Unpublished conference/Abstract (Scientific congresses and symposiums)
Rebooting Wonder Woman and You're Not DC Comics: Gender and the History of Comics in Ron Regé, Jr.'s Diana
Crucifix, Benoît
2016Journée d'étude internationale Les Femmes et la bande dessinée / Women and Comics
 

Files


Full Text
journee-d-etude-internationale.pdf
Publisher postprint (31.4 kB)
Download

All documents in ORBi are protected by a user license.

Send to



Details



Keywords :
Comics studies; Wonder Woman; Regé, Jr., Ron; Gender
Abstract :
[en] With its long serial history and in its various reboots, Wonder Woman has successively and/or simultaneously functioned as a super-heroic icon for feminism and as a sex symbol objectified by the “male gaze.” Her body has always been a site of contention for the complicated place of women within comics culture, and her story is not only that of DC to tell, but also that of her fans, readers, and cartoonists, who have been writing their own versions of the character. This paper zooms in on one particular instance that not only revisits the story of the character, but also its history as a cultural object. Ron Regé, Jr.'s self-published Diana is an adaptation of Marston and Peter's 1943-1944 newspaper strips retelling Wonder Woman's origin story in a highly respectful homage to its creators. Regé's Diana reads as an explicit attempt to reclaim attention for the original comics of Marston and Peter as well as the biographies of their creators: the inside covers sum up Marston's life as a psychiatrist, feminist and polyamorist, and further posits Wonder Woman as a feminist superhero that needs to be reinvigorated today. Redrawing the origin story of Wonder Woman both as fictional character and cultural object becomes for Regé an act of dissent from DC Comics's New 52 reboot and its ‘counter-feminist’ revision of the character's origin story. This act simultaneously tunes in with a sudden public attention in 2014 for the historical origins of Wonder Woman and its feminist genealogies, most notably through the success of Jill Lepore's The Secret History of Wonder Woman. By drawing from the serial archive of the character, Regé draws attention to the gendered dynamic of remembering and forgetting that underwrites the history of comics.
Research center :
ACME
Disciplines :
Literature
Author, co-author :
Crucifix, Benoît ;  Université de Liège > Département de langues et littératures romanes > Département de langues et littératures romanes
Language :
English
Title :
Rebooting Wonder Woman and You're Not DC Comics: Gender and the History of Comics in Ron Regé, Jr.'s Diana
Publication date :
02 June 2016
Event name :
Journée d'étude internationale Les Femmes et la bande dessinée / Women and Comics
Event organizer :
Département d'anglais de l'UPJV et laboratoire CORPUS
Event place :
Amiens, France
Event date :
2 juin 2016
Audience :
International
Name of the research project :
Histories of Comics by its Authors: the Graphic Novel and its Heritage, from 1980 to the present
Funders :
F.R.S.-FNRS - Fonds de la Recherche Scientifique [BE]
Available on ORBi :
since 03 June 2016

Statistics


Number of views
241 (8 by ULiège)
Number of downloads
135 (3 by ULiège)

Bibliography


Similar publications



Contact ORBi