DC’s new Amazons Attack miniseries debuted this week to a surprising commotion, particularly surrounding the current brutal, militaristic characterization of the Amazons. (Be warned, the following links contain spoilers)
Point:
Ragtime at the blog Comic Book Thoughts has a rather cynical response to the characterization:
Maybe you’ve been thinking recently about Amazons, and how the peace-loving women of Paradise Island could attack in the new mini-series, “Amazons Attack.” I mean, they lived separately for years, and they didn’t attack any of the other times that the world almost got blown up, or Wonder Woman got killed or captured or depowered, or the OMACs attacked.Apparently, they are now all really, really evil. Not just the leaders, but all of them. Evil evil evil.
Counterpoint:
Blog@’s Ragnell thinks that the characterization isn’t so farfetched:
These are not a peaceful people. The Themiscryans are a warrior race patroned by a war-goddess, a hunting-goddess, a love goddess who is not the nicest of love goddesses, and a mother goddess who didn’t mind letting the entire world starve to death over her daughter. They’re also the reincarnated souls of women who were violently killed by men, and who have characteristically distrusted the male gender since Perez was writing. They had peace because they were on an isolated island. The Bana-Migdall tribe, which is now intermingling with the Themiscyran tribe, was not nearly so peaceful when we met them. They are also, by tradition, a Monarchy.As far as they know, they have just been grievously wronged as a people again, through the treatment of a member of their Royal Family.
Please weigh in with your opinion!
April 27th, 2007 at 8:24 am
They’re also the reincarnated souls of women who were violently killed by men
This right here shocked me, as I’d never heard of it. Is this a Crisis thing or does it date back to Marston?
April 27th, 2007 at 8:54 am
I believe George Perez added that when he relaunched the series after Crisis on Infinite Earths
April 27th, 2007 at 9:24 am
You want them to be militaristically accurate?
Cut off a boobie.
April 27th, 2007 at 11:16 am
I don’t know the WW’s continuity that well, but I agree with Ragnell, and would also add that there is a difference between having a member of the royal family captured by criminals and having a member of the royal family captured and tortured by a foreign government
April 27th, 2007 at 11:54 am
I thought it was a little rough to have the kid killed off panel, but not so much that it violated the understanding of what the Amazons are.