What Would Wonder Woman Do: Canon Events

Often, when I engage with superhero media, I find myself thinking about Wonder Woman and how it—the story or characters or concept—could apply to her. How would she respond to a certain conflict or deal with a particular character? What would she do or contribute if she was in a given story?

Naturally, watching 2023's Spider-Man: Across the Spider-Verse sparked a lot of thoughts and questions for me.

As discussed in the previous post, I wondered what would be considered her Canon Events.
But going further down that road, the question of what Wonder Woman would do if she was faced with the dilemma Miles, Miguel and the Spider-Society faces in the film regarding Canon Events—namely, are they as set in stone as Miguel insists? Are they worth preserving, even if the Event in question is painful? Where would Diana stand if confronted with these questions?

Thinking about it, when considering her character and backstory, I actually believe Wonder Woman would have a very interesting perspective on the matter.

Wonder Woman's Canon Events

In 2023's Spider-Man: Across the Spider-Verse, a crucial portion of the plot revolves around the concept of Canon Events.
According to Miguel O'Hara, the Spider-Man of 2099 in the film, these are particular events or patterns that occur to every variant of a given person, uniting them through the multiverse. Meaning, to put it simply, there are moments that will or should "always" happen to every version of someone (here, a Spider-Person) no matter which universe they exist in.

In the case of Spidey, things cited as Canon Events include:
- gaining powers from a spider bite
- the death of an uncle, leading to a lesson about power and responsibility
- the death of Gwen Stacy (or in Spider-Gwen's case, the reverse where she becomes a Spider and Peter Parker dies)
- an encounter with a symbiote
...among other examples. 

According to Miguel, these events are what define a Spider-Person across the multiverse.

Personally, I found the idea fascinating. I brought up something like this with my post on Kitana's various adaptations. There are certain beats which define a character that need to be addressed or considered when adapting them to other media or rebooting them. The building blocks that make a character who they are and allow them to remain that character in essence if not literally, even when re-imagined from one medium to another. 

Spider-Verse simply gave it a name and made it an in-story issue.
It's a clever nod to the fourth wall, and from a writing/audience stand-point, it's interesting to see what elements of a character become essential and what can or has been changed between the various incarnations. Part of the fun of a multiverse or Elseworlds story is seeing all the ways these variants remain the same or diverge.
Within the movie, it led to conflict among the heroes, as Miguel has a rather ironclad perspective on Canon Events and believes they absolutely must happen and be preserved for better or worse (whether he's right or wrong about that is a topic for another time).

As I often do when engaging with superhero media, I got to thinking about Wonder Woman and how it might apply to her—in this particular instance: what are or would be considered Wonder Woman's Canon Events?

Mortal Kombat's Blue Ninja

Crazy to think Mortal Kombat has been around for over thirty years. Long enough now to have gone through multiple reboots and eras.

As followers of this blog would guess, I'm of the older generation. My time was the original timeline from the first Mortal Kombat of 1992 to 2006's Armageddon—nicknamed by some the "Midway Era." I effectively called it quits come Mortal Kombat 9 and later embraced Kitana's MKX ending as my canon ending to the story as a whole (see the fifth part of the Kitana Retrospective for more on that).
I do still peek at what's going on in the story and characters I care about, but I've accepted my time as an active Mortal Kombat fan passed long ago.

Younger and more recent fans might not realize, but once upon a time...before the reboots and retcons and rewrites...if I were to single out who the true protagonists or "main characters" of Mortal Kombat were, it would be these two:

Yes, Liu Kang was the hero who saved the day at the end, and there is definitely something to be said about Scorpion and even Reptile, among a handful of others.
But, in terms of fleshed out backstory, motivation, conflict and development—the things that actually make a compelling protagonist in a story—the two leads of the original generation were easily the younger Sub-Zero and Kitana.

An interesting thing when looking at their respective characters and how they progressed over the years is how much they parallel one another, which is what I want to look at with this blog post.

So let's compare and contrast Sub-Zero and Kitana and see how they align and differ....

Wonder Woman Animated Movies Wish List

If you follow Warner/DC, you know and have likely seen some (or all) of their animated movies.
Although Marvel has dabbled here and there, DC has largely owned the market of straight-to-DVD (or VOD) animation, and they've produced classics like Mask of the Phantasm...and absolute disasters like Apokolips War...with dozens in between.
(mostly Batman or Justice League related, but that's another topic)

Over the years, we've seen Wonder Woman get two movies of her own.
In 2009, we got Wonder Woman, which was well received by critics and fans, and went on to become one of their best sellers overall. And, in 2019, we got Wonder Woman: Bloodlines, set in their interconnected universe of the time, dubbed the DCAMU.

They each have their strengths and weaknesses, but I for one think she should have more.
So, I've compiled a list of stories from the comics that can be adapted and/or particular characters that can have movies built around them.

Okay? Okay....

Mortal Kombat Head-Canon

I had posted these on Twitter, but...fuck Twitter now.
So, I'll post them over here—my personal interpretations of Mortal Kombat's lore and particular characters that are canon to me. Maybe you'll agree with some or all, maybe you won't...that's why it's head-canon.

 
Okay, ramblers...let's get rambling....

Growing Pains: Mortal Kombat's Mileena

I’ve written quite a bit about Mortal Kombat’s Kitana. There was her five-part Retrospective, a look at MK11 and how she just can’t win, and most recently, a look at how she’s been adapted in various media.
Naturally, though, one can’t talk about Kitana without sooner or later bringing up her counterpart, rival, and dark half: Mileena. 

Like her "twin sister," Mileena has come to be a very popular, beloved and iconic character in the franchise. Also like Kitana, a big reason for that is her developed storyline and character in addition to memorable gameplay and designs—to say nothing of her trademark grin, which is memorable to say the least.

Look at that smile...

I thought I'd prattle on a bit about her. What drives and motivates her. What made her what she is, and what stands in the way of her becoming more. And explore whether her hated sister really is the source of her woes after all, and what she could do about it.

Adapting Kitana: Boring Hero or Redeemed Prize

Kitana.

Mortal Kombat mainstay. Icon of the franchise. General fan-favorite.
One of the more developed characters story-wise, and one of the few to undergo an actual arc through the series.

And, for some reason, a character adaptations of Mortal Kombat just can’t get right.

The story has been adapted to outside media quite a few times now—movies, comics, TV, animation—and has even been rebooted/re-imagined in the games themselves. Kitana, as would be expected for a popular and iconic character, has been featured in most if not all of them.

But, for some reason, we’ve yet to see a great interpretation of her. For all the times she’s appeared in MK films, animation, etc., few (if any) have managed to truly nail her. Have they come close? Sure. Is she the only character who’s been done dirty by adaptations? Absolutely not. Has she gotten it worse than others? Not really.

Most would point out—not incorrectly—that Mortal Kombat is just a video game. Not exactly Shakespeare. For all the lore present, when you get down to it, it’s a collection of familiar archetypes, stock characters, and cliches. Should any of these characters, including Kitana, really be that hard to translate to film, television, comics, etc.?

So how and why—despite multiple goes and despite being one of the franchise’s most popular and iconic characters—do so many miss the mark?