Let's talk about Wonder Woman!

Our first real and actual Wonder Woman movie is on the immediate horizon, and I gotta tell you, Internets, I am looking very, very forward to it. My reasons are much the same as a lot of other women in SFdom my age—we want to see a female-led superhero film; we want to see DC movies start stepping up to the plate as well as Marvel; and most of all, it’s about freggin’ time that Wonder Woman, long one of the three big DC superheroes along with Batman and Superman, gets her own film.

A lot of folks had Lynda Carter’s Wonder Woman on TV in the 1970s as their first exposure to the character. I am no exception, though I have no real memory of regularly following the show. Mostly I knew it was there, since it sometimes showed up in syndication on our local channels. It took until the 90s, when DC’s excellent animated continuity showed up in the cartoons for Batman, Superman, Justice League, and Justice League Unlimited, for me to really get a Wonder Woman I took to hard. Diana in that continuity was excellent, and some of my favorite moments with the character are in fact from those shows.

I have a clearer memory of Wonder Woman in, of all things, the Superfriends cartoons. Those, unlike the live-action show, were on my radar more often just because I was more likely to be watching TV on a Saturday morning back in the 70s and early 80s. Looking back on it now, I’m pretty sure she didn’t make an impact on me at the time—women in the Superfriends were pretty thin on the ground and I don’t remember the Superfriends iteration of Wondy doing much other than flying around in her invisible jet. Nevertheless, she was there, an early precedent for me to use later, when I was on the lookout for prominent female characters in animation. (Princess in Battle of the Planets and Lisa Hayes in Robotech, I am looking straight at you.)

Now, no matter how you slice it, the Superfriends were pretty silly. DC’s animation game kicked up considerably later on, though. I must give a shoutout to the full-length animated film (titled simply Wonder Woman) that came out in 2009, which I jumped on in no small part because Nathan Fillion voices Steve Trevor in it. And like many a geek, I do love me some Nathan Fillion. <3 The film’s an origin story, but it does well, and by the time it came out I knew enough about Wonder Woman’s backstory that I recognized the basic elements. (Like, say, Steve Trevor; I may not have active memories of the 70’s TV show, but I’m pretty sure I must have watched it anyway, because that’s the most likely source for me having that name in the back of my head.)

Let me also call attention to the 2008 film Justice League: The New Frontier. Another origin story, this time mostly for Green Lantern in particular and the Justice League in general, but it too has some wonderful Diana mileage in it. (And I gotta note as well, looking this film up again to double-check details about it, it’s particularly excellent that Lucy Lawless is the voice of Diana. How appropriate is that? :D )

What I lack, though, is grounding in the character’s actual line of comics. I’ve been dabbling in female-led Marvel titles in the last few years, and I have had half an eye on DC as well, enough to see glimmers of potential in some of the more recent Wonder Woman storylines. With the movie about to drop, I’m thinking it’s about time I investigated those titles.

Any fans of Wonder Woman’s recent comic stories out there? Got any recommendations for me?

If you didn’t discover the character via comics, what were your first memories of the character in mass media? Was Lynda Carter your Wonder Woman? Or did you discover her in animated form?

And if, like me, you have a soft spot for Greek mythology, how does that play into your knowledge of the character?

Share your Diana stories in the comments!

--

Angela is not an Amazon, but boy howdy is she looking forward to seeing Wonder Woman Amazon it up this weekend. In the meantime, come say hi to Angela on her site at angelahighland.com, on Facebook, or on Twitter! Particularly after she posts her inevitable review of the movie.

Becoming the Heroine I Want to Be in the World

As I settle into cleaning up the detritus from celebrating Christmas with my family, and turn my thoughts to clearing the mental decks for the new year, it’s interesting to see THE EDGE OF THE BLADE release today.

It’s unusual to have a book release so late in the year—kind of a vagary of traditional publishing schedules—but that’s not what’s on my mind so much. No, instead I’m thinking about the year ahead and the challenges it poses.

Usually my new year’s resolutions are all about me. What I want and need to change in my own life. The inevitable paring down of the diet to include fewer cookies, less wine and ... well, less food, full stop. There’s always my setting of writing and reading goals. This year I hope to wrestle some of the finances into obedience. 

But this year, I’m thinking about the larger world, too. One of the outcomes of the U.S. Presidential election is that I’ve had more conversations about politics in the last two months than I remember *ever* having. What’s going on here reflects what’s going on in the larger world, with frightening destruction by terrorist and totalitarian regimes—and the election of ultra-conservative governments in response to that fear.

A lot of my thoughts about what I want and need from the coming year have to do with how I will handle what may come.

So, it’s interesting to have Jepp’s book release right now.

Jepp isn’t a hero. Not exactly. She does what she needs to do in the moment. She is essentially fearless, has depthless confidence in her ability to fight off the worst to come at her—and she stands up for what is right. What she values most is simple and straightforward: the freedom to be who you are and do what you want to with your own life.

She’s a person who fights without hesitation for herself and for others.

It turns out to be fitting, then, that she’s essentially launching this new year for me. I want to recapture what living in her head was like. Having her courage, her confidence, yes, but also her fierce lust for life. She finds everyone beautiful. She enjoys every moment to the utmost. She loves, deeply and without shame or regret.

Maybe she is the hero I’d like to be. Wishing you all a peaceful and enriching end to the year. More, I’m wishing you all courage, fortitude and joy to carry into the new year.


  THE EDGE OF THE BLADE

A HAWK’S PLEDGE 

The Twelve Kingdoms rest uneasy under their new High Queen, reeling from civil war and unchecked magics. Few remember that other powers once tested their borders—until a troop of foreign warriors emerges with a challenge . . . 

 Jepp has been the heart of the queen’s elite guard, her Hawks, since long before war split her homeland. But the ease and grace that come to her naturally in fighting leathers disappears when battles turn to politics. When a scouting party arrives from far-away Dasnaria, bearing veiled threats and subtle bluffs, Jepp is happy to let her queen puzzle them out while she samples the pleasures of their prince’s bed.

But the cultural norms allow that a Dasnarian woman may be wife or bed-slave, never her own leader—and Jepp’s light use of Prince Kral has sparked a diplomatic crisis. Banished from court, she soon becomes the only envoy to Kral’s strange and dangerous country, with little to rely on but her wits, her knives—and the smolder of anger and attraction that burns between her and him . . .

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Three reasons why I love Supergirl

Here's a thing about being a writer that I daresay all my fellow writers can appreciate, and which readers may not know:

If you've got to work on your own creative output, this often means you don't have as much time for anybody else's.

You get behind on your reading, on going to movies, and on television shows. Particularly if you also have a full-time day job, or if you're also a parent needing to take care of children, or all of the above. In my case I've got the full-time day job, which means I spend a good bit of my evenings and weekends trying to muster enough brain to put words into manuscripts. So my available bandwidth for watching television is limited.

But every so often I'll make an exception. Historically my exceptions have been Doctor Who (albeit with a somewhat fractious relationship, last couple of seasons) and Castle (on which I've fallen significantly behind, enough that I'm still well over a season behind just in time for the show getting cancelled).

Much more recently, though, I've been delighted to jump on watching Supergirl. I haven't been able to watch it as it's aired, but I did buy a Season Pass to season 1, and have been actively working to catch up. And since the news went around yesterday that the show has been officially renewed, I wanted to talk a bit about why exactly this show has delighted me, how it ties in with what I like to read and write about, and why I'll definitely be on board for Season 2.

1. Supergirl demonstrates that superhero stories do not have to be so unremittingly dark.

I've been hugely disappointed with reports that the recent DC movies have been so grim and unpleasant. But thankfully, they're not extending that to their television properties. My household has very much appreciated the brighter, more upbeat tone of The Flash--and I've very, very much appreciated that Supergirl in particular is a burst of sunshine. There's action, serious plot threads, and high emotion, absolutely--but there's a difference between "intense action" and "a world so bleak and grim that it's decidedly unpleasant to watch".

Likewise, this is something I try to accomplish in my writing. At the end of the day, even if I put my characters through the wringer during the course of a plot, I want them to come out the other side with something to be hopeful about. I want there to be brightness in their world.

2. Supergirl shows us that having superpowers is pretty freggin' amazing.

I've seen more than one movie review and more than one pop culture article talk about "superhero fatigue". With that kind of a reaction out there, it's very easy to become jaded about "oh look yawn another superhero television show". One of the things I've really loved about this show, though, is how much simple, outright joy Kara has in her abilities. Ability to fly? Ability to catch bullets with your bare hands? Ability to shoot lasers out of your eyes? Awesome.

And even more importantly, Kara takes immense joy in being able to use her abilities to help others. Seeing how splendidly Melissa Benoist portrays Kara's emotional investment in her powers goes a long, long way to getting me emotionally invested in what she's doing with them.

When I write, whether it's my girl Kendis going holy crap I can do magic or Faanshi finding that for her, the correct course of action is to heal and protect rather than harm and kill, I try to give my characters a similar emotional investment. If I want my readers to have a sense of wonder about what I'm writing, my thought is, I need to have my characters have a sense of wonder about what they're experiencing, too.

3. Supergirl has multiple excellent female characters.

Quite a bit has already been written about how feminist a show Supergirl is. For me as a viewer, what establishes this is not only that it's a female-led show, but that it's also got so many excellent female characters in varying positions of power and with various types of relationships with each other. Kara has a beautiful relationship with her adoptive sister Alex, and an interesting, complex relationship with Cat Grant as well. (Sidebar: how very, very awesome is Cat? She gets all the very best lines.)

We also get interesting female supporting characters. Lucy Lane initially came in as romantic rival, sure--but I've very much appreciated how this season has given her more depth than that, showing us her relationship with James from her point of view as well as eventually resolving the triangle in a way that didn't demean her as a character. We've also gotten a good solid political figure in Senator Crane, who initially showed up on the "GRR ALIENS" bandwagon, but who turns out to be more sympathetic than that.

And of course there's also Alura, Kara's aunt, whose backstory with Kara plays off dramatically against her plans for the earth. Her presence in this plotline not only sets off conflict for Kara herself, but also conflict between Kara and the rest of the cast.

Plus, it has not escaped my notice that this show puts multiple female characters into positions of power. Kara and Cat are the two main obvious power players, Kara with her actual superpowers and Cat by virtue of being the splendid media power figure that she is. But Alex and Lucy both have their shots at leading the DEO. The aforementioned Senator Crane is another woman in a position of power, and Alura serves as the primary protagonist through much of the season. Additionally, we get a couple of fun supervillains in Livewire and Silver Banshee.

And if all of that weren't enough, I've also seen some very tasty talk about the show courting Lynda Carter to play the President in Season 2. President Wonder Woman, you guys. <3 She'd certainly get my vote.

Why is this important to me? Because I am a woman--and because we're still living in a world where women have to fight to defend their place in the SF/F genre in general and in superhero stories in particular.

In my own writing, I try for having a similar breadth of female character representation--and yeah, I'm prone to putting women in positions of power as well. There are reasons that the major magical power figures in the Free Court books, the Warder First of Seattle and the Queens of the Seelie and Unseelie Courts, are female. Likewise, the major magic users and the major political power figures in the Rebels books are women.

And in closing...

I could say a lot more about why I've loved this show to bits so far, and why I'll definitely be on board for Season 2, even as the show moves over to the CW and to filming in Vancouver. Suffice to say, though, it's just been a joy to see a story that not only tries to go to places I do myself as a writer--but which also is a sheer pleasure to experience.

And c'mon, how can I not love a girl who loves ice cream?

How about you? Are you watching Supergirl? Are you on board for Season 2? Talk to me in the comments!

--
Angela writes the Free Court of Seattle urban fantasy series as Angela Korra'ti, and the Rebels of Adalonia high fantasy trilogy as Angela Highland. Come say hi to her at angelahighland.com, or on Facebook or Twitter!

Loving the Superheroine

When I first saw this amazing cover, I felt an actual, physical chill.

It was everything I could have hoped for - my warrior princess's thousand-yard stare, the golden glow and a great big freaking sword.

OMG YES YES YES.

I was so thrilled, I called in my guy, David, and bounced happily as I showed him. He said, "there's no way she could swing a sword that big."

Oh, yeah - that annoyed me no end.

I should caveat at this point and say that David is a wonderful man. We've been together nearly 25 years and there's a reason I always put him in my Acknowledgements as the one who makes everything possible. He's a nurturing person, fair-minded and always supportive of everything I do. He also studied Kung Fu alongside me for 15 years and has decidedly strong opinions on the topic of what women fighters can and cannot do.

Which is all fair enough. A lot of Ursula's perspective on fighting and training is informed by those same considerations. I have a pretty good idea of what I can and can't do physically, especially if confronted by a male opponent.

Except this is fiction. And yes, I did tartly ask, "Does it help to know she's not fully human?"

Of course he backpedaled and felt bad for raining on my cover parade. He also doesn't read my books - or really any fiction - and I'm good with that. I also forgave him because I know that what he said was his knee-jerk, programmed response and not how he came to think about it after some discussion.

But it's salient that this is so culturally ingrained in us. We see male action heroes accomplishing the impossible ALL THE TIME. We expect it. Of course Indiana Jones can outrun a boulder despite all laws of physics! Can David Banner become a giant green monster that busts all clothing except his short pants? Why yes! Can Bruce Wayne pour bucket loads of money into technology to make himself a superhero with no supernatural abilities? SAVE US, BATMAN!!

Sure, we can pick apart the ways that our disbelief isn't *entirely* suspended. The Hulk's pants, right? Still, I'd lay money down that David would not have looked at a cover with a man holding a great big sword and immediately assessed whether he thought the guy could swing it. Because men are completely accustomed to fantasizing themselves as superheroes. Which usually includes saving the beautiful princess and winning her body, if not her love.

In this case, I wanted the fantasy of the superheroine. She's not screaming shrilly waiting for Indy to come save her. She's supernaturally fast and strong.

She has a big freaking sword and she knows how to use it.

The Talon of the Hawk

Read an Excerpt

A HEAVY CROWN
Three daughters were born to High King Uorsin, in place of the son he wanted. The youngest, lovely and sweet. The middle, pretty and subtle, with an air of magic. And the eldest, the Heir. A girl grudgingly honed to leadership, not beauty, to bear the sword and honor of the king.
Ursula’s loyalty is as ingrained as her straight warrior’s spine. She protects the peace of the Twelve Kingdoms with sweat and blood, her sisters from threats far and near. And she protects her father to prove her worth. But she never imagined her loyalty would become an open question on palace grounds. That her father would receive her with a foreign witch at one side and a hireling captain at the other-that soldiers would look on her as a woman, not as a warrior. She also never expected to decide the destiny of her sisters, of her people, of the Twelve Kingdoms and the Thirteenth. Not with her father still on the throne and war in the air. But the choice is before her. And the Heir must lead…

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Available May 26, 2015

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