Mindy Newell: The Sexual Preferences Of Wonder Woman, or The Hero’s Journey Part II
Before continuing, I must say mea culpa, mea culpa, mea culpa.
I made a major error last week. My terrific correspondent in last week’s column is not Bill Hannigan. He is Bill Mulligan. As in – sing along, folks – m-u-double l-i-g-a-n spells Mulligan. I cannot explain it, but can only blame it on my menopausal mind. A hundred thousand apologies to Bill.
• • • • •
So last week I went to Vector Books, my local comics emporium, and picked up Justice League #12 (by Geoff Johns, Jim Lee, Ivan Reis, Joe Prado, and David Finch, with kudos to those gentlemen and everyone involved for terrific writing and gorgeous artwork).
In case you need reminding, it’s the issue with The Big Kiss.
But it is not a kiss of love.
It is a kiss of longing.
It is a kiss of confusion.
It is a kiss of desire.
The desire to know.
Who am I?
Where do I belong?
Am I capable of love?
Can you love me?
Can I love you?
Do you know?
If you do, tell me.
I need to know.
Longing and confusion.
Straight or gay or bi, these questions are at the heart of our relationships, our selves.
When we are in the womb, we are cocooned in an aquatic nest. Our every need is met. The only sound we hear is a muffled whoosh-whoosh, and it comforts us. We are at peace. We know we are not alone.
Then suddenly we are separated from the waters of life, the warmth and the comfort and the muffled sounds of love, and we are thrust into a harsh world of brightness and cold and noise. We are helpless as we are poked and prodded and laid against cold medal. We want to go back. But somehow we know that we can never go back, and we cry for that world where we were safe, where we were loved. And we are afraid that is gone forever.
But it is not gone forever, for we discover that in this harsh world there will be others who will love us, who will protect us and care for us, who will understand our fears and our confusion and our longing, because we will discover that these others are feel these things, too. And we will look to each other for that comfort and that warmth and love which will banish the fear and the loneliness and the confusion always hovering at the edges of our consciousness.
Loneliness.
Confusion.
Desire.
The desire to know ourselves.
The desire to know another.
The desire to not be alone.
The desire to share.
The desire to love.
Human emotions we don’t normally equate with super-heroes, especially mythic heroes such as Wonder Woman and Superman. But we build our heroes on the frail foundations of our humanity, so we should not be surprised when they reflect these frailties back upon us.
The hero’s journey is our journey.
TUESDAY MORNING: Emily S. Whitten Continues With The Big Con
TUESDAY AFTERNOON: Michael Davis Stands Tall
Do you think WW and Supes would really hook up? Other than being (arguably) the two most powerful examples of their respective genders, what does a farmboy from Kansas and an Amazon from Paradise island see in each other? Ok, they do have similar jobs so they can chat about the day’s events–
“OMG, I totally got into it with Cheetah today!”
“Cheetah??? I took on Darkseid!”
“Whatever.”
You know, if I had my druthers, she’s seek out someone utterly normal. Someone with no ties to the craziness, who would cater to the woman without focusing all on the wonder.
Ever see the original La Femme Nikita? She becomes a sleeper agent and starts a relationship with an average looking guy (by movie standards) she meets at a supermarket.
(In the Hollywood remake she meets Dermot Mulroney, playing an ordinary guy…the kind you would see any day of the week, if you lived on Mt Olympus. Thus telling you everything you need to know about why most Hollywood remakes of foreign movies really bite.)
And really, it’s very sweet of you to apologize but no slight was intended and if I had to apologize every time I messed up on names it would be my full time job. And I can;t blame menopause.