I think they ditched the bow and arrows (and wont allow her to regularly carry the Bow of Ra because it's supposedly soooo powerful) to avoid confusion between our Artemis and Artemis Crock.
Personally I like her ax Mistress, it's powers and how it's so over the top.
Mistress has taken some getting use to for me. It nice that she has a unique signature weapon, but something about her having a giant axe just feels off. And I'd like for them to give her back bows and arrows again on the side at least. I'm not sure if reducing the Bow of Ra's power to make it more usable it might be a good idea or not.
If confusion with YJ's version Artemis Crock was an issue, I'm not sure if it's going to be factor in the future. Stargirl is going to be using a more traditional villainous Tigress version of the character as part of their Injustice society. And the Young Justice comic has instead brought back Arrowette (who cartoon's Artemis was kinda sorta a composite character with).
Artemis has never looked better than when Dexter Spy drew her, costume and all. She absolutely looks like someone who could take on Diana and the like.
I prefer her current costume. Her WW costume and the first green-white one for example have not aged well and looked ridiculous. The only good one during that time was the second green one under Jiminenz.
Thought it was Artemis because her costume matched the one Artemis wore in the comics. Still, I'm not sure YJ cartoon influenced Artemis Crock is going to continue to be a thing. She was barely used in Lobdell's titans and hasn't been since, and it doesn't seem very likely with Arrowette back. And frankly, if that's actually a reason for keeping Artemis of Bana-mighdall from using bows and arrows, it's not a very good one. I'd rather they bring Crock back as the modern Injustice Society's Tigress, which also probably be her better chance of getting used at all at this point.
There was a, I going to say, more subdued version of her "Requiem" outfit during Simone's and Scott's run. While the circumstances she first appeared wearing are questionable(having been captured by slavers) she still wore it well after she had escaped. I've tried to rationalize it in my headcanon she adopted it before being captured and got captured in the progress of trying to rescue the other amazons from them. Other than general artistic style(Deodato vs Nicola Scott), the main difference is Nicola Scott's redesign is it removes the skull motifs and most of the spikes.
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Another look is one taken by Ame Comi and Flashpoint, is to give her a variant of Diana's armor/costume, in her own signature colors(Green, Black, Silver, White). On one hand while it can be seen as lazy, it could also make sense if Artemis and possibly the rest of the Bana were accepted and reintegrated into Themyscira, and Artemis was operating alongside Diana as an official representative of the Amazons. Sort of a uniform look thing.
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Well this getting a bit off topic as it's only tangentially related(depending on the theory of whether or not concerns about potential confusion between the two characters has affected Artemis's weapons of choice). First of all, Artemis Crock in the the cartoon was largely an original character not very reminiscent of Artemis Crock/Tigress in the comics. And there's the question of where you would use her. The New 52 version of the Teen Titans team is being scrubbed for continuity by the current YJ comic, both withe New 52 versions of Kon and Bart being disavowed, Cassie's powers coming from being Zeus's grand daughter instead of the Silent Armor, which is gone, and her place in the team as an archer is being filled by Arrowette.
While in the cartoon had her teammates and contemporaries with Dick, Wally, and Roy (and M'gann, who joined their Rebirth Titans team), she's never been associated with that team of Titans or the characters in the comics. Wally has Linda, so there's no room for a romantic relationship there. And if Roy was brought back to life(which a lot of people want, along with him getting Lian back) she'd be competing for the archer role.
You could also incorporate elements of the YJ character back to the traditional Injustice Society Tigress version of the character. You could have her be morally conflicted and end up defecting to the modern JSA. You can also keep her Tigress identity and crossbow usage while doing so.
I'm just against limiting Artemis's weapon usage over a character that isn't actually being used and may not even exist in the current continuity given how YJ has been ignoring the New 52 team, especially when there's other ways to differentiate the two characters(Crock's tigress identity and crossbow usage).
I'm against it too. Mind you, it could also be that writers just like Artemis using an axe more.
The Titans have had two speedsters before so I don't think having two archers would be an issue.
Anyway, I'm fine with Bana Artemis wearing the color green.
Tbh, I still think naming her Artemis was a bad idea given their is already a Greek goddess in WW with that name and Bana Artemis is supposed to be part of a tribe who hated the Olmypians.
Well, there's no accounting for taste.
To each their own. I always thought classic Artemis looked like she was lacking something in design, but the current model (at least when Soy drew her) absolutely looked like someone who was Diana's equal. She had a definite presence to her.
That may just had been Dexter Soy, however.