this post contains spoilers for WONDER WOMAN
Despite Wonder Woman firmly placing itself in the annals of cinematic superheroes and becoming something of a zeitgest film of this ilk, it’s not adored by everyone which is perfectly fine. Nothing is. Like what you like. There is however a contigent of detractors who lay at Wonder Woman’s feet a criticism I find to be rather surface level — it’s comparisons to MARVEL’s Captain America: The First Avenger from 2011.
I like smart film criticism, and I like cinematic debates. This piece is in no way to attack those people that dislike Wonder Woman as there certainly are some issues (*cough* that final fight *cough*) this article is to merely present those who continually point vaguely to Captain America with a different view that I feel nullifies that aspect of critique and maybe make them see the film in a different light.
So without further ado.
A WORLD AT WAR
So often the first and most general criticism of Wonder Woman in comparison to Captain America: The First Avenger is the fact that they both take place during a World War. This criticism however I feel, belies a misunderstanding of just how vastly different, ideologically and historically the two World Wars were and how they thematically tie to the two characters different stories.
The first world war, was pure senselessness. Ego built the great war, rapid naval and colonial expanses led to a drive and competition of conquest. Treaties and alliances were formed that wound Europe so tight and layered nations like a house of cards that when a gust of wind from Sarajevo came, everything folded. What’s more it was on a scale that none could ever possibly have imagined before. It was a different and unfathomable kind of warfare, one exacerbated by the striking advance in technology. Man’s ingenuity knows no bounds when it comes to killing another.
This is the conflict that Diana steps into, one that could only be reasoned with by having it be the cause of an outside force like Ares. A scale unheard of before then, a generation lost, a complete misguided leadership on both sides – a war of apathy and attrition. All of this serves for Diana’s role and her view of man. It also legitimises her mission and the belief that her antagonist lies at the end of it, also more literally a battleground with a stretch of terrain called No Man’s Land in which soliders either side are too disheartened to even attempt to cross calls out for Wonder Woman to incite passion and progress and lead them over the top.
Captain America: The First Avenger however deals with something very different. Steve Rogers is as he will always seem to be, driven to stand up for the little guy. He is a simple and wholesome ideal of the romanticised time in America he’s from. Steve Rogers is a member of The Greatest Generation, a termed coined by journalist Tom Brokaw in his book of the same name about those men and women who grew up in the great depression and then went through WWII – underaking this task because it was “the right thing to do”. It is this factor of his character that is key, because more important than his participation in the Second World War is Captain America’s acclimatisation to the world after it, when he wakes up a soldier out of time.
He had to come from WWII. It was the last universally clear cut conflict in modern history – the Vietnam War 10 years later ending up as a massacre for political expediency rather than a fight for a wholesome cause to believe in. So when Captain America awakes in 2012, a world of moral greys where the values and ideals for which many had fought and died had been forgotton the impact of his situation and the world he finds himself in tears at his moral and personal fabric.
RAG-TAG RUFFIANS
Typical of war stories, both Wonder Woman and Captain America: The First Avenger see a group of rag-tag Dirty Dozen like band of soliders aiding our hero. While The Howling Commandos are the only group with their roots firmly in the comics, I feel that makes their forgetfulness all the more significant. For me, short of Dum-Dum none of them particularly stand out or feel like characters, again I find them more interesting in Agent Carter episode 5 The Iron Ceiling where Peggy meets up and leads them in the field, an episode which contains this great exchange:
Dum-Dum Dugan: What would Cap say if I left his best girl behind?
Peggy Carter: He’d say “Do as Peggy says”.
It might be by virtue of the fact we get to spend more time with Steve’s backup and the story allows for them to breathe and to talk and become compelling. They’re there to serivce theme as well, there is perhaps no more disheartening moment of truth spoken than when Chief talks about the last war taking everything from his people and Diana asking who took that from them only for him to indicate to Steve and say his people.
They are more affected by our hero, Steve Trevors team are broken and apethetic men in need of inspiring. Wonder Woman gives them that. It’s more a pro-active realtionship than the Commando’s and the trials they face, the perspective they develop and how they’re galvanised is a microcosm of Diana and the world.
The Howling Commando’s don’t have that, they have a bowler hat (and we all know a Fez beats a Bowler)
SACRIFICING STEVE
Now even I will concede that this point certainly has merit, but the reason I don’t feel as though the Steve sacrific being similar to the Steve sacrifice in The First Avenger is and issue is that truthfully only one actually affected me. Now I love the Steve and Peggy relationship in the MCU, but everything I love about it comes afterwards in Agent Carter and The Winter Soldier — in Captain America: The First Avenger I’m not nearly half as compelled or invested in it.
It’s also interesting to note that Captain America could itself be accused of lifting that ending from the beginning of JJ Abram’s Star Trek in which another attractive Chris, crashes his craft sacrificing himself for his love – blimey, this is a weird triumvirate of instances.
The thing that then has to be spoken about is how effective it was executed. Star Trek still holds the top spot because I cared more about Kirk’s parents and the USS Kelvin who I literally just met than I did Steve and Peggy who I had spent the whole run time with and so too was I moved more by Trevor’s sacrifice in Wonder Woman, maybe it was because his death spurred our lead into further action, maybe it was because we had spent the whole film with these two characters as opposed to a subplot we return to or maybe Captain America: The First Avenger's end was diminised because it was a known outcome from the beginning, his sacrifice is a required prologue to his further story.
_________________________________________________________________________________
Like I said at the beginning of this article, I have absolutely no issues with whether you liked, loved or hated either Wonder Woman or Captain America: The First Avenger for whatever reason, sometimes things don't work for you and sometimes things don't bother you - that's life and objectively recognising something is bad doesn't diminish ones subjective ability to enjoy it. This piece was simply and analysis of certain areas of both films, and a response to criticisms I personally find baseless.
I hope you enjoyed it, and feel free to comment below.