Of all the things Grant Morrison is famous for, the way he utilizes elements of a character's origin in a current story is probably what makes his writing most recognizable. Morrison goes to the "root" of a character not only to get a better understanding of him or her, but also to craft a story that deals with details of what made the character who they are in their present incarnation. He uses their history to distinguish who they are. Morrison very sucessfully did this when he wrote All-Star Superman and Batman, R.I.P., so people were not the least bit surprised when the writer revealed that Wonder Woman would be his next challenge. Back in 2009, Morrison revealed that Wonder Woman is the one character he would most like to tackle and that he hopes he would have an opportunity to "redefine what she stands for and what she's capable of as a character." Since, however, there hasn't been much word on Morrison's ties to Diana. Until now.
In a recent interview at the Edinburgh Book Festival Morrison revealed his plans for Wonder Woman as well as the kind of research he had to do in order to get a full grasp on feminist concepts that inherently relate to the character.
== TEASER ==But I think I've found a way to get all that back in again but it took a lot of reading. This has been the hardest project I've ever done. I had to read feminist theory all the way through, from Simone De Beauvoir to Andrea Dworkin and apply it to this character. And to try and do something that incorporated those ideas but completely took them in a different direction. So I mean beyond that I'll say, Wonder Woman needs sex definitely because you know, again as I said in the book, they kind of transformed her into a cross between the Virgin Mary and Mary Tyler Moore. This girl scout who had no sexuality at all and the character's never quite worked since then.
Morrison brings up an interesting point. Should Wonder Woman have to sacrifice her femininity and sexuality in order to be a strong woman? Can she be both? According to the writer, removing any trace of her sexuality is partially the "root" of the problem.
...you could take out the murder element of Superman and Batman and the strips still worked. But when you took the sex out of Wonder Woman, the thing went flat. And the sales died immediately after Marston himself died and never ever recovered....In the way that Superman's supposed to stand for men but at least he's allowed to have some kind of element of sexuality, Wonder Woman is expected to stand for women without any element of sexuality, and that seems wrong...I started looking at trying to do a Wonder Woman that brought back some of these elements but without it being prurient or exploitative.
It's certainly an interesting perspective, and it certainly sounds like a challenge. Morrison also stated that he doesn't want to reveal too much as he hopes the series would be released within the coming year, but he's already revealed plenty about the direction in which he would like to take the character in his book: back to her roots; back to William Marston. What do you think of Morrison's idea for a Wonder Woman book? Is it something you would be interested in reading?
Source: Comicbookgrrrl