The Moral Imperatives of Wonder Woman

[mabfan]

For those looking for my next Infinite Crisis speculation post, I'm afraid that you're going to have to wait until Sunday or Monday. A combination of Rosh Hashana and the Ig Nobel Award Ceremony made it difficult for me to read through all the tie-in comics deeply enough to make further speculations. (Although I am amazed at the revelation of Donna Troy's status as the Anti-Harbinger.) So to give everyone something to think about while waiting for my final speculation before Infinite Crisis #1 hits the stores next week, I thought I'd open up a discussion about the recent choice made by Wonder Woman.

To recap, as part of the events surrounding The OMAC Project, Maxwell Lord took control of Superman's mind, fooling him into almost killing Batman by making him think Batman was one of many villains threatening Lois's life. When Wonder Woman finally confronted Lord, he told her that the only way to make him give up control of Superman would be by killing him.

And so she killed him.

The repurcussions are being felt throughout the other comics. In Wonder Woman #221, released this week, the world finds out what she did before she has a chance to turn herself in to an international tribunal, and people's loss of trust in her becomes evident. Although both Superman and Batman benefited from her actions, they have distanced themselves from her. Diana has become that one thing a superhero never should become: a killer.

But is she a murderer?

Wonder Woman has often viewed herself as a soldier in a war. Soldiers in war kill without committing murder; it's entirely possible that one could justify her actions under that perspective. Even Superman seemed intent on killing Doomsday when there appeared to be no other choice.

On the other hand...she did have other options. She could have brought Lord to Zatanna for a magical lobotomy. Or she could have found a way to keep him unconscious until they had a chance to figure out a form of safe incarceration. From that perspective, her actions might be considered morally repugnant, saved only by the defense that she killed him in the heat of the moment, without really having a chance to ponder her other options.

So...was Wonder Woman justified? Were her actions moral?

What do you think?

Comments

[mabfan.livejournal.com]

I think part of the problem you see comes not from what the comic companies necessarily wanted to do with their stories, but what was forced upon them during the 1950's, when they had to establish the Comic Code Authority in order to prevent the government from stepping in and regulating their content. Heroes were the "good guys," and therefore not allowed to kill...which of course leads to odd absurdities like the Joker being a madman who has killed countless people but keeps coming back. (That was explored in Kingdom Come, in which Superman arrests the hero, Magog, who finally decided to kill the Joker. A Metropolis jury acquits Magog, leading Superman to feeling betrayed.)

What is fascinating me at the moment is how almost everyone replying says that Wonder Woman was justified in her actions...and yet, of course, the civilians of the DC universe don't seem to feel that way. I'm curious to see where it will lead.

[pocketnaomi.livejournal.com]

I realize that the comic code was forced on the companies, but (a) I suspect they could dispense with it now and get away with it and (b) I tend not to like reading bowdlerized material for precisely that reason, even if it was "bowdlerized" before publication rather than in a revising process afterwards. The comic code put restraints on storyline that, as far as I'm concerned, made the entire form nonviable.