The Thinning of Amanda Waller

Rachel Edidin described Amanda Waller:

There is no one–no one–in the D.C. Universe more badass than Amanda Waller. She is smarter than Batman. She is tougher than Darkseid. And she is one of the most morally and humanly complex characters in fiction. She embodies a combination of deep compassion, profound ideals, and utter ruthlessness that female characters rarely get to touch–and she will fuck up your binaries and paradigms better than any other character in mainstream comics.

That was in a post about “Characters Who Break the Paradigm of Feminine Beauty in Comics.” As another person put it: “Batman wishes he was as hardcore as Amanda Waller.”

So — awesome character. And to make things even better, here’s what Amanda Waller looks like:

(Amanda Waller is the one on the right.)

Most fat characters in mainstream comic books are villains (The Kingpin, The Blob) or jokes (Bouncing Boy) or at best sidekicks of the protagonist (Franklin in Daredevil). There are very few positive fat characters in mainstream comics, and none I can think of who are as positive, as complex, as powerful, and as central to multiple storylines as Amanda Waller.

So it’s no surprise that a thin actress — Angela Bassett — has been cast to play Waller in the upcoming Green Lantern movie. Rumor is that she’ll reprise the role in at least one or two other upcoming DC-universe movies, if things go as planned.

And if the movie’s a hit, then there will probably be some pressure on the comic book to redesign their Amanda Waller to look more like Angela Bassett.

Really, I’m relieved they didn’t make the character white.

This entry posted in Cartooning & comics, Fat, fat and more fat, Media criticism. Bookmark the permalink. 

25 Responses to The Thinning of Amanda Waller

  1. 1
    flamethorn says:

    Why not get whatshername, the actress from”Precious” to playWaller? (sorry mymindisblanking out)

  2. 2
    MissaA says:

    Maybe she’ll at least gain some weight for the role… ?

    One can hope…

  3. 3
    SeanH says:

    Flamethorn: You may mean Gabby Sidibe (the lead) or Mo’Nique (supporting). I think Mo’Nique would be a pretty good fit myself (I haven’t seen Precious so I don’t know if Sidibe would be right – by all accounts she’s very good though). My pick for Amanda Waller would probably have been Marianne Jean-Baptiste.

    Another excellent fat character in comics is Wonder Woman’s friend and companion Etta Candy – find an encomium to her here at Girl Wonder, the Internet’s #1 incorporated non-profit dedicated to women in comics (/end shameless plug). Candy has been subject to thinning as well – she’s gone from “fat” to, I don’t know, “a few extra pounds” or “curvy” or maybe “zaftig”. Still a good character IMO, but I do wish she were fatter.

  4. 4
    attack_laurel says:

    Oh, I’d have picked CCH Pounder; she’s awesome at playing that kind of role.

    But FFS. Thinning characters mainly happens for women, too – Tiny Lister gets to play comic book villans (and the President, viz. The Fifth Element), but Maude forbid we make Amanda Waller, a powerful black woman, anything but skinny in the movie.

    *eye roll*

  5. 5
    Lisa Harney says:

    CCH Pounder actually provided the voice for Amanda Waller in the Justice League Unlimited cartoon. She’d make an excellent Waller.

    I think Waller’s pretty complex, too. She’s willing to take steps that no one else will. She lives in an ethically gray zone, and I think she often does horrible things. This makes her one of DC’s best characters, especially in a world filled with superheroes who take their cues from Superman’s personal code.

  6. 6
    SeanH says:

    Hah, I plugged Edidin’s blog totally skipping over the fact that you were referencing her blog in the first place. /readingcomprehensionfail

    CCH Pounder would be great too. Hollywood being what it is, there aren’t as many well-regard fat actresses as there are well-regarded thin actresses – but just from looking at discussions of this specific issue, we can see that there are plenty of larger Black actresses who would have been great for the role. It’s such a shame so much talent gets passed over (not that Bassett isn’t talented).

    edit: Pam Grier’s playing her on Smallville.

  7. 7
    Robert says:

    This being Hollywood, I’ll second/third the notion that CCH Pounder would be a good fit for the role, but that it will actually be filled by some sylph.

    Probably Zoe Saldana.

  8. 8
    nojojojo says:

    Gabby Sidibe’s too young; it looks like this character is supposed to be middle-aged and worldly. Maybe Mo’Nique would be a better choice, if we’re going with Precious actors… though looking at that picture, I think Mo’Nique is too young, too.

    I would second CCH Pounder, or S. Epatha Merkerson (Lt. Van Buren on Law and Order), though she might have to gain weight to match this character.

    One thing, though — Amp, I get that you like seeing a fat-positive character in comicsdom, but I need to raise the intersectionality flag here. The Fat Black Bitch is a stereotype that black women have been fighting lately. In mainstream stuff (i.e., films not aimed at a black audience) it’s very rare for black women to be shown as “attractive”, and rarer still for black women to be the love interest of an important character. (Which is why 12 million black women punched the air when Uhura got to kiss Spock in the last Star Trek.) I get that this is something seen as a negative by white feminists — women who fit Hollywood standards of beauty, women whose sole purpose is to define a male hero — but that’s not a privilege black women have gotten much of, up ’til now.

    So personally? I’m happier to see a black woman in the movies break that stereotype than adhere to it.

    (And yeah, I’m well aware that black women’s “attractiveness” = long straight hair and thin body is a huge, huge wrongness. Maybe they’ll at least let Angela go natural for the part.)

  9. 9
    Ola says:

    Angela’s got the power for that role and I’m glad she’s got on interesting one. As everyone knows she’s super picky about them, too.

    I think that Hollywood has ever hesitated to cast larger Black women in roles that call for a Black woman with tough character.

  10. 10
    Ola says:

    *sigh* errata maxima, never = ever

  11. 11
    Silenced is Foo says:

    I’m genuinely surprised by this, because there _are_ at least two fat black actresses with better name-recognition than Bassett who could carry such a role… Queen Latifah (well, she’s fat by Hollywood standards) and Mo’Nique…. I hope the reason she was cast was that such ladies were unavailable. Or the short woman from Grey’s Anatomy – while I generally loathe that show, I do have to concede that they have a knack for casting.

    Either way, my point: I can think of many, many more fat black actresses with genuinely good roles than fat actresses of every other ethnicity put together. So the omission here is really remarkable. This isn’t like Kingpin in Daredevil, where Michael Clarke Duncan really was the only marketable actor with the right proportions and style for the role, even though he was the wrong color.

    Although, I do have one comment: Kingpin is a villain, yes, but he’s a good one. He’s one that readers can’t get enough of, as somebody they respect as an awesome bad-guy. He’s the kind of villain that I really don’t think is a negative stereotype. As comic-book characters go, I think he’s one that the comic-book community can point to as a “positive” fat guy. The Blob, however, is vile.

    @MissaA – it’s likely going to be a smaller part for the film – I doubt any actress would risk their marketable appearance for that kind of role.

    @nojojojo – Comic book casting is _always_ young (remember Superman Returns?), so having a young actress in that role really wouldn’t be a big deal.

  12. 12
    Rachel Edidin says:

    @nojojojo @Silence is Foo
    Comic-book casting is always young, and doubly so for women, but sometimes you get a character who just doesn’t work as a twenty-something, and I think Waller is one of those. You wouldn’t cast young for J. Jonah Jameson or Nick Fury; same principles apply here.

  13. 13
    jennhi says:

    It’s a real shame. I have to agree with all of you. It’s a shame, because I admire and love Angela Bassett for her principles and for her acting. She lost out on a lot of jobs because she refuses to “take it off!” just to get a role. She’s a damned fine actor, and a gorgeous woman with real musculature, closer to a positive body image than Halle Berry. So I’m torn between “Bassett’s gonna be in the movie??” and “Dude, she is NOT Amanda Waller.”

    As for the flag of “Fat Black Bitch” stereotyping, though I agree that it’s a huge problem (and I’m a Fat White Bitch), I have to disagree regarding Waller. I don’t know how Waller was in the comics because my only impression of her came from the Justice League cartoon, but that impression was that the personality was not specific to one body type, race, or gender. That alone was so impressive that I actually applauded at the end of the JLU first season. (Yes, my boyfriend and my cats were very confused.) I always thought that FBB was physically “in your face,” loud, and sometimes violent. Waller was none of those things.

    Maybe that’s a complaint, too: no part of her race, gender, or body type ever seemed to factor into her character. My understanding is that black women are the most chronically underrepresented demographic in the white collar world, and fat women are discriminated against more frequently than their thin or male counterparts. Waller would then have had to fight two (maybe more) battles every single day to get to her current position. I think that her voice actress kept this in mind when performing the character, but it never seemed to be on the minds of the writers.

  14. 14
    Elayne Riggs says:

    The last time my husband drew Amanda Waller (for a Suicide Squad mini-series) I made damn sure he knew to draw her fat. Hey, I do what I can. :)

  15. 15
    Josh says:

    Pam Grier recently played Mrs Waller on television and, I thought, carried it off okay. She’s not exactly round, but has more corporeality than Bassett.

  16. 16
    Danny says:

    I’m a bit of a purist when it comes to adopting existing characters and I have to say that I don’t like this. Most of the people I would pick for the role have already been mentioned (espcially CCH Pounder since she already knows the character from voicing her in the recent past and she kinda acts the same way on Wherehouse 13).

    Silence is Foo:
    This isn’t like Kingpin in Daredevil, where Michael Clarke Duncan really was the only marketable actor with the right proportions and style for the role, even though he was the wrong color.
    I have to disagree with that a bit. If you recall in the comics the Kingpin didn’t really have a defined muscular build like Duncan does. In fact Kingpin’s strength sometimes caught people by suprise because he simply didn’t look that strong. While I don’t advocate using wrestlers in movies very often I would say that Paul White (aka The Big Show) would have pulled off the look better than Duncan.

  17. 17
    nobody.really says:

    Comic-book casting is always young, and doubly so for women….

    Of course. Don’t you see? It all fits! They cast Angela Bassett in the role of Amanda Waller as part of Michele Obama’s effort to fight obesity among the young….

  18. 18
    lilacsigil says:

    Amanda Waller is one of my favourite comic characters of all time – Suicide Squad was the first comic I collected, which set the bar awfully high!

    While The Wall does fit the FBB stereotype in some ways, she’s not just (or even usually!) aggressive – she’s cunning, smart, subtle and ruthless. She also has a degree in political science and worked in local and national politics, and these were an explicit part of her character from the very start.

    I do think Angela Bassett can pull off the character – she has the force of personality required – but I would have loved to see CCH Pounder.

  19. 19
    attack_laurel says:

    @nojojojo: One thing, though — Amp, I get that you like seeing a fat-positive character in comicsdom, but I need to raise the intersectionality flag here. The Fat Black Bitch is a stereotype that black women have been fighting lately.

    You raise a really valid point, nojojojo, and one I didn’t consider properly, so thank you. Unconsciously, I think CCH Pounder fit the role more, because she isn’t characterized as “sassy” – the horrible code word for “black woman who speaks her mind”, like Mo’nique or Queen Latifah. But the MSM doesn’t have the subtlety of interpretation to be able to see a more nuanced character, so the point stands (not that you needed my validation). And Angela Bassett is awesome.

  20. 20
    Decnavda says:

    “(Amanda Waller is the one on the right.)”

    Ha!!!

  21. 21
    Erik D. says:

    I think what makes this more aggravating (IMO) is that comic book movies are SO MUCH about the visuals…trying to recreate what the comic books themselves showed. I’m not saying they always attempt that, but I think a strong effort is often made to give you, say, a Superman who looks like comic Superman. That they didn’t seem to consider this does seem a bit…wrong.

  22. 22
    Sam L. says:

    I know it’s not an open thread, but while we’re tangentially on the subject of race in comics, there’s an interesting segment in Brian Cronin’s Comic Book Legends Revealed column on how Black Panther was originally drawn with a half-face mask, and why it was amended to the full coverage.
    http://goodcomics.comicbookresources.com/2010/04/15/comic-book-legends-revealed-256/

    On topic, is everyone discounting the idea that Bassett will pull a DeNiro à la Raging Bull for this role?
    Also, is anyone surprised Amanda Waller is in a Green Lantern movie?

  23. 23
    Thene says:

    Silenced Is Foo:

    Comic book casting is _always_ young

    Robert Downey Jr in the Iron Man movies? Liam Neeson as Ras al Ghul? Comic book casting sure skews young for women, but I am not sure it does so for men.

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  25. 24
    Dianne says:

    I know little about the DC universe and had never heard of Amanda Waller before reading this post, so my idea probably has nothing to do with the “real” character, but…I’d love to see Waller potrayed as the ultimate anti-Batman: black, female, and poor instead of rich, white, and male; short and fat rather than tall and thin; using brains rather than brawn to acheive her ends; working cooperatively in a transparent* system rather than alone in a murky one; dedicated to the rule of law rather than vigilante “justice”; and so on. As I said, probably not what the character is about at all, but one I’d like to see.

    *Not that the government in the US universe is generally all that transparent but maybe Waller’s obsession is changing that.