Wonder Woman in the Justice League show is better than people give credit for

[DochaDocha]

In fairness, If you say WW's depiction was disappointing... how many were better than hers? You seem to think Batman, Superman were, but anyone else? If you count the comics, there was a total of 71 members of the League.

I think along with Superman and Batman, John Stewart and Hawkgirl's story arcs are also a lot better. Here, the writers probably benefited from not being tied down to any long-established expectations for these characters. The writers did their thing, and throughout the most part, it works pretty well. After these four, it's a big dropoff to fifth, who's either Flash or WW. I'd say WW is fifth mostly because Flash is mostly there for comic relief, and for scheduling reasons, they completely wrote off Flash for the first season of JLU (I know the DVD boxed sets say there's two seasons, but us fans during the CN run know there were three ). I'd rank Martian Manhunter's as last because even though he didn't have any particularly terrible episodes like I think WW did, his character was probably the blandest, they wrote him off for a large chunk of the last season, and most of his time on JLU he was confined to the Watchtower like the JL's air traffic controller and guidance counselor. I think too much of his character arc revolved around having nervous breakdowns, by the time he left the team as a full-timer, it just seemed fitting.

Outside the main seven, I'd say some of the other characters in JLU were probably written better, too, including Green Arrow, Black Canary, the Question, and Huntress. In limited appearances, I'd say I enjoyed episodes with Vixen and Carter Hall more than I enjoyed any of the JLU WW episodes. Even Supergirl's arc might've been better, though I didn't like the way they wrote her off the show.

[DisneyBoy]

I couldn't agree more with what's been said in the past few posts about how Diana was treated compared to other Leaguers.

....and I do want to acknowledge that the Wonder Woman I was hoping for, one based heavily on the Perez template, would have been very different from what Timm and his group were used to doing, especially for a lead female character. I would have wanted a more upbeat and more serious or focused heroine. Like Dr Fate, only with more of that Lynda Carter energy. She would have been proud to represent her people, and be an ambassador from Day One. No flirting with Batman just because, and definitely better treatment for Circe, Ares and Cheetah.

When I saw how they handled her on Batman: Brave and the Bold, I was pleasantly surprised. They came much closer in her two or three appearances than JL/JLU did in five seasons.

But again, when they had great animators drawing her, and when Susan was really comfortable voicing her, there would be fleeting moments of magic.

[Amazon Swordsman]

Not sure if someone else touched on this, I found her friendship with Martian Manhunter quite interesting. I would’ve liked to see that developed more, they seemed to have a nice chemistry. It would’ve also been nice to see her lead more missions, like in Hawk & Dove.

[Primal Slayer]

Wonder Woman being able to take on Superman but barely being able to take on Mongul, when Superman can take on Mongul with ease never made sense to me. Even if its based off of the comic.

[DisneyBoy]

Wow...never thought of that.

I hated seeing her depicted just as a linebacker. They obviously didn't get the gentleness of the character...

[Gaius]

Wonder Woman being able to take on Superman but barely being able to take on Mongul, when Superman can take on Mongul with ease never made sense to me. Even if its based off of the comic.

Like you said, largely a holdover from the comic. I did like that she was the one who trapped Mongul in the Black Mercy though even if that was change brought about because they couldn't use Robin.

[DisneyBoy]

It's also worth noting that we didn't go inside Wonder Woman's head in that episode either...another missed opportunity for the writers to show who their Wonder Woman really was.

[DochaDocha]

It's also worth noting that we didn't go inside Wonder Woman's head in that episode either...another missed opportunity for the writers to show who their Wonder Woman really was.

To-MAY-to, to-MAH-to. You say it's a missed opportunity, I say look at what the guys in charge did with Wonder Woman throughout the show's history and call it a dodged bullet.

Wonder Woman being able to take on Superman but barely being able to take on Mongul, when Superman can take on Mongul with ease never made sense to me. Even if its based off of the comic.

Season one Superman is just not very strong. I used to make animated gifs showing how weak he was, but he's clearly nerfed relative to season 2 and all of JLU.

[SiegePerilous02]

That is the weird consequence of making Supeman a nerfed punching bag in season 1, but then deciding to adapt a classic Bronze age story later on. As in, from the era he was at his most powerful.

I do think having Diana land the final blow on Mongul with the Black Mercy is the one improvement they made. It's not much of a change, but I think it greatly redeems Diana's role in a story where she by necessity has to lose in a straight up fight. Though I think the beating she receives is also more brutal than the comic, but that may be due to hearing vocal reactions.