Originally Posted by
Jim Kelly
The thing is with Wonder Woman, there have been several times in her history when they went back to the "Golden Age"--whereas you rarely get that with Batman and Superman (usually it's a one-shot Elseworlds story). So it never became something that was done away with long ago--it's always been one of their approaches to the character, especially when they want to recharge the series.
And the W.W. II events are a part of her origin, where they aren't part of Superman and Batman's origins. It's in the epic nature of the character. The stories are invoking gods and heroes and important struggles between good and evil on a global scale. This doesn't work as well, when the struggles are taking place in proxy wars. The epic nature of W.W. II suited the epic nature of the Olympian gods.
It also makes sense why, when the lines between good and evil were so clearly drawn, Wonder Woman would adopt a costume that celebrates the country she has come to defend.
In order to make Wonder Woman work in times far removed from that era, the writers and artists have had to change too much about her origin and her motivation.
Of course, in the 1940s, Wonder Woman was not so super-powerful, so you didn't expect her to end the war overnight. Hitler had gods working on his side, too. And Wonder Woman's philosophy prevented her from forcing people to become good. They had to come to understand what was right for themselves.
Marston established her as having had a very long life and other versions have said the same thing. So it's possible for her to have been active in the 1940s and not to have aged since then.
And her supporting cast has been stripped away from her so many times that the only other supporting character that remained for most of the time was Queen Hippolyte/Queen Hippolyta (and even she has been taken out of the comics at times). And the Queen is also an immortal.
So unlike Batman and Superman, there aren't that many mortal cast members to account for. There's been Steve Trevor, who's been dead and rebooted several times. And Etta Candy was taken out of the comics for decades and when she returned she was always different from the original version.