Wonder Woman

Yeah, which one is stronger boils down to whoever the writer wants to win and/or whose book it is.

In 2017, Comic Book Resources compiled a list of all Superman and Wonder Woman’s battles. With a record of six wins, four losses, and five draws, they found that Wonder Woman narrowly defeats Superman. https://www.cbr.com/times-wonder-woman-battled-superman/

I wonder if they've fought since then and who won.

Edited by lalalei2001 on Jan 30th 2024 at 6:32:26 AM

Remember Donna Troy beating the crap out of Jade, who has had all the powers of Alan Scott's ring innately since birth, Polish hammering Eclipso, the former wrath of God, surviving a shot to the back from Trinity, who was designed to kill all life in an alternate dimension, but losing to a Superman robot? Cassie Sandsmark losing to Supergirl while Supergirl had blood poisoning? CBR made me realize I should forget those things and just revel in the franchise headliner's winning record!

What annoys me particularly is that When Wonder Woman does win, the fight still portrays Superman is a powerful enemy to be reckoned with, while fights in which Superman does win never seem to give her the same dignity. Just look at their fights in DCeased and Wonder Woman: Dead Earth.

In the former, Superman kills Wonder Woman with a single punch to the stomach and barely registers her cutting off his arm with a kryptonite sword. In the latter, the fight between the two devastates the planet due to the sheer might of both combatants and Diana finds her energy vastly depleted after it's over.

Of course Superman is then killed by the Squad later on with bullets because they shoot him with gold kryptonite.

The game is terrible on all front to all the JL, Flash, Green Lantern, and Batman don't come out any better.

The issue is one of the most iconic images of Superman is letting bullets bounce harmlessly off their chest, while Wonder Woman's iconic image is deflecting bullets with their bracelets, implying the bullets would do damage if they hit.

I know they've done some wonkery to explain how small, sharp objects can hurt Diana more than a punch delivered with thousands of times more force, but it doesn't necessarily do much to change the impression those two iconic images leave.

It's also kinda like how nearly every hero could be knocked out with a Tap on the Head but Wonder Woman came up with a Voodoo Shark explanation for it.

I already put up a theory (in this thread, even…. I think) that Diana does the bullets and Bracelets routine as a flex.

She could just let the bullets bounce off her like Clark, but she’s further demonstrating how pointless it is to shoot her by showing she’s got the reflexes to deflect them.

Yeah, there always is the issue of sacrificing aesthetic for the sake of power. Once she started flying, she didn't need the Invisible Jet as much, either.

Technically she rode air currents, which wasn't possible without wind.

The Invisible Jet still has uses, just because she can fly. She only has two arms. No one ever complains about Skuttlebutt or The Super Mobile.

As for the bracelets, my personal explanation would be a combination of habit from bullets and bracelets being her favorite game, the fact she likes the noise deflecting bullets make, the fact that Artemis enhanced all of her senses to the point bullets don't really hurt but are annoying in the same way being caught in a sleeting is annoying, and that she has more control over where the bullets will got when she deflects them with her bracelets, reducing the chance of them bouncing off and hurting someone who can't take it. Though I'd make the point that she isn't perfect and sometimes an unintended target gets hit anyway.

Well actually, I'd only go with all of that because someone beat me to the more obvious joke, but really this should be reason.

So, anyone here read the recent Trinity Special?

I haven't read it but I've certainly seen the pages everyone's linking. Certainly a bruh moment seeing all the reactions.

Edited by slimcoder on Jan 31st 2024 at 4:02:50 AM

What makes a good Wonder Woman story?

Someone asked and while I know the familiar beats of a Superman or Batman story (saving a plane, stopping muggers, a Batcave, reflecting on the world), I don't know what the familiar beats of a Wonder Woman story would be.

While I stated Marston's Wonder Woman is the easiest to write, and not just because he managed to keep her out of the shared universe, in her own corner where she could be the most important hero unmolested, it's not the only source of good Wonder Woman stories, nor is there only one kind of good Wonder Woman story. Eris's attempt to ruin the UN summit, Post Crisis? That was a good story. The hero was vulnerable, needed some help, but was still pivotal in saving the day. Silver Age is my least favorite, but the rogue amazon who lost her bracelets and tried to murder the royal family? Not what I was looking for, but a good enough story. New 52 isn't my favorite either, but the story where Diana's hunting her sister to save her niece, even though everyone trusts the sister more and should probably be left to their fate? That was good enough. The Infinite Frontier story where Diana had to learn how to better take care of herself and not just lean on her healing factor? That was good. Maybe not GREAT, but "good" will suffice.

Like Diana thinks there will be good publicity in helping shoot a movie that doesn't suck after seeing one of her that did. Some rival studio/director/actress/funder tries to sabotage the one she goes with, or any dozen odd trickster gods, Veronica Cale out of sheer pettiness, some weather deity just because. Maybe there's no force trying to muck things up. Maybe Solala and Leila from the the Land of Mirrors are in some trifling dispute with Image-Maker from the World of Mirrors, because someone thought merging Earth 1 and Earth 2 together was a good idea without thinking it through, and their spat is messing up all the cameras. Something is hindering Diana's operation, she's going to find out what, ask it to stop, show why she's Wonder Woman, forcibly if it come to it. The film will be a success, or at least be completed on time under budget.

Maybe she's participating in some charity when an enemy, old with a grudge, new with some other motivation, comes in. She tries to talk it down, settle it some other time. Maybe she does appeal to better nature and start an ostensibly low stakes contest with little chance of hurting any observers, or maybe the fight's on and she has to restrain the bad actors before too much gets wrecked and people get hurt. She does, charity is a success. People are inspired to do it recurrently, she can turn her sights elsewhere. Just basically, give the hero something to do. Something that makes enough sense for her to do, and have the plot highlight something notable about her personality, powers or equipment, maybe throw in some kind of disrupting antagonist to be overcome. She's got a lot of things to do, a large pool of characters to pull from, a lot of different ways to approach a problem.

There was a cute Silver Age story in #131 where she underwent a yearly trial for the right to remain Wonder Woman and encountered Jupiter, Pluto, and Neptune, and has a nice touch where when she meets Cerberus in the Underworld, her first instinct is to be nice and try and communicate with him.

Another question.

Who is Diana's definitive archenemy?

Cheetah, Ares, Giganta, Dr. Poison?

It's a tie between Ares, Cheetah and Circe.

Now, I'm wondering: is there any continuity where Ares is her, y'know, grandfather?

Like in the myths.

Most of them?

He's mentioned as being her grandfather in one pre crisis issue and that's it.

José Delbo, Classic Wonder Woman and Transformers Artist, Passes Away at 90

Remembered a kinda dark Death by Irony moment in Justice League of America #8 where the League had been hypnotized by gangsters and put in individual death traps. Wonder Woman's was to be coated in quick-drying plaster of paris where she'd eventually suffocate, which strikes me as a call-back to her origins as a clay statue since plaster is often involved in art. (Don't worry, Snapper Carr got them un-hypnotized in time to save each other.)

EDIT: Ah, the writers picked up on that too, as the caption box says it was "turning Wonder Woman into a statue."

Edited by lalalei2001 on Feb 5th 2024 at 2:05:27 PM

I just read Nubia's story in DC Power. It involves Mr. Mxyzptlk being chased an ancient primordial entity that Hades formed around. The entity wants to drain Mxy's power to return reality back to it's original chaotic state. He tricked Mxy into believing that he could escape to man's world through the well of souls but the entity's true goal was to use the well to access all realms and spread its influence. Nubia and Philippus save Mxy from the creature and he goes back to his realm.

Not the most interesting story but it did have a few funny moments.

Sounds like Primordial Chaos, or maybe Erebus.

Well, Wonder Woman's encountered Chaos twice in the Rebirth timeline already. Nubia's fought him once. Antiope and Atalanta died to stop him. I figured if it WAS Chaos, it'd be pretty obvious...and what's this about "Hades formed around". Hades was the son of Cronus, so he should have formed in Rhea's uterus...it must mean Hades the underworld itself, not the god who rules it. People complain about a lot of people/things in Wonder Woman sharing names, but that's a symptom of Greek Mythology in general. Asteria the amazon, Asteria the Titan, Asteria, the mortal princess, Asteria the tree who used to be a demigoddess human. Matter of fact, I think they should lean into that. Have the amazon Artemis and goddess Artemis appear within panels of each other as often as possible.

José Delbo, if I am going to be sincere, I should admit I already stated the Silver, and to a lesser extent pre crisis Bronze Age of DC is my least favorite period of Wonder Woman comic books. Taken on their own, many individual stories hold up well enough, but as a continuous run it's just a slog to get through. Inconsistent, indecisive, flipping between shamelessly copying what came before it scene by scene and utterly missing what made the previous era work. I've also criticized Inversion as a little too much for a Wonder Woman villain. All the same Delbo was the artist for the issue that introduced Astarte and Wade Dazzle, so he's had an undeniable positive impact on this franchise. He had the decency to draw Etta Candy as a redhead carrying extra pounds instead of a petite blonde, and he didn't give the Chinese characters literal yellow skin. In his honor I decided to look up Wade Dazzle on the DC database to see what they did with him, Post Crisis, New 52 and Rebirth...but the wiki doesn't say which issues he appeared in(which would explain why I never saw Wade Dazzle again if even the people dedicated to this sort of thing can't find him), so I guess I'll have to do some real research.