James Gunn Promotes Kelly Sue DeConnick’s Wonder Woman Queer History Rewrite, Says It’s “Breathtaking” And “Beautiful”
JB Augustine
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Is the DCU in trouble — at least for Wonder Woman? No, we’re not talking about the mixed messages when it comes to Gal Gadot’s future, who was confirmed for a sequel and then not by Warner Bros. in the span of a day. Something else came up that possibly could portend where the Amazons of Paradise Island are headed as a whole in James Gunn’s universe.
Diana (Gal Gadot) prepares to harness the power of the Gods in Wonder Woman (2017), Warner Bros. Pictures via Blu-ray
It starts with Gunn himself and his giving of flowers so to speak, and flattery, to Kelly Sue DeConnick on X (the artist formerly known as Twitter). The filmmaker and DC Studio exec showcased a cover and some pages from DeConnick’s Wonder Woman graphic novel Historia: The Amazons, which retells their history, and morphs it into something readers don’t recognize.
“Historia is a breathtaking work of sequential art & one of the best things to come out of [DC] & comics in the past few years,” Gunn initially posted with the gallery. “Thank you to [Kelly Sue], [Phil Jimenez], [Gene Ha], & [Nicola Scott] for this incredible experience.” He finished that post with a link to Amazon, not DC.com or Universe Infinite, where the book is available.
Historia is a breathtaking work of sequential art & one of the best things to come out of @DCOfficial & comics in the past few years. Thank you to @kellysue, @Philjimeneznyc, @geneha, & @NicolaScottArt for this incredible experience. Get it here: https://t.co/6xzF1EDrTq pic.twitter.com/oPfBQBfohk
— James Gunn (@JamesGunn) August 15, 2023
A page that shows a sub-pantheon of mythic Greek goddesses accompanied by and adorned with occult symbols is included in the screenshots from Historia in Gunn’s post. Demeter’s serpent, Artemis’s antlers, and the witchlike Hecate are the most notable, but Aphrodite is also noteworthy. Not only is the depiction nude, but she is also a curvy woman of color.
DeConnick thanked Gunn for taking the time to praise and highlight pages of her and the rest’s work. “It’s incredibly kind of you to make the time to do this,” she replied. “Thank you.” He made more time and answered back, “It was kind of you to put some much heart into something so beautiful for us to enjoy!”
James Gunn comments on Kelly Sue DeConnick’s post via Twitter
Our readers may recall we reported on Historia two years ago when DC went behind the scenes and into DeConnick and Jimenez’s impetus for the book. She was very clear she wanted to reinterpret the Amazon mythology to suit today and current trends. “Because this is fiction…when we write about the past today, we’re not really writing about the past,” she said at the time.
“We’re writing about today,” she added. “There’s no point in making art about the past unless you’re using it to talk about the present or the future because the past is past.”.DeConnick also made it abundantly clear she is throwing some rules out because of her literary perspective on a bygone era, and because of how she wants to portray women.
Wonder Woman (Gal Gadot) makes a cameo appearance in Shazam! Fury of the Gods (2023), Warner Bros. Discovery
“I think there is a thing that happens sometimes when men are trying to celebrate women. And this happens sometimes when women are trying to celebrate women as well, but it happens a lot when men are trying to celebrate women,” she explained. “Women get put on a pedestal, in a way that suggests that women are just ‘better,’ right?”
She continued, “That they’re ‘more communal’ and ‘gentler,’ and ‘more nurturing.’ They’re not aggressive, like those ‘terrible, awful men’…And putting someone on a pedestal is just another way of putting them in a box. It’s not helpful. It’s limiting. It’s not equalizing. It continues to other us.” She then discussed assumptions made about women based on conceptions of communal societies.
Wonder Woman (Gal Gadot) lies defeated in Wonder Woman 1984 (2020), Warner Bros. Pictures
“So, the idea that a society of women would be more communal makes a lot of assumptions about women that are sort of essentialist, and really discounts how much of the way women are has to do with what women are asked or forced to do culturally,” she said in the end, leaving Historia’s artist Phil Jimenez to explain how Historia addresses queer culture.
“I love this work because it is, to me, clearly the work of a woman and maybe less clearly, but certainly I can see it, the work of a gay dude,” said Jimenez who was excited to be working on the project with DeConnick due to their mutual political ideals, which made it onto the page. “It’s all there,” he remarked.
Wonder Woman Historia: The Amazons #1 by Kelly Sue DeConnick and Phil Jimenez, DC Comics
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“I don’t think of it exclusively in terms of sexuality so much as the notion of the queering of the world,” Jimenez added, expounding on definitions. “I think of being queer as being anti-tradition, anti-patriarchal, as something that upends kind of a traditional and often conservative, regressive point of view. So, the way I use ‘queer’ is a huge part of it.”
DeConnick and Jimenez’s play on Wonder Woman’s encompassing mythos was released as a Black Label title, and one would think an Elseworlds one, but it may go further. Gunn’s one-off tribute could actually be sowing the seeds of a complete big-screen revamp in the DCU formed from Historia as a basis – whether wholly or piecemeal.
Nubia: Queen of the Amazons cover
Wonder Woman 3 is not 100 percent confirmed by WB, so it’s in doubt. However, James Gunn has announced one WW-adjacent project for his slate: Paradise Lost. A Max prequel series, it was described as “a Game of Thrones-type story about Themyscira” involving ”all of the darkness, drama, and political intrigue behind this society of only women.”
Gunn may lean into those elements and do something to change Diana Prince’s origin even if Gal Gadot stays attached. Should that be the case, she won’t be playing the DCEU version of her character according to a new rumor that ties all of this together. Scooper CanWeGetSomeToast claims Paradise Lost will change Diana’s origin again, and move away from the one established in 2018.
The MAX prequel show, #ParadiseLost, will change Gal Gadot’s #WonderWoman origins from Patty Jenkin’s first film. pic.twitter.com/RaWjUVnkz5
— CanWeGetSomeToast (@CanWeGetToast) August 13, 2023
“The MAX prequel show, [Paradise Lost], will change Gal Gadot’s [Wonder Woman] origins from Patty Jenkin’s first film,” Toast’s post said along with the cover for the Black Label graphic novel. CanWeGetSomeToast is considered a trusted source for rumors and has a fairly accurate track record, which means he could be on the money here.
Still, time has to tell if he’s right — for better or worse.
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