It's Only the End if You Want it to Be

muttluver:

steve-garcia-art:

taken from the source, instead of reddit, second set soon

*screaming squeal*

These are beautiful.

Random DC icons!

trinity appreciation post #1
urgh these three slay me, they do
look at them: kicking ass, sparring while talking about their babies, becoming gods together, trolling each other at weddings, hugging at funerals, teasing each other about their civilian identities 
just … their friendship is so damn beautiful
i swear i was going to write something coherent 
basically i love these three and the ~polyamorous platonic life partners~ thing they have going on and i want to smush their faces together but not in a romantic sense 

This is legitimately one of the best photosets ever. <3

I love how strong the friendship was between these characters. Not just how much they trusted and respected each other - which is completely true - but that they also genuinely had fun together. They made each other smile, they teased one another, they had personal in-jokes. Yes, even Bruce, who everyone likes to characterize as some kind of emotionless robot. These characters were true friends in every sense. They not only had huge respect for each other, they also loved each other deeply and enjoyed being together.

I love them so much. <3

A photoset for the Donna in my life, aka toalwaysbeme.

Happy birthday, sweetheart.

You know, “the Donna in my life” isn’t just something I call you - you truly epitomize all of the qualities that Donna Troy stands for: grace, strength, generosity, class, and above all, an incredibly loving heart. You are an amazing friend to me and so many others, and truly worthy of Donna Troy’s name.

So to celebrate your birthday, I collected some of my all-time favorite Donna Troy moments. (Clearly, I favor feels over action - but then, I know you’re like-minded.)

I hope you like it, hon!

ok but why there are only non-canon ships here, like where is katexrenee

Because “Galentine’s Day” is about celebrating your female friends, not your significant other. Therefore the relationships shown in this photoset are friendships and not (canonically) romantic relationships.

I’m pretty sure that’s what Sara was thinking when she made this, anyway.

(Source: queenmera)

Inspired by a conversation I had with yurblecryingalonewithcomicbooks earlier tonight (er… this morning?)

A Partial List of People to Ship Wonder Woman With (Who Are Not Superman or Batman):

1) Artemis of Bana-Mighdall

2) Dinah Laurel Lance/Black Canary

3) Steve Trevor

4) Tom Tresser/Nemesis

5) Zola

(Am I the only one who thinks Diana has a thing for blondes? I mean, seriously…)

“Whatever happens… now or in the future… we’ll be together till the end of time.” ~ Wonder Woman #329

More of Diana & Steve through the years.

You know, it’s funny… I never had any strong feelings about WW ships (other than the fact that I think her relationships with Clark and Bruce should be left platonic), but somewhere along the way I just really fell in love with these two. I love that he’s just so in awe of how amazing she is, and he never feels threatened by it or wishes she was less than what she is, and I love that she doesn’t care that he’s just a “normal” guy, because she considers him her equal in every way that counts. There’s just something so refreshing about that, IMO.

First kisses, and kisses through the years.

(Okay, in all honesty, that is not Steve and Diana’s first kiss. I looked and looked and couldn’t seem to find it, so eventually I gave in and just chose a random cute Golden Age moment. So sue me, it’s my photoset. xD)

What’s interesting to me is that Lois and Clark’s first kiss happened the same year as Bruce and Selina’s (1940), and yet the former wasn’t allowed to be shown on-panel, while the latter was. Not really sure what’s up with that, except that apparently Bruce gets to make his own rules because he’s Batman. It is amusing to me how squeaky-clean comics were back then, though. To the point that even showing a kiss on-panel was considered controversial.

I like how you can almost see the relationships evolving over time as you look from scene to scene. (In particular, watch how Bruce’s body language changes over the course of the three pictures. But all of them, really. I love how much you can see about a relationship just from little details like that.)

This one is for Mary, aka therearecertainshadesoflimelight, who loves all three of these relationships. I hope you like it, hon! :-)

Donna Troy and her friends/family. (Yes, Roy has sometimes been more than a friend - but they are best friends first and foremost.)

I really wanted to include Garth in here, BTW, to have the full Fab Five, but for some reason I couldn’t find any good moment to use. What is up with that? /Poor Garth.

Once again for toalwaysbeme, aka the Donna in my life. Because I love you.

thefingerfuckingfemalefury:

rareandradiantmaiden:

thefingerfuckingfemalefury:

And then Artemis proceeds to castrate him and throw him in the ocean to be eaten by giant sharks for talking to her girlfriend that way

I may have imagined that last part

But I feel it’s what should have happened…

Ughhh WHY WAS HE IN THIS MOVIE?!

Didn’t he try to get her drunk? And HE’S the love interest here?!

WHAT THE FUCK WAS THIS MOVIE RE: MEN WHY DOES ANYTHING HAVING TO DO WITH DIANA HAVE TO INCLUDE MEN

WHY CAN’T WE JUST HAVE ONE THING

GODDAMN IT

Because DC are tragically determined to try and play pretend that Diana is heterosexual and so they insist on giving her these tedious male love interests to waste valuable screentime/panel time on their utterly boring heterosexual ‘romance’ in the stories

I was SO glad when George Perez retconned away the relationship between Diana and Steve Trevor…and SO dissapointed that they included it in this film and that it’s canon again thanks to that Justice League nonsense in the new 52 

Given that it’s blatantly obvious even to people who’ve never read the comics that Wonder Woman is a lesbian, DC try to convince us she likes guys by giving her these mind numbingly tedious straight love stories in a pitiful effort to play pretend that she’s straight.

Sadly, we’re probably going to be stuck with nonsense like this until DC finally actually has the guts to admit that Diana is a lesbian and have her get herself the awesome girlfriend she deserves to have and so very clearly should be with, instead of these pathetic straight romances they insist on wasting her (And our) time with

Personally, I just hope that DC finally have get out of the closet already and hook up with another woman in the comics soon, because that’s the only kind of relationship I have any interest in reading about Diana being in. She doesn’t need to be wasting her time with some guy, she needs a fierce, smart, utterly fabulous girlfriend <3

Okay, it’s obvious that you don’t like Steve Trevor. And that’s fine! You don’t have to like Steve Trevor! Certainly, in this movie, he’s about as far from likable as you can get. It’s also totally cool that you interpret Diana as a lesbian. There’s even plenty of canon evidence for it! You may well be right.

But with all that said, there are still some things I want to comment on here.

First of all: “it’s blatantly obvious even to people who’ve never read the comics that Wonder Woman is a lesbian.”

Are… you sure about that?

The majority of the people I know aren’t into comics. If I asked them about Wonder Woman, they wouldn’t be able to tell me much of anything beyond that she wears a patriotic “bathing suit” and has a lasso. Oh, and they’d probably say something stupid like that she’s a “girl version of Superman”. The average non-comic reader isn’t terribly knowledgeable about Wonder Woman, to say the least.

If I asked them about her love life, they’d probably think she’s a couple with Superman or - especially if they’ve seen Justice League Unlimited (in which case, of course, they’ll be a bit more knowledgeable than your average non-comic reader) - Batman. Or they wouldn’t be able to tell you anything at all.

And if you asked the average non-comic reader which superheroes are obviously gay, I’m betting 99% of them would name Batman and Robin.

But more to the point: Why are we submitting what non-comic readers think they know as proof of anything? Most non-comic readers think it’s blatantly obvious that Lois Lane is an idiot who can’t see past a pair of glasses. Most non-comic readers think it’s blatantly obvious that Robin is a dumb sidekick who does nothing but make stupid puns. Most non-comic readers, to be perfectly blunt, don’t know a quarter of what they think they do.

And, most importantly, most of what they do think they know is founded on half-truths, outdated concepts, and blatantly idiotic reasoning. Assuming most non-comic readers did think Diana was obviously a lesbian (which I have never found to be the case), they’d probably be basing it on inane reasoning like “She was raised on an island without men” (by that logic, Tarzan would’ve been into bestiality), or “She’s a feminist and stuff”. After all, what else would they be basing it on, if they’ve never read the comics themselves? The fact that they heard it from a friend whose sister has a cousin who might’ve picked up a comic once?

Among those of us who do read the comics, you’ll find a variety of opinions, but at least ours are based on actual knowledge of the character and her history.

You are acting like it’s some sort of truth universally acknowledged that Diana is a lesbian, but that is clearly not the case. There are comic fans who will tell you absolutely that she is straight. There are comic fans who will tell you absolutely that she’s a lesbian. Personally? I think the canon pretty clearly indicates that Diana is neither lesbian nor straight, but bisexual. Now, you could argue that the evidence of her attraction to men is purely contrived because of homophobia on DC’s part, but that’s not necessarily so. Certainly, I do think DC would be too homophobic, at this time, to openly depict Diana in a same-sex relationship, but it doesn’t necessarily follow that the only reason for her to be canonically attracted to men as well as women is homophobia, or that depicting her in a relationship with a man is necessarily a pathetic waste of time.

Which brings me to Steve Trevor: I will grant you, right away, that this Steve Trevor you’re looking at right here is an utter jerk of a human being and nothing like what any love interest of Diana’s should be. If this were how Steve Trevor were always characterized, I’d be right there with you arguing that he’s a terrible choice for Diana and contributes nothing positive to her mythos.

However, the way Steve Trevor is characterized in this movie is not at all the way he’s characterized in significant portions of the comics, including the New 52. Beyond some internalized sexism in some Silver Age comics (which is something all comic characters suffered from at that time - for goodness’ sake, look at how Clark and Lois were written during that era!) Steve Trevor has never been portrayed as a sexist or anti-feminist character. On the contrary, Marston stressed from the earliest days that he had the highest respect for Diana and her abilities, and was openly admiring, rather than intimidated, by the ways in which she was obviously superior to him.

He was also portrayed as a highly principled, ethical character, and certainly not the kind of man who would try to get a woman drunk the way he does to Diana in this movie.

The thing is… when written well (which, obviously, he is NOT in this movie), Steve Trevor is actually an incredibly brilliant, feminist concept for a character. And here’s why:

Wonder Woman is all about subverting gender stereotypes. It’s been an essential aspect of her character from the beginning, and it’s always going to be a big part of her narrative. And the way Steve was originally written, as her love interest, reflects that.

Think for a minute about major comic-book couples. If you give it a bit of thought, you’ll realize that many of the most committed, loving couples portrayed in superhero comics consist of a superhero guy and a non-powered “ordinary civilian” woman: Lois and Clark, Barry and Iris, Wally and Linda, Ralph and Sue Dibny, Buddy and Ellen Baker.

What’s great about these couples is that, when written well, these women are portrayed as incredibly strong, heroic characters who are every bit the equal of their husbands without needing a costume or superpowers. It sends a really powerful message that there are different kinds of heroism in the world, and equality is based on a lot more than physical strength.

Ever notice that you hardly ever see the reverse?

Off the top of my head, I can think of few significant relationships between superheroines and non-powered civilian love interests. There’s Jason Bard, ex-fiance of Barbara Gordon, but he was pretty much ditched in the 90’s in favor of the two Ds (Dick and Dinah). There’s Terry Long, who was married to Donna Troy back in the days of New Teen Titans, but he was unceremoniously killed off along with their son in 1997. (He also seems to be one of the most hated love interests in the history of comics, but to be fair to fandom, that seems to have as much to do with his bad facial hair and the age difference between him and Donna as it does with his lack of powers.)

But overall? It’s really, really rare to find a superheroine whose main love interest is just a “regular guy”. When you do see it (as with Diana and Steve), you’ll often hear a lot of complaints about how the man in question is “lame” and “not worthy of her”.

Why? Because gender stereotypes tell us that the man needs to be physically stronger than the woman. The man needs to be more powerful and more conventionally heroic. The man needs to be the one saving the day. And if he isn’t, then he’s just not worthy. The implication being that all women desire to be dominated by a stronger man, and all men’s worthiness is defined solely by their physical strength and conventional masculinity.

Now, there are a few (a very few) superhero couples where the woman is physically stronger and more powerful than the man, who defy gender stereotypes. Barda and Scott Free being the best example:

And, of course, back in the day, Dick and Kory:

But even in those cases, you’ll notice: The guy is still a superhero. Yes, the women in these relationships are the more aggressive, powerful, and physically strong ones (which is expressed even in the relative heights of the couples), but the disparity in power is only allowed to go so far. Depicting a superheroine in a relationship with a completely “normal” guy is still very taboo, because that would just defy gender stereotypes too much.

But Diana and Steve completely turn these gender norms on their heads. Steve is intelligent, brave, and capable - and yet compared with Diana’s formidable powers and military skill, he is by far the “weaker” of the two. Diana is the hero. Diana is the one going out to save the day, and Diana is the one who saves him, over and over. And instead of being emasculated or threatened by this, Steve thinks it’s completely awesome. He is in awe of her and her strength and her power, and it’s largely what makes her so desirable in his eyes.

And for Diana’s part? Diana wasn’t raised to see relationship dynamics according to our accepted gender norms. It doesn’t occur to her that she needs a man who’s more physically powerful than she is, and it doesn’t occur to her that she should be defining Steve solely according to his physical strength. All she sees is that he’s a good man with qualities she can respect and admire, and he gives her his unconditional loyalty and support, and he’s attractive to her. It doesn’t matter that he’s not a superhero or that he can’t match her in physical strength. She sees what makes him a worthy person in less stereotypical ways.

In other words, what attracts Diana to Steve is not so different from what attracts Clark to Lois. Narrow-minded people might like to argue that a “regular” love interest isn’t “worthy” or “cool” enough, but the heroes in question see deeper than that. The difference is, when you switch the genders around, the dynamic is suddenly considered a lot more controversial, because it’s expected that the man will be the stronger, more dominant one in any relationship.

Many of the ideas I’ve sketched out here owe a lot to tumblr user ragnell, who I give total credit for making me see Steve Trevor in an entirely new light - in particular, I recommend reading this essay, “What Does She See in That Man?”

The point being… obviously, it would be groundbreaking to depict Diana in a homosexual relationship. And it would absolutely have a basis in prior canon. But it doesn’t necessarily follow that Steve Trevor is a useless character or that depicting Diana in a relationship with him serves no purpose but heteronormativity. It may still not be your cup of tea, and that’s fine. If you’ve got your heart set on lesbian romance, nothing can convince you otherwise. But as I think I’ve demonstrated, there’s actually a lot about Diana and Steve’s relationship which would be different and important and feminist, and there’s a lot about their dynamic which fundamentally supports the feminism of Diana’s narrative.

You may not like it, but that doesn’t mean there’s nothing good or substantive about it.