History of Wonder Woman - Part 3
Monday, November 26, 2007 at 01:39AM This continues Wonder Woman's history from Part 2.
This essay is part of my Wonder Woman Files covering Diana's full history.And now we continue ...
DIANA: POST-CRISIS
Following The Crisis on Infinite Earths, writer Greg Potter (Jemm, Son of Saturn) was hired to reboot Wonder Woman. He spent some time going over idea with editor Janice Rand and then, with writer/artist George Perez, a new series was launched. After just the second issue, Potter left and Perez became the chief engineer behind the new take on Diana and her background.
Perez was a huge fan of Greek mythology and wanted to cement Diana’s place in that atmosphere. He had it that the god of war was now always called by his Greek name Ares rather than Mars, as many previous comics had done. He also revealed “Paradise Island” was actually named Themyscira, which had been the name of the Amazons’ home in ancient legend. In the new mythos, Amazons referred to the rest of Earth not as “Man’s World” but as “Patriarch’s World.”
Another thing Perez did was make sure that the women of Themyscira were of different races and features rather than all looking Caucasian. Hyppolyta was redesigned to be a brunette who physically resembled Diana enough that you could finally believe they were mother and daughter.
Perez also went back to the origins of DC’s Amazon society. In his new version, the Amazons weren't just warrior women who'd lived during the times of Ancient Greece. The Greek goddesses had directly created the Amazon race, each of whom was the reborn spirit of a woman who had been killed unjustly by a man, women of many races and nationalities.
The whole deal of Heracles conquering them was still part of the mythos. Once again, Hyppolyta prayed to the goddesses for forgiveness in letting herself be tricked and was then visited by Athena. In this version, there was the added detail of Athena telling Hyppolyta that the major failing of the Amazons had been in retreating from humanity. She would free them not for the sake of revenge but so that they could redeem themselves. Certainly a good set-up for the theme of redemption rather than punishment that Wonder Woman would live by later on. And Athena’s warning of withdrawing and isolating from mankind would come up again in Perez’s last story-arc.
Now freed from their enslavement, the Amazons were free to journey to the island Themyscira, which the goddesses would make sure was hidden from humanity. But not all of the Amazons wished to retreat to a safe haven. Hyppolyta’s sister Antiope demanded vengeance for what had been done to her and her sisters. Renouncing the gods and swearing herself to the ways of war, Antiope gave Hyppolyta her own girdle, saying she wanted nothing from Olympus any longer, and bid her sister farewell. Antiope was followed by a small group of Amazons who agreed with her and they became the "lost tribe" of the Amazons.
Hyppolyta's followers left with her and founded a city on their new island home. To remember their enslavement and how much they owed Athena, they all wore bracelets. Hyppolyta was their queen and it was said that she was a lonely one. Something was missing from her life. The fact was, when she had died during her first life, she’d been pregnant. Now reborn, Hyppolyta found herself longing for the soul of that lost child.
After about thirty centuries, the Amazons were discovered by American pilot Diana Trevor, who crashed onto the island by mistake. She arrived just in time to see the Amazons fighting off Cotus, a demon who had injured many of their number. Diana Trevor didn’t know what was going on but figured on helping the women who were fighting the big, Hellish monster and brought out her sidearm. With this weapon that the demon had never encountered ever before (and which the Amazons would later call the “flashing thunder”), Diana Trevor was able to seriously wound the beast, forcing it back. But injuries she sustained during the battle turned out to be fatal and she died on Themyscira.
Diana Trevor’s selfless sacrifice was to be forever remembered by the Amazons. Seeing the American flag pattern and the eagle pin on her Air Force jacket, the Amazons thought this was her family coat of arms and adopted the decorations as their new warrior symbols (hence Diana's uniform years later).
Some years later, Hyppolyta finally asked the goddesses for a child. They instructed her to make one from clay and then they imbued it with the spirit that would’ve been Hyppolyta’s child long ago. This child was to be named Diana, in honor of the American woman who had died defending the Amazons. Princess Diana was given great beauty and a loving heart from Aphrodite. Athena gave her wisdom. Demeter gave her the “power and strength of the earth.” Hestia gave her a “sisterhood with fire.” Artemis gave her a connection to beasts (inspired by Lynda Carter’s portrayal where Diana been able to speak to animals) and a hunter’s instincts. Hermes gave her great speed and the power to fly (no more merely gliding on air currents for this girl).
Under the tutelage of her mother and “sisters”, Princess Diana learned how to fight, how to hunt, how to survive, and how to think. When she entered her twenties, the goddesses appeared before the Amazons, warning them that Ares had gone nuts and could destroy mankind soon. A champion needed to be chosen from the Amazons to defeat him and so a tournament would be held. This was a big difference from previous takes on the origin, where it was always Steve Trevor’s arrival that led to Wonder Woman leaving the island.
The queen ordered that all Amazons in the tournament be masked, so they wouldn’t hold back if they had to compete against friends. Diana took advantage of this and joined the tournament anyway against her mother's wishes. Later on, Diana explained that it was actually Athena who told her to enter the tournament anyway, that it was the will of the gods.
Diana won, naturally, after which she unmasked and had her normal bracelets replaced with special silver ones, displaying her status as a champion. The fact that she could exchange her bracelets was also a subtle way of showing that the Pre-Crisis rule that Amazons couldn’t remove the things without going insane was no longer applicable.
Diana’s final test was against the “flashing thunder”, the still-loaded gun that Diana Trevor had left behind. Acting on instinct, Diana deflected the bullets, proving that she was worthy without a doubt. She was then given the “warrior’s garb”
that had been inspired by the accoutrements of Diana Trevor and was ready to enter Patriarch’s World so she could find and defeat the god of war. To aid her, Hephaestus forged one of the two girdles of Gaea that Hyppolyta possessed into the lasso of truth.
This new origin, full of myth and fantasy and a sense of legacy, gave Diana’s background a much deeper feel to it. There was also a new element of loneliness, since stories would now emphasize that Diana had felt isolated growing up on an island that had no other children.
Eventually, Ares showed his hand. The god of war decided to become more powerful by forcing humanity to engage in a new world war. First, he'd take out the Amazons. Ares manipulated events so that an Air Force plane would fly over Themyscira and bomb it to Hell. Aboard the plane was a servant of Ares and pilot Steve Trevor, the son of Diana Trevor. Ares had arranged this out of a love of irony. The child of the woman who had once saved the Amazons would now be present at their destruction.
Things didn’t go exactly as planned and the Amazons weren’t killed. Diana found Steve and returned him safely to Patriarch’s World. After that, she went on her own path, learning what she could in preparation for Ares’ endgame. Arriving in Boston, she quickly met Professor Julia Kapatelis, who was fascinated by this costumed woman who only spoke a strange dialect of ancient Greek. Julia became a friend to Diana, teaching her English and about the world in general. Julia’s daughter Vanessa would, in time, look at Diana as a great big sister.
Notice the major difference between Perez’s take on Diana and the Pr-Crisis version. There was no invisible jet, no mention of a Purple Ray, no real science on Themyscira as far as we could see. Steve Trevor was no longer a romantic interest and was roughly fifteen to twenty years Diana’s senior. Etta Candy was reintroduced in the same story-arc as a woman of slightly heavier-than-average build who served as a Lieutenant in the U.S. Air Force rather than as a heavy set sorority girl. It was Etta, not Diana, who became the love of Steve Trevor.
Another big change was that Diana had no desire to establish a civilian identity. She was simply Princess Diana of Themyscira, a warrior who would also serve as an ambassador of sorts for her island home, hoping to impart its peace-loving and female empowering doctrines to the rest of the world.
After she began operating publicly, Diana met and employed Mindi Mayer as her PR agent. Mindi was concerned that Diana would be confused with Princess Diana of Wales and suggested that the Amazon use a pseudonym such as “Diana Prince.” Diana saw no reason to change her name and rejected the idea. Noticing that the eagle crest on Diana’s chest resembled two stylized letter “W”s, and thinking of how her armor was very similar to that of costumed super-heroes such as Batman and Superman, Mindi decided to dub her new client “Wonder Woman”, a name she immediately trademarked and which over the years would be used for such thing as the Wonder Woman Tour, the Wonder Woman Foundation, Wonder Woman Charities, etc.
As the stories went on, Perez kept it very clear that this was a Wonder Woman who was very clearly not raised by our
society. When Ares sent Deimos to fight her, she decapitated the monster without regret, saying “Though we Amazons are peaceful by nature, we are first and foremost warriors!” As time went on, Diana made sure to point out that she was much more compassionate towards human opponents since she was powerful enough to simply subdue most of them without the need to kill. She also believed in the power of redemption, which had always been a major part of her character’s history (especially during the Golden Age).
On a minor note, another change Perez made was to ditch Diana's heels for flat-soled boots, as they were more practical. This led to him making Diana a little taller than she had been before, since he didn't want her to have to look up when speaking to folks like the Batman and Superman.
After defeating Ares and making her debut to the public, Wonder Woman was embraced as a new super-hero who primarily operated in Boston. The entire world quickly learned who she was and what she was all about, thanks to Mindi Mayer’s press campaign. She also volunteered to show the U.S. military just what she and her weapons could do, but was highly offended when they wanted to take her lasso for study. It was then said that Wonder Woman spent some time on her own, largely out of the public eye. Exactly how long this time was wasn’t stated, though Perez implied it was only a few weeks or a month. Diana’s first meeting with other heroes was said to happen during the Legends crossover story (the first Post-Crisis crossover). Sometime afterwards, she joined up with one of the newly re-formed Justice League.
DATING AND VILLAINY
Over in Superman’s comics, artist/writer John Byrne was in charge and decided to reveal that Clark had a strong attraction to this new “Wonder Woman” he’d met. When the two met again, it was for a date of sorts. Superman immediately kissed Diana, who felt rather awkward about the whole thing and wasn’t sure how to react (having never been on a date with a man before). The two then got involved in a battle with Darkseid and at the end of it, Superman decided it 
was best they stay just friends. The battle had displayed how much Wonder Woman had been raised in a world of gods and magic and found them acceptable parts of every-day life. Superman just believed he couldn’t relate to that, as he had been raised in Kansas and still primarily saw himself as a human being.
Not a bad idea or a bad story development, but the fact that Byrne had this whole thing happen in just one issue made it as if the whole attraction to Diana had been a passing thought and nothing more. Not very dramatic or emotional at all. Diana, as portrayed by Byrne, seemed pretty nonchalant about the whole thing and was ready to forget her kiss with Superman had ever happened. Over the years, different writers would imply that Diana and Clark were still attracted to each other in several ways, but simply never broached the topic because they knew they were too different in philosophies and in the atmospheres they operated in.
Perez continued writing Wonder Woman for a few years, establishing Diana and her fellow Amazons as strong and multi-faceted characters. He also showed the said naivete that Diana occasionally had to have shattered as she was more and more exposed to the dark sides of life. One major story involved the seeming murder of her publicist Mindi Mayer, who'd been shot in the head. The investigation showed that Mayer was not the upright, fun-loving woman she seemed to be. Among her problems was an addiction to cocaine and Diana was horrified to learn that she had actually died of an overdose minutes before she'd been shot. It was heart-breaking for her to learn that people felt so lost in Patriarch's World that they would lose themselves to things like drugs.
But it wasn't all social commentary. Wonder Woman's a super-hero, of course, and needs villains. Pre-Crisis, the witch Circe had fought Diana a few times, no more. Perez made it clear she was now to be one of Diana's arch-foes. Dr. Psycho returned as the sadistic telepathic dwarf who had an obsessive hatred of women. A new Silver Swan was introduced in Valerie Beaudry, a girl who was horribly deformed due to her mother being exposed to radiation while she was still in the womb. Valerie later joined a genetic engineering project that transformed her into the Silver Swan and fought Wonder Woman on behalf of Armbruster International. Eventually, Valerie did a stint with the government task force the Suicide Squad and then finally retired.
The Post-Crisis version of the Cheetah was Dr. Barbara Ann Minerva, an archeologist who would engage in a blood ritual to become an avatar of an ancient cheetah god, allowing her to actually transform into a cheetah-like humanoid (no one could call her just a Catwoman pretender anymore). The host for the cheetah spirit was meant to be a virgin though and since Minerva didn’t fit the bil she was forced to sufferconstant pain when she was human and incredible blood-lust when she was in cheetah form. She initially came after Wonder Woman because she wanted Diana’s lasso. After enough defeats, Minerva became less interested in the magic of the lasso and more interested in finally besting and killing Diana.
Stories went on about Wonder Woman finding comrades in other super-heroes, learning the ways of common people, and trying to make sure she could be an example of how much women could achieve and why it was foolish that parts of the world still treated them as second-class citizens or worse. Diana also found a group of warriors who were the descendants of Antiope’s original lost tribe. Since this group had not gone to Themyscira, they were not given the gift of agelessness and had still been forced to mate with men to continue their numbers. They had migrated from Greece centuries ago and had assimilated women of different regions and beliefs, before settling in Egypt and founding the isolated city of Bana-Mighdall, which in their language meant “Temple of Women.”
As they had integrated Egyptian deities into their belief systems, the Egyptian goddesses responded in kind by protecting the city and the tribe of Bana-Mighdall from outsiders. Any enemies who tried to approach the city would be swept away by a sandstorm. The only times the tribe interacted with the outside world was for supplies and to find men for breeding purposes. Some of the tribe of Bana-Mighdall would also venture into the outside world to act as hired assassins.
Diana found the Bana-Mighdall Amazons to be very hostile towards her and she wound up having to fight the Shim’Tar, a title that was given to the warrior chief of the tribe. This Shim’Tar disappeared but later this tribe of Amazons would show up again and become much more ingrained in Wonder Woman's life.
Circe came back to threaten all of Earth in the DC crossover War of the Gods, which is, to date, the only Wonder Woman centric multi-title crossover that has happened ever. Done by Perez, War of the Gods dealt with the fact that there were indeed various separate pantheons of gods and confirmed that the Roman gods and Greek gods were actually separate entities and not merely the same beings known by different names. Circe manipulated the different pantheons into waging war on each other, hoping Earth would be wrecked in the process. Naturally, the super-heroes (especially Wonder Woman and Captain Marvel who both owe their powers to gods) got involved. At one point, Diana was seemingly killed, devolved into clay by Circe, but she was resurrected and achieved victory in the end (not the first time she'd be resurrected either).
This was, sadly, Perez’s last story-arc. There were editorial problems, which made this story difficult for him to write. He was disappointed with the fact that DC hadn’t advertised the story as a celebration of Diana’s anniversary. And what’s more, he was upset that not only was DC passing the Wonder Woman title over to writer Willaim Messner-Loebs but that Messner-Loebs was assigned to write the final wedding scene for Etta Candy and Steve Trevor, an event Perez had enjoyed building up to for quite some time. After War of the Gods, Perez left DC for several years.
During his final storyarc, Perez had Themyscira open its borders to Patriarch’s World, inviting outsiders to come and learn from them. Perez believed it was an essential development that the Amazons realized the need to integrate with the rest of the planet, since staying isolated would only keep them from evolving and growing in wisdom.
Under Perez’s direction, Wonder Woman had become an intelligent and intricate (if underated) title that kicked quite a lot of ass. Unfortunately, many later writers didn’t seem to know how to keep that steam running.
SEX AND VIOLENCE
William Messner-Loebs took over the Wonder Woman title. For the past few years, Perez had made the title a place heavily steeped in Greek mythology and magic. Messner-Loebs decided it was time to get Diana seeming less like a mythical warrior and more like a super-hero, which met with criticism from those who felt that this diminished her uniqueness.
Another thing that was criticized was the artwork. Mike Deodato jumped into the title as the new penciler. Deodato could
do dynamic fight scenes and had a very clean, clear technique. He was a clear example of the art style that was very popular among many comic fans in the early 90s. The problem was, his art seemed at times antithetical to the idea of Wonder Woman as a symbol of feminist power. Deodato tended to draw all the women in the book in very sexualized poses and often times in very revealing outfits. Breasts, legs, exposed thighs and backsides were emphasized as much as possible. Where once the Amazons had been of different races, they were now all Caucasian (including those who had previously been depicted as other nationalities, such as Asian).
These sexualized poses and pin-up-esque panels made it difficult at times to take Messner-Loebs’s scripts seriously. Brian Bolland, a great artist, did a lot of the cover art, but even these often depicted Diana in sexual poses. This wasn’t Bolland’s decision. DC had decided sexing up Wonder Woman on the covers would help improve sales.
Messner-Loebs started his run with stories that focused on Wonder Woman’s career on the street, pitting her against mobsters and in traditional super-villain battles. Messner-Loebs also tried to emphasize Diana as part of the larger DCU. She met the super-human assassin Deathstroke in an adventure overseas, during which time she had the god Proteus help her set up a cover identity as “Diana Prince” (though she had no intention of really using the disguise again afterwards). The story featured a fun scene where Diana got to kick Deathstroke’s ass and then shove him into the trunk of a car. Even Batman never got to take Deathstroke down with that much style.
Now, remember that short run years before when Diana became an astronaut? Apparently Messner-Loebs did. In a story where Diana met a seeming hero called the White Magician, our heroine went off into space to save the life of Tasha, a female astronaut (and possibly a reference to Tasha Yar of Star Trek: TNG?). But it was a trap. Once Wonder Woman and Tasha were aboard the experimental Russian spacecraft the astronaut had been piloting, the White Magician set off explosives that rocketed it into deep space. After drifting for two weeks, Diana and Tasha were found by alien slavers who took them back to the all-female prison world.
This story wasn’t exactly popular with folks who wanted to see Diana as a symbol of female empowerment, especially when the cover had her depicted half-naked, in a sexual pose, seemingly helpless and weeping, with the words “Wonder Woman In Chains!” displayed above her. There was even a dog-bowl style water dish in front of her. I don’t care what the context of the story was, guys, that is messed up!
After a few months (?!), Diana broke free and forced the emperor who ran the planet to realize slavery was a bad thing. She returned to Earth, only to find out three things had happened during his months-long absence: 1, Themyscira was missing (and all the Amazons along with it); 2, the White Magician had apparently replaced Wonder Woman as the “Hero of Boston”; 3, Superman had apparently died just the day before, during a fearsome battle with the monster called Doomsday.
Wonder Woman was disturbed that she had not been around to help Superman in the battle that led to his death. At the Man of Steel's funeral days later, Diana was one of the heroes who actually closed the coffin lid. Afterwards, she joined several other super-heroes on Christmas Eve as they did their best to answer the many letters that people around the world had sent to Superman that year, asking for help or hope. Naturally, she was overjoyed when Superman returned months later.
Following Doomsday’s attack, the Justice League had now lost a couple of members. Wonder Woman agreed to join the team as their new field leader. Months later, after the events of DC’s crossover Zero Hour (see DC Events), she reformed the team entirely. After recruiting Wally West (the third hero called Flash), Diana expressed that, in her mind, the team was not merely a strike-force but also a necessary club where super-humans could be around those they related to best (other super-humans) and not feel so isolated.
Diana joined up with the sorcerer Doctor Fate and the two of them found out that Circe had apparently destroyed Themyscira and seemed to have died in the process herself. Rather than question if perhaps this was a trick or there was more to meets the eye since it was, you know, magic and since Circe is known for, you know, deception, Diana accepted
this and decided she was now alone in the world. Deciding she had to move on, Diana figured she needed to connect more to the experiences of the average person. So she took a job at the fast food joint called Taco Whiz (becuase, you know, that is the most obvious choice).
Around this time, Diana met Micah Rains, a well-meaning if sometimes bumbling private detective. Wonder Woman found herself helping Micah on a few cases in-between her shifts at Taco Whiz. Diana was also busy dealing with the shocking revelation that Etta Candy was starving herself so she would be thinner for her wedding day with Steve Trevor.
Diana then met a new friend, attorney Donna Milton, who worked for high-tech arms dealer Ari Buchanan. Donna Milton gained Diana’s trust only to then reveal that her employer was actually Ares, back to screw with Earth and make the White Magician one of his lieutenants. Ares gave the White Magician demonic powers (which he used to create a few super-villains) and Diana learned that Donna Milton was actually pregnant with the war god's child. But when the chips were down, Donna refused to let Ares torture Diana, recognizing that she was a true hero.
Angered by this betrayal and his attorney's sudden morality, the god of war shot her dead, not caring that she was carrying his offspring. Although the war god was defeated in the end, Diana mourned her misguided friend.
Finally,Wonder Woman discovered that Paradise Island wasn’t destroyed but had been sent into another dimension. There, the Themysciran Amazons and the Bana-Mighdall tribe had fought alongside each other to hold off the many demons who sought to destroy them. Although only a few months had passed for Diana and the rest of Earth, years had passed from the Amazons' perspective.
Diana fought Circe (who naturally wasn’t dead) and defeated her, though it took the sacrifice of a young girl named Cynthia to bring the island back home to our dimension. Now back on Earth, the Bana-Mighdallians set up permanent residence on Themyscira, picking the harshest area of the island to make sure they didn’t lose any of their edge.
ARTEMIS, THE OTHER WONDER WOMAN
Inspired by the story published decades before in which Diana was replaced with a red-headed warrior named Orana, Messner-Loebs introduced a new red-headed Amazon named Artemis (a joke on the fact that Artemis was the Greek name for the goddess of the hunt whom the Romans knew as Diana). Artemis was a Bana-Mighdall warrior who was sick of feeling like the Themyscirans saw her as a second-class citizen. As one of the Bana-Mighdall, she was already a hardened warrior and spending her late teens and early twenties trapped in a dimension full of demons had only increased this. But despite her aggressive and confrontational nature, Diana could see that Artemis had a noble heart.
And then Diana received a shock. Hyppolyta told her that she was dissatisfied with Diana’s progress in Patriarch’s World. She’d been operating for years now and women were still second to men in many places. War was still the rule rather than the exception. Perhaps a new Wonder Woman was needed.
A new contest was held. And this time, the Bana-Migdhallians were also invited to join. During this story of Diana trying 
once again to prove herself, Messner-Loebs started retconning Wonder Woman’s origin. DC had just had a story called Zero Hour (see DC Events) in which the timestream had been messed with and then rebuilt, so he figured he now had leeway to put his own spin on how Diana’s beginnings should be. Through flashbacks, Messner-Loebs showed that Hypollyta’s syster Antiope (who had previously been depicted as a blonde) was actually a dead-ringer for Diana. He also did a couple of retcons that were completely ignored by all later writers.
During the last contest, a race, Artemis and Diana were neck and neck but then Diana stumbled and Artemis pulled out ahead, winning and becoming the new Wonder Woman. To help her be as formidable as Diana had been in Patriarch’s World, Artemis was given the Gauntlet of Atlas that increased her strength ten fold and the sandals of Hermes which enabled flight. Nice to know the Amazons have such easy access to this stuff, eh? Artemis was given Diana’s armor and lasso as well, signs that she was now officially the Wonder Woman.
Artemis then went out into the world and expected to be greeted warmly as the new champion of the Amazons. To her annoyance though, the general public neither understood nor cared about how “official” the contest of the Amazons had been in giving this title to Artemis. All they saw was that the hero they knew and trusted had been replaced by a red-headed pretender too arrogant and violent for their tastes. Artemis went up to the JLA’s base and stated that since Diana had been leader, that meant that she, as the new Wonder Woman, was now the team's de facto leader. She was shocked to see the JLA members completely ignore this claim and it was later stated that Batman, despite not being a member of the team at the time, paid Artemis a visit solely to tell her not to even think about sitting in Diana’s chair at the meeting table.
Diana didn’t just stay on Themyscira while Artemis was trying to play hero. She might not have been the Wonder Woman anymore, but she had spent too many years fighting evil to simply step out of the fight now. Adopting a new black leather outfit that only hinted at who she had once been, Diana went back to fighting crime in Patriarch’s World, focusing more on street gangs and the like while working as Micah Rains’ new partner. During the next few issues, she faced off against the Joker, the assassin Chesire, the plant villain Poison Ivy, and her old foe the Cheetah.
Diana fought crime with a harsher attitude now, partly because she was acting out on resentment for having been replaced and partially because she said that she now no longer saw herself bound by “Wonder Woman’s” code of honor. This last statement bothered many fans, who felt that Diana wouldn’t give in to anger so easily and that this was just DC trying to become “edgier” since many of the independent comics they were now competing with in the 90’s tended to feature darker, more violent anti-heroes.
Realizing she needed to be liked by the public in order to get their respect, Artemis agreed to be helped by a PR company. She soon found herself in battles where she wound up defending immigrant workers and battered women, not realizing until later that these fights had been staged by her publicist. Enraged and convinced that she had to prove herself, Artemis stormed off to single-handedly bring down Boston’s biggest crime families. But she hadn’t counted on super-villain enforcers and she wound up having to fight the White Magician, who’d been employed by the mob.
Meanwhile, Diana finally went back to Themyscira to confront her mother about just why the Queen had felt a new contest
necessary in the first place. It turned out that Hyppolyta had experienced a prophetic vision showing her that Wonder Woman was fated to die soon. She’d set up the contest hoping that someone else would be chosen to fulfill the role of Wonder Woman and could die in Diana’s stead. The Queen said she’d only sought to protect her daughter, but Diana saw her behavior as weak and manipulative. Diana then returned to Patriarch’s World just in time to see Artemis die at the hands of the White Magician. This story marked the 100th issue of Wonder Woman and was the last one where Messner-Loebs worked as a regular writer.
And before we leave this section, I want to point out something. The dialog during Messner-Loebs’s run was consistent with Diana’s attitude. She seemed cool, cunning and self-assured. But despite this, we can’t ignore some basic facts. During his run, Messner-Loebs had a story involving Diana being half-naked and in chains on a prison world of all female slaves, had Etta Candy develop an eating disorder, and introduced characters such as Cynthia and Artemis for the express purpose of killing them off later, treating them not as character but as plot devices. Donna Milton was introduced to be sympathetic only to then turn out to be a traitor and her death only gave us the shock value of watching Ares shoot a pregnant woman.
The fact that Artemis came back from the dead later doesn’t change the fact that her career run as the new Wonder Woman was just so she could die. With all that, it seems no mystery then that Messner-Loebs's era seemed rather lackluster. He’s not a horrible writer, it’s just that none of the stories during his run really seemed to stand out nor did Diana. Which is a shame, because she’s the hero of the series.
HERE COMES BYRNE!
John Byrne was asked to step into the ring and take on both writing and artistic chores for Wonder Woman. Byrne was well known for his run on Superman when he’d brought the character “back to basics” in his mind, doing away with all he thought had been too silly and modernizing other aspects.
Although she was now Wonder Woman again, Diana didn’t rejoin the Justice League, preferring to continue operating alone. As soon as she got to Gateway City, Diana came across technology that had originated from the planet Apokolips, that same awful world ruled by the demonic Darkseid (John Byrne loves him those New God characters). Joined by new friend police detective Mike Schorr, Diana found out that Darkseid now had his sights set on Themyscira, thinking that hidden on the island was the means by which he could transport to the realm of the Greek gods. Diana got there after an Apokoliptian invasion force had come down on Paradise Island. Hypollyta was gone, having left before the attack, and so it was up to Diana to rally her sisters to fight off Darkseid’s parademon troopers. The battle raged on and in the end Darkseid left, satisfied he’d done enough damage: twelve hundred Amazons had died and five hundred had been injured. Diana was so distraught about this, she fainted. Mike caught her and she wept openly into his arms.
That’s right. She’d just met the guy a day earlier and was already weeping in his arms. This was when I started getting 
nervous about Byrne’s writing (that and the overly-expository dialog that was peppered everywhere). I mean, let’s look at this. Themyscira is supposed to be this island of powerful women, people who are supposed to be a model for women and people around the world. And John Byrne kills off half of them in one fell swoop just so we can go “ooh, look at evil Darkseid and his bodycout” and then has Diana openly weep in the arms of a stranger when it would’ve been more natural for her to do so with one of her many sisters, friends or teachers who were all standing around her.
Byrne’s version of Diana also seemed quicker to anger and much more aggressive than she’d been for the past several years (maybe she was channeling a bit of Artemis?) and her dialog seemed more like it had been when she’d first come to Patriarch’s World, speaking almost like a Shakespearean character rather than the way she’d spoken for the past few years, as a person who’d now walked among humanity for some time now and had picked up on their language styles and idioms.
With her mother gone, Diana was offered the crown but rejected it, saying her place was as a warrior in the outside world. She returned to Gateway City and got a job at the local museum. The curator of the museum was Helena Sandsmark and she became a fast friend to Diana, as did her young adolescent daughter Cassie. Cassie was the typical “well-meaning youngster who gets into trouble” character, which she proved when she did things like accidentally bringing a golem to life.
Messner-Loebs did a mini-series called ARTEMIS: Requiem with Mike Deodato doing the art chores. In the mini-series, we found out that Artemis’s spirit had wound up in the prison dimension of Tartarus (why? Who knows?!) and she’d
become the ruling princess of that Hell, taking the title of Dalkriig-Hath. She later escaped from the after life and joined a group of demon-hunters called the Hellenders. She was given the codename Javelin but immediately rejected it, preferring to call herself “Requiem.” She adjusted to being alive again and took on a mentor relationship with her teammate Sojourner.
In the main Wonder Woman title, Diana encountered Artemis again (though Byrne only referred to her as Artemis, either not caring about or not knowing about her “Requiem” codename). A new hero called Champion showed up in Gateway City, but he turned out to be Heracles in disguise. And he wasn't the only new game in town. Seeing Diana and Champion in battle together, Cassie Sandsmark decided to join in on the action. She stole the Sandals of Hermes and Gauntlets of Atlas which Artemis had once used (and which Diana had kept), giving her strength and flight. To disguise herself, she put on a dark wig to hide her short blonde hair and large goggles that made the pretty young girl appear quite odd and nerdy. With a Wonder Woman t-shirt and a jean vest, she then flew into the air as the new Wonder Girl.
Recognizing 
Cassie’s spirit, Diana offered to train the young girl to be a true hero but her mother Helena was against it. Cassie was determined though that she would be the new Wonder Girl, no matter what her mom said.
Due to several factors, the Justice League (and its spin-off groups) had disbanded. For a few months, there was no League. But when the cosmic powered Know-Man manipulated the human race to his own designs and made all of Earth’s heroes amnesiac, something had to be done to stop him. Regaining their memories, Superman and the Batman went off to gather the heroes they trusted the most and together this team became the new JLA. Wonder Woman was recruited as one of the founders for the reborn team, alongside Superman, Batman, Aquaman, Martian Manhunter, the third Flash (Wally West) and the latest Green Lantern (Kyle Rayner). By being on a team with A-Listers, Diana once again had a spotlight as one of the icons of the DCU. With the Leaguers, she fought White Martians, renegade angels, the new Injustice Gang and others. Many fans felt that JLA writer Grant Morrison actually did a better job of portraying her as a formidable and inspirational hero than John Byrne was doing in the actual title where she was the main star.
In her own comic, Wonder Woman met the people of Lansinar, an ancient city that had been hidden beneath the ice of Antarctica ever since about the time of Atlantis. After she helped out the Lansinarians, these beast-people thanked Diana by giving her a “morphing disc” – a translucent object that responded to the user’s mental desires to become whatever object or vehicle they desired. This was Byrne’s way of bringing back the invisible jet, but making it a mite cooler. Diana could make herself a translucent plane capable of carrying multiple passengers, fly at several times the speed of sound in a craft that was invisible to radar and then when she landed she could have the craft turn back into a disc and fit into her pocket. This was, all in all, a very cool new take on the invisible jet, though the Lansinarians were never seen again.
Hyppolyta eventually showed up again, wandering the streets of Gateway as a homeless woman called “Polly.” But she and Diana found themselves, and the Themysciran Amazons, all turning into stone. Apparently, this was a side-effect of
the Greek gods fully leaving Earth’s dimension, causing the Amazons to revert to their true natures. This story, of course, doesn't make sense since only Diana was actually created out of clay. Anyway, the Greek gods decided to come back in the end and the Amazons were restored. And Zeus, on meeting Cassie, was so impressed with the girl that he gave her natural super-powers of super-strength, resistance to injury and flight.
And then Byrne decided that he didn’t want a comic book about Wonder Woman so much as a comic book that starred 
everyone but Wonder Woman. First, he had Diana and Artemis fight a battle with the demon lord Neron in which Wonder Woman suffered fatal injuries. She was brought back to Earth’s dimension and despite everyone’s best efforts, she died. But then it was revealed that the Greek gods had saved her soul and allowed Diana to join them on Olympus as the goddess of truth.
Meanwhile, Hypollyta was now the new Wonder Woman, as penance for sins such as letting Artemis die in her daughter’s place and the like. Byrne had Polly dress in a costume that harkened back to the original Wonder Woman look of the Golden Age.
And rather than have Diana explore her new role as a goddess, Byrne merely used her as a voice-box through which we readers learned secrets of the Greek and Roman gods that no one had actually wondered about in the first place. In Diana’s brief story scenes, she found out that long, long ago, Darkseid had come to Earth and had started having Roman worshippers refer to the Greek gods by new, different names. Since the Greek gods have power that stems from belief, this caused them all to split into two beings, thus dividing their power into halves. There were now the Greek gods and their new counterparts, the Roman gods. Not a bad idea, but it seemed like it deserved its own comic or mini-series rather than being shoved into Wonder Woman’s title. I mean, ultimately, what does Diana care where the Roman gods came from? Rather than being treated as a character, she’d become little more than a narrator and audience member in her own title.
The story was fun, especially for the nod to the Golden Age arch-enemy, but also had some weak points. The paradoxes of time travel were not handled with much creativity and considering they were finally in an environment where Polly’s violent and extreme behavior would’ve been more acceptable (fighting Nazis during a time of war), it seemed like she wasn’t used to her full potential.
By restoring a Golden Age Wonder Woman to continuity, Byrne thus also helped make the character of Donna Troy make
more sense. For years since The Crisis, fans had to deal with the paradox that the original Wonder Girl had been in operation as a hero years before Diana had come to Patriarch’s World. Even if you wanted to say the name was a coincidence, the fact was that Donna Troy’s early costumes had involved a lasso, bracelets and a similar style/color motif. Now, thanks to Byrne, we were able to say that Donna Troy had actually been inspired by stories of Polly, the Golden Age Wonder Woman. What’s more, it was said that when Diana first came to Patriarch’s World, she had been dubbed Wonder Woman by the press due to her similar appearance to a Golden Age hero of that name, a woman that Diana had not been able to find much info on because she’d been very secretive (and I guess because the JSA didn’t feel like explaining the whole time travel thing to her).
Polly and the Flash, along with help from Diana using her goddess powers, were able to resurrect Donna, who was now once again referred to as Diana's "sister" and who returned to her using the codename of Troia (which she'd used for a few years during the 1980's). As punishment for interfering with mortals and for helping to resurrect Donna Troy, Diana was tossed out of Olympus and made a mortal woman once more. Oh yeah, big punishment! You go from being a goddess who didn’t really do anything to being a living, breathing super-hero again, once more able to hang out with you friends and family. Wow, them Greek gods are tough.
So Diana was Wonder Woman again (with Polly only occasionally taking up her own version of the costume now and then to help out old JSA teammates or her daughter now and then) and Byrne left with issue #136. Although I had problems with the run overall, I have to be fair and point out that Byrne did give us a lot of cool stuff too. Cassie Sandsmark was the new Wonder Girl and smashed stereotypes by disguising her good looks and nerding out rather than showing off how pretty she was or how cute her bare tummy was like many other teen girl heroes. We got the invisible plane back in a new, very cool way. And Hyppolyta became a much more interesting character than just "Wonder Woman’s mom."
ROTATINGS WRITERS … AGAIN!
After Byrne, writer Christopher Priest did two issues and then Eric Luke did a run that lasted twenty issues. Under Luke’s direction, Diana questioned her place in the world and her own existence. She made an enemy of the ancient god Chronus, who created a daughter, a villainous child called Devastation made to be an evil reflection of Diana. Eric Luke also had Diana separate herself a bit from the mortal world by having her morph-disc expand and transform into a large floating palace/base of operations that came to be called the Wonder Dome. This occurred in a story that guest-starred Batman and Superman and it was revealed that Diana sometimes fantasized about a life with Clark at her side. Eric Luke did a very good job of showing Batman and Diana display a friendship and respect that had not been seen between the two since Pre-Crisis days and it influenced other writers to quickly follow suit.
Luke emphasized that Wonder Woman, Batman and Superman were a trio who shared a special bond (which also hadn’t really been seen since the Pre-Crisis days) and thus he called the story “Trinity.” Since then, it has become standard with fans and DC writers to refer to the big three of Wonder Woman, Superman and Batman as the DC Trinity. Matt Wagner even used the word as the title of his mini-series that depicted Diana’s first meeting with Batman and Superman. Wagner's story seemed to go against Post-Crisis continuity, mainly because he didn't feel he should sacrifice the story to it. In the story, Diana was shown as showing up around the same time that Batman recruited his first partner Dick Grayson AKA Robin and thus was around before most other major super-heroes. A couple of years later, after the events of Infinite Crisis (see DC Events), DC continuity altered enough to allow this story to definitely become canon.
Cassie Sandsmark had been operating as Wonder Girl for a while now, both in the Wonder Woman title and as a member of the team Young Justice. But in Eric Luke’s run, things changed for her. First, Diana appointed Artemis as Cassie’s mentor. Later, when an emergency broke out, Artemis told Cassie to forget the damn disguise and just get to helping people. Cassie agreed and went into action, resulting in her undisguised face being captured by news cameras. No longer able to hide her identity, Cassie could now let her natural attractive appearance show and she began wearing more form-fitting outfits as well.
When John Byrne saw how attractive Cassie now appeared in her latest super-hero costume and claimed that this went
completely against his intention when he created the character. Despite this criticism, fans of Wonder Woman and Young Justice found that Cassie was slowly growing into a well-rounded and interesting character (thanks in no small part to Young Justice writer Peter David who portrayed her as the backbone of the team with strong leadership skills, often reminding her teenage friends about the real issues at stake whenever they started bickering with each other). Cassie also began developing a crush on the young hero Superboy (an attempt to clone Superman) at this time. Eventually, she became the official leader of Young Justice.
When Eric Luke left, Phil Jimenez took over writing and art and immediately became compared to Perez due to their similar art styles. Jimenez displayed Diana’s talents outside of being a super-hero. He showed Diana appearing at diplomatic functions, representing Themyscira in ceremonial robes. She showed her conducting experiments in the JLA labs, displaying a keen interest in science. He also showed her as a traveling figure who didn’t limit her mission to America. It was shown that in France, Diana held classes where she taught prostitutes martial arts and self-defense techniques. She knew she would not be able to convince many of them to leave their life-style, but at least this way they would not be victims either. Diana was also seen as a self-sufficient businesswoman of sorts, helping to run the Wonder Woman Foundation which spanned the globe through various charities. And Jimenez showed what a rallying symbol Diana was to other women when a story-arc featured our hero gathering together nearly every female super-hero on Earth into a huge army.
Jimenez also introduced a new love interest, Trevor Barnes, a world-travelling United Nations employee who did his best to make the world a better place for people. For some folks, this was quite controversial. Not becuase Trevor Barnes was black, but because when he was introduced, Diana made it clear that he had met him off-panel some time before and was already crushing on him. Some readers felt this was a cheat and that they should have seen what qualities it was about this person that he could have enticed such interest from Wonder Woman.
During Jimenez's run, the aristocracy of Themyscira removed when Diana gave up her crown and Artemis and Phillipus were appointed leaders of Themyscira. This meant that Diana no longer wore a tiara, which was a symbol of her royalty, but later she adopted it again out of tradition.
Jimenez had been a big fan of the Wonder Woman TV series with Lynda Carter and incorporated some of those elements into the comic. A few times, we saw Wonder Woman spin and change into her costume in a magical flash of light and energy. She also showed that she had various outfits for different occasions and missions (including Carter's motorcycle jumpsuit). Jimenez also brought Donna back as a supporting cast member and she and Diana got an apartment together.
In a story-arc involving a team-up between some of the nastier Greek deities and some of the inmates of Arkham, Jimenez 
pointed out that the Batman and Wonder Woman families were actually closer than most people realized. Donna Troy and Dick Grayson had been friends and teammates for years in the original Teen Titans, Tim Drake (the current Robin) and Cassie were teammates in the team Young Justice, and Batman and Wonder Woman both liked and respected each other far more than they let other people realize.
During the crossover Our Worlds At War, Hyppolyta went into battle for the last time and was killed while fighting off the forces of the alien menace called Imperiex. Jimenez explored how Diana was devastated by the loss, though she was later able to communicate with her mother’s spirit and was allowed a proper goodbye. During Our Worlds At War, Themyscira was nearly destroyed. With the combined designs of Julia Kapatelis, Martian Manhunter, Steve Trevor and others, a new version of Themyscira was built with alien tech, blessed by the Greek goddess worshipped by the Themyscirans and the Egyptian goddesses worshipped by the Bana-Mighdallans. Diana sacrificed her Wonder Dome, letting the morphing disc create structures on the island and thus a new floating version of Themyscira was born. The cluster of small islands was now located in the Bermuda Triangle (possibly because Jimenez remembered that the Lynda Carter TV series implied that that was where Paradise Island was). A few months later, a conflict with Hera meant that the island floated no longer but rested stable in the waters.
Jimenez also brought back Diana’s young friend Vanessa “Nessie” Kapetelis, who was resentful that Diana had seemingly forgotten about her ever since leaving Boston. Vanessa had suffered trauma before (her father had died and a friend had committed suicide), but this seeming abandonment by Diana, whom she had admired despite the fact that it had made her a target for menaces like Dr. Psycho, was made even worse when she saw on the news that some other young girl Diana had met later had become the new Wonder Girl. Hadn’t she known Diana first? Why hadn’t she been given such a gift?
Using her confused emotional state, Circe and Dr. Psycho had Vanessa transformed into the new Silver Swan, with mental conditioning and cybernetic implants. She was given a girdle, chest plate and bracelets to emphasize that she was Wonder Woman’s counterpoint. Diana was horrified by what had happened to her friend and after being forced to defeat her in battle, she took Nessie to a hospital in Buenos Aires to heal and for the doctors to see what could be done to restore her.
Jimenez also did a time travel story in which Wonder Woman went back in time, masqueraded as the Golden Age hero Miss America, and fought alongside her mother. A nice idea, but the execution was a bit forgettable sadly.
RELATIONS WITH OTHER HEROES
In the JLA story “The Obsidian Age”, it looked like the team was about to die. Just before the end seemed near, Batman grabbed Diana and the two shared a kiss. Afterwards, Batman was very uncomfortable and attempted to avoid conversation with Diana. Finally, the two confronted each other and even looked at several “imaginary future” that showed possible outcomes if they pursued a romantic relationship. In the end, Diana decided it would be best if they stayed as friends and comrades. Despite this, a new bond had been forged between the two. When Donna Troy was apparently killed in the line of battle, Diana remained stoic and strong in front of everyone, including Superman. It was only when she was left alone with Batman that she finally let her emotions show, weeping in his arms at the loss of her friend and sister.
Although the romantic feelings between Batman and Wonder Woman has not been spoken of much at all in the comics, it became an ongoing joke in the Justice League Unlimited cartoon series. In that cartoon, Diana recognized she had feelings for Batman and made several casual advances towards him, growing annoyed when he said that a relationship between them was a bad idea. It was treated as very humorous and cute and a lot of fans of the cartoon enjoyed it.
For years, Superman had thought he was the last of the House of El. But then he found out his cousin Kara Zor-El had also survived the destruction of Krypton. Clark took her in, but Batman came to believe that the young Kryptonian needed a firmer hand to train her how to use and control her powers, as well as the company of females rather than an over-bearing male cousin. Batman contacted Diana and she took Kara to Themyscira where she, Artemis and other Amazons trained the young Kryptonian for weeks, helping her get ready for her upcoming career as the new super-hero to be called Supergirl. Because of this, Kara Zor-El looks at Diana as a trusted aunt of sorts and is more likely to look to her for advice than her cousin Clark. Thus, Diana now had close ties to three powerful female heroes: Donna Troy, Cassie Sandsmark and Kara Zor-El. Like Superman, she was an icon and an inspiration in her own right.
Back to the main Wonder Woman title. Jimenez had initially shown that Trevor Barnes was not interested in a romantic relationship with Diana, believing she was detached from humanity and not someone he could relate to. But after seeing Wonder Woman say good-bye to her mother, after seeing that vulnerability, Trevor changed his mind. He had Diana meet his family and the two spent a holiday together on Themyscira. For the first time in Post-Crisis continuity (almost two decades), Wonder Woman was actually dating. And Perez implied that this was a sexual relationship as well, which again caused controversy for some fans who felt that for one reason or another they preferred Diana to remain a virgin. In fact, when news leaked to Wizard Magazine that Diana would soon have a physical relationship with Trevor Barnes, message boards started lighting up with discussions.
"I'm not sure how Wizard got the information, though I may well have been chatting with them and its very possible that I mentioned it, although later in an interview I did say that it was only a plan," explained Jimenez. "I told them as I was discussing the next year's plans although I didn't think it wasn't going be such a big deal. I don't know why, but I just didn't think it would be such a big deal."
Jimenez had been criticized before by certain readers who were wary of an openy gay man writing a book about an empowered female super-hero. This new element of sexuality brought some folks new fuel for some to say that the character was being ruined.
In response to these concerns, Jimenez said, "The character is almost 30 years old and if she is supposed to exemplify a certain type of woman or idea, I certainly think that empowering her when it comes to sexual choices is important. If it's still allowed to happen and all goes well, it will happen in the summer and I think that it'll be less of an event than people think it'll be ... If it polarizes people, I hope it polarizes them in regards to the quality of the story rather than 'event' itself."
When Jimenez left not too long afterwards, Walt Simonson wrote a short story-arc in which Diana lost her powers and adopted an all-white costume (sound familiar?). After that six-issue story, Greg Rucka was scheduled to step in. Simonson had spoken with Rucka, who'd stated that he did not intend to use the character of Trevor Barnes. To make it easier for Rucka to explain Barne's absence from the title, Simonson had the character sacrifice himself to save Diana. Some fans were shocked by this, feeling that the death was random and without any real purpose except that Rucka hadn't cared much for him. Some even wondered if Rucka had asked the character to be killed, but Simonson later confirmed that this was untrue and he had made the decision himself.
Known for crime dramas and intrigue stories, Greg Rucka automatically made Diana a controversial figure by focusing on the 
fact that her views on life and morality didn’t match up with everyone else’s. After all, she was also a pagan and had grown up on an island exclusively filled with women, which made many folks in the DCU suspicious of her sexuality. Rucka also brought in a new enemy named Veronica Cale, a businesswoman who wanted to tear Wonder Woman down, convinced she was a complete fake and that no one with that much power and that beauty could be morally perfect as well. She manipulated people and committed murder in an effort to tarnish Diana’s image and prove to the general public that no one was born that good and true and noble.
Diana seemed a bit more business like herself. We saw her spending a lot more time in the Themysciran embassy in New York. We saw her secretary and her staff and friends. Now, if Wonder Woman defeated someone on live television, she didn’t just wait for the next battle, we saw her deal with the potential political fall-out of it all.
Rucka also had Olympus redesigned. When we saw the Olympic gods again, they’d mentally recrafted their environment to resemble the modern day American world. Rather than looking for ancient texts in leather bound tomes, they brought it up on their laptops and walked around in modern day outfits. The gods and goddesses got involved in some political games of their own and in the end Zeus and Hades were dethroned and replaced by Athena and Ares respectively.
Rucka also displayed just how tough Wonder Woman could be to make sure she didn’t lose a fight. While fighting the creature Medusa, Diana knew she had to make sure not to look at the monster in the eyes or she’d be turned to stone. So, she grabbed one of Medusa’s snakes and had it spit acid in her eyes, blinding herseld so that she'd be invulnerable to the villain’s magic. Then, blinded and weary, Diana managed to decapitate Medusa in front of a live-television audience. Eventually, Diana got her eye-sight back.
Soon afterwards, Wonder Woman was forced to choose between maintaining Themyscira and protecting a large chunk of humanity. Against protest, Diana chose the greater good and as a result the island was left in ruins, the morphing disc’s properties removed from its grounds. The Amazons saw this as a final testament that their sister considered herself more of Patriarch’s World than of Themyscira. And they weren’t the only ones who would feel betrayed. As the events of Infinite Crisis arrived, many wondered if Diana had become only a level away from the same enemies she fought against.
This is concluded in Part 4.
Reader Comments (4)
I go into full detail about Hypollyta's career as Wonder Woman and work with the JSA in the article above, just above the section "rotating writers", so I'm not sure what you're talking about.