Who is Wonder Woman?

I don’t normally focus on DC but with the Batman v. Superman: Dawn of Justice movie coming out, there has been a bit of “buzz” around Wonder Woman, who is guest starring and making her first movie appearance. She’s an interesting character in that so many people obviously know her as Diana Prince, played by Lynda Carter in the ‘70s TV show, but I wonder how many people know the comic.

The movies definitely need a Wonder Woman since she’s one of DC’s “big three” with Superman and Batman. She’s been around since the ‘40s and was the first female superhero, or at least the first one who lasted. In recent years, they’ve retconned her history to make her an illegitimate daughter of Zeus and Queen Hippolyta (I think — the reboot was interesting but I only read a little and DC reboots every few months anyway).

My Wonder Woman was in the post-Crisis on Infinite Earths reboot by the great George Perez in the ‘80s. In this, Themyscira (Paradise Island) was populated by the Amazons, women who had been murdered in distant times and reincarnated by the Greek gods to live on the island. Queen Hippolyta was pregnant when she was murdered and when she started to have maternal longings, the gods directed her to form an image in clay on the beach, to which the gods gave life. Princess Diana was born. Years later, the Amazons decided to send an emissary to Man’s World (Themyscira is inaccessible by normal means). Against her mother’s wishes, Diana competed in combat and won the chance to be that emissary. She adopted that improbably American-looking costume after being inspired by Steve Trevor’s mother Diana, a pilot who had crash-landed on Paradise Island during World War II and helped the Amazons defeat some demons. Wonder Woman later joined the Justice League of America. Her adopted sister is Donna Troy, also known as Wonder Girl (and you do not want to wade into Donna’s tangled Vietnam of continuity).

The Olympians Athena, Aphrodite, Demeter, Artemis, Hestia and Hermes all blessed Diana with various powers, including flight and strength that is second only to Superman’s. Wonder Woman also possesses a golden lariat, forged by Hephaestus from the Girdle of Gaea, which can compel people to tell the truth if she lassoes them with it. She is commonly regarded as one of the strongest mortals on DC’s Earth.

Wonder Woman has at times been portrayed as a superhero, diplomat and warrior. My favorite characterization has been the compassionate warrior who would kill, but only if she had no other option. A few years ago, Wonder Woman actually was forced to kill Maxwell Lord, who was mind-controlling Superman to kill Batman. She snapped Lord’s neck on live TV, which led to a debate in comics and the real world about whether she had no option but to kill him.

Wondy’s rogues gallery consists of god of war Ares, the Cheetah, the sorceress Circe, Psycho Man, the Silver Swan and some other people. The oddest villain she fought is Egg-Fu, who in the Silver Age was a giant egg characterized like an Asian stereotype — yellow, slanted eyes, Fu Manchu mustache, dialogue with “L” in place of “R,” etc. DC soon realized this was breathtakingly inappropriate so they dropped the Asian motif and he became just a big egg.

Wonder Woman has also been through countless incarnations. Creator William Moulton Marston showed her in a very feminist but surprisingly racy S&M light in the ‘40s. In the early ‘70s, they removed Diana’s powers and had her fight crime in a white jumpsuit rather than her iconic patriotic bathing suit, but a lot of people thought it was sexist to strip DC’s most prominent woman of her powers (and let’s not even get into that nonsense of Wonder Woman losing her powers if a man chains her). She had that invisible jet and boyfriend Steve Trevor in the Silver and Bronze Ages but those went out the window. She has dated Superman and was engaged to Aquaman in an alternate reality. She was temporarily replaced by hardcore Amazon warrior Artemis (not the goddess) in the ‘90s. While the Golden Age Wonder Woman was retconned out of history, at one point Hippolyta took up her daughter’s title and journeyed to the past, retroactively having adventures with the Justice Society of America in the ‘40s. (Originally the team made Wonder Woman, second in raw power to Superman, their secretary. Really? She should have kicked their asses and made the guys take minutes and get her coffee.)

During the John Byrne run, Wonder Woman was temporarily dead, having been killed by Neron (DC’s Satan). This led to the scene of Hippolyta cradling her daughter’s body and crying, “Princess Diana is dead,” in an issue that coincidentally (or did it??) ran the same month as the Princess of Wales actually died. Shortly after, the Olympians resurrected Diana as the goddess of truth. She was too compassionate to stay in Olympus and eat bon-bons and not help people of Earth unless they prayed to her, so she returned to superheroing. I think she’s now the god of war.

See, this is why I don’t do DC much. Their characters are fun but so convoluted that now I have a headache.