Hello and welcome to Wasted Plotential, the show where we discuss the wasted potential
of our favourite plotlines.
It's no secret that I have a huge bone to pick with Netherrealm Studios.
From janky combat to poorly-constructed story modes to just plain bad writing and continuity,
I am consistently able to get over an hour worth of material when criticising their games.
One of my biggest issues with the writing is the poor characterisation, especially with
regards to established characters, be they Mortal Kombat or DC in origin.
Perhaps the biggest travesty they committed with Injustice: Gods Among Us was with their
depiction of Wonder Woman.
I've covered the original game on the show already, and Wonder Woman a little as part
of that.
Watch that episode first so you know where we're up to.
Throughout the game, characters like Flash, Shazam and Hal Jordan show signs of doubt
in their cause, but Wonder Woman remains utterly devoted to Superman's reign of terror.
See, Superman was given motivation for acting how he does: he lost his friends, his co-workers,
all the people who looked up to him as their protector, and he was tricked into killing
his pregnant wife.
While they absolutely take it too far, they at least bothered to (poorly) attempt to justify
Superman's mindset.
Wonder Woman, however, seems motivated purely by the fact that she wants his dick.
There's nothing in her story to really explain why she is the way she is.
Without such, she actually comes across as more evil than the man who heat beamed a twelve
year old boy through the face.
Jesus, what is it with evil versions of DC heroes and murdering Billy Batson?
But I'm not here to fix Injustice itself, since I already did that.
Nor am I here to explain how they wasted the existing Injustice Diana's potential because
she has none.
Nor, even, am I here to explain how dumb the Amazon civil war is, nor how Nubia as the
new Wonder Woman would have been a far better idea to run with than "the Amazons are evil
because we said so".
Instead, I'm here to discuss a particular story from the tie-in comic.
While the comic is also trash, the writers clearly have a firmer grasp of the characters
than the game writers, and they tried their best to work within the limitations of the
game canon to make it work.
Usually, anyway.
But aside from being stunned when she accidentally kills Huntress, or being taken aback when
Bruce reveals that Superman had Alfred killed, they never really tried to make Wonder Woman
work until Injustice 2 Annual #1 where, no doubt mandated by DC because of the movie's
success, her origin was finally revealed.
The story goes back to World War II, where Diana still displays the over-zealousness
that would later lead to Helena's death.
After accidentally wounding Calliope in training and being scolded, Diana goes to the shore,
where she finds, who else?
Steve Trevor, U.S. Air Force.
Diana shows uncharacteristic empathy for Steve, begging her mother to show Steve mercy and
instantly jumping at the chance to go and help end the war.
She is allowed to go, with only half-hearted resistance from Hippolyta.
She quickly gains fame as both a hero and an icon over the course of a few months.
Diana shows empathy again after finding a dead child as the Germans start to bomb London.
Steve interrogates a German spy but can't get any information out of him.
His exasperated words give Diana the idea to take the Lasso of Truth from Themyscira,
making this possibly the only continuity where she didn't take it with her as she departed.
Clearly, that's just to facilitate what happens next.
Diana meets with the Amazons to encourage their co-operation in the war, while Steve
sneaks into the chamber where the Lasso is kept.
Calliope surprises him when she comes to help at Diana's request, and he accidentally shoots
her dead.
Outside, he is immediately ambushed by the Amazons, who presumably did give in to Diana's
plea.
Upon learning what he did, Diana concludes that he planned to kill a random Amazon for
no reason all along, and uses the Lasso to demand answers.
It turns that out Steve had chosen his words in his earlier interrogation in such a way
that he could bend the truth and not expose his real mission.
Steve Trevor is a German Agent.
He's been using her the entire time, taking advantage of her celebrity status to keep
his cover and manipulate her into getting him the Lasso for use against the Allies.
He admits that he did love her, but he loves his country more.
Enraged by the betrayal, Diana contracts the Lasso around Steve's neck, tighter and tighter,
until his head pops off like a goddamn Lego man.
...So, I've got some problems with this.
The idea of Steve Trevor turning out to actually be a German agent is a fascinating story development,
with so much potential for a morally grey storyline.
Unfortunately, it's part of a single issue side story that exists to justify why this
Diana is such an unrelenting twat without ever really bothering to actually justify
it.
Because the story is tied to a Diana who is destined to become a monster, and is limited
to a single issue, there's no room to explore the idea any further than this.
But what if it wasn't?
Imagine if this concept was removed from the festering tumour of the larger Injustice storyline,
and used as the basis for an Elseworld's story; a standalone alternate universe story that
doesn't have to conform to any establish continuity and can just do as it pleases.
Yeah, it would probably end up as a needlessly dark depressionfest where half the cast die
horribly, but let's just assume that the writers aren't edgy teenagers and actually have some
standards for once.
Steve turns out to be a German.
But, even in the existing comic, he doesn't seem like a bad guy.
He never expresses a desire to serve Hitler, never even utters the name.
In fact, Steve only seems to want to serve his country, an ideal that was no doubt the
motivation for most of the German army's enrolment in the wake of them getting screwed over massively
after the First World War.
German does not equal Nazi and you could do something great with that.
The comic doesn't explain whether Steve is a native German and just really good at faking
an American accent, or is of mixed heritage, or an American defector who sympathises with
the plight of the German people; he only agrees that he is "also a German".
Any one of these explanations could work as fine motivation for this alternate take on
the character.
But where the existing story falls flat is that Diana immediately murders him without
even attempting to understand why he would serve a country that has committed such horrible
atrocities (with the only atrocity that the comic actually acknowledges being the bombing
of a civilian populace).
But sure, death to the infidel, why not?
Imagine if, instead, the comic continues for a few more issues.
Diana keeps Steve interred on Themyscira, interrogating him, trying to understand his
reasoning.
She is much like the movie version of Diana - naive and believing morality to be a simple
black and white matter.
Steve explains the aftermath of the previous war and how it ruined Germany's economy unfairly.
Diana begins to understand the German viewpoint better, realising that their desperation is
being manipulated by the real monster.
Diana gains a greater understanding of the motivations of both sides and her future involvement
in the war is then decided.
She could continue fighting for the Allies, believing that, when weighed up against the
actions of the Nazis, they are the least evil.
She could choose to withdraw, deciding that neither side deserves her help after understanding
the bad things both have done.
She could choose to become neutral, trying to end the war herself by eliminating key
figures and facilities on both sides.
She could even choose to side with the Axis, concluding that the state Germany was in that
led to this makes them the victims.
She'd probably depose Hitler and assume command of Germany herself to end the Holocaust and
force a better deal than last time once the war is over.
Or, I guess, she could go full-blown Regime Superman and try to end all war through totalitarianism.
But that would be dumb, so we're going to go with the neutrality option.
Diana concludes that no side really deserves to win, because their motivations do not justify
their actions.
She vows to end the war herself and drags Steve along, using the Lasso to get information
on both Allied and Axis bigwigs and resources, and also to compel him to not try and escape
or undermine her efforts.
Over the course of the story, now that he's effectively removed from he war himself, Steve
starts to see the Allies, not as evil enemies to be manipulated and destroyed, but as people
whose desire to protect their country and way of life is really no different from his
own.
Bad things have happened, but at the behest of those in charge; not the common people
who will suffer the consequences.
Diana, meanwhile, reluctantly kills a lot of people, both targets and their security.
She comes to understand the necessity of war and murder in certain circumstances, hardening
her character proportionally to Steve's character softening.
Eventually, the inevitable comes: Diana heads to Berlin to take down Hitler.
She may have killed other world leaders by now, strong-arming their successors into agreeing
to a ceasefire once the current lineup is removed.
Over the course of the story, Diana has inspired Steve, turning his feelings towards her from
fake love, to utter contempt, to genuine care.
By this point, his loyalty has shifted from the Fuhrer to Diana.
Reluctantly, he joins her in her raid on Hitler's compound, taking down a number of his countrymen,
and even taking a bullet for her.
Diana kills Hitler, because superheroes taking him down is always fun, and goes to check
on Steve.
Steve's fate could go one of two ways: one is that he dies from the bullet and this deeply
affects Diana long into the future.
She takes comfort in his dying words, telling her that she made him a better, wiser man,
and she has the power to do the same for the rest of the world.
Second is that he lives, and the two stay together until Steve's eventual death from
old age around the 1990's.
In this version, he's there to help her educate humanity, and bridge the gap between Man's
World and the Amazons.
This idea would actually work better with the Injustice setting than the official version,
as the story they have now would make far more sense leading to the Amazons remaining
isolationist, like the Atanteans of the setting are supposed to be.
A Diana who understand the complexities of war and the moral greys that are often necessary
to do the right thing, would surely make more sense as a follower of Superman's regime,
than a Diana who was betrayed by the first man she ever met, and who dedicated her life
to toppling dictatorships before fanatically serving one.
If you're going to make such a big change to an established character as this, you need
to make it mean something.
Don't do it because it's different and then toss it aside.
Contemplate the ramifications of the change, how it could affect the story in a new and
interesting way.
The origin story of Injustice Wonder Woman could have been about the moral greys of war,
especially in regards to the often demonised Germans, who weren't bloodthirsty, antisemitic
monsters - but poor, impoverished people who had been unfairly treated after the previous
war, and just wanted a better life than what they'd been straddled with for two goddamn
decades.
It could have been a complex, introspective story that causes a big change in Diana's
viewpoint that could be for the better or for the worse, and served to highlight her
hypocrisy in joining Superman.
Instead, it only exists to explain that Diana became a murderous monster with no empathy
for even her friends, because some dude lied to her seventy years ago.
Fuck you.
If you liked this video, why not subscribe and check out some of these other videos?
If not, then make sure to share it with your enemies so they can suffer along with you.