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The first publicity pic of Gal Gadot as Wonder Woman as revealed at SDCC 2014
Far be it from me to second guess the casting choices some movie studios and directors make for their films, but I am still 50/50 on Gal Gadot as Wonder Woman… and that is after seeing the first official shot of her as the classic heroine from the Comic Con International panel that introduced the photo. Don’t get me wrong; I think that Gal Gadot is an absolutely beautiful woman (and I like that her Israeli look really lends a lot to the Mediterranean look that like in my Wonder Woman portrayals) and has the acting capabilities to pull off the role – I am just still very unsure about her look as the Amazonian Warrior Princess.
Wonder Woman has been a long time favorite character of mine. Not up there on the level that I put Captain America and Green Lantern at, but she is definitely on my second half of my top ten favorite comic book characters. So I tend to be a little bit… hmm, protective is not the word; what’s the word I am looking for? Watchful may be a good description of how I feel about the way that Wonder Woman is portrayed. I know that when she first appeared in All Star Comics #8 back in 1941, as written by her creator William Moulton Marston, she had a slim look and appeared more model like than warrior; but as the character evolved I started to like the way some other artists, namely Adam Hughes and Alex Ross, gave her a more toned/muscular look, emphasizing the Amazon and Warrior nature of her background. Artist like Jim Lee and Mike Deodato, two artist that I greatly admire, also depict her as a slimmer, more fit body type and I do like the way that look goes on Wonder Woman – I just happen to like the muscular look just a bit better.
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Wonder Woman by Adam Hughes (L) and Alex Ross (R) that I prefer.
And don’t read into this article as me stating that slim women can’t kick ass – that is not what I am saying. If you believe that, then you must not know about Rhonda Rousey, Miesha Tate, Tara LaRosa, Alexis Davis or any of the other slim female MMA fighters out there who I think would whoop my ass three ways from Sunday before I even landed a punch. Those women are slim and beautiful and dangerous, able of kicking serious ass and not batting an eyelash at doing so. So that Gal Gadot is a slim woman playing a warrior and being out of place is not the point I am trying to make. I am just saying that I have a certain image in mind when I think Wonder Woman and that look that Gal Gadot has doesn’t quite fit it: and judging from others’ responses as well, she doesn’t fit theirs either. For me, I see Wonder Woman shaped more like Gina Carano, Cynthia Rothrock, Lucy Lawless or even Eve Torres – slim but with some muscular tone on their figures that emphasizes that they mean to kick ass and look the part of it all the time.
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The slimmer Wonder Woman look by Jim Lee (L) and Mike Deodato (R).
But that doesn’t really matter; Warner Bros., Zack Snyder and their team are casting the film, not me. And while I may not like the way that Gal Gadot looks as Wonder Woman 100%, that doesn’t mean that I won’t A) go see the film or B) trust their judgment in casting. (Yes, that means that I have no qualms with them casting Ben Affleck as Batman.) In my experience with Zack Snyder films, I genuinely like the cast that he assembles, so while I have some reservations about the look of Wonder Woman as portrayed by Gal Gadot I am going to trust that Zack Snyder saw something in her acting abilities that made him believe in her to bring such an iconic character to life in Batman vs. Superman: Dawn of Justice. We won’t know how good she is for ourselves until May 2016, but I can wait that long to give my final judgment on her portrayal of Wonder Woman. But just between you and I, despite me not fully liking how Gal Gadot looks as Wonder Woman, I am still hoping that she nails the role and brings Wonder Woman the much needed attention that she deserves. She is too important a character in comic book history to not have the same level of respect that Batman and Superman have enjoyed for years at the box office.
One last thing I will say about that picture of Gal Gadot as Wonder Woman up there: man, I love that they got the look and feel of the costume right. It looks spot on to what I imagined it would look like on film. Hopefully this is the final version that we will see in the film because I am definitely loving the look of that costume.