Wonder Woman: Black and Gold is an Anthology Comic published by DC Comics in celebration of Wonder Woman's 80th Anniversary.
Another entry in DC's anthology series playing on the two-color palette concept, the series is a six-issue miniseries with each issue being a collection of stories from an assortment of different writers and artists with stories that can vary greatly in setting, tone, and genre, the choice of the color gold being in honor of the Lasso of Truth, Wonder Woman's signature weapon.
Tropes Found in the series include:
- The '40s:
- "I'm Ageless" starts up with Diana accompanying American G.I.s through France during World War II.
- "The Golden Age" is set in 1948 Gateway City.
- 'Wing Woman" sometime in late-World War 2 with Diana helping a female pilot fend off a German jet in the airspace over New Jersey.
- The '70s: "Espionage" takes in place in 1970.
- Adaptational Dye-Job: Hippolyta's hair color switches between black and blonde depending on the story.
- Adaptation Amalgamation: "The Golden Age" has the basic premise and characterizations of Golden Age Wonder Woman and Etta Candy but set in Gateway City. A city Diana wouldn't become associated with or operate out of until the 90s in John Byrne's run.
- Affably Evil: Circe in "The Acquaintance" gets on rather well when Diana comes to her mansion looking for Superman.
- An Arm and a Leg: In "I'm Ageless", an American G.I. that Diana was conversing with ends up losing his arm following a surprise attack from a German Panzer. He later becomes a U.S. Senator.
- Anguished Outburst: When Cathy Perkins realizes that her last hope of living a longer life while dying of cancer, a magic talisman, is not only endangering people, but depowers Diana, who could otherwise offset that danger, she snaps it, and angrily tells Diana that she hates her for making her accept her impending demise. It's more of a defeated yell than anything, as she then cries on her lifelong friend's shoulder while mourning her truncated life.
- Attack Hello: In "Golden Age" Etta reintroduces herself to the blowtorch wielding thief by swinging in on a rope to kick her in the chin while said thief is busy yelling at Wonder Woman for discrediting her motives as driven by men.
- Bank Robbery: Diana, with help from Etta Candy, foils one in "The Golden Age".
- Back-to-Back Badasses: While Diana is reminiscing about Steve in "We Built A Better World" and their love for each other at his memorial a flashback shows them fighting a bunch of armed guards back to back.
- The Bet: The premise of "The Wager" is revealed to be a bet between Wonder Woman and Batman that she can get a confession out of a suspect without using the Lasso of Truth.
- Blade Reflection: When Circe reveals herself in "What Doesn't Kill You" and Diana mocks her and tells her she won't be driven to kill the witch even after having her prior turns to deadly violence thrown in her face Circe's glowing eyes dripping ichor are reflected in Diana's blade.
- Black Sheep: "Feet of Clay" deals with this in regards to Antiope, Diana's aunt and Hippolyta's sister, stating she always felt like something of an outsider to the other Amazons and how she prefers her more secluded lifestyle after years of being a General.
- Blatant Burglar: In "The Golden Age", set in 1948, a trio of bank robbers are dressed in stereotypical bank robber getup of domino masks, black and white striped shirts, and a flat cap on one of them.
- Blindfolded Vision: When dealing with the titular opponent in "A God With No Name", Diana obstructs her vision with a piece of cloth.
- The Bus Came Back:
- Cathy Perkins, a supporting character from the Mod era of Wonder Woman, makes her first appearance since 1972 in the titular story "Whatever Happened to Cathy Perkins?".
- Badra, a one-shot villain from 1947, shows up again the story "Memories of Hator". Diana's reformed her in the interim and she works out of a museum.
- Call-Back:
- "What Doesn't Kill You" has Diana encounter the specters of defeated enemies of hers from previous stories, courtesy of Circe; Medusa from Greg Rucka's first run, and the Goddess Diana from Walt Simonson's run.
- When dealing with an invading First Born in "A God With No Name", Diana obstructs her vision with a piece of cloth - a reference to her famous fight with Medusa from Greg Rucka's first run.
- The Cameo:
- "I'm Ageless" the Justice League cameos including Batman, Superman, Black Canary, The Flash, Cyborg, Aquaman, and Green Lantern.
- Vixen cameos near the end of the story "Do No Harm".
- Captured on Purpose: Diana allows herself to be captured, in "Espionage", and interrogated in order to find and capture an enemy general the US had no pictures of and thus couldn't identify and capture by other means.
- Cathartic Crying: Cathy Perkins, who Diana has been friends with since she was a teenage runaway, has been fighting the fact that she's dying of untreatable lung cancer. When Diana talks her into accepting her death, and Cathy breaks the magic talisman that has been extending her life since it endangers those around her and was depowering Diana she cries while leaning on her lifelong friend as she accepts her impending demise.
- Catapult Nightmare: The ending of "Homecoming".
- Character Narrator: "How Wonder Woman Was Brought Low by a Mouse But Conquered the Stars" is revealed to be narrated by Philippus recounting an adventure Diana had to Hippoylta.
- Church of Happyology: "Loved Failed" has Wonder Woman villain, Hypnota, running a cult going by the name of The Guiding Light.
- Color Motif: Black and gold, obviously. Gold is also a color traditionally associated with justice, wisdom, heroism, and royalty - all characteristics associated with Wonder Woman.
- Combat Tentacles: Eleanor's hair as a ghost turns to octopus-like tentacles, which she uses to fling Amazons away and wreck their ships before Wonder Woman finds her and her sibling's remains and tells her that her youngest brother survived being abandoned at sea long enough to be rescued.
- Comfort the Dying: In "Whatever Happened To Cathy Perkins?", Diana brings Cathy Perkins, her old supporting character, to gaze upon a sunset in her last moments before she dies from cancer.
- Darker and Edgier: "Espionage" is a version of this for the "Mod/White Jumpsuit era" of Wonder Woman in comparison to the tone of the actual comics published during that time.
- A Day in the Limelight:
- "The Stolen Lasso of Truth" focuses in on a young girl using the Lasso of Truth for her own benefit in her daily life. She got the lasso after Diana flew off from a crime scene to deal with a criminal.
- "Clay of Feet" is a Perspective Flip of Diana's origin from the P.O.V of Antiope, Diana's aunt and Hippolyta's sister.
- Deliberately Monochrome: "Without Love" is set mostly in black and white due to the emotion of love being taken away by Eros, the God of Love.
- Demon Lords and Archdevils: "Hellazapoppin" has Diana battle journey through Hell to fight a variety of Demon Lords and monsters to rescue Hephaestus. These including; Beelzebub, Amduscias, Andras, Sallos, Haborym, Lamia, Volac, Flauros, Deumus.
- Disco Dan: In "Whatever Happened to Cathy Perkins?", Cathy has reopened the shop she ran with Diana in the 1960's when she was a teenager despite being middle aged now. She dresses the same way and seems to be trying to relive her glory days. This ends up justified since she is dying of cancer, and only staving off death by using a magic talisman that requires her to be in the place she felt most alive. Understandably having adventures with Wonder Woman and saving people is what she went with for that.
- Dream Episode: "Homecoming" is almost entirely Diana having an eerie dream of returning to a seemingly-empty Themyscira.
- Evil Uncle: In "Beyond the Horizon" Thomas Chapman kidnaps his four neiphlings for a ransom and then drinks himself to death, leaving the children to starve to death while trying to figure out how to sail his boat back to land. Only the youngest lives long enough to be rescued.
- The Faceless: Wonder Woman's face is never shown in "The Stolen Lasso of Truth", either covered in shadows or intense light.
- Fangirl: "The Stolen Lasso of Truth" centers around a young girl of Wonder Woman who through circumstance has gotten Diana's lasso and uses it throughout her daily life to deal with her bullies and family. She even ends up making a makeshift Wonder Woman-style outfit from clothes in her closet.
- Females Are More Innocent: Deconstructed in Golden Age, a take on the Golden Age Wonder Woman, a Diana early into her time in Man's World fights a group of bank robbers but tries reasoning with the female member as a sister who isn't her enemy and has been lied to by the patriarchy to make her violent. She is shown to be wrong, and the woman in question is infuriated by Diana's naivety and refusal to take her seriously so Etta knocks the woman out to put an end to the fight.
- Fire-Breathing Weapon: The lady thief in "Golden Age" brings a torch to cut into the safe, and quickly turns to using it as a weapon when Wonder Woman intervenes.
- Fisher King: The world becomes monochrome and devoid of the emotion of love when Erosnote , god of love and sex, rips out his own heart with Eris' encouragement.
- Friendly Enemy: Diana and Circe have this in "The Acquaintance".
- Genre Throwback: "Whatever Happened to Cathy Perkins?" is one to the Mod era of Wonder Woman (1968-73) with Diana unexpectedly running into her old supporting character Cathy Perkins after decades, revisiting the bouquet shop they used to run, and fending off the old villain trio of THEM!.
- Ghost Story: "Beyond the Horizon" sees Diana confront a violent marine ghost, only to find it is the mourning ghost of a child abandoned at sea who died trying to save her younger siblings who were abducted and abandoned with her. She is laid to rest when Diana tells her that she kept her youngest sibling alive long enough for him to be rescued and live a full life.
- Ghostly Goals: "Beyond the Horizon" has Diana helping lay to rest the ghost of a young girl who died in the late-1880s. She and her siblings had been held hostage on the ship and had gradually died off while she desperately tried to find a way back home.
- Global Warming: Premise of the "Beat The Heat" story.
- Grave-Marking Scene:
- In "I'm Ageless", Diana visits the grave of an American G.I. turned Senator she knew back during World War II.
- The ending of "We Built A Better World" has Diana and Hippolyta paying tribute to the memorial of Steve Trevor on Themyscira.
- Hostage Situation: "A Lesson in Truth" sees a desperate man use to one in order to get a conversation with Wonder Woman, it turns she rescued him from one as a child back in the 60s.
- Instantly Proven Wrong: In "I'm Ageless", right after Mac says "I'm telling you, Hitler and his Ratzis are a hundred miles from here", a German tank shell comes through the wall he and his men are walking behind.
- It Has Been an Honor: After Diana convinces her old friend Cathy Perkins to accept that she's dying of lung cancer Cathy removes the talisman she was using to extend her life (that was drawing danger to her and those around her) and tearfully tells Diana she hates her, before thanking her for their adventures and her friendship.
- Internal Homage: Diana's first line of dialogue in "The Stolen Lasso of Truth" is "I will fight for those cannot fight for themselves". A famed line from Diana's first theatrical solo film, Wonder Woman (2017).
- Interrogation Montage: "Espionage" has one that shows Wonder Woman being put under an interrogation by her supposed captor that goes for over three weeks.
- Jerk Jock: Artemis' characterization in "A Common Motivator" during an Olympics-style competition between the Themysciran and Bana Amazon tribes.
- Last of Her Kind: "Memories of Hator" plays this for tragic effect with old Golden Age Wonder Woman villain, Badra. Showing her tearful last moments on her home planet before being sent away on an escape pod by her mother.
- Let Us Never Speak of This Again: Superman's request at the end of "The Acquaintance" when Diana turns him back to normal after Circe turned him into a guinea pig.
- Light/Darkness Juxtaposition: Stories such as "Without Love" and "A God With No Name" utilize this with the black and gold coloring of the series.
- Mirror Character: "The Acquaintance" makes note of the similarities Diana and Circe share; both being demigoddess offspring of gods associated with the sky (Zeus and Helios), their immortality meaning they'll outlive most everyone they know, and have been in relationships with headstrong muscle-bound types (Superman and Odysseus).
- My Beloved Smother: Hippolyta's characterization in "Mother's Daughter".
- Mythology Gag:
- "Beat the Heat" has Diana trying to lasso the Sun to pull it away from the Earth after the planet has been taken off its axis and gotten too close to the star. She makes reference to having done this before, which she did back in the Golden Age Wonder Woman comics.
- Kurt Busiek's story, "How Wonder Woman Was Brought Low by a Mouse But Conquered the Stars", sees the return of Wondy's (in)famous Golden Age Weaksauce Weakness where she loses her powers if bound by a man.
- No-Dialogue Episode: Aside from two words near the end, the "Homecoming" story is entirely dialogue free.
- No Historical Figures Were Harmed: The nameless woman in "Role Model" is an amalgam of several real-life feminists like Gloria Steinhem.
- Noir Episode: The premise of "The Wager" is Diana in a noir-like interrogation scene with a man who has committed embezzlement and likely murder.
- Not Me This Time: Apollo shows he's not ultimately responsible for the temperatures rising on Earth. When he does move the planet back, he states the underlining problem is because of human-caused climate change.
- Outliving One's Offspring: In "Whatever Happened to Cathy Perkins?", Cathy is slightly bitter that both of her parents are still in good health while she has terminal cancer. Even her friendship with Wonder Woman does not give her access to anything that will cure her, and she ends up destroying the magic talisman she had been using to give herself a little more time since it was endangering people around her.
- Ruritania: "Espionage" is set in the fictional Eastern European country of Modora.
- Perspective Flip: "Feet of Clay" is a look at Diana's creation and early years from her aunt and Hippolyta's sister, Antiope.
- Powers as Programs: "Attack of the 50-Foot Wonder Woman" sees Giganta and Diana's powers swapped courtesy of spell by Klarion the Witch Boy
- Rock–Paper–Scissors: In "A Common Motivator", due to their competitiveness Diana and Nubia decide who will have what portion of a competition they're teamed up on with Rock Paper Scissors, to avoid arguing and wasting time.
- Schmuck Banquet: The first sign that the kindly old lady in "What Doesn't Kill You" is not what she appears is when she implores Diana to eat something from the feast laid out in the Necromanteion. She doesn't even lie about it helping Diana communicate with the spirits, but Diana had the right of it when thinking it would be a bad idea.
- Sequel Episode: "Memories of Hator" posits itself as a sequel to the last, and only other, appearance of Wonder Woman villain, Badra.note Diana having reformed her following their encounter.
- Shoot the Dog: "Prayer" centers around Diana comforting an aged/elderly Gryphon in it's last moments after she was forced to Mercy Kill it after it had attacked a vacationing family when they unknowingly encroached on it's territory.
- Shout-Out: The First Born is given the moniker of The God With No Name in the same entitled story.
- Shown Their Work: The Woman Airforce Service Pilots program that the female pilot in "Wing Woman" is a part of was a Real Life organization. Her reference to only the Russians allowed female pilots to fly planes that were armed during World War Two is also a true statemen rooted in history.
- Sibling Rivalry: Diana and Nubia are stated to have this in "A Common Motivator", though they put it aside when it comes to besting Artemis in a competition between the Themyscira and Bana Amazon tribes.
- Spy Fiction: "Espionage" is a whole story Homage to the "Mod era" of Wonder Woman in the late-60s/early-70s, where Diana was a white jumpsuit-wearing spy who practiced martial arts.
- Sticky Fingers: In "The Golden Age", after helping stop a bank robbery, Etta Candy tries to make off with all the bank's free candy.
- Take That!: "We Built A Better World" has one towards the New 52 version of Wonder Woman and its depiction of what happened to male children of the Amazons. Diana is asked in a press conference of how Themyscira deals with male children. Her response being there are no male babies on Themyscira because there’s no babies or men at all on the island.Wonder Woman: "I mean... It's pretty simple, really"
- Villain Team-Up - Wonder Woman villains Dr. Cyber, Mouse Man, and Human Firework team up in "How Wonder Woman Was Brought Low by a Mouse But Conquered the Stars".
- The Weird Sisters: In "The Wager", it's revealed in this story that Diana forged the Lasso of Truth with help from the Fates (Clotho, Lachesis, and Atropos).
- Whole Episode Flashback:
- The ending of "I'm Ageless" reveals the whole story has been one as it's not only set after the scenes set in World War II, but also the scenes of Diana interacting with the Justice League, as Diana passes by Batman's grave in a cemetery.
- "We Built A Better World" is revealed to be one of Diana and Hippolyta conversing about her history with Steve Trevor as they pay tribute to his grave on Themyscira.
- Who Wants to Live Forever?: Dealt with in the story "I'm Ageless", with Batman and Wonder Woman having a back-and-forth on how serious she actually takes being a superhero given her immortality makes it so she'll outlive virtually every friend, ally, and even enemy she'll ever know.
- World War II:
- "I'm Ageless" is set during the war in 1944 France.
- "Wing Woman" has Diana, in her Invisible Jet, helping a Women Airforce Service Pilot (WASP
) fend off a German Messerschmitt Me 262.
