Who Wears Short Shorts?

Wonder Woman #1 (2011)

The latest Wonder Woman #1 (volume umpteenth) didn't have me drooling for more when the issue ended.  Maybe that's because there wasn't much substance to her character at this point.  Or maybe because she was hardly in it.  Or maybe it was the choppy childlike art.

Diana (she prefers to be called by her birth-given name over Wonder Woman) apparently lives in London now, which must be a nod to the events of Flashpoint, wherein the Amazons overtook the United Kingdom as the Atlanteans flooded the rest of Western Europe.  I was hoping that with this latest version, Diana would be battling more earthly villains than gods and getting away from her "sisters" of Themyscira with five-syllable names.  Unfortunately, the gods are still chasing her in this latest volume, and it makes it a bit boring for readers who aren't familiar with the hundreds of Greek gods and Amazons out there.  And -- are we really going to keep the helmet and sword left over from Flashpoint, too?  Diana's SO much better than that.

Wonder Woman #1 (1987)

I think my favorite "version" of Wonder Woman will always be George Perez', circa 1987.  In it, Diana comes to "Man's World" from Paradise Island/Themyscira unfamiliar with protocol, customs, behaviors, etc.  She was a fish out of water.  (No offense, Aquaman.)   It made for some interesting situations as she tried to assimilate into modern times.  It also wasn't all about warrior-like battles; there were empathy and emotional storylines.  Diana connected on a personal level with people. 

The best thing about this newest version of Wonder Woman?  The costume. Gone are the leotards that sparked such controversy a year ago.  Diana's back to wearing her short shorts.  She's also lost any yellow/gold colors to her look, giving her a sleek red, white/silver, and blue look.  Two enthusiastic bullet-deflecting bracelets up for the revised look!  

Will I keep reading Wonder Woman?  Yeah, probably.  If only for moral (mortal?) support.  I think sometimes I like the idea of her more than the stories that people write for her.  A part of me is hoping that one day someone will come along and do her justice...

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.