Compared To Batman And Superman, Does Wonder Woman Need More Cool, Iconic Stuff?

[Stanlos]

I liked her Wonder Dome headquarters. But it was way too powerful.

The way the embassy during Rucka's run seemed to combine elements of PJ Themyscira and the Dome was also nice

[Alpha]

And there are no good JL stories where WW plays a big part.

Yes there are. Golden Perfect, JLA Primeval, Queen of Fables, League of One (You disagree with her fight vs Superman but it's still a good story centered on her)

[WonderLight789]

Yes there are. Golden Perfect, JLA Primeval, Queen of Fables, League of One (You disagree with her fight vs Superman but it's still a good story centered on her)

there is more than the issue with sm in league of one.

[bardkeep]

She doesn't work in the trinity. She has never been treated well next to those 2. And there are no good JL stories where WW plays a big part.

And yes. Diana is indeed an uber-powerful character, she is also a character who is very skilled at controlling extreme situations, and will always try finding a peaceful solution first. One thing doesn't negate the other.

Eh, I'm a big-time shared universe skeptic but Golden Perfect and League of One are solid JL stories that are completely WW-centric.

Also in New Frontier she's kind of got an Anthony Hopkins/Hannibal Lector in Silence of the Lambs situation - she doesn't appear that much but her limited scenes are so good that you'd think she was the star. The main legacy of that book is the scene where Superman confronts her in Vietnam (even Darwyn Cooke said as much).

In terms of the original topic, I don't think people realize how badly her entire universe was gutted after the GA purely because the CCA thought she was turning girls into lesbians.

[WonderScott]

I can’t change what she wasn’t given in the past or what Wonder concepts didn’t get enough care and development, but I can imagine off-the-top-of-my-head plenty of Wonder action figure sets and integrated playsets set in the Wonder World.

I’d love to create a robust line, if there is a market for those types of toys anymore.

[Robanker]

The SILVER AGE of COMICS!

Most of the time, when we're grumbling about what's missing in today's Wonder Woman comics, we're talking about stuff that Writer/edtr. Robert Kanigher didn't manifest in the Silver Age, when writers were adding iconic, imaginative stuff to the worlds of Batman, Superman and the Fantastic Four, that we're STILL talking about ..and looking for in movies and TV shows!

Haven't blogged about this on Wondabunga, yet, ..but, Wonder Woman really got cheated out of the cool, ICONIC sci-fi fantasy stuff, when compared to what Superman and Batman got, back in the Fifties! Check out this goodies list! WW needs more cool stuff!

Please add or challenge items on this list, where you find something I might have missed ..or something you disagree with. Thanks, kangaliers!

I happen to believe Diana has a different invisible jet for every day of the year.









Provide me photographic evidence that she doesn't.











Diana has some awesome elements. I know because I have a niece who is slowly discovering the DC universe and asks me all sorts of questions and when I explain some of the more niche stuff in Diana's world (like Kanga, for example, or that Diana can talk to bunny rabbits) her eyes light up.

The invisible jet is cool. Yeah, it's the butt of a ton of jokes but so is every single thing about Superman and Batman. "Aquaman talks to fish" also translates to "he talks to giant sea monsters and ancient beings from beyond the deep." While Diana could always use more neat things, the big issue is that DC is so hyper focused on making her their answer to Xena, Kratos and Red Sonja rolled into one that they forgot the whimsical, fun things about Diana.


Krypto is a dumb idea, but damn if everyone doesn't love the dog. I know I adore him. Multi-color kryptonite and sunlight? An entire club one thousand years in the future inspired by his adventures pranking Lana Lang as Superboy, not his career as Superman? A giant ice palace he runs off to to be alone and listen to Linkin Park?

Superman's iconic concepts are inherently a little goofy, but writers find ways to make them fun. For god's sake, Superman has his own gulag in the Phantom Zone but it's treated as a good thing and nobody really objects (given who he is and who gets put in there).


It's about spin. DC historically thinks everything about Diana that isn't Greek mythology or warrior culture is something to be downplayed, not embraced. Keep the healing beam. Keep the kangaroos. Build on that, add to it and make it fun. The most Clark can do with Krypto is try to understand him the way we all did Lassie or our own pets. Diana can overhear someone's pet turtle complaining to another pet about spoilers from a TV show she's not caught up on. It's fun! You can have her on a crime scene with the World's Finest as they're using forensics to piece together what happened and Diana simply ask a cat who watched the whole thing and get to the solution faster than the world's greatest detective and a mobile crime lab.

I mean, damn, I sure wish I could talk to my pet. I know my niece does too.

Everyone used to say multiverses were annoying, complicated and undermined serious "street level" heroes and then Spider-Verse blew the world wide open by killing Spider-Man and teaming up his replacement with the eternally dead Gwen Stacy, an anime girl and her mecha, talking pig and noir parody. People like goofy **** if it's earnest.

Finally, for what it's worth, I'd say the lasso is plenty iconic in its own way but is limited in its use. It's only ever allowed to be a whip under Warrior Woman writers or, well, the most basic application of a lasso/lie detector hybrid. Expand on it and let her be more creative with the damn thing.

[HestiasHearth]

Jumpa the kanga and a two-headed dog that she rescued from Tartarus could be two adorable plush toys/funny sidekicks for a potential Teen-Titans-Go-style Wonder Woman cartoon and toy line. You all know that you'd buy those!!

[bardkeep]

It's about spin. DC historically thinks everything about Diana that isn't Greek mythology or warrior culture is something to be downplayed, not embraced. Keep the healing beam. Keep the kangaroos. Build on that, add to it and make it fun. The most Clark can do with Krypto is try to understand him the way we all did Lassie or our own pets. Diana can overhear someone's pet turtle complaining to another pet about spoilers from a TV show she's not caught up on. It's fun! You can have her on a crime scene with the World's Finest as they're using forensics to piece together what happened and Diana simply ask a cat who watched the whole thing and get to the solution faster than the world's greatest detective and a mobile crime lab.

I mean, damn, I sure wish I could talk to my pet. I know my niece does too.

Everyone used to say multiverses were annoying, complicated and undermined serious "street level" heroes and then Spider-Verse blew the world wide open by killing Spider-Man and teaming up his replacement with the eternally dead Gwen Stacy, an anime girl and her mecha, talking pig and noir parody. People like goofy **** if it's earnest.

Finally, for what it's worth, I'd say the lasso is plenty iconic in its own way but is limited in its use. It's only ever allowed to be a whip under Warrior Woman writers or, well, the most basic application of a lasso/lie detector hybrid. Expand on it and let her be more creative with the damn thing.

It makes me so sad that Diana's power to talk to animals is so underutilized - #791 really set Cloonrad up to use it so I hope they do. I think the last writer to use it other than Rucka was whoever wrote that absolutely delightful story in one of the Rebirth annuals about Diana rescuing an orphaned baby kaiju. Calling a giant monster "little one" and playing fetch with an entire tree? That's the business.

You can't even really use the "it's too silly" excuse (which is a dumb argument to begin with) because even Rucka's very serious first run had her chatting with bluebirds. And Year One of course gave us an all-timer from Nicola Scott:



Drives me crazy knowing that the JSA movie was originally pitched as a WW animated show set in WW2. Why in the world would you make an animated show about her fighting in a Nazi hellscape when she's from an island full of magical animals she can talk to?

There's definitely been a lot more creativity with the lasso though. Really liked the moment in a recent issue where she looked through the loop to see through an illusion. And Tamaki's run had a ridiculously cool scene where she ties the lasso around her eyes after she's blinded and can see the bad guy's fear.

[WonderLight789]

I happen to believe Diana has a different invisible jet for every day of the year.









Provide me photographic evidence that she doesn't.











Diana has some awesome elements. I know because I have a niece who is slowly discovering the DC universe and asks me all sorts of questions and when I explain some of the more niche stuff in Diana's world (like Kanga, for example, or that Diana can talk to bunny rabbits) her eyes light up.

The invisible jet is cool. Yeah, it's the butt of a ton of jokes but so is every single thing about Superman and Batman. "Aquaman talks to fish" also translates to "he talks to giant sea monsters and ancient beings from beyond the deep." While Diana could always use more neat things, the big issue is that DC is so hyper focused on making her their answer to Xena, Kratos and Red Sonja rolled into one that they forgot the whimsical, fun things about Diana.


Krypto is a dumb idea, but damn if everyone doesn't love the dog. I know I adore him. Multi-color kryptonite and sunlight? An entire club one thousand years in the future inspired by his adventures pranking Lana Lang as Superboy, not his career as Superman? A giant ice palace he runs off to to be alone and listen to Linkin Park?

Superman's iconic concepts are inherently a little goofy, but writers find ways to make them fun. For god's sake, Superman has his own gulag in the Phantom Zone but it's treated as a good thing and nobody really objects (given who he is and who gets put in there).


It's about spin. DC historically thinks everything about Diana that isn't Greek mythology or warrior culture is something to be downplayed, not embraced. Keep the healing beam. Keep the kangaroos. Build on that, add to it and make it fun. The most Clark can do with Krypto is try to understand him the way we all did Lassie or our own pets. Diana can overhear someone's pet turtle complaining to another pet about spoilers from a TV show she's not caught up on. It's fun! You can have her on a crime scene with the World's Finest as they're using forensics to piece together what happened and Diana simply ask a cat who watched the whole thing and get to the solution faster than the world's greatest detective and a mobile crime lab.

I mean, damn, I sure wish I could talk to my pet. I know my niece does too.

Everyone used to say multiverses were annoying, complicated and undermined serious "street level" heroes and then Spider-Verse blew the world wide open by killing Spider-Man and teaming up his replacement with the eternally dead Gwen Stacy, an anime girl and her mecha, talking pig and noir parody. People like goofy **** if it's earnest.

Finally, for what it's worth, I'd say the lasso is plenty iconic in its own way but is limited in its use. It's only ever allowed to be a whip under Warrior Woman writers or, well, the most basic application of a lasso/lie detector hybrid. Expand on it and let her be more creative with the damn thing.

What DC has historically, is a sexist and homophobic attitude. There is no other reason for the crappy treatment of WW and her lore.

[Robanker]

Really liked the moment in a recent issue where she looked through the loop to see through an illusion. And Tamaki's run had a ridiculously cool scene where she ties the lasso around her eyes after she's blinded and can see the bad guy's fear.

This **** right here. Hook it directly into my veins.

[Access]

This **** right here. Hook it directly into my veins.

Maybe its Just me,but these abilities seem kinda of arbitrary

Do they really work as natural extensions of the lasso powers?

[bardkeep]

Maybe its Just me,but these abilities seem kinda of arbitrary

Do they really work as natural extensions of the lasso powers?

Far from it IMO. It embodies the spirit of truth, which can mean seeing an absolute truth or stripping down someone's emotional/psychological defenses to see their individual truth; there's a TON you can do with that. Reducing it to "not lying while being interrogated" shows a total lack of imagination.

But if you really wanna talk arbitrary lasso abilities, just watch WW84. It wasn't even a lasso, it was weird magic spaghetti that did whatever she needed it to do.

[Perseus]

Far from it IMO. It embodies the spirit of truth, which can mean seeing an absolute truth or stripping down someone's emotional/psychological defenses to see their individual truth; there's a TON you can do with that. Reducing it to "not lying while being interrogated" shows a total lack of imagination.

But if you really wanna talk arbitrary lasso abilities, just watch WW84. It wasn't even a lasso, it was weird magic spaghetti that did whatever she needed it to do.

I liked the twirl and the spinning circle move she did to block the bullets, but that was it.

[Robanker]

I liked the twirl and the spinning circle move she did to block the bullets, but that was it.

I liked that too, but more because I rationalized it as her using a rotating motion to basically whip them out of the sky. Basically the bullets and bracelets thing, but with a rope to cast a larger radius.


And to flex. Because why not.

Far from it IMO. It embodies the spirit of truth, which can mean seeing an absolute truth or stripping down someone's emotional/psychological defenses to see their individual truth; there's a TON you can do with that. Reducing it to "not lying while being interrogated" shows a total lack of imagination.

But if you really wanna talk arbitrary lasso abilities, just watch WW84. It wasn't even a lasso, it was weird magic spaghetti that did whatever she needed it to do.

Precisely this.

[bardkeep]

I liked the twirl and the spinning circle move she did to block the bullets, but that was it.

Yeah, and at least those were consistent with how she used it in the first movie. But just whipping it back 100 feet and having it catch a speeding bullet in midair? Latching onto nothing in the sky and pulling herself forward with it? Come on now.

I'll give the swinging on lightning a pass though. At least it was cool instead of just "...what?"