By Edgar Miraculous Dyer
Little girls have a lot of incentive to identify with superheroic men...Batgirl, Supergirl, Huntress, Hawkgirl, She-Hulk, ..while boys have very little encouragement, identifying with Wonder Woman.
Well, it wasn't always that way.
The New Adventures Of Wonder Woman TV show gave us (then) boys, an Andros of Arcturus to imagine ourselves, as! He wasn't as physical or the hardcase that Jack Kirby's cosmic enforcer, Orion, was, but had some pretty awesome zapping powers and a nifty silver, Star Treky outfit, ..and we thought it was very cool, that he was from outer space, wa-aay back in the Star Wars heyday of 1977. As I recall, the first Andros - General Andros - to join Diana's adventures was father of a second Andros.
Andros 2.0 was portrayed, by a much younger and studlier Dack Rambo - at the time, a young actor, who was almost spun-off into his own adventure show. Neither Andros was ever a star-pick in our playground superhero games - nobody, but us fans, knew who Andros was - but, he was 'our guy', and it was great imagining ourselves, as him, ..fighting aliens and turtleneck aficionados...
In sunny Los Angeles! Of course.
Even The Six Million Dollar man series was smart enough to give little girls a Bionic Woman, who sprung off into her own show and won the leading lady, Lindsay Wagner, an Emmy. ABC Television marketing execs could've just sat on their hands, groaning about little girls' inability to identify with big, hunka' burnin' bionics, Lee Majors. Instead, they gave the world a Bionic Woman and a ton of merchandise, dolls and toy cars and other junk, for little girls to buy ..and [Koff.] inspire their dreams.
The Batman TV show gave little girls Yvonne Craig, as Batgirl, and Miss Craig gave us little bat-boys... dreams. Sweet, shiny, purple dreams!
Want to KNOW WONDER WOMAN, the way I know Wonder Woman? You've got to get ALL THE WAY down to the... STAR-SPANGLED PANTIES!
As Andros - think I only played him, once or twice, on the playground - I turned a patch of hedges into my flying saucer, from which I blasted villains with death-rays, ..after barring admission to the other kids, with a firm, "No...and get off my ship!" I controlled the weather ..and zapped people, with lightning bolts. I teleported the most annoyed and annoying of my playmates ..to Jupiter, Venus, Mars and the Moon ..and generally drove the other kids, nuts, trying to keep track of all my cool, cosmic Andros-powers. I was so formidable a foe that another boy - think he was the Hulk - groaned, "Is there anything Andros CAN'T do?!"
Of course, it was too late for him, ..having already been teleported to Saturn ..or Mongo. Loved sending people to sci-fi hero Flash Gordon's Mongo!
While I also liked playing Hawkman, Doctor Strange, Aquaman, the Golden Age Destroyer and Steve Austin, ..being Wonder Woman's spaceman pal, Andros, was especially fun. Since there was no Wonder Boy or Mister Wonder or anything like that, in the Wonder Woman comic (and still isn't), this shining knight from the stars was all we felt, we had, ..our single, silvery avatar, in a vast comic universe of Bulletgirls and Mary Marvels. He was our lonely, little prayer that we, like the girl-counterparts of the most popular, male superheroes, would be welcome, battling at the side of the Amazon, who amazed us, every week! An Andros the Alien Hunter action figure, with his own flying saucer - Andros, Sr. had a big, silvery one - would have been a very welcome birthday gift, back then, ..even for those little boys, who didn't know who he was.
Let me unpack that, for a minute!
For little boys, who religiously watched The New Adventures Of Wonder Woman, finding a silver-clad, superpowerful pal of TV’s Wonder Woman - Lynda Carter - under the Christmas tree, ..in a playset, with his own beatass FLYING SAUCER…?! That would have been hee-YUGE! Seriously…huge! How was Andros of Arcturus NOT a Mego action figure, back in the heyday of Ms. Carter’s Wonder Woman show?
Yvonne Craig's Batgirl got a Mego action figure - so-ooo...
So, now, there is a big-budget Batgirl film, already in production, for a 2022 release on HBO Max. Imagine the merchandising fortune that will be made, from this movie! Can you imagine all of the purplish silver Andros the Alien Hunter figures and toy flying saucers, Warner could sell, the merchandising tsunami that would ensue, ..if little boys saw Andros dusted off for action, in the upcoming Wonder Woman 3?
When the marketing executives for Wonder Woman's merchandiser, Warner Bros. Communications, figure this out - with Orion, Andros, Greek mythical Achilles or the superheroine's newest swashbuckling playmate, Siegfried the Dragon Slayer - maybe, more little and not-so-little boys will come running. You can give them all of the high-minded, politically correct, feminist-approved reasons they shouldn't want Wonder Woman to have a cool buddy or cousin, with similar powers and a rad costume, who happens to be a man, ..but, I doubt it would dissuade them, much. Without characters, like 'Siggy' around, ..I'm afraid fellas will continue to have a hard time seeing, where a hero, like them - Superman and Batman are not officially 'Wonders' and don't count - would be welcomed into the Wonderverse.
Maybe, they need a little help, with that. A little encouragement? Maybe...
DEDICATED to the spectacular, inventive and fearless thespian, Mr. Dack Rambo. He finished, with inspiring courage, that will never be forgotten. He was a wonder.
Edgar Miraculous (Mel) Dyer, without his fine, coyote-hatin' Goldiweiller, Kirby (now moved on to that big, coyote-hatin' hate group in the Sky) continues a somewhat bleaker, dogless existence in the Capitol Hill area of Washington, DC. He has been an active member of the Latino Culture Council of the Capitol Area (El Consejo de Cultura Latina – La Zona del Capitolio) and the Kiwanis Club of Capitol Hill.
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