Wonder Woman! The whole world will be waiting for you 20 more years!
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11:26 AM |
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It was nearly (74) years ago where the fruits of William Moulton Marston (May 9, 1893 – May 2, 1947) and his wife's ideas coalesced into a new character for All Star Comics' latest book book. Not nearly content with his invention of the polygraph, Marston was commissioned with creating a new superhero, with his wife suggesting it be a woman.
And so, Wonder Woman was born. Since then she's remained the most well known female superhero, if not always the best or most understood, in the world. In the island nation of Paradise Island, lives a nation of Amazons, who are found by Steve Trevor, American Air Force pilot. The Amazons fight amongst themselves to decide which ones will take Steve back home in a series of challenges.
The winner of this challenges is Diana, who from now on becomes the Amazon's representative on the world.
Wonder Woman's role at DC comics as changed lots in the last nearly-a-century. Her Island's name became Themyscira. She lost and gained powers such as flight, and talking to animals. She's gone from having been built out of sand, to being the daughter of Zeus. She's gone from the Justice Society's secretary to towering over Superman. Some see this as erratic writing that doesn't lead to a single vision of what the character is and represents, but I like to think it speaks to the malleable nature of the character.
It's a malleable nature that would be serving us all well, should the character have gone public domain in 1997. While DC would certainly have a 56 year headstart on the rest of the world, included a fairly popular television show, most of her rogues gallery's most notorious characters would have been free to use by now, including Cheetah, Giganta, Dr Psycho and Silver Swan. Plus some less known ones, such as Blue Snowman, Eviless, and Zara,.
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But instead her copyright got stretched for 40 years. Strictly litterally speaking, we´re in the middle of the 40 years that were added, and 21 years away from WOnder Woman entering the public domain. Who knows what someone could have gone and invented in these nearly 20 years that the character has been under copyright? Perhaps those solo Wonder Woman movies, TV shows, videogames that Warner Bros has completely failed to deliver? Perhaps she could have been introduced in Marvel's stories and be joining the Avengers? Perhaps her villains might have their own comics. Blue Snowman? I'd buy it.
The potential for Wonder Woman in the public domain is always going to be larger than the limited capacity it could have under copyright. Would YOU like to take a stab at the Amazing Amazon? How? Share in below.
