As is probably apparent from my previous ramblings, I really like comic books. I'm particularly drawn to aspirational superheroes, heroes who represent something more than "crime bad." My two favorites are easily Wonder Woman and Superman, though which I like more kind of depends on the day.
Wonder Woman and Superman both began as sort of American propaganda figures during World War 2, but have universalized over the years, representing hope and love and appealing to the better angels of our natures. (Captain America is probably the closest potential equivalent I can think of over at Marvel but I haven't read any of his books.)
For me, Wonder Woman and Superman aren't power fantasies in the physical sense like a lot of comic book characters are. They are moral power fantasies. It's not "I wish I could punch someone that hard" but "I wish I could be that good." I don't want to just hit someone until they stop, I want to convince them to change or inspire them not to start.
So... Wonder Woman. Diana of Themiscyra. WW. Diana Prince (sometimes). She has super strength, super speed, flight. Most importantly, though, she represents the intertwined concepts of truth, love, and forgiveness.
She rules.
(And bonus: She is the one comic book character I know more about than my friend James, so I can redress my karmic comic book burden to him.)
Here are some thoughts about the character, what I find interesting, how writers have revealed different aspects of her, and some books I like. Hopefully, I'll be able to convey why I like this character so much and maybe convince someone to give her a try.
The authors / runs I'll be referencing are, as follows vaguely by order of what I would recommend someone start with if they wanted to get into the character:
Wonder Woman #1-24, aka Rebirth - Greg Rucka (2016-2017)
The Hiketeia - Greg Rucka (2002)
Wonder Woman Black and Gold #1-6 - Various (2021)
Wonder Woman #195-217 - Greg Rucka (2003-2006)
Wonder Woman: Dead Earth - Daniel Warren Johnson (2020)
Wonder Woman #1-6, aka Outlaw - Tom King (2023)
JLA: League of One - Christopher Moeller (2001)
Wonder Woman #14-44 - Gail Simone (2008-2010)
Wonder Woman #0-35, aka New 52 - Brian Azzarello (2011-2016)
A book being lower on the list doesn't necessarily indicate that i think it's not as good and I think all of the ones above are worth looking into. I tried to adjust for availability and new reader accessibility as well as prioritize completed arcs.
So Outlaw is lower than it probably should be because the run is ongoing and the book ends on a cliffhanger. Dead Earth is lower than it should be because its re-contextualization of the character wouldn't hit as hard if you didn't already have the context for her.
I've read a lot of WW but it's all been Modern Age post 2000 stuff. I will likely get to the hugely influential George Perez run from the 80s at some point. (I've heard mixed things as to its quality).
And before i get started in earnest, a couple of logistical notes about comics that might help if you're not familiar. If you're a comics person, you probably already know this stuff.
Comic Book Eras and Continuity
Comic book history is roughly divided into Golden Age (1938-1956), Silver Age (1956-1970), Bronze Age (1970-1985), and Modern Age (1985 to present). Additionally, DC comics periodically have Crises which affect every book in the DC universe and reboots them all as a way to reset all of their continuity and start characters over.
So there's pre-Crisis continuity and Post Crisis continuity, both of which refer to a 1985 crossover event, there's New 52 continuity which is post Flashpoint Crisis, Rebirth which reboots / retcons New 52 etc etc etc. Generally comics that come out immediately after a Crisis are a hard reset and are intended to be a good entry point to new readers who don't know the years or decades of story that has come before. There's also standalone stories, often officially or unofficially called Elseworlds that are explicitly not in continuity. Like Batman fighting Jack the Ripper in Gotham by Gaslight or Wonder Woman in a post-Apocalyptic future in Dead Earth. None of this is super important for any of what follows, but I will use some of these terms.
Comic Book Numbering
Comic book numbering is kind of a wreck. Each numbered issue (also known as a floppy) is about 32 pages and runs are collected in trade volumes, which have a title for the collection . The trade product descriptions also (hopefully) indicate the issues they are collecting. So, for example "The Circle, Collects Wonder Woman #14-17" The numbering often resets but, at least for Wonder Woman, the issue title is always just Wonder Woman #X, so I've read 3 different Wonder Woman #14s by three different authors. (Superman and Batman often have multiple series going on simultaneously, so fitting all that together is whole other mess.)
I only read trade collections, so it isn't all that confusing as most trades collect only one author's work, but given that some product descriptions are better than others it can take a little work to figure out what's in what trade. Some trades aren't easy to find in print and some make really weird choices about publishing order. (Looking at you, Rebirth.)
Also, there are standalone graphic novels that exist outside of continuity or whose place in continuity is fuzzy.
Wonder Woman: A Brief History
Wonder Woman was created by psychologist William Moulton Marston in 1941, with inspiration from both his wife Elizabeth and their partner Olive Byrne. (Romantic partner; the Marstons and Byrne were polyamorous.) Wonder Woman was very intentionally created to be a powerful and feminist character at the dawn of comics. Wonder Woman has been in almost constant publication ever since her debut. (For reference, Superman was created in 1938 and Batman in 1939.)
Her first appearance in All Star Comics #8 established the broad strokes of her origin: She's the daughter of the queen of the Amazons, a race of warrior women cut off from the world on Paradise Island until WWII intelligence officer Steve Trevor crash lands there. The Amazons have a tournament to determine who will bring Trevor back to the US. Wonder Woman wins and goes back to Man's World with him.
In the early Golden Age, as was par for the course in the 40s, she fought a lot of Nazis. Later on, writers leaned harder into Greek mythology for characters, stories, and set dressing.
The Short End of the Lasso - Wonder Woman in Culture
Wonder Woman is considered, along with Superman and Batman, one of DC's Big 3 and is probably the most popular female superhero. Even if you've never read a comic book, you know who Wonder Woman is, you know her iconography, and you likely did even before the current age of superhero saturation. But for a character that is, in theory, one of DC's tentpoles she gets kind of a short shrift.
Two examples which I think are emblematic of this:
1) Wonder Woman did not make her first feature film appearance until 2016's Batman v Superman which is kind of weird for a such a well known character, especially after Batman (1989) made all the money ever, the mini Superhero boom in the early 2000s, and the gigantic superhero detonation post Iron Man / The Dark Knight in 2008. We'd had 9 Superman and like 14 Batman movies before her first appearance, for the record. F*cking Green Lantern beat her to the big screen in a much maligned 2011 film that potentially lost the studio $75 million.
2) We bought my superhero loving 4 year old a pack of DC underwear. it was a variety pack; some had a single superhero logo on them, and there were a few Justice League ones that had all the superhero logos. Well, there was one conspicuous exception. Wonder Woman was completely absent from the entire pack, even on the pairs that featured multiple logos. They had F*cking Green Lantern but not Wonder Woman.
Why this is is both blindingly obvious in the macro sense, i.e. society not valuing women as much and needing way more justification for a woman to do anything other than be a lamp than we need for a man, but why our society is like that is way out of scope here and I'm sure there's a ton of sociological studies about it. (And if that reference to systemic sexism offends you, thanks for stopping by. Snowflake.)
I was wondering about WW sales but details in general are kind of hard to pin down, and not just for Wonder Woman. It seems the industry is either intentionally or unintentionally cagey about this kind of stuff. Wikipedia shows data from 2016 via comic-vine and statistica that list the top 8 all time sales titles as:
Superman (DC, from 1938) with about 600 million issues sold (~19,000 different issues)
Batman (DC, 1939) with 484 million sold (~23,000 issues)
Spiderman (Marvel,1963) with 387 million sold (~13,500 issues)
X-Men (Marvel, 1963) with 260 million sold (~12,000 issues)
Captain America (Marvel, 1941) with about 600 millions sold (~19,000 issues)
Diabolik (Astorina, 1962) with about 150 million sold (862 issues)
Spawn (Image, 1990) with about 150 million sold (600 issues)
The Phantom (Frew, 1936) with about 150 million sold (~3,000 issues)
It's interesting that even as one of DC's big three, one of the longest running comic book characters ever, and a character with a large amount of cultural awareness, Wonder Woman doesn't crack the top 8, despite a 20 year head start on Spiderman and X-men and a nearly 40 year head start on Spawn. (Though Spawn mopped up in the 90s). And I don't have any idea where she falls in just the DC pantheon. Is she #3? Is she #11? Is she behind Green F*cking Lantern?
(Note: I don't know the compilation methodology of the statistics. Do they count trades / reprints? Shrug, and I don't think it matter for this exercise. I also, don't have any particular animus toward Green Lantern, despite my strident tone.)
The Short End of the Lasso - Character Details
Wonder Woman has a lot less consistency in both her context and her powers than either Superman or Batman (At least once we get to the Bronze age; the Golden and Silver Ages were nuts for Superman and Batman).
Origins
Though she's always a Princess of the Amazons and the triggering event to leaving her island is always Steve Trevor's plane crash, most of the other details about Diana are fluid. Usually she is born of clay, but sometimes she's the daughter of a god. Sometimes she has a secret identity, sometimes not. Sometimes she's bulletproof, sometimes she isn't. Sometimes the Amazons interact with the rest of the world and sometimes they don't. Sometimes the Amazon's home is called Paradise Island and sometimes Themiscyra, and sometimes both in the same run.
(Ok that one isn't important at all, but it do think there's a lettering error in Azzarello's New 52 run where it's called Paradise Island in every issue of the 35 part run except for issue 32. I was prepared to come up with a textual reason why it switched there as it came after a status quo change, but then it switched back for no reason right at the issue boundary.)
Her status among the Amazons is also a little varied as is her status in the outside world. In Gail Simone's run and Azzarello's New 52, she's viewed with some suspicion on Themiscyra both because of her origins from clay and her ongoing contact with Man's World. That isn't much of a thing in either of Rucka's runs.
She is sometimes a public figure as the Ambassador to Themiscyra and liaison to the United Nations in addition to being a well known and popular superhero. In these stories she's accessible to the average person in a way that a lot of superheroes are not, signing autographs, doing speaking engagements, visiting sick kids etc. Greg Rucka's 2003-2006 run leans pretty hard into this aspect, showing the day to day workings of her office, her staff's public relations efforts and legal wranglings, and the impossibility of keeping to a public schedule while routinely saving the world. (Her body man has his work cut out for him; Wonder Woman will absolutely stop and speak to everyone who wants to talk to her if you let her.) I think this public side is a really interesting aspect I don't encounter very much in comics.
This detail flexibility is perhaps inevitable for a character with a really wide but kind of shallow cultural imprint. She's iconic but how many people actually have engaged with any of her stories? Admittedly, the mostly well-received 2017 movie probably helped the public at large learn more about her. but one two hour movie can only do so much, especially compared to a three year comic run. Also, Wonder Woman (2017)'s poorly received and, for my money, pretty bad sequel Wonder Woman 84 may have set things back a bit for Diana in the zeitgeist.
Opportunities
A silver lining to having a character most people aren't ride or die for is that a writer has more flexibility to tinker. In Tom King's fantastic Wonder Woman: Outlaw the villainous narrator says this about Wonder Woman:
"Many people lie about [Wonder Woman]. About her family, her origins, her abilities, her wants, her needs. Every tale of the great Wonder Woman provides with more insight into the teller than into their protagonist."
This is both a nice meta reference to her fluidity, but also the general idea of writing for a character everyone knows but, at a population level, aren't precious about.
Re-contextualizations are, to me, not a weakness but a point of interest and if a character's cultural cachet is such that any changes from the established status quo are non-starters then I think the storytelling potential is all the weaker for it.
I don't go out of my way to look for fan reactions to things but I think it's telling that in, say, Three Jokers (Spoiler for a pretty good book incoming) when, in a story explicitly about trauma and recovery, Geoff Johns gave Batman an actual character arc and had him forgive the man who killed his parents, there was a segment of readers who had a minor conniption. Same with the end of Tom King's The War of Jokes and Riddles, which wasn't even very much of a departure from status quo.
When Azzarello retconned WW"s origins in New 52 the reaction i saw was more "This story's cool!" And the backlash, as it were, when Rucka's Rebirth retconned New 52 wasn't so much that they changed Diana's origin back, but that the New 52 story was wiped from existence. (Which I sort of get, but I ultimately think is kind of a silly objection. To quote James Clement, aka Mr. Sunday Movies, in another context; "Not that it matters, really, does it because everything's made up and who gives a shit?")
Diana, herself
For all the changes to Wonder Woman's peripheral context, the core of the character in all the books I've read is actually rather consistent. The differences are generally a matter of focus and framing rather than contradiction. The only possible exception would be Azzarrello's New 52 run, but that's more an issue of non-characterization rather than a characterization that is inconsistent with her other portrayals.
"Let thy servant stand revealed" - Diana and Truth
Probably the most iconic piece of equipment in all of DC comics is Wonder Woman's Lasso of Truth, the golden rope that compels anyone touching it to, well, tell the truth. (William Marston, by the way, invented a prototype for the polygraph machine.) Wonder Woman, maybe more than anything else, is an avatar for Truth. And I mean that in a deeper sense. Not just "don't lie to people" but also "don't lie to yourself." The Truth as a path to forgiveness and reconciliation, a redemption that can't be met until the truth about oneself is faced and accepted.
I think the most striking exploration of this is in Gail Simone's depiction of what the lasso actually does. When a person touches the lasso, it transports them into it, their soul laid bare and they can see themselves as they are and as they were. It's not just that you're telling Diana the truth, it's that you can't hide the truth from yourself anymore. The first time Diana uses the lasso in Simone's run, on a horrible neo-Nazi with an extremely stupid name (more on this later), he breaks down into tears as he watches the child he was become twisted by his experiences and the choices he made. Diana says "It's difficult, this part. I feel sympathy even for him. I follow the Amazon code: punishment for the adult, empathy for the child. Even for him." She empathizes with the child that is still a part of him. She lays a hand on his shoulder as he weeps.
Becky Cloonan's short story "The Wager" in the anthology collection Black and Gold plays on how terrifying the lasso can be. Diana, during an interrogation, lays her hand on the lasso and tells a smug suspect that they "can do this the easy way or the hard way." He confidently tells her to go ahead and use it. She instead tells him how it was made and what it does to people, how it causes them to face "Every choice, every lie, every deal with every devil. The holes in your selective memory, the facts you've twisted so you can convince yourself you're not the bad guy." And finally "Now. Are you prepared to see yourself for who you really are?" He misunderstood her earlier. The lasso was the hard way.
He begs her not to use it on him, and tells her everything she wants to know. The awfulness of the lasso in "The Wager," reminds me very much of Graham Greene's "Appalling strangeness of the mercy of God" in Brighton Rock. (Also Batman now owes her ten bucks since she didn't need to use the lasso.)
In Rucka's Rebirth Wonder Woman says "When a lie is confronted, there are three choices. Admission, and thus honesty. Perpetuation, and thus feeble deceit. Or hostility, the child of fear." It's a sympathetic take on the perils of deception which frames the negative responses in its wake as born from weakness and fear, rather than evil. For Wonder Woman, most people do bad things because they are broken and they twist the truth to convince themselves they are right.
"You've stumbled, Nathan. But your story goes on." - Faith and Forgiveness
Diana puts a lot of trust in people in a way that does not come across as naive. She has faith that people will make the right decision, a faith that usually inspires people to do just that. And she is there to help them even as they lash out, like in Simone's "Expatriate: Lifeblood" story arc where Wonder Woman lets a grieving Green Lantern whale on her while extending her hand in peace. She know's he's in pain and extends her hand. She doesn't minimize his anguish or pretend he shouldn't feel it. He responds by pummeling her but then she, bruised and bleeding, silently extends her hand again. She lets herself be hurt to have chance of reaching him. And it's a nice touch that the second panel of her extended hand is a close up against a blank background, as if in that moment her empathy is the only thing in the world.
Diana applies truth, acceptance, and forgiveness to herself as well. Nadia Shammas's story "What Doesn't Kill You" in Black and Gold is explicitly about this. When an enemy tries to use all of Diana's failures to break her down, Diana, with the lasso around her wrist says "I believe in grace for all and I extend that to myself. If I couldn't, what good is justice? ... The remorse of my failures fuels the flames inside me, it does not diminish them" As someone prone to negative self talk, I find this really compelling and I am reminded of the simple question that can stop negative self talk dead in its tracks: "Would you ever say or think that about someone else?"
In Christopher Moeller's League of One, Diana's ongoing and eternal effort to come to terms with her self-deception is the reason she triumphs where pretty anyone else would have died.
Wonder Woman believes we are not static and that we can always choose to be better. She offers hope and forgiveness to her adversaries and the foes that stay foes explicitly reject this, out of fear, hurt, pride, or all of the above. Rebirth and Dead Earth engage with these themes very clearly; in both works they are kind of the entire point.
Daniel Warren Johnson's Dead Earth is a story where Diana awakens in a burned out world many years after the apocalypse with no memory of how the world got to be how it is. It is explicitly about reconciling with yourself, dealing with trauma, and living with the harms you've caused, even if you can't undo them and the scars will remain forever. And it is about the deeper idea that you don't have to be perfect to start down the path to being perfected. Dead Earth uses the Golden / Silver Age idea that removing her bracers increases Diana's power at the cost of her losing control of herself. She woke up without them and their absence is an important element in the story. After the climax, she is shown wearing only one, which she found in the ruins of Themiscyra. She tells Dee that she will keep looking for the other one. Dee asks "Does it still work if you only have one?" Wonder Woman replies "No."
Wearing only one bracer may not "work" but it's a symbol that she's committed to trying and that the promise and the striving are important. Diana tells Dee:
“...I can’t promise I won’t let you down. The past has proven how little I truly know and how much I still have to learn. I will make mistakes. I have before and I will again. But I can promise to try.”
Reconciliation is a continuous, sometimes incremental process and you can't wait until you are ready to start. To quote the song Come Ye Sinners: "If you tarry till you're better, you will never come at all."
"Let them fly endlessly, tirelessly, joyfully, knowing that they are loved completely" - Diana's Love
Wonder Woman loves everyone, even her enemies. This is in line with Marston's intentions for the character. Per an article in Boston University's Bostonia magazine, Marston set out to create "a new kind of superhero, one who would triumph not with fists or firepower, but with love." Her faith in people and her desire to help everyone, including herself, to be the best versions of themselves comes from this love. If truth is a pathway to redemption, love is the reason to walk down it.
Diana says one of the most Wonder Woman things ever to an adversary in Rebirth: "All you've done, I love you. And I forgive you. You don't have to be afraid anymore. You are loved."
Diana's love is so instrumental to her character that it is present in every incarnation of her that I've encountered. (It's more of a passing reference in New 52, but it's still explicitly there). It's summed up very well by King in Outlaw, where Diana tells a sick boy she's spending the day with that:
"We must instead seek our peace here, with each other. Within each other. Who you are, what defines you. I have traveled far and wide. I have warred with the angels and supped with the devils. I have seen universes birthed into my hands, and men dying with my name fumbling from their lips. I have known cruelty and I have known love. And I choose love."
"[Batman or Superman], them you don't want to mess with. Because they have something you don't. You know what that is?"
"... Is it a code against killing?" - Diana the Warrior
That quote from Outlaw also hints at another core part of Wonder Woman: that she is a warrior. She has seen "men dying with [her] name fumbling from their lips." And that's a big difference between her and most of the other DC heroes: she was trained for literal war and will absolutely kill you if she must.
And she is a hell of a warrior, too, beyond just the super strength, super speed, and the flying. The antagonistic narrator of King's Outlaw says:
They all claim to be so very unique, but it seems to me at some basic level these superheroes are all achingly similar. They are soldiers, predictable, precise, systematic, clinging to their weapons, mechanically executing their plans. But her. Her every movement is fluid organic, original. The greatest achievement in dance violently improvised in front of our eyes.... She is an artist.
Simone's Wonder Woman has the most concise statement of her warrior ethos:
"Don't kill if you can wound, don't wound if you can subdue, don't subdue if you can pacify, and don't raise your hand at all unless you first have extended it"
Her warrior aspect is more of a focus in Simone's run and League of One, made explicit by Wonder Woman's internal monolog in the former and an omniscient narrator in the latter. In both stories, when events peel away the layers of her character, the Amazon warrior is at the core. As the narrator of League of One says:
"Wonder Woman is many different things: an emissary of peace, a loyal friend, a loving daughter, but first and foremost she is an Amazon, a warrior."
There is obviously a tension between Diana's warrior heart and her mission of hope and peace, and this is not lost on her. In Simone's "Warkiller" arc Wonder Woman says "It strikes me, the absurdity of the situation. Fighting a battle to stop a battle to prevent a battle."
There is also a looming anxiety around this in Moeller, Simone, and Johnson's stories. In Moeller's League of One it is expressly an anxiety about the temptations of great power. In Simone's "Plague and Pestilence" arc the anxiety revolves around power decoupled from humanity, love, and empathy. It is made manifest in the murderous Genocide, a creature created from merging the earth from sites of ethnic cleansing with the corpse of a future version of Wonder Woman herself, a corrupted version of Diana's own origin from clay. Genocide says at one point "Do not attempt to humanize me." Johnson's Dead Earth has recurring episodes involving a warrior losing control, which ends up being quite literally what made its post-apocalyptic world the way it is.
This is all more oblique in Rucka's runs, which largely lack any of Diana's inner monologue, but it is still present. Azzarello's New 52 version of Diana is undoubtedly a mighty and feared fighter, but what this means to her and how she sees herself is not really explored.
"You call me girl because you think I am a fool" - Against the Patriarchy
Another aspect of Wonder Woman that's hard to ignore is how she's positioned against patriarchy. This was an intentional choice by the vocally feminist Marston. Diana is a warrior from an island where all the levers of power are controlled by women, indeed the only habitants are women, and she travels to Man's World in the 1940s. To an America only two decades into universal women's suffrage and more than three decades from women being allowed a credit card. I'm guessing Marston probably didn't appreciate that she was made the Justice Society's secretary in 1941 and didn't participate in their adventures.
Marston also came up with the idea that Wonder Woman would lose her powers if she was bound by a man. Not exactly subtle, there.
In the modern stuff I've read the only one that leans pretty hard into the systemic sexism is King's Outlaw. She's dismissively referred to as "girl" by several of the characters, particularly the ones in positions of power, and men feeling emasculated by the existence of a powerful woman is an overt thread in the book. After Diana defeats an attack on her by the US military the series antagonist, The Sovereign, asks a marine "Was all that battle hard on you? Traumatic, perhaps? Seeing a girl humiliate your brothers?" The marine initially replies "Dude, no I mean-- whatever, she's a superhero. We lost," but is later "convinced" by the Sovereign that Wonder Woman had denied his dignity as a man. You know, by not dying after being attacked. The Sovereign convinces him by supernatural means, so it's not hard to see social commentary about bad actors and systems of power planting and reinforcing the idea of emasculation into men as a means of manipulation and how this grievance based masculinity is harmful not just to women, but, given what soon happens to the marine, to the men themselves.
Rucka's first run touches on some of these ideas, too, with a segment of the public resenting her and seeing her presence as an attack on traditional family values. That this comes from both men and women to me is an indicator that Rucka is gesturing at a patriarchy that is systemic and defended as the status quo, rather than just, like, a couple of misogynistic guys being jerks.
Gail Simone's "A Star in the Heavens" arc deals with pop culture depictions (reductions?) of women. Wonder Woman is on a film set keeping a wary eye on a movie biopic being made of her life. The movie is just filled with cliche, regressive dialog, stock tropes, forced love triangles etc. The actress playing her has to say "I cannot love a man until he defeats me in battle.... Why do I feel like more of a woman after you defeated me!"
A scene re-enacting Steve Trevor's first arrival on Themiscyra is similarly embarrassing, with the Amazons raving about how men are monsters and Hippolyta drawing a sword and saying she'll "Turn them from man to woman in no time!" while others scream "Kill the men!" DIana exasperatedly responds with "Why is it that people feel a belief in women equals a hatred of men?" Actress-Diana then says in regards to Steve "Mother I love him... how can there be evil inside of something so beautiful?" It's all so incredibly hack, and yet feels only like 5% more absurd than something a major studio might actually write.
A "Star in the Heavens" is pretty on the nose but it's an amusing and pointed arc.
(Wonder Woman does attempt to pull the plug on the movie, by the way, but supernatural shenanigans ensue.)
"Even if it takes decades" - Eternal Youth
One last small thing that I think is interesting is Wonder Woman's agelessness and the ways writers use it to deepen her character. How long she was alive before coming to Man's World and how long she's been in Man's World is usually pretty fuzzy, especially after her arrival was decoupled from World War II. The exception here is Azzarello's New 52 where she's explicitly 23, but that's an intentional departure from the standard and there's no indication that she will age like a normal person.
There are two stories that stick out in my mind for their use of Diana's eternal youth. The first is Dead Earth, where her agelessness informs her willingness to have hope for people who seem hopeless.
“It means that I am immortal. I have lived for centuries. And when a being has lived that long, they begin to see not in years, but in lifetimes. From my vantage point, I see the possibility for change, even if it takes decades. Theyden didn’t start his life as a cruel person. Hopefully, with some trust, he won’t end his life as one.”
The second is a story from Black and Gold called "Ageless" by John Arcudi. The short story is framed against Batman questioning Diana with "On your calendar our lives blink out so fast. How attached can you get...when to you we're just like mayflies?"
Wonder Woman smiles and replies:
"That's not how I see them. There are international charities funded by millions in donations that are dedicated to granting wishes, to enriching the very short lives of critically ill children. Does that sound like detachment or a lack of love? I fight all the harder for mortal lives because more than most I understand how precious they are. They're the reason I'm here. Generation after generation, they are the reason. I need to protect them. They do the real work, after all. They have to. It's not up to the Gods whether or not this world is just, and moral. And it's not up to the Justice League either, Bruce. It's up the them"
This conversation unfolds over the wordless life story of John McCrae, a man that Wonder Woman saved in World War II who became a Senator and went on to live a long and happy life. The story ends with her laying a flower on his grave. She smiles and says "Hey, Mac."
Wonder Woman is attached not only to humanity as a concept, but humans in specific for the beautifully short lives we each live, the other lives we touch, and our responsibility to create a just world. We're not mayflies or pets to her; we have value and purpose.
The Villain Problem [citation needed]
Most pop culture things have conventional wisdom narratives. One I've seen a lot about Wonder Woman is that her villains suck. Certainly a character in print for 80 years accumulates a lot of crap antagonists and this is definitely true for Wonder Woman, but in my comic reading experience really only Batman has even kind of a deep bench of rogues. But Batman also has Kite-Man for a villain, so there's that. (Though Tom King somehow makes Kite-Man pivotal to The War of Jokes and Riddles, to great effect.)
I think what makes a really great villain is when they are some sort of foil for the protagonist. And I don't mean "knows Karate when the protagonist knows Kung Fu." I like it when a villain represents an opposing worldview or can be used as a manifestation of some sort of anxiety in the hero. I like cracked mirror versions of the characters, too, as in someone who represents what the protagonist could have been or could still become.
On this score, I think at least modern Wonder Woman is doing pretty well. She also has the advantage of a Greek Mythological milieu which is an easy source of cool and interesting characters, with New 52 being a particular standout for this. I must admit, though, that a lot of her non Greek Pantheon antagonists have stupid names. The neo-Nazi I mentioned earlier in the lasso section who's name I actively dodged is called.... Captain Nazi. Sigh. (Though, I kind of suspect this name was intentionally dumb as a cute homage to her 1940s comics and her generally stupidly named enemies.)
But names aside, here's a few examples of villains that I think are really interesting and well-used foils for Wonder Woman.
"The old dog of war has learned new tricks, or hadn't you noticed?" - Ares
The Greek God of War is a very frequent antagonist and usually at least a looming threat in the back of Diana's mind. His influence on the hearts and minds of mankind literally opposes that of Wonder Woman's. He's also sometimes a very physical threat to Diana.
He's also a good antagonist given Wonder Woman's paradoxical position as a warrior for peace. On some level, she is his favorite champion, even when they are enemies. He is also the patron god she could most emulate if she ever detaches from her love for humanity. He preys upon this anxiety when he says to her in a dream "For all your talk of peace it is the God of War you love and serve best." This occurs in Gail Simone's run after Diana has killed him, so it is not even clear to her whether this is really him as a spirit or her subconscious.
Pretty much every run I've read that involves Ares uses him differently, as corrupting tempter in Simone's, as not-quite-hostile opportunist in Rucka's first run, or as bored and almost affectionate paternal figure in Azzarello's New 52. (Rebirth uses him to great effect, too, but I don't want to spoil it). And in my opinion, all these different takes on the character have been done well.
Ares also inherits a lot of potentially interesting character and family dynamics due to his position in the Greek pantheon. New 52 and Rucka's first run play the most with this idea, and both succeed.
"That is not my name. He stole that name from me. That name is dead" - Cheetah
Cheetah, like Ares, has been around for almost the entire history of Wonder Woman. Post-Crisis Cheetah is Barbara Minerva, an archaeologist corrupted by the African god Urtzkartaga. (As far as I can tell Urtzkartaga is not based on any existing mythology.) Her semi-divine powers make her a physical match for Wonder Woman.
The version of Cheetah I find the most compelling is the one in Rucka's Rebirth where she is framed as a tragic figure. Her existence is horrifying and painful, full of rage and guilt and an unslakable hunger for human flesh. In her last appearance she tells Veronica Cale, another WW antagonist, that she no longer wants to be changed back into Barbara. "This is who I truly am, Doctor. Time for you to accept who you are. A villain." This idea positions her in direct conflict with Wonder Woman's belief that you can always change and overcome what you've done and what's been done to you. Cheetah's insistence that this is just who she is is a form of despair that runs counter to the hope Wonder Woman represents. This Cheetah can be perhaps read as a loose metaphor for addiction, mental health struggles, and the despondency they can lead to.
Rebirth is also an interesting take because of how it frames Urtzkatarga as a sort of incel god who attempts to dominate and manipulate all women, who he sees an inferior objects to be used. He curses Barbara her for unfaithfulness to him because she was not a virgin when they entered into their bargain. He was apparently entitled to her faithfulness before she even knew he existed. He's a similar commentary as the Sovereign in Outlaw, and having Barbara's trauma at his hands lead to her conflict with Diana, her former friend, is rather pointed.
In Simone's run and the 2/3 of Rucka's first run that I've read, Cheetah is less interesting, both thematically and as a character. She's more just a mustache (whisker?) twirling villain that you don't get much from, more an obstacle than anything else. This is more a matter of those runs not being particularly interested in her as an antagonist; neither were swings and misses. She's not present in Azzarello's New 52.
"Beg me, Leslie" - Dr. Psycho
This is one of the stupidest villain names I've ever encountered. He's another long standing villain who debuted in 1943 as an unusual looking little person who is also a raging misogynist. He is allegedly based on William Marston's academic advisor Hugo Munsterberg who had really regressive views on women. All the references to this inspiration are pretty circular so I haven't found any original confirmation, but it does track with what I've learned about Marston.
Post Crisis, Psycho's real name is Edgar Cizko and he has the ability to control people's minds, make them see things that aren't there, force them to do things, and even swap consciousnesses with them. In the books I've read so far he's only present in Gail Simone's run and Rucka's first run. He's really predatory and rapey and clearly enjoys exerting power over women. He says gross things to the female characters to get in their heads, something he can also quite literally do.
In Rucka's first run he's legitimately scary, treated almost like a Hannibal Lecter. The other characters, men and women, are terrified of him. His telepathy and willingness to violate other people by going into their minds without permission makes him another kind of rapist and, in Rucka's run anyway, he's already the physical kind. He's motivated for revenge on women for perceived emasculation and because he didn't get the affection he feels entitled to.
He's a powerful foil for a female superhero that is often positioned against patriarchy and toxic masculinity, His power to alter what people see also sets him in opposition to Wonder Woman's power to reveal the truth.
(Wonder Woman also has two other PHD villains: Doctor Cyber and Doctor Poison. Maybe Diana is really against student debt?)
"The difference is I earned all of it" - Veronica Cale
Created by Greg Rucka as a "Lex Luthor for Diana" she's similarly a regular, if exceptionally brilliant, human who earned her own success through a lot of adversity and resents Wonder Woman on several levels. She plays a prominent role in both of the Rucka books I've referenced. She's well realized and has believable motivations, walking the line between antagonist and villain.
She's a cynic because of what she's had to overcome. She believes Wonder Woman's rhetoric is insincere, unless it is sincere but then it's still bad because it's stupid and naive. Rucka really captures the sort of goal post shifting that people do to justify their hatreds.
I very much like this interaction with Diana late in Rebirth: "We're never going to be friends. You understand that." "I understand you see weakness in the places where I find strength... [I understand] that you will always be alone, Doctor Cale."
A Summary of My Book Thoughts
Now that I've talked about the character for [redacted - f*cks sake], here's some thoughts on the Wonder Woman books I've been referencing, no spoilers. And apologies to the artists for not deep diving into the art. The art in a comic book is, you know, crazy important but I don't feel particularly qualified to analyze it in depth and I don't know much about the creative process for it. I will talk about it a bit, but in broad strokes.
(I implied this earlier but If you're looking to get into or are curious about Wonder Woman I would recommend starting with the two volumes of Greg Rucka's Rebirth. It's a reboot so you don't need advanced knowledge about the characters to understand it.)
Rebirth - Wonder Woman #1-24 - Greg Rucka (2016-2017)
This is probably my favorite of the WW books I've read, though if Tom King's run ends well, it might have some competition. It unfolds in parallel timelines, with the odd number issues taking place in the present day and the even number issues serving as "Wonder Woman: Year One," detailing her entry into Man's World. The structure feels purposeful and the interplay between the two parallel stories creates narrative tension and strong reveals.
The writing is great and the art is also wonderful, with Liam Sharp drawing the present day storyline and Nicola Scott (part 1) and Bilquis Evely (part 2) drawing the past story. The characters are very realistically drawn, though Evely's are a little more stylized. The present day art is almost mournful, while the past art has a more hopeful feel, like the world is flush with possibilities. A lot of this is the color palette, with the present having a lot of blues and deeper shadows while the past, particularly in part 1, having more pastels. The art in the past is also...softer somehow without obviously losing any realism. The color and emotional palletes suit the unfolding stories extremely well. I can't put my finger on how Nicola Scott did this, but her Diana has very expressive face and eyes that let you track her emotionally really well, especially at the beginning before she speaks English. Of all the great art I've encountered in my WW journey, I think Nicola Scott's is my favorite.
(Also, I am really partial to Jenny Frison's Wonder Woman covers.)
This book also passes an unofficial test I have for whether a story makes good use of a character: Could a different character be swapped in and solve this problem this way? And the answer here is very definitely "no." The story is tightly constructed, too, and it has good retroactive continuity; it holds up on a re-read. I really can't say enough good things about it.
As I said above, Rebirth is a good entry point too, as it's a continuity reboot. It also has the advantage of being way easier to find than some of the things on this list, which I had to get second-hand.
One note though: I read the Deluxe Edition which is the entire story in two volumes in the published order. When DC published the four smaller trades they made the decision to not alternate between present and past the way it was originally published. The first trade is only the present storyline, the second is only the past storyline etc. I've some people say this is the best way to read it, but I very strongly disagree. The two timelines are not confusing, and reading all the present stuff before all the past stuff blows away setup / payoffs and screws up the tension and pacing. And it's not like it's jumps around in time; both stories progress linearly. Rucka wrote it to be read in alternating timelines, so I think that's best way to appreciate it. Stories are more than just the plot that is told. They are also how that plot is conveyed and framed.
Reading Rebirth in the small trade order would be like watching Christopher Nolan's Memento in the order of the scene chronology, which would be lunacy. Sure you'd still get see all the plot events, but it would be at the cost of the mystery and the emotions and ideas it's tinkering with.
New 52 - Wonder Woman #0-35 - Brian Azzarello (2011-2016)
I enjoyed this run but I have some mixed feelings about it. It has a really fast plot and the re-imagining of the Greek pantheon is really great. The gods feel very capricious and extremely dangerous here in a way that they don't always (except for Ares, who is basically always a threat). New 52's pace is extremely breakneck with very little downtime and it sometimes feels like an extended sequence of fetch quests.
So this is a good and fun story but I think Wonder Woman is the least interesting thing about it. It reminds me of Batman: A Court of Owls in that way. Azzarello's Wonder Woman in general is the most opaque of all the versions I've read. I don't think that was a thematic choice to be withholding, it's just that New 52 is really plot and world-building focused rather than character focused.
Azzarello doesn't give Diana too much characterization, though there's nothing that really subverts what we've seen in other stories. Diana is, by intent per Azzarello, a little more impulsive than she usually is but whatever, it's a new imagining of the character and she's explicitly a lot younger than in most depictions.
I kind of get the impression that Azzarello was more interested in the Greek pantheon than exploring Wonder Woman and there are times when I definitely got the "man wouldn't it be fcked up* if this happened!?!" or "Can you believe we went there?!" vibe. Like subversion for shock sake, but without a real narrative purpose.
There's a quote from Azzarello from Comic Con in 2016 (I think) in response to criticism of his screenplay for the generally disliked animated adaptation of The Killing Joke where he said "The thing about [The Killing Joke] is that it's controversial, so we added more controversy." Which is kind of...juvenile? I have not read anything else by Azzarello nor do I know anything else about him, but that kind of weird take makes me a little skeptical about the decisions in some of the New 52 run.
There's a couple of scene cul-de-sacs, some plot contrivances, and there's one big reveal towards the end which is kind of surprising and cool, but when read backwards means that Diana really didn't have any agency in the story at all. I think some of the character implications weren't thought through all that much because, again, the story just isn't all that interested in them. The pace is such that you don't really notice some of these things at the time, though. It's definitely not a dealbreaker, but it is something I noted.
Don't misunderstand, I do like this story for what it is and it's another reboot so it's an easy entry point. If you want a fast paced story with some really neat Greek god machinations this is a good choice, but I almost wouldn't recommend it as a first Wonder Woman story if you're interested in seeing how the character ticks.
The art by Bernard Chang (who also drew some of Simone's run) is good, interesting, and it suits the story really well. And I can't say enough good things about how the gods were designed.
This one is pretty available too, both in trades and a collected Omnibus.
Wonder Woman #14-44 - Gail Simone (2008-2010)
I have some mixed feelings on this run, too, but overall I liked it. It's deeper in continuity than the others on this list, so the setup in the first issue is kind of confusing but if you just roll with it it's fine. There's a lot of balls in the air in this run with at least two overarching plot threads and a lot of side treks along the way. It's at times quite weird and silly but also has its heavy moments.
On some level this is the opposite of Azzarello's New 52; some of the plot is kind of odd and the cause and effect can be a little muddled, but I think the character writing is consistently very good. As I mentioned before, unlike Rucka and Azzarello's runs we get a narration from Diana, which allows Simone to explore her inner world. The character interactions are also well done and at times quite funny.
A good encapsulation of the strengths and weakness of this run is the beginning of the "Warkiller" arc, where a disguised Black Canary and Wonder Women join a meta-human fighting ring for....reasons? Even after a second read I'm not sure why they are there, but the scenes themselves are fun and both women are strongly characterized. They are very different people, but Simone really conveys how well they know and how much they like each other. Simone's not afraid to just let characters hang out which is a great way to show the audience who they are.
Simone's depiction of Wonder Women's lasso is probably my favorite of all the books I've read and it directly leads into what i think is the strongest standalone arc, "Ends of the Earth" (volume 2 of the trades), where the lasso gets corrupted after Diana uses it on a man who has sold his soul. Another strong arc is the "Rise of the Olympian" arc featuring Genocide (though I don't particularly like the character design). There's a lot of good stuff in here.
The last two arcs of the run get wrapped a little too quickly given the weight of their setups and the interesting seeds that are planted. The "Contagion" arc in particular feels like it could have sustained another 3 or 4 issues, but it wraps up almost perfunctorily. Though, again, the scene by scene character writing is very good. I almost wonder if something weird happened behind the scenes, like a surprise from the higher ups at DC or something.
There's a lot of different artists on this run with Terry Dodson, Ron Randall, Bernard Chang (who would go on to do New 52), Aaron Lopresti, Chris Batista, Fernando Dagnino, and Nicola Scott (who did a lot of Rebirth) all doing some drawing. I don't have any particular observations on the art other than in general it's in a little less realistic style than the other runs on this list, but it isn't distracting nor is the periodic change in styles when a new penciler comes in. I probably liked Scott's art at the end of the run the best, but that's personal taste, not an indictment of the quality of the other artists.
This run was a little harder to scare up than the others, which is too bad.
Wonder Woman #195-217 - Greg Rucka (2003-2006)
Rucka's first run, despite picking up from previous continuity is still a pretty good starting point, as it begins with a new guy joining Diana's staff and he serves as a good audience surrogate. Rucka explores the day to day of juggling being a public figure and a superhero in an interesting way. He obviously thought a lot about how a character like Diana would fit into society and this run feels the most like it's set in our real-world.
There's some really good ideas explored here and some prescient social commentary, particularly around Wonder Woman's book of essays which get her targeted by a parents group that feels very much like Moms For Liberty. This run came out almost 20 years ago but the language the group uses is so similar that I almost wonder if Moms For Liberty read this and said "Those guys seem to know what's up!!" This is the run that introduced Veronica Cale as an antagonist and made Dr. Psycho properly terrifying.
There's a lot of Greek mythology here and, while the gods aren't the radical re-inventions they are in New 52, their machinations are still fun and interesting.
As in Rebirth, Rucka has a strong vision of Diana and I really enjoy his writing. He also manages to land a couple of emotional gut punches in the "Stoned" arc.
I liked the artwork too, drawn mostly by Drew Johnson.
Note that there's three collected volumes of Rucka's run; I've only read the first two. The final one is less available (i.e. more expensive) and I'd heard that unlike the first two volumes it's much more tied up in DC continuity and the big multi-title event 'Infinite Crisis." It also includes the unrelated "Blackest Night" event. Bluntly, I thought it might be confusing since I haven't read any of the Infinite Crisis books. I'd read tie-ins to a story I wasn't familiar with before when I read Peter Tomasi's Batman and Robin: Death of the Family without having read Scott Snyder's Batman: Death of the Family and I was really confused. Tomasi's story just wasn't meant to be standalone.
Volume 2 of Rucka's Wonder Woman wraps up satisfyingly so I didn't feel the need to track down an expensive volume that perhaps wasn't designed to be read in isolation.
JLA: League of One - Christopher Moeller (2001)
I like this one quite a bit. It's a story about Wonder Woman fighting an ancient dragon after she receives a prophecy from the Oracle at Delphi that anyone who fights the dragon will defeat it but die in the attempt. So she chooses to fight it alone and has to get the rest of the Justice League out of the way to save their lives. It emphatically passes the "Could another character have pulled this off?" test and deals with both the ideas of Wonder Woman's core as a warrior and her pursuit of purity through truth, a concept in direct opposition to the evil and corrupting dragon.
And it's all painted, not drawn, by Moeller himself. It's beautiful and the design of the dragon, both visually and thematically are really compelling. Some of the maskless characters's faces, particularly Superman's, don't always look consistent from page to page but Diana herself is pretty on model and the the rest of the League isn't in it all that much so it's not a distracting issue. (Also, Batman is a massive asshole in this story)
Note: The trade I bought also includes "Cold Steel" which, though the art and alien creature designs are just as good as "League of One," is a little all over the place story-wise and has some tone problems. It's like Moeller had a really great idea about generational trauma and war but also wanted to draw superhero robots, and the marriage between the two is a little rocky. There are some really cool ideas in there, though. It's a Justice League story, though, not a Wonder Woman story. She's barely in it.
Wonder Woman: Dead Earth - Daniel Warren Johnson (2020)
This is a powerful and emotional look at trauma and forgiveness in a post Apocalyptic world. Wonder Woman wakes up after being asleep for many years to a hellscape wasteland where the few bands of surviving humans are menaced by giant monsters. Too much more would spoil more than I want to.
The art, also by Daniel Warren Johnson, is grimy and unglamorous, which fits the setting really well. Everyone has matted hair and dirt all over them all the time, even Diana. No one is beautiful in this world. It's very effective.
This book really hones in on Diana's character by putting her in a strange setting. It's a standalone story that's not all that long. I highly recommend it, though maybe not as a first WW book.
Wonder Woman #1-6: Outlaw - Tom King (2023-)
The caveat with this one is that it's still ongoing, so the Outlaw volume is not a complete story. I really like Tom King's books though, so I'm hopeful. This is a very "Wonder Woman as myth" book in the way that Superman: Up in the Sky is. Wonder Woman is not the point of view character; the story is narrated by the ultimate antagonist, The Sovereign, after many years have passed, which adds to the mythical mystique. King also withholds Diana for a long time, which makes her first appearance more impactful.
Tom King, maybe not surprisingly, shows a good deal of cynicism towards power structures and there's plenty of prescient and well done social commentary to be found here.
And Daniel Sampere's art is fantastic.
I'm really looking forward to how this run plays out.
Wonder Woman: Black and Gold: Various (2021)
DC has done a run of short story anthologies for their flagship characters: Black and Gold for Wonder Woman, Red and Blue for Superman, and Black and White for Batman. The volumes, by various writers and artists in various styles, use only the colors in their titles.
Short stories by their nature almost force small scale explorations of a character since there isn't time or space to have big plots. I think the stories in Black and Gold are strong overall, with some silly low stakes ones, some really intense ones, some powerfully emotional ones, and some very weird ones. It's a good primer for Diana's character.
Some standout stories are The Prayer, Ageless, A Lesson in Truth, Beyond the Horizon, Amazing, and The Wager. I like this collection quite a bit.
Wonder Woman: The Hiketeia - Greg Rucka (2002)
"It was never this cold on Themiscyra"
I haven't actually talked about this book yet, but The Hiketeia is a standalone graphic novel that Greg Rucka wrote a year before he did his first WW run. It's great and the cover is awesome: a close-up of Batman's face as he lies on the ground with Wonder Woman's boot on his head.
It deals with duty, vengeance, empathy, and their price. Diana accepts the request for protection (the titular Hiketeia) from a young woman who is on the run after committing several murders in Gotham. This puts Wonder Woman on a collision course with Batman.
The art by J.G. Jones is great. It's realistic, poignant, and he makes the Furies that silently watch the proceedings terrifying. It's a short, sad story that's well worth a look.
"Don't make me go through you Diana."
"You can't go through me, Batman."
Note that this is available as a standalone book, but it is also included in Volume 1 of Greg Rucka's first run.
Conclusion
If you're still reading this far, thanks for sticking with me. This took f*cking forever but it was fun re-reading these stories and giving Wonder Woman a good think.
Wonder Woman is "known of" but not "known" which I think is a shame. She balances lofty aspirations like hope and goodness with accessibility and empathy. She is justice, but tempered with mercy and understanding. And she is in the world, not above it.
She can represent a lot of different things and she's flexible enough to put in lots of different situations. There's a lot a writer can explore and a lot of different types of stories a writer can tell. Diana is human enough to support small scale personal stories and powerful enough to go on grand adventures. She can tangle with gods and demons and she can show a broken man that though he has stumbled, his story can go on. She can hug a child and she can punch Ares in the face. She can be a fulcrum for pointed social commentary or someone who has fun dust-ups with hyper intelligent gorillas. (The latter happens in Simone's run.)
And most importantly, she can do all of the above at the same time. Whatever kind of story you're looking for, you can probably find one Wonder Woman is in.
It's easy to be cynical and dismissive about aspirational superheroes. Humans have always been like that. The people in Wonder Woman's stories are like that. The real world can be dark and scary and it's easy to feel overwhelmed.
In this world, it's nice to think about a hero who not only will try to fix brokenness, but will walk with you and trust you to help fix it with her. To quote Diana herself, "Will you help me revive this Dead Earth?"
Happy reading
-m
Comments