Wonder woman is a bit of a conundrum to the few of us who try to tackle her ever growing list of contradictions. She's an amazonian warrior princess goddess walking tank ambassador one woman army activist tactician pacifist Nazi hunter secret fetishist's wet dream prude sometimes lesbian who sometimes isn't despite being raised on an island with all women who owns an invisible jet but can also fly and deflects bullets she didn't even know existed before she began deflecting them.*INHALE*
as a symbol, shes the tip top of femininity to some, the embodiment of womanly strength to others. a sex object to a few more. she represents loves ability to conquer all in many of her works, and even slung a space ring representing that very concept for a while about a year ago.
I'll admit to being a pretty big fan of Diana up front. I will also admit that being a fan has been hard. Wonder Woman is meant to be one of DC's trinity, the big three being Superman, Batman, and the Greek demi-goddess herself, but despite the claim almost nothing she does seems to stick with the greater universe of DC Comics enough to matter.
Wonder woman has her ups and downs because her run tends to be all over the place, and with the list of "character guidelines" above how could you blame anyone? the balance is hard, and it's been pulled off successfully before but for some reason the character just doesn't fly outside of her initial fan base.
as a result, Diana gets re-invented...a lot.
The above is about half of the varying representations wonder woman has undergone over her long career. sometimes she's worn more armor, sometimes she's worn less clothing than pictured above (I'm serious) but no matter what changes, the character remains stuck in this place of almost to the top
These redesigns(official or not) in the current comic crazed community seems to have one central focus. do a search for "Wonder Woman Redesign" when you have the chance to see what i mean. Notice any similarities?
The similarity is focus, namely, it's a focus on one specific thing: Diana's heritage. Left right and center it seems everyone is clamoring for more "God of War" related heroics from our powerful princess. I don't exactly disagree with the consensus, it sounds fantastic to have Diana battle gods and essentially be a modern day Greek herculean archetype, and i think DC heard the collective comic fan's cry for more.
See, that many redesigns means that the community is on to something, and the newest look says even more about that
That, right there, is the axe wielding bad-ass i think we all had in mind. To top it off, things are looking up for our girl.The book is great, it's selling well, and people are excited to read about wonder woman again.
many fans seem justifiably satisfied. few fight the changes introduced to her origin but their voices are being drowned out by the collective 'WOO' of the masses... but I'm still slightly concerned.
Right now everything is good, yes, but is this a permanent change, or simply another positive notch in an otherwise poorly made belt? the writing is great, but Brian Azzarello wont be around forever, and, if we're going to be truthful...wonder womans costume is a fickle, fickle thing because the current design is weak.
don't get me wrong. In her flagship title eonder woman looks fantastic, but that's simply because of the talent of cliff chiang. Cliff makes the suit work, but it's already proven flimsy at the hands of other artists.
Here, take a look
Strong:
Weak:
Strong:
Weak:
What i'm trying to prove is the state of things right now is temporary. The way things are going we have an entire saga who's existence hinges on the talent of the current creative team because everyone else seems to be missing something. Somewhere there's a misconception regarding what wonder woman should be, and the rare thing seems to be finding people that get it, or at least an aspect of it.
The wonder woman we have now is compelling because the book regained it's focus, but she's a lesser character for it. we keep omitting things from her in order to see what will be easiest to swallow, but with each omission we take a step back from her throne at the top next to superman and batman. Is the wonder woman we have now capable of winning a war with love alone? of being the pacifist or the motherly voice of discipline in a testosterone fueled world gone mad? is she capable of giving the speeches a country needs to hear to fight for what it believes in?
do you really see her standing beside superman and batman, and being their equal?
Things are good, but they could be better.
The Proposal:
lets look at the alternative. rather than designing her with her amazonian aspects in mind, lets remember that superman is more than being an alien, batman is more than the promise of a traumatized child.
Lets include everything.
We need a look that has the durability of a warrior, the regal elements of a princess, the modesty of a mother figure, the strength of a leader and symbol of feminism, all of the iconic nods we think of when we hear wonder woman. we need elements of Greek heritage, of modern fashion, and we need just a twinge of sex appeal.
But most of all. if we want her to look like she owns her spot in the trinity she needs to be one thing above all. She needs to be a Superhero.
This look is strong enough to bypass any mistakes about what Wonder woman should represent. All of her normal elements are included: The tiara remains, though now it also functions to hold the princesses power-pompador. the cape is a permanent fixture, she's worn one on and off for years but among DC's pantheon she's the one who it makes the most sense for. the cape tucks nicely into the gold breastplate. I chose the simple double W's for this design rather than the eagle or other variations because this way she has a similar brand recondition to her peers. Diana symbol has always been the gold W's, it makes sense to make it the centerpiece of her suit. The red extends to the entire body now, i think covering her skin more adds a sense of adulthood to the character she's previously been without. Of course the bodysuit has functional seams as a nod to the corset look previously showcased, the durability provided by the seams feel right at home with Diana. The star spangled briefs/shorts/panties (depending on the artist) were always the central complaint of the costume. I took the idea of making them a leathery spartan inspired garment. the clasps act as a lasso hold by unclipping the sides and sliding the lasso over the latch before reattaching the clasp. functionality insures that now they're too durable to be illustrated as anything as ridiculous as a thong. The stars on the costume have all been replaced with the common Greek interpretation of stars, rather than the Americana cookie cutter ones which do not make sense for her character no matter which way you cut it. The gauntlets are a dull silver, thick and stone-like, meant to instantly show just how much punishment wonder woman can take with those things. i wanted them to look like someone had taken mountains of silver and rolled them around Diana's wrists.
And finally, the boots...the boots are the same as the current ones which i find hilarious, personally, because they're the one element of the costume I've always hated and wanted changed. But when looking for an alternative and settling on the other elements of the look, i finally realized the boots weren't what felt wrong, it was the rest of the suit. Now i love the damn things.
So this is the wonder woman i dream of reading. She could just as easily fly an invisible jet and fight Angle man as she could slay Medusa with a sword without the readership feeling out of place. Much like superman can fight alien invaders or solve the 5th dimensional magic of mister mxyzptlk, or batman can solve a hard boiled noir case and then shoot darkseid with a god killing bullet.
This is Wonder Woman: Queen of Superheroes.
As always, thank you for reading, watching, and remember that you have every right to adore or despise the opinions presented above.
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