Has Wonderwoman actually gained anything by loosing her Diana Prince alias?

[Agent Z]

I mean if we are being honest. What has she gotten from being Wonder Woman?

This question doesn't make much sense. Diana is supposed to be Wonder Woman.

[WonderScott]

I like the Diana Prince secret ID, because I enjoy it as a superhero trope and all the drama and soap operatics that can come for it. It wouldn’t bother me if Steve and Etta knew the truth, but I just like that it’s another mode in which Diana gets to experience people and the world that Wonder Woman wouldn’t.

Besides, Diana Prince is such a great name.

[Koriand'r]

The thing about Diana being a secret agent is that it doesn’t really offer anything different from what she normally does. As a secret agent she would probably be out kicking butt and she already does that as WW, so what’s the benefit to her storytelling wise? Clark as a journalist offers different storytelling opportunities than him being Superman because it allows him to talk to people about topics that he can’t as Superman. Bruce being a billionaire playboy lets him do stuff that as Batman he couldn’t like mingle at parties to get info or try to shake off his female admirers. What does Diana being a secret agent with a secret ID offer her that she can’t do as WW?

She gets people relating to her without her being a potentate, princess, superhero, celebrity. She also gets accomplishments that none of those titles help her with and we get to see her as another kind of role model.

[Vordan]

She gets people relating to her without her being a potentate, princess, superhero, celebrity. She also gets accomplishments that none of those titles help her with and we get to see her as another kind of role model.

Is being a secret agent really any less of a power fantasy than any of those other roles you mentioned though?

[Lex Luthor]

Is being a secret agent really any less of a power fantasy than any of those other roles you mentioned though?

Its definitely a power fantasy its just a much cooler one that fits the character better.

[Koriand'r]

Is being a secret agent really any less of a power fantasy than any of those other roles you mentioned though?

She doesn't have to be a secret agent, though I do like that aspect. I'd be just as happy if she were a business owner and ran her own boutique again. However the latter doesn't lend itself to story-lines like the former does. My dream is for Diana Prince to face street level threats that wouldn't be a challenge for Wonder Woman.

[Agent Z]

The argument that Diana Prince allows Diana to relax is funny to me given how often superhero comics point out that leading a double life is extremely stressful. Think about all the duties Diana has to perform as WW and then think of whatever commitments she'd have as Diana Prince. And think about all the lies, excuses and secrets this brings.

Diana Prince will only make WW's life more complicated and stressful not less.

[phonogram12]

I always liked the idea of her being a college professor who also happened to be a special consultant to whatever new organization that Steve Trevor works for after this whole Leviathan series is done. That way you can get the Holiday Girls in there, too!

[AmiMizuno]

I don’t know. I pictured Diana actually being a student in Holliday University. Also Superman and Batman do the same thing with there ids. With Diana Prince it’s all how you write how she uses it. Now if Diana lived in a city somewhat like her own she wouldn’t have to worry too much. Gateway a actually Gateway. The city is interdimensional. So maybe while yea at the same time it’s open to the public other parts it can hide. Diana can easily get a job where she is more flexible. I mean her being a self coach or a defense teach? She can use the dome as a housing facility.

[Jim Kelly]

I like the Shadow aspect of Diana Prince's orginal origin. In some versions of the Shadow, he is not Lamont Cranston but someone else, however he uses the idenity of Cranston sometimes. Just like Batman sometimes uses the identity of Matches Malone (in that case Matches is dead). If I was going to impose my own narrative on the story, I'd say Princess Diana put on the "glamour" (to use a Vertigo word) of Diana Prince to pose as her--but Diana Prince would be an independent character with her own adventures and personality. She'd let Wonder Woman borrow her look--and the women could shared a place together, so when Wonder Woman doesn't want to be in the public eye, she can hang out at Prince's place.

[phonogram12]

At first I thought she could be a grad student, but then I thought that she should be a little older, wiser, and overall just be more of an authority-type figure for lack of a better word. And you can actually earn professor status as young as 26 if you go straight through with school.

[AmiMizuno]

I don’t know I often liked the idea of Diana coming to the outside world when she is 18 or 19

[Tzigone]

The argument that Diana Prince allows Diana to relax given how often it's brought up how stressful a double life is in superhero comics. Think about all the duties Diana has to perform as WW and then think of whatever commitments she'd have as Diana Prince. And think about all the lies, excuses and secrets this brings.

Diana Prince will only make WW's life more complicated and stressful not less.

For me, the idea is that Diana could interact with people who treat her as a normal person. She doesn't even have to lie to anyone, really, it could even just be a paper-identity. But for her to be able to walk around and not be treated as a celebrity, that's bonus for me. Especially since, unlike the vast majority of other characters, she never had been or even appeared to be a normal person in this world. She doesn't know, first-hand, what normal life is like or the normal annoyances people face or what it's like not to be automatically deferred to or respected, but to just be treated as "normal" in any sort of day-in-day-out way.

Plus, as I've said before, I just like secret identities - they fit the genre to me.

I'd have Diana 23-26 when she leaves the island, just as Bruce and Clark are similarly-aged when they don capes. I like them all being peers.

I don't want Diana a professor - at least not to Etta. I don't want that rank/authority over Etta. Maybe later, once Etta is out of school.

Diana Prince as a separate entity from Princess doesn't work for me. Too far from the source material, too, to me, for both to hang around (unlike original where Prince left and wasn't an on-going character). And if there's magic involved, then likely pne would have to be "real" and the other "false" and why would I care about the false one? And then there's inevitable storylines where one's love life interferes with the other's - nope.

[Jim Kelly]

Surely complicating the lives of the main characters is what story telling is all about. The secret identity was always one of those conventions that comic book writers jumped onto, because it gave them a lot to do. They could build stories around the conflicts generated by secret idenities. I don't think any writer sees it as his duty to make the lives of the characters much simpler and happier, free from conflict.

For Superman and Wonder Woman, since they look the same in both identities, it might not be as much a factor--but putting on masks and elaborate costumes is what super-hero comics was always about. If Peter and Tony have no reason to wear full face masks, then why do they bother? The thing that always attracted me to Spider-Man and Iron Man was their masks. Likewise characters like Doctor Fate, Hawkman, the Sandman, Batman. If they don't have secrets that they are covering up--what's the excuse for them transforming themselves so much? Why don't they all just join the police force? It seems to me that when you take away the need for secret identities, you just make it harder to justify the weird choices that the heroes make in how they present themselves in public and how they live their lives.

[kjn]

Complicating the lives of a character is part of storytelling, yes, but it must also be done with a keen awareness of the character. Just applying the same methods, tropes, and takes to each and every character just leads to blandness and derivative stories.

So I reject the argument that a secret identity should be added to Wonder Woman just to add some storytelling possibility. First and foremost it must make sense for Diana's character to build and maintain such a charade (which, as several writers have noticed, she'd be likely be quite bad at). For Clark Kent and Bruce Wayne, it's simple to point why they have their Superman and Batman identities, less so for Diana.

Because she was raised from the get go as a prospective champion and princess: to be able to serve as Themyscira's representative in Man's World, as a teacher, embassador, and envoy. She was raised like the best of old world royalty. She was also taught methods to help her maintain some privacy, in finding the right friends—where she has the help of superpowered empathy.

At times she might need to take a low profile, if a specific task requires it. Then she'll assume a low profile. But when she's not battling mythological monsters or saving people from burning buildings, she's walking into board rooms and demanding equality for women, or organising Planned Parenthood fundraising, or demanding better environmental protection from law-making bodies.

She's here to do a job, and being visible is part of it.