Originally Posted by
Green Goblin of Sector 2814
Anyway, bringing this back to Wonder Woman: I don’t think the issue has ever really been with the character herself or her mythos. The issue has more so been with how DC marketed her and how much effort they put into promoting her mythos in the larger universe.
DC has always approached Wonder Woman as a very niche character. I think that’s partly due to the fact that, since she’s such a feminist icon, DC has always had this subconscious belief that she could only be marketable or appealing to women. So, therefore, they have to “preserve” her in a status quo that female readers would approve of for fear of being perceived as sexist/misogynist.
And, while her feminist roots are important, it’s just blatantly untrue that Wonder Woman is only appealing to women. In fact, I’m pretty sure most of her readers are men. On top of that, that assumes that women are a monolith and that there are a set of character traits that universally appeal to all women.
But because of that, there’s a feeling that DC is afraid to take risks or experiment with Wonder Woman in the same way they do with, say, Batman. When you think about it, DC puts Batman through the ringer. They constantly shift his status quo and many times, bring him to the brink of death. And that…makes for really interesting stories and concepts. But, it feels like they’re afraid to do that with Wonder Woman because this need to keep her “pristine.”
One of the few times they did try to shift Diana’s status quo in a big way, it led to a literal backlash from Gloria Steinem and the women’s rights movement. Though, to be fair, Gloria was rightfully annoyed at that direction.
BUT, ever since then, it seems that that had a chilling effect on the directions DC feels they can take with Diana. One that it seems they’re now starting to come out of. Now, we have things like Wonder Girl expanding her mythos, or Wonder Woman: Dead Earth and Evolution presenting the character in different lights, or Death Metal where the character is pushed to literally being the savior of the DCU. So, in recent years, it seems that DC is just starting to think “Hey, we CAN do things with Diana. We can put her in different scenarios, and use her and her supporting cast in experimental ways.” In other words, it seems like DC feels they can finally treat Diana as a full-fledged character and not JUST an icon.