When it comes to Rogues Galleries, not every superhero can be Batman, The Flash or Spider-Man. Most are lucky to have one or two easily identifiable archenemies. Wonder Woman hasn’t had the luxury of appearing in as many adaptations as some of her counterparts, so the few comic book foes of hers that have appeared in other media is fairly small. The Baroness Paula Von Gunter appeared in Season One of ‘Wonder Woman’ in 1975 and The Cheetah and Giganta were members of the Legion of Doom from ‘Challenge of the Superfriends’ in 1978. Both resurfaced on ‘Justice League’/’Justice League Unlimited’ along with Circe and Ares, with a few additional Wonder foes like Doctor Cyber appearing in the background.
Of course, like most heroes, Wonder Woman has several other recurring foes that only comic readers would know. For the film, it was important for director Patty Jenkins to feature a major threat who wasn’t just a villain, but someone like Magneto in the ‘X-Men’ movies, who wasn’t necessarily evil, but who saw his vision for the future as superior, no matter the cost. Thus she selected Ares, the god of war. The fact that he is one of the Olympian gods ties him directly to Diana, as both regular humanity and the Amazons were the creation of Zeus, the king of the gods– creations that Ares sees as flawed and without whom, Earth would be a utopia.
Jenkins discussed the use of Ares in ‘Wonder Woman’ as part of the bonus features on the home video release, coming soon:
“In my opinion, it would’ve been a mistake to make a first Wonder Woman film without her absolute arch rival nemesis Ares, who is the most classic villain from the lore and is her counterpart of her point of view. She’s a god and he’s a god, and he knows something she doesn’t know and made a choice based on that. He saw the weakness in his father’s creation and is trying to show the world how bad mankind is and therefore annihilate them and get rid of them. She, in the course of her journey, learns the same thing and ends up saying ‘oh my god they are all of those things,’ but she makes the opposite choice. If her story is about a shift in point of view, his storyline is a participant with that story, instead of being a villain bad guy, which is the point of the movie.”
Simply having Diana defeat a regular bad guy who was only out for power would not have been as emotionally investing. Instead, having her face a foe who may be right in their mission creates a greater sense of internal conflict. And her decision to stand against him is more proactive than if she were simply doing the right thing, just because.
But for comic fans, Jenkins did pull another, more obscure villain, Doctor Poison. Jenkins is already hammering out the details of ‘Wonder Woman 2’ which now has a release date of December 13, 2019. There’s no telling what villain(s) she may pluck from the pages to throw against Diana in her second solo film adventure.
Who would you like to see Diana battle in the sequel?
Source: Cinema Blend
