Throughout the decades Diana has had many different cast members. Are there any members you enjoy more? Who do you never want to see again?
Throughout the decades Diana has had many different cast members. Are there any members you enjoy more? Who do you never want to see again?
My favorite would probably be the original crew: Hippolyta, Steve, Etta and the Holliday Girls and Phil Darnell (who is pretty generic, but so are all the other interchangeable Steve boss figures). I would prefer that as the core cast, with the additions of Donna, Cassie and Ferdinand.
Plus the Amazons and Greek gods in general. The major Amazons being Diana's aunts, Philippus, Artemis, Mala, Nubia and Io.
I like the Kapatelis women, Myndi Mayer, Leslie Anderson and the embassy staff, but I'm also not super attached to them either. I could take or leave them.
Would never care to see again: pretty much everyone else.
My Sega Dreamcast
Hippolyta
Cassie
Artemis
Steve
Ferdinand
Chiron
Hoppy
Camille Sly
Nemesis (Tom Tressor)
Also I really, really, really, liked Myndi Mayer. She was a comicbook Karen Walker but with drive and ambition, sweet thing.
Diana
Etta
Steve
Ferdinand
Hippolyta
Veronica Cale
COMBINING THE BIGBADITUDE OF THANOS WITH CHEETAH'S FEROCITY, IS JANUS WONDER WOMAN'S GREATEST SUPERVILLAIN?...on WONDABUNGA!!! Look alive, Kangaliers!
One of the smaller details to pop up in the movies is that one of the Amazons who was a teacher to WW used the name Mnemosyne. Hmmm... it'd be fun if it turned out that Mnemosyne wasn't really an Amazon. But the DC amazons tend to be named after female deities and stuff, so she's probably just a mortal using Mnemosyne's name.... probably.
STRIFE! She was easily one of the best breakout characters of the Azzarello run. I don't know that I would want her ongoing as a supporting cast member, but a cameo here and there would be nice.
My introduction to Wonder Woman came in the 80's, so I'm very partial to the Kapatelis ladies and Mindy Mayer. I liked the occasional appearances by Euboea, Helene and Menalippe
I never did care for the Sandsmark ladies, Artemis, nor the embassy staff members that came later on. The less said about Jason, the better...
Utterly Essential:
- Queen Hippolyta - I have to admit, I've never been a huge fan of Diana's mom. Don't get me wrong, I like her, but I've never really felt too invested in her as a character. Even so, I can recognize that she's vital to Wonder Woman's series.
- Steve Trevor - Sorry, Steve haters. He's an essential part of Wonder Woman's 80 year history, and should always be present even if not as a love interest (though definitely preferably as a love interest in my opinion). And while I'm not listing him, I do think General Darnell is a great "boss" figure for Steve. He's not essential, but I love anytime he appears as it's a nice throwback to the 40's.
- Etta Candy - Superman has Jimmy Olsen and Batman has Robin, but Wonder Woman's sidekick and best friend should always be Etta Candy. I just wish they'd revert her back to a more classic, fun version because the current one just isn't doing it for me.
- The Amazons - Personally, I love them being used sparingly and in prominent ways rather than having them be a consistent cast for Diana to interact with. But among the Amazons, the ones at the forefront should always be: General Philippus, Artemis, and Mala, with Io, Menalippe, and Althea rounding out the cast. I'm also a fan of Euboea and Epione, but they seem to never appear anymore.
Fantastic Additions:
- Ferdinand - What a fun addition to Diana's cast. I love the stoic minotaur chef. It's a bizarre and creative concept and works perfectly for a superhero rooted in Greek Mythology. It's just a shame they barely ever use him.
- Julia and Vanessa Kapatelis - While Etta Candy is perfect for Diana's "man's world" BFF, Julia and Vanessa make a great substitute family for her. Perez's run really made me care for these characters, so it's a shame that they've been seldom used after that.
- Hermes - I think all the Greek Gods offer something for Diana, but the only one I'd like to see regularly alongside her is Hermes. He's one of the best aspects of Azz's run (and Chiang's design for him was fantastic), and it adds another man to the cast (with powers to boot!). Though Azz's run definitely had no shortage of men.
Meh:
- Wonder Girl - I'm including both Donna and Cassie in this spot. I'm sorry, I just really don't have a thing for teenage/younger versions of established characters. It's just a part of comics that is too out there for me. That said, it's totally possible someone could come along and totally blow me away with one or both of these ladies.
- Nemesis - He was fine as a Steve Trevor stand-in, but I don't see a use for him in the franchise in the long run.
- The Olympian - Far superior to Jason if you ask me, but I still don't see him offering much as a regular. A recurring supporting character? Sure!
- Mike Schorr, Ed Indelicato, and Trevor Barnes - I have nothing against them and it'd be cool to see each of them return in their respective roles, but they were really only there to be one-shot love interests. Mike Schorr has the most potential, in my opinion, as it'd be kinda neat to have Wonder Woman team up with an average joe cop.
Please Disappear Forever:
- Jason - One of the absolute worst supporting characters added to the series in recent years. What the Wonder Woman series needs the least is a character literally intended to outshine her in every single way, especially a man. And don't get me started on how absurdly stupid the "long lost twin" trope is. How they thought it was a good idea in 2018 I'll never know.
- Zola - Not even a character, really, but a plot device. And it definitely shows with how little effort Azzarello put into writing her.
- The Gorillas - I've always hated 'em. Why you'd put a bunch of boring gorillas into the series involving fantastical and mythological beasts I'll never know.
- Aleka and Dessa - These were carbon copies of Artemis and Philippus and should never be seen again.
- Orion - I never want to see that type of misogyny directed towards Diana again in a Wonder Woman title.
I wouldn't mind Strife or Eris as that's the Greek name. I do have to say I would have loved Hera's redemption arc to stay. I do have to say with I would love to see the Holliday Girls. But the question is what to do with them. I honestly say maybe Diana is around the same age as Vanessa and goes to college
Last edited by AmiMizuno; 12-12-2019 at 08:38 AM.
I didn't mind the Gorillas because it felt like a short storyline. And at least they were written in and written out of the series with a certain amount of finesse. It's not like they took the place of all the other supporting characters either. Plus, I could totally see Diana being open to having house guests that strange.
That said, I also loved Mindy. I think her storyline was perfect just as it was, but in the overarching scheme of Diana's life, having a fun publicist around for a couple of decades would have certainly spiced things up.
So I think my list would be Mindy, Etta, older brother Steve, Hippolyta, Menalippe (the sweetheart), Phillipus, Euboea...and Ferdinand. He's an odd inclusion, and I don't think he would fit into every story, but having him be a friend that is someone Diana can rely on and who is sometimes working for her and sometimes doing his own thing would be cool.
I don't hate Artemis, and sometimes, like in the Wonder Woman animated movie when she was played by Rosario Dawson, she can be rather cool, but I also don't really see the use for her in the long run. She's an angrier version of Diana? I also agree that it's not all that interesting to have watered down versions of the lead character like the Wonder Girls Cassie and Donna, or for that matter Artemis. So I wouldn't miss them if they were gone.
And while I love Julia and Vanessa, I also don't feel like they've had any traction since Perez left the book. Since Diana is immortal, I think her close inner circle would have to be people who can help her on her mission in a big way. To me, Julia and Vanessa seem like a family that were hurt in many ways by their affiliation with Wonder Woman, so it would make sense that Diana, after getting her bearings in man's world for those first couple of years, might gracefully bow out of their lives and stick to having friends who are combat-ready or at least more accustomed to the dangers her work entails (aka Steve and Etta).
That doesn't change the fact, though, that I would love to see them back in the comics full time right now. But then I would also like to still be in the pre New 52 continuity as well.
Last edited by DisneyBoy; 12-12-2019 at 10:40 AM.
Steve Trevor
Etta Candy
Donna Troy
Cassie Sandsmark
Ferdinand
Hippolyta
Artemis
Nubia
Aleka
Dessa
Zola
Zeke
Azzarello's version of the gods
Orion
Keep in mind that you have about as much chance of changing my mind as I do of changing yours.
The trick is not to make Eris/Strife either a super-mook or Circe#2. WW with a very powerful frenemy sounds great TBH. More so if she stays as a fawning fan-girl of Superman. that was funny.
I like the embassy as an opportunity to have in a limited way interaction between amazons and normal people outside PI.the embassy staff members that came later on.