I've been thinking about Wonder Woman...

Primarily that she doesn't get the love she plainly deserves. She gets none of her rich history explored and definitely doesn't get her godhood acknowledged.

I have yet to see how she's going on the screen in Batman V Superman but I'm willing to bet they're going to get it all wrong.

And let's face it. The last attempt at a television series with her failed abominably, and I know why. They gave her the Batman treatment.

If I was doing Wonder Woman (either for a TV series or for the silver screen) I would not go directly to wealthy and powerful. I would start with the hidden island of Themyscira and a little glimpse into a society made entirely of lesbians. Thanks to satellite technology, it's pretty impossible to have a hidden island, so of course magical juju is allowed. These ladies have figured out the secret to godlike powers and know that they are not meant for the hands of man... yet.

They've been watching us.

Diana absolutely must be a body builder. Someone tall and powerful. Someone you could believe could call lightning from the sky but chooses not to. [If I could pick a young Lucy Lawless, I would] But I would also like to pick a Woman of Colour because Themyscira has evolved past judging people by the colour of their skins.

I want her to tower over most men. And yes, put this tall woman in heels, but the practical kind of heels that a lady can run and fight in.

Enter Some Dude[too lazy to look up his name TBH], blablabla. Instead of "using him" as her mothers/friends suggest, she sneaks him out and helps him home, but on the way, he tells her how messed up the world is and they need a hero. Diana states that her people don't meddle and goes home. But she's still curious and consults the Oracles about what could happen if she doesn't go out and save the world.

We never see what she sees, thanks to the oracle. But we know it's terrible because she finds it horrible. She girds on her very practical, Greek-style armour, including a breastplate with the traditional double doubleyou... and steals a golden lariat from the armoury.

She could have chosen anything. Swords, pikes, halberds, morning-stars, but she picks the lariat. Why?

She'll say it later in the movie: “We have a saying, my people. ‘Don’t kill if you can wound, don’t wound if you can subdue, don’t subdue if you can pacify, and don’t raise your hand at all until you’ve first extended it.” [Quote care of punlich via Tumblr]

That quote should be the core of her fighting/confrontation style. First, an attempt to talk them down. When they escalate, she defends. When it's clear that they will not stop, she stops them. But never to the point of death.

Wonder Woman should get the Thor treatment. Stranger in a strange land. Her customs and culture clashing with the culture of the US. I definitely want a scene with this Greek Goddess versus cat-callers... doing the things all ladies wish they could do to them.

The issue of a secret identity may or may not come up, but the aforementioned Some Dude -appointed as her liaison- tries to argue with some other army dudes about making her blend in.

"She's a walking force of nature. What are you going to do next? Camouflage a tornado?"

And of course, somewhere in the third act [or series 1 cliff-hanger] it's revealed that she loses a majority of her power when she's captured by, or tied up with, her lariat.

Yeah, she walks around with her own personal kryptonite and uses it against bad guys. Beat that, Superman.

And just as the token baddie thinks they've won, Wonder Woman employs her wits to escape and save the world. Tah-dah.

For an ongoing series, I'd love for Diana to have Your Grandma levels of difficulty with technology as we know it. The flip being that she's used to much more advanced stuff at home.

[True story: Beloved and I were once messing around with some iPods in an Apple store, and I was trying to make the first iPod work by tapping the screen. This is how time travellers will fuck up, folks.]

As for her secret identity? It might... evolve. Put her in flats (for what little that's worth) and move the hair to a ponytail/braid at the nape of her neck rather than the updo for WW. Maybe have her teaching defence to regular women. It would be hard to hide all that muscle, so why not flaunt it?

And for a continuing series - why not lampshade the MRA's and highlight how ridiculous they really are. And show the ladies how to effectively hold their own. No strawmen here. Actual arguments (or techniques) that can be used in the real world.

Let's do something good with this.