Hmmm...I Wonder...

What's it like to be a writer for Wonder Woman? She's gone through so many incarnations over the years that I'm not sure that she really has a defined personality anymore. I guess you just kind of wing it and do whatever you want?

Based on their personality profiles, I could tell you who many of the superheroes are, but it seems that Wonder Woman -- although one of my favorite characters -- never has a consistent one. When last I left her in the 1980s, Wonder Woman had re-emerged in the DC Universe as a sweet, innocent, naive child of a small unknown island. She was taken in by the motherly Julia Kapatelis and befriended Julia's daughter, Vanessa ("Nessie"), as she tried to assimilate herself in "man's world." The stories were touching and showed a "human" side to the Amazon. One of them about a young girl's suicide was one of the most well-written stories I've ever read in a comic book.

Doing a little background check on what I've missed, I discover that Nessie became the Silver Swan and tried to kill Wonder Woman. Not only that, now that whole history has been wiped out and Wonder Woman lives in a world where Julia and Vanessa never even existed. And recently, the peace-loving women of Princess Diana's homeland have attacked the U.S. in Amazons Attack! How about that?

Re-joining Wonder Woman with her latest series' incarnation in "Ends of the Earth" from WW# 20-23, written by my favorite Secret Six author, Gail Simone, I have to say, "Huh?" Wonder Woman is tough-as-nails and in some weird dimension, wearing a fur-lined uniform through the snow that Sarah Palin only wishes she could pull off while snow-shoeing in Alaska. She's joined by two other Wonder Women, both wearing outfits veering slightly from the normal Wonder Woman uniform, one being a Princess-Leia-in-Return-of-the-Jedi-like bikini slave outfit. Oh, and she has a claw. Then she meets Beowulf. Yes, that Beowulf. Cut to: the story arc ending (thankfully!) with her bringing back to modern-day Earth some devilish-looking giant and battling him in the reflection pool next to the Washington Monument. Whew. Got all that? Meanwhile, Donna Troy is housed up in Diana's apartment with a bunch of tall, white, intelligent gorillas. Um...yeah.

I think it's time someone took the time to define Wonder Woman's personality and give her some stories that are worthy of her name.