The many Gods of Wonder Woman General Discussion

[Mel Dyer]

If Superman can beat up Zeus or Apollo, whenever he wants, Wonder Woman's gods don't matter much. Unwisely, as I see it, and unfortunate for WW and her fans, John Byrne established that Diana's power-brokers 'the Greek gods were mere shadows of the LEAST of New Genesis'. The Greek gods have been treated shabbily, by DC Comics writers, before, and especially in Superman stories, ..and that has culminated in our perception of the Greeks and of WW, today.

[dswynne]

If Superman can beat up Zeus or Apollo, whenever he wants, Wonder Woman's gods don't matter much. Unwisely, as I see it, and unfortunate for WW and her fans, John Byrne established that Diana's power-brokers 'the Greek gods were mere shadows of the LEAST of New Genesis'. The Greek gods have been treated shabbily, by DC Comics writers, before, and especially in Superman stories, ..and that has culminated in our perception of the Greeks and of WW, today.

I agree. Superman should NEVER be on par with even Earth's Sky Fathers/Mothers. The fact that he even beat Rao says much how OP the character is. That's why I've always been an advocating of scaling everyone's powers to something more manageable, with a few "power moves" for special occasions, but at a cost. Ergo, if Superman, in is original appearance, is "more powerful than a locomotive", then Superman, being the benchmark for other heroes and villains, has a "normal" bench-press limit of 250 tons. Sun dip? Depending upon the star, with Earth's Sun doubling his strength, while a White star triples. And, since Doomsday is the equivalent of Krypton's "Grey Hulk", he should be treated as such: if a Kyrpton at his physical peek can lift 1 ton (or 2000 lbs) on Krypton, then Doomsday can lift 250 x 75 tons, or 18,750 tons. A bit much? Perhaps, but definitely, Doomsday should be stronger than Superman.

[WonderLight789]

I agree. Superman should NEVER be on par with even Earth's Sky Fathers/Mothers. The fact that he even beat Rao says much how OP the character is. That's why I've always been an advocating of scaling everyone's powers to something more manageable, with a few "power moves" for special occasions, but at a cost. Ergo, if Superman, in is original appearance, is "more powerful than a locomotive", then Superman, being the benchmark for other heroes and villains, has a "normal" bench-press limit of 250 tons. Sun dip? Depending upon the star, with Earth's Sun doubling his strength, while a White star triples. And, since Doomsday is the equivalent of Krypton's "Grey Hulk", he should be treated as such: if a Kyrpton at his physical peek can lift 1 ton (or 2000 lbs) on Krypton, then Doomsday can lift 250 x 75 tons, or 18,750 tons. A bit much? Perhaps, but definitely, Doomsday should be stronger than Superman.

The real problem here is that DC doesn't put their money where their mouth is. They have told us WW is a powerhouse comparable to Superman a lot of times, but they don't show it enough. They rather have shazam(pre 52) be more of an equal to SM and shazam has the same power source as WW. Only big difference is shazam is a man. See how we always come back to the same issue? Lipservice for the iconic feminist icon, and no real on panel substance. Sexism in DC has always been WW's greatest foe, and it still is.

[Robanker]

The real problem here is that DC doesn't put their money where their mouth is. They have told us WW is a powerhouse comparable to Superman a lot of times, but they don't show it enough. They rather have shazam(pre 52) be more of an equal to SM and shazam has the same power source as WW. Only big difference is shazam is a man. See how we always come back to the same issue? Lipservice for the iconic feminist icon, and no real on panel substance. Sexism in DC has always been WW's greatest foe, and it still is.

I normally don't agree very much with you on power level stuff, but I'll agree with the Shazam/Wonder Woman comparison. It's easy to give Billy the magic edge with the lightning bolt being able to **** up Superman, but at the end of the day, the lasso is itself a magic instrument and never gets used enough. Somehow, Clark always does manage to grab it and swing Diana away because writers don't let her bind him. Even now, when Diana has an enchanted arsenal, that doesn't seem to push much in her favor... Though, to be fair, Shazam has lost a lot of his thunder (heh) as a heavyweight in recent years.

[WonderLight789]

I normally don't agree very much with you on power level stuff, but I'll agree with the Shazam/Wonder Woman comparison. It's easy to give Billy the magic edge with the lightning bolt being able to **** up Superman, but at the end of the day, the lasso is itself a magic instrument and never gets used enough. Somehow, Clark always does manage to grab it and swing Diana away because writers don't let her bind him. Even now, when Diana has an enchanted arsenal, that doesn't seem to push much in her favor... Though, to be fair, Shazam has lost a lot of his thunder (heh) as a heavyweight in recent years.

Not to mention she has had magic lightning from Zeus since last part of Post Crisis. And she still has lightning magic powers that she has shown from new 52 and onwards. The double standard between shazam and WW is very obvious. Sure he is not even close to be as strong as he was pre 52. Diana has been nerfed less than him since new 52, but how is that a good thing? We are still dealing with double standards hidden by empty lipservice, tryin to cover up the fact that they don't want Diana to be as strong as the dudes. And we know there is no other reason other than sexism at this point. And sexism can happen subconsciously too. When we look at comics, we can see that females still have a long way to go before they can claim to be treated with the same respect as male characters. And it is very ironic, that this has happened and still happens to the face of girl power icon herself, WW.

[Gaius]

Character sketches from a lost Wonder Woman GN

[wonder39]

Character sketches from a lost Wonder Woman GN

Ohhhhh that's dreamy

[SiegePerilous02]

Character sketches from a lost Wonder Woman GN

Ooh, who is this by and what was the premise of the GN?

[Gaius]

Ooh, who is this by and what was the premise of the GN?

Wonder Woman: Hand of the Gods from about a decade ago. Writers were Margaret Weis and Lizz Baldwin.

Never came out because the artist is...uh in jail for some truly awful stuff.

Didn't lookup the artist until after I got off my shift, sorry about that.

[Nyssane]

Ugh, I remember that.

[John Venus]

Anyone know what the story is going to be about?

[bardkeep]

Anyone know what the story is going to be about?

This is the premise I found:

"Wonder Woman is punished by the Greek gods, who take away her powerful lasso and bracelets. To be cleansed of her misdeed, she is sent back in time to relive the epic of Amazon queen Penthiselea, during the war between the Troy and the ancient Greeks."

A shame it never worked out, it sounds like a really cool story.

Though I have to say, as pretty as those sketches are (albeit VERY much soured by the artist...), I'll never be able to appreciate more "traditional" designs of the gods in WW media ever again. Cliff Chiang and Phil Jimenez completely reset the standard and now human-looking gods in togas look boring and derivative.

[Gaius]

This is the premise I found:

"Wonder Woman is punished by the Greek gods, who take away her powerful lasso and bracelets. To be cleansed of her misdeed, she is sent back in time to relive the epic of Amazon queen Penthiselea, during the war between the Troy and the ancient Greeks."

A shame it never worked out, it sounds like a really cool story.

Though I have to say, as pretty as those sketches are (albeit VERY much soured by the artist...), I'll never be able to appreciate more "traditional" designs of the gods in WW media ever again. Cliff Chiang and Phil Jimenez completely reset the standard and now human-looking gods in togas look boring and derivative.

Only one of the pre-New 52 designs that hasn't been topped for me is Ares but that's probably because Perez put more work on to him to make him standout from the others.

Historia, and a few of Chiang's, are pretty much my looks for them now

[Alpha]

Though I have to say, as pretty as those sketches are (albeit VERY much soured by the artist...), I'll never be able to appreciate more "traditional" designs of the gods in WW media ever again. Cliff Chiang and Phil Jimenez completely reset the standard and now human-looking gods in togas look boring and derivative.

I'm of the opinion that they were always were boring. My first exposure to Greek gods was Disney's Hercules and God of War. Once I saw what Greek gods looked like in the Wonderverse I was disappointed as heck

[marhawkman]

heh, for me it was the old Harryhausen movies and Hercules: TLJ series.