Phil Jimenez on BMWW

Gotta love this fan art work by Theva!

DC hasn’t catered to BMWW lately (as in, almost none at all), but for many BMWW fans, the sparks are still there. And when a writer the caliber of Phil Jimenez professed his undying love to BMWW (well, at least their friendship, if not romance), a BMWW fan cannot help but swoon and drool. Special thanks to my friend DaisyJane at www.batmanwonderwoman.com for posting the original article.

Phil Jimenez was actually responding to a post on the Nu 52 Wonder Woman (that I’ve never read due to limited comic access and my anger on DC’s treatment to Diana). Laura Sneddon wrote the post; some people responded to it, including Phil and artist Mindy Newell. The whole interaction can be found here. But I have two things I’d like to highlight in this post. First, is Phil’s description of Wonder Woman, which I think encompasses it all:

While I am far more intrigued by a Batman/Wonder Woman pairing than a Superman/Batman pairing (and boy, have female readers gone after me for that over the years, citing Batman’s near insanity and misogyny over the years as totally incongruous with Wonder Woman’s romantic ideals), it must be said that while she doesn’t have to be “super good,” she IS good, and that good is okay.

Good doesn’t mean “not flawed.” It simply means that Wonder Woman, like Superman, is relatively incorruptible. We’ve seen her quick to anger, jealous, sad, make mistakes, be naïve, etc. – all very human mistakes. But she works far less well, as both character and as icon, when one tries to bring her humanity into sociopathic territory. She is good, she represents good, and that’s okay. I think the tendency to rail against “good heroes” says much more about the inherent distrust and resentment readers have toward such behavior than the characters themselves. Many of my fellow creators are in agreement that one of the things that makes Wonder Woman terrific is that when she walks into a room, her very spirit makes you want to be better; makes you want to be good, and do good, for yourself and for those around you. Her innate goodness matters because, in play, it inspires others to greater goodness. And if you’ve ever been with someone who does that (and I have), you know how potent a power that truly is.

Bold sentences are my own emphasize. See how deep Phil Jimenez understands WW? Unlike that Brian Azzarello who keeps butchering the Amazonian myth… grumble grumble grumble…

And next, is what Phil thinks of Batman and Wonder Woman. Or, why Diana is so important to Bruce Wayne the Batman.

Indeed, it’s Diana’s goodness that appeals to Batman so. During Infinite Crisis, Greg Rucka and I were in agreement that Batman was devastated by Diana’s murder/assassination of Maxwell Lord. He wasn’t angered, but he was desperately saddened; Batman saw Diana as a beacon of light and hope and if even she could be corrupted by the world of man, if even this spirit of light could be reduced to such action, then what hope did Gotham City have? What hope did he have? Of course, the editorial waters got quite muddied, and motivation was never agreed upon behind the scenes, but I know that for many creators I’ve spoken to, it’s Diana’s goodness… even her super goodness, regardless of her flaws – that make her such a potent character, and a potent source of energy and hope to characters like Batman.

I cannot tell you how GLAD I am to read that Phil and Greg Rucka are in agreement of how to interpret Bruce’s anger towards Diana in WW vol 2 # 220. Greg Rucka’s agreement is very important here because he co-authored the whole Sacrifice story arc (see this for the Sacrifice aftermath 101). 

 

WW #220 p 22 (by Greg Rucka)

The Batman/Wonder Woman ‘Get out’ scene in WW 220 was very famous and have made non BMWW sneered at us. To them, that scene was a testament of how bad Bruce treats Diana. Diana had killed Max Lord to save the world (including Batman) from a mind-controlled Superman. But Bruce just kicked her out of his cave like that. Whereas, Bruce’s favourite Catwoman killed Black Mask and Bruce didn’t even blink when he forgave her (yes, I love Selina Kyle, but I just don’t think BMCW works in the long run. They’re just going to self-destruct each other).

WW #220 p 23 (by Greg Rucka)

But I always interpreted that scene as Bruce being angry because Diana ‘has fallen’ to the level of normal human. As I wrote in another post (which had become quite popular, actually), Diana is Bruce’s beacon of hope, his benchmark for everything good in life. If that beacon, that benchmark is ‘corrupted’, Bruce feels, thinks that nothing could save him anymore. Such is Diana's importance for Bruce, that he cannot bear to think of her as being 'corrupted' by the act of killing Max Lord.

For that very reason, don’t you think this BMWW fangirl deserves to enjoy her swooning tonight?