What I Wonder About Wonder Woman

As is well documented, I’m still a relative neophyte when it comes to the comic scene. There is one character, though, who I’ve been a fan of and followed since I was a small child: Wonder Woman. Not only was the fact that there was a female (!) fighting alongside Batman and Superman mind blowing to me at the time, the fact that she was connected to Greek mythology AND focused on using her powers in a more cerebral and less violent way than was traditional for superheroes at the time, and I was hooked. There was no LCS near me then, but our local library did have two Wonder Woman trades that I happily checked out at least every other month to re-read. To this day, in spite of the countless reboots and character change, re-imaginings and outright abuses Diana has suffered, she has always managed to climb back up and reclaim her place at the head of the DC pantheon, and in my own heart.

For this article Minhquan Nguyen (MQ) and I (Hawk) will be sharing our thoughts on the character, her history and her place in the DCnU. Speaking of all that history MQ…what has your personal experience with the Wonder Woman character been like, and what is your favorite incarnation of her?

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Well, Hawk, I consider myself just as much a neophyte as you. For a good long chunk of my life, I read mostly anything popular enough to be collected into a trade and sold in bookstores, and there weren’t nearly as many of those back then as there are now. One title that always managed to make it into my hands was Grant Morrison’s JLA, which to this date I still think of as the most iconic version of the League. And of course, included among this godlike pantheon of heroes was its sole (for a good long time) lady, Wonder Woman. Even when I was barely more than a kid, and my primary fascination with her mostly involved her intriguingly revealing costume, this distinction wasn’t lost on me.

But after reading Darwyn Cooke’s portrayal of her in The New Frontier, I developed a wholly new, dare I say, evolved idea of her as a character and icon. Amidst the gamut of fictional princesses whose existence seems to depend on a disturbing amount of gauzy fabrics and pastel hues, here is a princess who boasts the boldest of primary colors, who handles a sword like an extension of her arm, who not only dismisses villains but uplifts their victims, and who has no qualm about standing up to Superman—indeed, in the book her stature is such that she stands over him, truly larger than life. So it was with great empathy and enthusiasm when I read Jimmy Olsen’s vision of her: “I see it all. The power, the beauty…the wonder.”

I defy any other female character in comics to live up to that tagline. Can you think of any, Brit?

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I can’t think of any female characters that come close to her, so absolutely not. The only character I think has a shot at MAYBE someday APPROACHING the level of Wonder Woman is Kate Kane’s Batwoman, but seeing as the official #1 hasn’t even launched yet, there is a long way to go before that can even be discussed. I could see an argument maybe being made for Barbara Gordon as a female icon, both as Batgirl then later as Oracle (…and now, I guess, as Batgirl again), but again, as cool as Barbara has been, she has neither the history nor the symbolic significance that Diana has always embodied.

I LOVE Morrison’s JLA! His take on Wonder Woman specifically isn’t my very favorite, but it did no harm, and he certainly did *the* best job meshing her (and the rest of the cast) together into a cohesive unit. I’ve been trying to think of my own favorite take on her, and I can’t decide–it’s either Greg Rucka (who captured the empathic, beautiful side of her very well) or Gail Simone (who made Diana very much the warrior, without losing that essential love and compassion that the character embodies.)

Now, here’s my question to you: Wonder Woman wasn’t the first female character in comics, but she was (is) certainly the most enduring. What do you think it is about her that has kept her around and in the public consciousness, even when (like now) her book isn’t selling particularly well?

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When you think about it, we don’t have that many female comic book characters who aren’t spun off male counterparts. DC has the most famous examples of these: Batgirl, Batwoman, Supergirl, even arguably Power Girl and Huntress. And it’s not just DC, with She-Hulk, Ms. Marvel, and Spider-Girl being the few lady Marvels to have gotten their own, short-lived ongoings. Of the handful of truly unique comic book women, none have managed to really stand on their own, most tending to be more identified with their teams than as individuals (e.g. Wasp, Invisible Woman, Black Canary, and pretty much all the X-ladies).

Wonder Woman truly stands on her own merits. Her existence owes itself to no man (she is literally conceived without one), and both her iconography and agenda belong to her alone. She may work alongside men when they share the same goals, but she never goes out of her way to court their favor. Even in the Justice League, the team with which she has the strongest ties, you always see her as being above the group.

Like Batman or Superman, her only true peers in terms of longevity (fudged numbers or not, can anyone really make light of 600+ issues as a solo character?) and cultural penetration, she has the aura of someone who represents a higher calling. Superman may be man’s hope of becoming better than he is, and Batman the man who makes the most of himself, but Wonder Woman stands for the dignity of all women. She can stand on a pedestal with these guys, look them straight in the eye, and know with complete certainty she deserves to be there. She didn’t have to fight or protest her way to the top; she’s there because that’s the only place where she can be. And I think that has a lot more value to people than, you know, however many issues the comics-reading crowd feels like buying from one month to another.

That said, it’s worth asking: why doesn’t she sell? No one can deny she has the same standing as Superman and Batman, but where’s her franchise?

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Oh man. If I could answer that question MQ, I’d be working for DC right now. ;-). I think part of the problem is that, unlike more enlightened people like you, many people (quite a few people at DC included) DON’T look at Wonder Woman as unique, they look at her as “the female Superman.” Technically speaking of course, we have Supergirl to fill that role, but the fact remains that, back in the day, Wonder Woman was very similar to Supes–an alien/foreigner, come to our world to help enlighten and protect humanity. (I think the fact that they wear the same colors and both began with something of an emphasis on patriotism is no accident, either.) Because of this, I think it’s very possible that people then (and perhaps still a bit today) look at her the same way kids of my generation looked at the many female spin-offs of boy-oriented cartoon shows (He-Man vs. She-Ra for example): yeah it’s okay, but why would I read THAT when I could read the “real” thing?

In spite of this, of course, she has endured for 600+ issues. I think this is due to the fact that nature abhors a vacuum. When she was first created, there *were* no strong female icons for anyone interested in such stories to read. As a result, she became the strong female icon that you describe. At this point, it would be very hard to get rid of her without an outcry (from non-comic reading feminists, if no one else 😉 ). Another reason her sales just haven’t been up to snuff, especially lately, is that her book just hasn’t been all that good. Writers, and the architects of the DCU in general, seem to have a very difficult time figuring out who Diana is, and what to do with her. They know she is important, but–other than paying lip service to the idea that she is one of their “Big Three”–they rarely put her on the same level as Batman or Superman, either in story or in marketing.

I wouldn’t even claim it’s a gender-of-author issue; Greg Rucka created my most beloved take on Diana (“The Hiketeia” may be my single favorite Wonder Woman story ever told) while Jodi Picoult created one of my least favorite takes on her. (Particularly in the “Love and Murder” storyline, which has a promising and interesting premise, but fails entirely when it reveals that Wonder Woman is completely helpless and inept at the most basic human tasks.) Even one of my favorite comic authors of all time, Gail Simone, didn’t always bat .1000 when it came to Wonder Woman; “Rise of the Olympian” was a fantastic tale, full of everything that makes Diana a great character, while her last arc, “Wrath of the Silver Serpent,” was just *bad.* Part of this may be because, quite honestly, I think Wonder Woman works far better as a character when she’s fighting villains from her own mythology and not aliens from outer space, but Simone has made crazier things than that work. The whole storyline was flat, as if Simone suddenly couldn’t remember who Diana was, or what she was good at.

Why do you think Diana is such an ‘oddly-shaped puzzle piece,’ as it were, in the DCU?

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You know, Hawk, to answer that, I think it’s easier to look at what Wonder Woman isn’t. She isn’t down-home and simply virtuous like Superman, but neither is she completely cold and pragmatic like Batman. She’s not cute and charming like Zatanna, nor does she have the bodacious sassiness of Power Girl. You can say she has the same evenhanded temperament as the other lady mainstay on the League, Black Canary, but unlike Dinah, Diana has no distinctive personality. You don’t really have a handle on her as a human beyond her heroism. It’s a case where we have infinite evidence of the Wonder, but little of the Woman.

Writers have spent a lot of time defining her values and her historical continuity, but relatively little in regards to her personal life. Clark loves pie (especially his ma’s); Bruce collects rare editions of books; Zee is a vegetarian; Karen has a love/hate relationship with her cat; and Dinah flat-out can’t stand computers. But I draw a blank when I think of Diana. Even her short-lived romance with Thomas Tressor (AKA Nemesis) turned out tepid and artificial, as if she tried to imitate the semblance of love instead of genuinely feeling it.

Perhaps the problem with Wonder Woman is that she has for so long had to represent all women that she never had the chance to develop as an individual. Even in the current Odyssey story arc, where she is arguably more human than she has ever been, she still comes across as an ideal of humanity, demonstrating love and mercy in the purest terms, but uncolored by a subjective point of view or attitude. She behaves the way she does because that’s what’s expected of her, whether those expectations come from the divinities that empower her, the Amazons who follow her, the public who relies on her, the creators who write her, or the fans that read her. When was the last time she did anything because she just feels like it? If W.W. seems a very restrained character, I’d argue it’s because we’ve restrained her.

So instead of talking about what kind of marketing or creative strategies DC should use to promote her, which most people spend an inordinate amount of time doing, my last question is this: what do you want out of Wonder Woman? What do you want to see from her? What should she be, not only as a hero, but as a human being?

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That question really gets to the crux of all the issues we’ve been discussing here, and it’s a difficult one to answer without falling into the trap of simply listing off generic character traits (honorable, brave, loyal, etc) which is the trap that I think a lot of writers fall into when thinking of her. I think that, above all, it needs to be remembered that Diana is an ambassador for her people. Not necessarily in the literal sense (although I did actually enjoy the idea of a Themysciran embassy), but that she should be both curious about the new culture into which she has entered, and eager to share her own. (Being Diana, I would also hope that she would refrain from too much overt “my culture is better than yours” superiority.) I think this makes her a much more interesting and well rounded character, since she not only puts her life on the line for her adopted home on a regular basis, but she must also work to keep her identity as an Amazon at the same time.

If there is one trait that Wonder Woman represents to me above all though, it is compassion. (One of the few missteps Blackest Night made was turning her into a Star Sapphire and not a deputy of the Indigo Tribe, but that’s been harped on to death already.) While bearing this in mind, writers need to remember that compassion does not mean weakness, or an inability to kick ass. On the contrary, compassion can be one of the greatest motivations for fighting of all. Too often “compassion” is used as an excuse to have her sit on the sidelines, or try to talk other characters out of taking part a clearly righteous fight.

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For me, going back to what I said earlier about the lack of understanding we have on Diana the woman, I’d simply like to know more about her makeup as a person. It’s fine for her to be an ambassador for the Amazons, but that again risks her falling into the trap of becoming an embodiment of an entire feminist race and culture instead of expressing the qualities that distinguishes her among them.

We already have plenty of stories that depict her as both warrior and humanitarian. We need to see stories where she embraces the other roles that make a woman: as sister, mentor, friend, even as employee or lover. I know she can kick ass or show mercy as needed; I’m much more curious as to how she’d confront a needy girlfriend, a slave-driving boss, or a jealous beau. If anything, these are the things she truly lacks in contrast to her male peers, and why the public at large can respect her, but can’t sympathize with her. And really, it’s how much we sympathize with a character that makes them popular and beloved, regardless of whatever principles they represent.

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An excellent point, MQ—relationships (not necessarily of the romantic kind) have always been Wonder Woman’s strongest suit; it’s from there that she derives her great powers of compassion. Showing the way she plays different parts for different people, and how she balances all of those responsibilities and duties, would make for some fascinating reading, and lead to stories worthy of everyone’s favorite Amazon.

-Minhquan Nguyen and SoldierHawk