"Submission is Faith in the Strength of Others": Synthesizing Male and Female Aspects of War in Azzarello and Chiang's Wonder Woman

• In Brian Azzarello and Cliff Chiang’s recent six-volume "Wonder Woman" run, the eponymous character is obliged to take up the mantle of the God of War after the death of Ares and in the seeming-absence of Athena, and it is only by combining the attributes of both deities that she is able to prevail in both her new role and her battle with the First Born. This synthesis has several implications, foremost of which is the idea that the embodiment of war represents a series of seeming-oxymorons, with Diana’s ultimate refusal to save the First Born from what he characterises as a fate worse than death seen as an act of, as she puts it, 'Tough Love.' This is a synthesis of violence and mercy, and as such represents the aforementioned fusion of gender aspects and is an affirmation of the original ideas of Wonder Woman’s creator, William Moulton Marston, who believed that triumph could only be achieved within submission, an idea characterised by Diana herself as, 'Faith in the strength of others.' Finally, the trajectory of the heroic journey undertaken by central character of this set of tales hews closely to the monomythical pattern set out by Joseph Campbell in "The Hero with a Thousand Faces."

Ämnesord

HUMANIORA  -- Språk och litteratur (hsv//swe)

HUMANITIES  -- Languages and Literature (hsv//eng)

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Wonder Woman

Gender

Monomyth

Folklore

Graphic Novels

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