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Gotham Nights or Themyscira?

Smallville is over

So what’s to fill the void that after Clark goes off to Metropolis? Fans have had 10 years of foreplay, with no pay off, so we’re wondering, which superhero could fill Kal-El’s shoes on the TV screen; Wonder Woman or Batman? We’d love to see both, but we’re thinking that, with the ridiculously low  budgets assigned to TV, Wonder Woman fighting mythical beasts might look like something out of a 1970s Sinbad movie. Much cheaper to move to Gotham and film a brooding teen learning his way into becoming the World’s Greatest Detective. But, how would they be envisioned? We’re giving it a shot.

Themyscira

George Perez pretty much set the bar with respect to Wonder Woman’s origin. She was molded out of Themysciran clay by her mother, Hipollita. Through divine means, her disembodied soul, which came from a murdered woman some 60,000 years ago, was nurtured in and retrieved from the Cavern of Souls. Once the soul was placed into the clay mold, it immediately came to life and was gifted with great powers by six Olympian Greek gods.

The six gods and their gifts are:
Demeter: the goddess of agriculture and fertility, gifted Diana with strength drawn from the Earth spirit Gaea. Wonder Woman is one of the strongest heroes in the DC Universe, right up there with Superman. Her strength is to the length that she has prevented large chunks of the Moon from crashing into the Earth and has helped hold up bridges and even lifted entire railroad trains.

Though Diana is not invulnerable, she is still able to withstand huge explosive forces and can shrug off high-powered rifle fire with little to no injury. However, she can still be cut by magical or extremely sharp objects.

Aphrodite: the goddess of love and beauty, blessed Diana with great beauty and a loving heart.

Athena: the goddess of wisdom and war, granted Diana great intelligence, wisdom, and military prowess. Diana has gained mastery over a dozen languages, sciences and philosophy as well as leadership and military/armed and unarmed combat.

Artemis: the goddess of the hunt, animals, and the Moon, graced Diana with the Eyes of the Hunter and Unity with Beasts. The Eyes of the Hunter gives Diana enhanced senses. Unity with Beasts grants allows Diana to communicate with all forms of animal life and to calm even the most ferocious of beasts.

Hestia: goddess of hearth and home, granted Diana “sisterhood with fire, that it might open men’s hearts to her.” This allows Diana to control the “Fires of Truth,” which are wielded through her lasso, making anyone bound by it unable to lie. This ability also grants her resistance to both normal and supernatural fire.

Hermes: the messenger god of speed, granted Diana superhuman speed and the ability to fly. By concentrating, Diana can mystically defy the laws of gravity and propel herself through the air to achieve flight. She is swift enough to deflect bullets, lasers, and other projectiles with her virtually impenetrable bracelets.

Wonder Woman’s Weapons

Regarding Wonder Woman’s Lasso of Truth, it was forged by the god Hephaestus from the Golden Girdle of Gaea that was once worn by Antiope, sister of Hippolyta. It is so strong that not even Hercules can break it and is given to Diana after Hippolyta consults the Goddesses. Later it was retconned that it was given to Wonder Woman just before she left Paradise Island.

“Her bulletproof bracelets were formed from the remnants of Athena’s legendary shield, the Aegis, to be awarded to her champion. The shield was made from the indestructible hide of the great she-goat, Amalthea, who suckled Zeus as an infant. These forearm guards have thus far proven indestructible and able to absorb the impact of incoming attacks, allowing Wonder Woman to deflect automatic weapon fire and energy blasts. Diana can also slam the bracelets together to create a wave of concussive force capable of making Superman’s ears bleed. Recently, she gained the ability to channel Zeus’s lightning through her bracelets as well. Zeus explained to her that this power had been contained within the bracelets since their creation, because they were once part of the Aegis, and that he had only recently unlocked it for her use.” quote

And if you remember when Wonder Woman killed Max Lord, her Golden Tiara doubles as a flying dagger, or guillotine, returning to her like a boomerang. Its sharpness and mystical nature proved enough to cut even Superman’s throat.

It makes sense that it would take some time for Diana to grow into these powers. There are tons of stories that can be used to lay the groundwork for the building of her skills: Theseus’s Adventures, The Wanderings of Dionysus, Zeus’s Lovers, Creation of Man by Prometheus, Pandora’s box, The Story Of Echo & Narcissus, Daedalus and Iccarus, The Cyclops Cave & The Sirens, Jason and the Golden Fleece, King Midas & The Minotaur, Hades and the River Styx, Aphrodite and the Trojan War, Perseus and Medusa and then there are The 12 Labors of Hercules.

If you recall your Greek stories, Hercules had 12 Labors he had to accomplish. For the ninth labor, Eurystheus ordered Hercules to bring him the belt of Hippolyte, Wonder Woman’s mother. Queen Hippolyte had a special leather belt that the war god Ares had given to her, because she was the best warrior of all the Amazons. Hippolyte wore it across her chest to carry her sword and spear. Eurystheus wanted Hippolyte’s belt as a present to give to his daughter, so he sent Hercules to bring it back.

In Greek myth, Hercules kills Hippolyte. However, in DC mythos, George Perez had the Amazons enslaved and Hippolyte raped by Hercules. What better way to have Diana polish off her fighting skills than to kick in the doors of Hercules’ ship and beat the living crap out of him and his minions, freeing her mother and the rest of the Amazons. Lots of potential here for some great story telling.

Gotham By Night

Frank Miller set the stage for the young Bruce Wayne in Batman Year One. “The twenty-five year olf heir to the Wayne millions declined to comment on rumors of romance in his life… or on his plans on his return to Gotham after twelve years abroad. We’ll keep you posted on Gotham’s richest — and best looking — native son.”

Let’s see… twenty five minus 12 equals 13, carry the one. So, Bruce was somewhere younger than 13 when his parents were killed. That leaves at least, 12 – 15 years to train. I was able to uncover a short list of Bruce’s training, though all of these are when he was an adult, I don’t think it would be that hard to turn it into Bruce as a teen out touring the world learning how to become the World’s Greatest Detective. Here are some of the people I was able to identify that took a hand in Bruce’s training.

• David Cain
• Lady Shiva
• Wildcat Ted Grant, a world-class heavyweight boxer
• John Zatara (Zatanna’s father) taught him slight of hand/stage magic
• Master Kirgi, who trained Ras League of Assassins,
• In the Many Deaths of Batman someone was killing all the people who trained Bruce. Six Batmans ended up dead all over Gotham. All were experts in their fields: a race car driver, a demolitionist, a chemist, a body builder, a gymnast, a cross-bow expert.
• Bruce also trained with a southern detective named Harvey Harris.
• An Alaskan private investigator named Willie taught Bruce how to be a manhunter in Legends of the Dark Knight #1-5
• In “Tao” LotDK #52-53, the story line focused on some of Bruce’s training in the Far East.
• And, here’s a “Bit of Super Friends trivia- according to the text page in the 2nd issue of DC’s Super Friends comic, Wendy (of Wendy, Marvin, and Wonder Dog fame) was Wendy Harris, the niece of Harvey Harris! Totally outside of continuity, I know, but still… Harvey trained Batman, and then Batman returned the favor by training Wendy.”

So, there’s tons of room for Bruce to learn how to become Batman and plenty of ground to cover for an excellent series. Let’s hope the TV execs can pick up on at least one of these concepts to create another Smallville, but, something that is just like Smallville, but completely different…. something, more better.

- Ronando