesn't have all the powers that the comics attribute to her, enables other Amazons to stand out as unique and credible threats to her.


Back Story 

When the Olympian Gods overthrowed the Titans. One of the Titans Sided with Zeus. Promethus. Promethus then felt guilt, and took the flame of olympus to help his kind. Zeus catches him, chains him to a rock and lets vultures eat his intestines. The next day Promethus would regenerate only to suffer the same fate over and over for eternity.

Zeus orders Hephaestus and Athena to create humans out of earth. Unbeknowns to everyone, Athena (angry at Zeus) takes a lock of Promethus's hair and puts it in the mixture. So Pandora, the first human, is daughter of Promtheus and has regenerative powers that make her immortal.

Pandora grows up on Mount Olympus till she comes of age when she is sent to marry one of the Titans down on earth. Pandora gives birth to the human race, then disappears out of history.

Hera hears of Zeus boasting that a woman would never rule mount Olympus. So she creates the island of Thermscyria, puts some amazons on there and gives them the ability to make life out of clay. She then hides the island away so she can privately laugh at Zeus.

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