Automoderated users, Autopatrolled users, Bureaucrats, Comment administrators, Confirmed users, Moderators, Rollbackers, Administrators
213,943
edits
Wonder Woman: Difference between revisions
no edit summary
m (Fix broken image) |
No edit summary |
||
| (19 intermediate revisions by 7 users not shown) | |||
Line 1:
{{work}}
[[File:Wonder_Woman2.jpg|frame|That's right, [[Attention Deficit Ooh Shiny|look at]] the [[Everything's Better with Sparkles|sparklies...]]
{{quote|''"[[Girls Need Role Models|Not even girls want to be girls so long as our feminine archetype lacks force, strength, and power.]] Not wanting to be girls, they don't want to be tender, submissive, peace-loving as good women are. Women's strong qualities have become despised because of their weakness. The obvious remedy is to create a feminine character with all the strength of [[Superman]] plus all the allure of a good and beautiful woman."''
|'''William Moulton Marston''', 1943}}
The Princess of Truth. [[Hot Amazon|The Princess of the Amazons]]. '''''[[Trope Codifier|The]]''''' [[Action Girl|Female]] [[Superhero]].
Line 8 ⟶ 9:
The first prominent female superhero in <s>[[The DCU]]</s> the history of comic books, and generally considered the greatest of the superheroines, was created in the [[The Forties|1940s]]. Wonder Woman is distinguished by her indestructible bracelets, which deflect bullets, and her enchanted lasso, which compels men to tell the truth and puts animals to sleep.
She was created in 1941 by psychologist William Moulton Marston (then an educational consultant to DC Comics) along with his wife Elizabeth Holloway Marston, as a deliberate counterpoint to the all-male stable of "''Übermenschen''" published by DC at the time. Marston was remarkably free of the era's usual prejudices about and disdain for women (though this was partly because he was an admitted masochist who ''fetishized'' powerful women), and intentionally designed the character to embody his image of an idealized strong, unconventional and independent female. The character first appeared in ''"All Star Comics''" #8 (December, 1941).
As a historical note, Marston was also vital in the development of the polygraph ("lie detector") -- which may be why Wonder Woman's lasso forces criminals to speak the truth. Marston also had unconventional sexual views (He and his wife had a third partner, Olive Byrne -- unconventional by today's standards, grounds for arrest or even [[Torches and Pitchforks|public stoning]] in 1941). He also practiced [[BDSM]] and/or bondage, thus many of his stories had elements of this; see the [https://web.archive.org/web/20131005103732/http://superdickery.com/index.php?option=com_content&view=category&layout=blog&id=34&Itemid=51 "Suffering Sappho!"] section of [
He also had very unconventional views on how the world should be run for the time he lived in, believing a Matriarchy would be superior to the male-dominated world of the 1940s. This was the basis for Paradise Island.
Line 30 ⟶ 31:
In the mid-2000s run written by [[Greg Rucka]], she suffered from a negative reaction in-universe, between escalating her role as emissary, leading to accusations of forcing her beliefs on people, and snapping the neck of a villain who had [[Brainwashed|telepathic control]] of [[Superman]] because [[I Did What I Had to Do|she felt it was the only way to stop him]]. In the middle of all this, she fought shadowy corporate schemers, resurrected Gorgons, participated in the hostile takeover of Olympus by her patron, Pallas Athena, and faced the destruction of her home by OMACs.
After Rucka's run and the OMAC crossover event, Wonder Woman was again rebooted. This time, she reluctantly got involved in a war between the Amazons (along with her newly resurrected mother) and Patriarch's World. In the wake of all this, she regained (or rather gained for the first time in this continuity) her Diana Prince: Secret Agent identity in order to connect with people. [[Dork Age|Many fans were not pleased.]] However, there was some delight at Wondy's appearance in ''[[Manhunter (
In the late 2000s, Wonder Woman's series was in the hands of [[Gail Simone]]. Her supporting cast was revisited and she went up against a series of monsters including the ultrapowerful Genocide, her mother's former bodyguards, a grief-stricken Green Lantern, her own pantheon, and some long-lost family members who were abducted by a vicious alien race. The tales were epic, twisty and generally well received. Gail is the first woman to have ever written Wonder Woman's comic for a long period of time and deeply loves the character. However, Gail was not the first woman to write the comic, as Jodi Piccult wrote it almost immediately before her (but was not received very well), and Mindy Newell wrote it in the 80s and 90s.
Line 48 ⟶ 49:
* ''[[Justice League: The New Frontier]]'': An animated [[Direct to Video]] based on the acclaimed comic series by Darwyn Cooke. This Wonder Woman was closely tied with her classic origin but examined the change from the Golden Age to the Silver Age. She was voiced by Lucy Lawless of ''[[Xena: Warrior Princess]]'' fame -- and her personality was a little Xena-ish too.
* ''[[Wonder Woman (animation)|Wonder Woman]]'': A newer DTV produced by [[Bruce Timm]] but set in its own continuity and focusing exclusively on her, intending to embrace the classic origin in full. She is voiced by Keri Russell.
** Several other [[DC Universe Original Animated Movies]] also star Wonder Woman, including ''[[Justice League: Crisis
* ''Wonder Woman'': An attempted pilot for NBC's 2011 season by David E. Kelley, focusing on Wonder Woman fairly established in Man's World and running the Themyscira Corporation to get her word out in between fighting crime, starring Adrienne Paliecki as Diana. It wasn't picked up, and fans weren't happy with what word leaked out - partially because Diana [[It Makes Sense in Context|seemed to have trouble with the size of her breasts]] and [[What the Hell, Hero?|straight up murdered security guards]].
* ''[[Batman: The Brave And The Bold|Batman the Brave And The Bold]]'': She appears in the [[Cold Opening]] of an episode and in the main story of another. Her design is an homage to the Golden Age and has a lot of canon references to the [[Wonder Woman (TV series)|TV series]].
* ''[[Young Justice (animation)|Young Justice]]'': She appears in bit parts in several episodes as a member of the Justice League. Due to rights issues that were not cleared up until after the show had already begun production, her sidekick Wonder Girl was excluded from the show's roster of teen superheroes during the first season. Wonder Girl (Cassandra Sandsmark) becomes a recurring character in Season 2, with Diana getting an explanded role. She is voiced by [[Maggie Q]] of ''[[Nikita (TV series)|Nikita]]'' fame.
* ''[[Super Best Friends Forever]]'': The series of animated shorts by [[Lauren Faust]] which feature the first animated appearance of Wonder Girl (Donna Troy) in several decades.
* She is portrayed by [[Gal Gadot]] in the [[DC Extended Universe]]; she first appears in 2016's ''[[Batman v. Superman: Dawn of Justice]]'', and gets her own solo movie ''[[Wonder Woman (2017 film)|Wonder Woman]]'' in 2017 and a leading role in ''[[Justice League (2017 film)|Justice League]]''.
----
{{creatortropes}}
* [[Absurdly Sharp Blade]]: Diana sometimes carries the Sword of Hephaestus, which can shave electrons off an atom.
** Because it's also magic, it can ''potentially kill [[Superman]]''. This evens things out, meaning any one of the big three can kill the other two, should it ever come to it (though [[Batman]] still may have the biggest advantage, [[Crazy Prepared|being Batman and all]]).
Line 63:
* [[Action Girl]]: Despite some times of [[Unfortunate Implications]], Diana has never been depicted as incapable.
* [[Action Mom]]: Hippolyta
* [[Adaptational Personality Adjustment]]: Not Wonder Woman herself so much, but her supporting characters. During the Golden Age, Hercules/Heracles suffered this unfortunately. He did cause either Hippolyta's death or Theseus kidnapping her in the original myth, but either was an accident owing to Hera stirring up war with the Amazons on framing him for kidnapping Hippolyta. Hercules in Golden Age Wonder Woman seduces Hippolyta to steal her girdle and enslave the Amazons, just because Mars convinced him it was a good idea, rather than needing her girdle to complete his twelve labors. Hippolyta as a result is more of a [[Broken Bird]] compared to her portrayal in Greek mythology or ''[[A Midsummer Night's Dream]]'', vowing to never trust a man again per Aphrodite's edict.
* [[Amazon Admirer]]: Nearly every incarnation has a literal example, dating all the way back to the Golden Age.
** Hippolyta tells Diana that the Amazons hide from the world of men per orders from the gods because men are obsessed with conquering them. The Amazons once lived in harmony with other humans, provided they never let men seduce or trick them. Then Hercules, under the influence of Mars, decided to steal Hippolyta's divine girdle, a gift from Aphrodite in an attempt to subdue the Amazons. He proceeded to enslave them while breaking Hippolyta's heart. Aphrodite took pity on them when the Amazons repented the moment of weakness, helping free them and relocate them to a remote island. As a reminder of the betrayal, however, they have to wear bulletproof bracelets. It's also why Hippolyta is at first reluctant to let Diana go help Steve in the world of men, fearing history will repeat itself. (The bracelets end up coming in handy because Diana learns they can repel gunfire.)
** Steve Trevor plays this straight. He recognizes Diana as the woman who saved him from a plane crash, and she goes with him back to the mainland to see if humans are worthy of her protection. They proceed to fight Nazis and have each other's backs. In the Golden Age, at least before he started dying on a regular basis in DC continuity, he said he was fine if Wonder Woman never returns his feelings; knowing she was saving the world was enough for him.
* [[Amazonian Beauty]]: She is a literal Amazon and she is definitely beautiful. Even when she's [[Depending on the Artist|portrayed]] as muscular.
* [[Ambiguously Gay]]: Paradise Island has fueled slash for decades.
Line 70 ⟶ 74:
** There have been hints and implications over the years that Wonder Woman herself is bisexual, and several writers have said they consider her so. Nothing has been directly stated in the comics themselves, though.
** It's been implied that once DC reboots in August, Wonder Woman will be a little more... open.
** For years there has been subtext between Hippolyta and Phillipus, the captain of the royal guard. On her Tumblr page, [[Gail Simone]] claimed she had planned to have the two women officially get married, an idea which was even supported by [[Dan
* [[Animal-Themed Superbeing]]: Reoccuring villain, The Cheetah.
* [[Anti-Hero Substitute]]: Artemis took over as Wonder Woman for a brief time during [[The Nineties]].
Line 76 ⟶ 80:
** The Invisible Jet has been of dubious usefulness ever since the writers decided Diana should be able to ''literally'' fly on her own. But the plane is [[Rule of Cool|cool!]]
* [[Author Appeal]]: The bondage situations, as mentioned in the main description. His other domestic partner was noted for always wearing metal bracelets when outside the house.
** In fact, according to The 10 Cent Plague by David Hajdu, Wonder Women was originally created to help the author "deal with his persistent fantasies of being dominated by women" or some such thing.
* [[Badass Princess]]: Diana
* [[Bald Women]]: Alkyone, a former Amazonian guard of Hippolyta.
Line 91 ⟶ 95:
** It was retooled again at some point: the lasso now not only compels people to tell the truth, it also automatically ''reveals'' the truth about anything it's attached to: Diana can use it to find pressure points on giant monsters, etc. This evidently comes from the lasso being some kind of manifestation of the ''concept'' of Truth. {{spoiler|Which may be why using it on Darkseid in ''[[Final Crisis]]'' canceled out the Anti-Life Equation.}}
** The lasso, per [[Gail Simone]]'s run, also doesn't just force people to tell the truth. It sees ''into their soul'' and reveals their deepest secrets.
* [[Canon
* [[Captain Geographic]]: For America, despite not being born there.
** In the George Perez reboot, it's explained that when Steve Trevor's mother washed ashore Paradise Island, they thought her American badges were crests, and created an outfit to honor her death based on the American flag.
Line 102 ⟶ 106:
* [[Clingy Costume]]: ''Wonder Woman'' #80 has her fall asleep one day (near a pond, no less) then wake up to find herself trapped in a mask that's rigged to explode.
* [[Clothes Make the Legend]]
* [[Continuity Snarl]]: The Wonder Woman Family, as discussed [
* [[Cool Plane]]: Her invisible jet. Just [[MST3K Mantra|don't think too hard]] about the way it works (or [[Fridge Logic|why she needs it if she can fly]], though at first it was because she couldn't fly ([[The Golden Age of Comic Books]]), then she can only <s>fly</s> [[Not Quite Flight|glide]] short distances ([[The Silver Age of Comic Books]]) and needs the jet for long-distance flight. This hasn't been true since the 1980s, though). In [[The Modern Age of Comic Books]], she occasionally uses it to transport cargo or passengers, but for the most part, it hangs around due to historic value and [[Rule of Cool]].
** More recent versions have depicted the jet as a stealth plane.
*** Which ''was'' its original purpose, back in [[The Golden Age of Comic Books]]. Why else make a plane invisible?
* [[Darker and Edgier]]: Azzarello's run on the comic has been said to be darker than other previous WW comics.
* [[Deal with the Devil]]: He begged her to take one, but she declined.
Line 114 ⟶ 118:
* [[Enfant Terrible]]: Ares' sons and Devastation.
* [[Everything's Even Worse with Sharks]]: Themyscira is protected by Megalodons in the sea around it, and the giant sharks have even offered themselves for a [[Heroic Sacrifice]] to help protect the island.
* [[Exiled From Continuity]]: Complex legal issues resulted in Wonder Woman and her supporting cast being unable to appear in a number of DC television adaptations. For example, she was supposed to appear in "The Call", an episode of ''[[Batman Beyond]]'', but had to be written out and replaced by Big Barda, and was also the only JLA member to not appear in "The Big Leagues", a crossover with the ''[[Static Shock]]'' TV series. The producers of ''[[Smallville]]'' have similarly said they tried to use her in the show, but were unable to due to legal reasons. Her sidekick, Wonder Girl, was also barred from appearing in the cartoon [[Teen Titans (animation)|adaptations]] of ''[[Teen Titans (Comic Book)|Teen Titans]]'' and ''[[Young Justice (animation)|Young Justice]]'' (though for the latter, [[Greg Weisman]] [[Word of God|has said]] that the issues were eventually lifted). Wonder Girl finally joined the cast in season 2 of the latter series.
* [[Expy]]: Tom Tresser/Nemesis, as portrayed in ''Wonder Woman'', was arguably a 21st Century analogue of Steve Trevor.
* [[Fad Super]]: Arguably, she was created to be timely as both a super-patriot and a fightin' first-wave feminist. Writers have gradually divorced her from the patriot angle while struggling to define what sort of feminist she is.
Line 123 ⟶ 127:
* [[Flying Brick]]: Slowly evolved into this from [[Lightning Bruiser]].
* [[Feminist Fantasy]]: The reason William Marston created Wonder Woman, as he explains in the page quote.
* [[Funny Animal]]: "Wonder Wabbit," a [[Funny Animal]] rabbit counterpart of Diana who lives on [[The DCU|Earth-C-Minus]]. Wonder Wabbit is a member of her world's "JLA" (the "[[Captain Carrot and His Amazing Zoo Crew
* [[Getting Crap Past the Radar]]: The B&D content of the [[The Golden Age of Comic Books|Golden Age]] comics was so blatant and ever-present, it pretty much [[Double Entendre|stomped on the "sub"]] part of "Subtext".
* [[Go-Karting with Bowser]]: In ''Wonder Woman'' (vol. 3) #36, over a few pages, Wondy goes from fighting Giganta (who it turns out, was merely waiting for her date with The Atom) to commiserating about {{spoiler|Tom Tresser telling her their relationship is over}} to beating up the Olympians together. Giganta these days is more of an [[Anti-Villain]] or [[Punch Clock Villain]] at worst.
Line 129 ⟶ 133:
* [[Heroic BSOD]]: She's not prone to these, but one instance happened when she was forced to confront two equally valid but conflicting truths (which of the parents had the rights to a child, one of whom was a supervillain dictator). The lasso actually snapped and for a brief time, truth itself became totally unbound on the world.
* [[Hidden Elf Village]]: Paradise Island, though it is accessible to the outside world in certain arcs.
* [[High Heel Hurt]]: The 2006 incarnation of Wonder Woman had Diana complain about the stilettos as part of the disguise Canary issued to her.
* [[Hot Amazon]]: Super example.
* [[Hourglass Hottie]]: Even [[Depending on the Artist|the versions]] that are muscular and athletic generally have a wasp-waisted hourglass figure.
* [[Immortality]]: [[Depending on the Writer]]. The Lynda Carter version "remembered the Greeks and the Romans". In ''[[Justice League Unlimited]]'', [[Batman]] points out that she's from "a society of immortal warriors". In some comic incarnations, her immortality was lost when she left Paradise Island; in ''[[The Kingdom]]'', she loses it [[Virgin Power|due to pregnancy]]; in still other continuities, she is still and always immortal, and may even eventually become a goddess herself.
* [[Immune to Bullets]]: Sometimes. Frequently her bracelets are, but she herself is not. Despite being completely able to take on [[Shooting Superman|Superman]]...
Line 139 ⟶ 144:
* [[Jack Bauer Interrogation Technique]]: After Genocide stole her lasso and went on to kidnap Etta Candy, Wondy resorted to this with Cheetah. She used the tiara to cut Cheetah's face and then threatened to cut off pieces of her tail if she didn't reveal where Etta was being held.
* [[Insistent Terminology]]: Nemesis in "Who Is Wonder Woman?":
{{quote|
'''Nemesis''': Wolfmen. A small but important distinction." }}
* [[Kill It with Fire]]: One of her oft-ignored abilities, in the comics, is immunity to fire.
Line 146 ⟶ 151:
* [[Lady of War]]: Some recent reimaginings.
* [[Leaning on the Fourth Wall]]: Wonder Woman (as Diana Prince) gets into an argument with a superhero memorabilia seller about why WW is not considered cool. He says "all I know is she's never sold as well as Superman or Batman...".
* [[Legacy Character]]: During the 90's, the Wonder Woman mantle was briefly passed to Artemis before she was killed off. Later, the mantle again changed hands, this time to Queen Hippolyta. This lead to a series of confusing events where Hippolyta went back in time to the 1940's and retroactively became the "original" Wonder Woman, making Diana a legacy heroine herself. Of course this idea was [[Canon
* [[Leotard of Power]]: The classic example
* [[Life Drinker]]: A comic had a [[No Celebrities Were Harmed]] version of [[Walt Disney]] named Wade Dazzle who was being kept alive by life force drained from visitors to his theme park and fed into his preserved body.
* [[Lightning Bruiser]]
* [[Living Lie Detector]]: With help from her magic lasso. It's also canon that she's the spirit of truth, and it's hard to tell a lie around her even without the lasso. As [[Mercedes Lackey]] pointed out in the foreword to "The Circle" TPB, the lasso doesn't just make someone ''tell'' the truth, it makes them ''see and confront'' the truth.
Line 161 ⟶ 166:
* [[Mildly Military]]: In the early [[The Silver Age of Comic Books|Silver Age]], you would never have guessed that being a lieutenant in the U.S. Air Force required Diana Prince to do anything more onerous than wear a blue uniform.
* [[Mirror Self]]: John Byrne retold Donna Troy's origin so that she was originally the mirror self of Princess Diana as a teenager, but given a separate personality by the sorceress who owned the mirror. Donna Troy was then captured by Queen Hippolyta's nemesis Dark Angel, who mistook her for Diana, and subjected her to live multiple lives that all ended in tragedy, ultimately leading to the one where Donna becomes Wonder Girl/Troia of the ''[[Teen Titans (Comic Book)|Teen Titans]]''. This origin has recently been retconned out of her history since 2006.
* [[More Deadly Than the Male]]: [[Batman]] and [[Superman]] both have codes against killing. Diana, however, explicitly doesn't, which has led to conflict between them on a few occasions.
** [[Depending on the Writer|Under most writers]], however, she still only kills as a last resort.
* [[Most Common Superpower]]: [[Depending on the Artist]], can rival [[Power Girl]].
Line 167 ⟶ 172:
** [[Gail Simone]]'s run pretty much states that her breasts are the second biggest in DC's superhero community.
* [[Multiple Choice Past]]: Her origin and history have been [[Retcon|retconned]] at least half a dozen times.
* [[Mutually Assured Destruction]]: Ares's weakness: Because his power comes from human conflict he can't survive if there are no humans, forcing him to work to prevent nuclear war.
* [[Not Quite Flight]]: For most of [[The Silver Age of Comic Books]]. Finally they just said "screw it, she flies".
* [[Oh Crap]]: Both the trope and the words used by Diana in the animated movie.
Line 188 ⟶ 194:
* [[Shooting Superman|Shooting Wonder Woman]]: Maybe a sniper would have a chance, but most goons like to stand directly in front of her before shooting at her.
* [[Spank the Cutie]]: The very early [[The Golden Age of Comic Books|Golden Age]] stories had <s>occasional</s> ''frequent'' examples of what Marston called "loving discipline".
* [[Sidekick]]: Wonder Girl, Etta Candy.
** And the Holiday Girls, young women from Holiday women's college who assisted WW, did investigative work, got caught and tied up and rescued a lot. Many of them were from Etta's "Beeta Lamda" sorority, where a common pledge prank was that you had to walk around campus in baby outfits with diapers and a bottle.
* [[Speaks Fluent Animal]]: Diana has the [[Depending on the Writer|infrequently acknowledged]] ability to talk to animals.
* [[Star-Spangled Spandex]]: Along with Wonder Girl, Donna Troy.
Line 195 ⟶ 201:
* [[Straw Feminist]]: When written badly. The [[Pet Peeve Trope]] of a lot of WW fans.
** Two words: ''[[Amazons Attack]]''.
* [[Stripperiffic]]: JMS tried to deliberately avert this when redesigning the costume for his run. It's debatable as to his success; true, her legs are covered up, but her new breastplate actually shows off more cleavage than the old one, and the jacket usually comes off when she fights (and was eventually abandoned entirely).
* [[Super-Hero Origin]]
* [[Super Senses]]: Diana can sense magic! In some versions her normal senses are enhanced as well.
Line 201 ⟶ 207:
** She'd still lose in a race, though. As Batman put it, "Who's faster: Bruce Lee or Usain Bolt?"
** In another, older issue, a variant of when she first met Flash, she showed off how fast she was. He countered... by running backward and still beating her. She was amused.
{{quote|
'''Flash:''' Oh, I'm sorry. I thought you were '''fast'''. }}
** According to an issue of ''JLA'', the speed of Mercury is around mach three. Pretty fast by most standards... but of course, the Flash has been quoted as saying, "Can we pick up the pace? Mach ''ten'' is a ''crawl!''"
* [[Super Strength]]
* [[Super Toughness]]: Exactly how much toughness she has depends on the writer, but generally she'll fall under this trope. She usually likes to block bullets with her bracelets instead of her skin, though.
* [[Take That]] / [[Shout-Out]]: In one of the issues following ''[[Amazons Attack]]'', Steel tells Nemesis to spy on suspected Amazons because "we don't want an Amazons Attack 2".
Line 221 ⟶ 227:
{{reflist}}
{{IGN Top 100 Heroes}}
[[Category:Better Than It Sounds/Comic Books]]
[[Category:Film]]
[[Category:Films of the 2010s]]
[[Category:New 52]]
Line 230 ⟶ 239:
[[Category:The DCU]]
[[Category:The Forties]]
▲[[Category:Wonder Woman]]
| |||