Characters / Wonder Woman: Amazons

Wonder Woman Main Character Index
Title Character
Princess Diana of Themyscira/Diana Prince
Mythical Figures
Amazons | Gods (Ares)
Supporting Cast
Wonder Girl (Donna Troy | Cassie Sandsmark)
Villains
A-L (Cheetah) | M-Z

The Amazons

First Appearance: All-Star Comics #8 (1941)

Created By: William Moulton Marston · Harry G. Peter

"We are indeed a race of wonder women."

Pre-Crisis, the Amazons were women from across the annals of history who ended up at Paradise Island by chance or when fleeing oppressors and chose to become Amazons and remain there. By taking the oath and going through the ceremony and training to become an Amazon they gained abilities far beyond the means of normal humans and are immortal while on their home island.

Post-Crisis, the Amazons were the reincarnations of murdered women given incredible strength, the Amazons were created and charged by the Gods to lead Ancient Greece into a better way of life through love and peace. Unfortunately, when the Amazons were captured and violated by Heracles' tribe of warrior men, they grew vengeful in their payback despite being told do otherwise. The Amazons divided themselves in two after the leaders of both halves disagreed on whether to further take vengeance on the males that humiliated them. As punishment, the Gods charged the Amazons under Hippolyta's command to keep guard of the demon Cottus on Themyscira as restitution. The Amazons are a race of warrior women, but they are very diverse and generally compassionate. The Egyptian sect, the Bana-Mighdall who defected and were led by the Amazon Antiope, was much more misandrist and kill-happy. Now that the Amazons are free from Cottus, they act as their own sovereign nation.

Members of the Amazons

In General

• Adaptational Nice Guy
  • The Amazons of Greek Mythology were either a nomadic warring culture or an violently isolationist beyond raiding culture walled up in Themyscira. Whether Paradise Island or Themyscira, DC Comics makes the classical amazons far more pacifistic than their mythological counterparts. The sole exception in the "main" continuity is New 52, where the amazons are more murderous, misandrist and warlike than their mythological counterparts, going through Adaptational Villainy instead.
  • The Post Crisis Bana-Mighdall have been manipulated by Circe from the very start. Circe had Antiope executed when she made peace with the Greek city states and from behind the scenes pushed the Bana-Mighdall into making war on Man's World as a whole and eventually against their sisters on Themyscira all so that Circe can get rid of all the amazons at once. In DC Rebirth Circe is far less vindictive, far less interested in the amazons, and Antiope's mission to bring peace to Man's World doesn't go as far off the rails because of it. The Bana-Mighdall still split from Themyscira, but this isn't even over defying the gods to get revenge on Heracles anymore, but because Atalanta doesn't want to be confined to the island and Antiope in particular believes the amazons are becoming complacent, can do more good among man's world than apart from it, and that Zeus is a terrible god who should be forsaken.
  • The Amazons of the Amazon are not from Greek or Roman Mythology but from European colonial mythology of the 15th to 19th century, Spanish, Portuguese and French in particular. They are far more vile than their Greco-Roman counterparts, being the closest thing from an actual mythology to the infamous New 52 Amazons. The Future State and Infinite Frontier Esquecida, who previously went by many names of the mythological Amazons of the Amazons, are if anything more pleasant than the Themyscira and Bana-Migdhall tribes, keeping their city hid and men out of it their only real sticking points besides defending the forest. They have no issues interacting with men or the outside world otherwise.
• Aerith and Bob
  • In the Pre-Crisis continuity the Amazons of Paradise Island were women from throughout history who had come to the island seeking refuge and chose to become Amazons and uphold their peaceful protective ways so their names were incredibly varied, including Althea, Diana, Fatsis, Gerta, Hippolyta, Mala, Metala, Orana and Zoe.
  • The Rebirth Bana-Mighdall bolster their numbers by recruiting women from Man's World to join their tribe, but try to defy this trope by encouraging worthy recruits to take on new names. Post Crisis and Rebirth amazons of Themyscira are also drawn from the dead souls of women from all over the world, but similarly tend to be given new names by their sisters. The Esquecida seem to pull from women of the Amazonas region, but unless a reader is familiar with the languages spoken there this trope really doesn't apply, as their names are all in said languages, even if not all of them qualify as given names to the familiar.
• Age Without Youth
  • In the Golden and Silver Ages the amazons do not suffer the ravages of old age, but only so long as they stay on Paradise Island and only so long as men are kept off of Paradise Island. Living in "Man's World" will cause the affects of aging to set in, but these can be fixed with periodic return trips.
  • Post Crisis Amazons are given entirely new bodies that do not suffer from age related organ degeneration. As such they retain their youth wherever they go and are free to allow men wherever. Themyscira's amazons just don't let them come because they dislike men. The Bana-Mighdall forfeit their immortality however, when they defied The Olympians and pursued revenge against Hercules.
  • DC Rebirth Amazons have the same new youthful bodies of their Post Crisis counterparts, but Queen Gaboymila has a disease that initially makes her appear old, and is still largely immobile even as her youthful appearance starts to reassert itself. The Bana-Mighdall don't lose their immortality, as they aren't pursuing revenge here, but they do get cut off from the well of souls and have to recruit mortal women who don't have such gifts to maintain their numbers. Atalanta devises a plan to reunite the Bana-Mighdall with Themysica and give all new recruits the gifts that come from The Olympians, immortality included.
• Arc Words: Starting in May of 2021, "Amazons Attack!" appears in a suspiciously large amount of speech bubbles throughout DC Infinite Frontier books. As it turns out the DC Rebirth line was to start its own version of the infamous Amazon's Attack arc in October of 2023.
• Cerebus Retcon: Under DC Rebirth, the New 52 versions of the Amazons and Hippolyta have been revealed as fakes created as part of some elaborate attempt to rewrite Diana's past.
• Culture Clash
  • Atalanta goes on a mission to fight the forces of Tezcatlipoca in Central America, which ends up stretching all the way into mid South America and taking MUCH longer than she anticipated. She returns to a Bana-Mighdall tribe that is much cruder and crueler than the one she founded with Antiope. However, despite some resistance from acting queen Faruka II, her sisters are happy to see Atalanta back and reinstall her as co queen alongside Faruka. Atalanta, for the most part, allows Faruka II to do as she wishes but at times expresses her shock and disapproval at the new customs that have developed under Faruka's reign.
  • The Esquecida Tribe is nowhere near as isolationist as Themyscira, the sisters even supporting each others' relationships with men so long as they are not brought back to Akahim. They also enjoy many more modern amenities, but in turn lack much of the advanced technology Themyscira has and doesn't share with the world. They are also highly split on religion, as while Bana-Mighdall cofounder Antiope wanted to get away from Zeus The Esquecida have come to distrust all Greco-Roman gods in general and despise The Twelve Olympians in particular due to the machinations of Hera. The Esquecida are also far less aggressive than The Bana-Mighdall, and though ready to fight them if necessary, find Bana-Mighdall hyper militarism and hostility towards the other amazon tribes baffling.
• Darker and Edgier: It's a toss up between the Post Crisis Bana-Mighdall and New 52 Themyscira for edgiest amazon tribe to be featured in the "main" continuity.
  • By the time Diana finds the Fortress of Bana-Mighdall during volume 2, they are actively engaged in mercenary work and the slave trade. They graduate to terrorism before they start softening up.
  • The New 52 Amazon society seemed far cruder and rougher than past versions, and they propagated throughout the centuries by kidnapping and raping sailors. The Amazons would dispose of any infants unlucky enough to be born male. Subverted, as this version of history was revealed to be fake in Rebirth.
• Doom Magnet: In DC Rebirth every amazon that was reborn through the well of souls in Amazonia, prior to the Themyscira\Bana-Mighdall split, as well as everyone descended from them, is a figurative magnet to the monsters behind Doom's Doorway, who have been conditioned by the gods to hate said amazons. Amazons such as Atalanta, who personally sent some of those monsters to Hades or Tartarus, are the magnets with the strongest pull, but one of these monsters is willing to cross the ocean and scour the Amazon Rain Forest just to find and kill Yara Flor, simply because she's the daughter of Aella.
• Failure Is the Only Option: As lampshaded by Wonder Woman, since their existence the Amazons have made mistake after mistake which inevitably caused them to fail in their mission of bringing peace to the world. When they were first created, they decided to cloister themselves away after becoming disgusted with the violence of men despite their whole existence being to show them the ways of peace and love. After the Amazon Queen allowed Heracles and his men into their kingdom and his eventual rapacious betrayal of their nation, they chose to kill their oppressors in a rage despite being explicitly told by the Gods who created and freed them not to do so. Then after splitting up and eventually being tasked to guard Cottus, they chose to build their island into a utopia for themselves and completely abandoned their mission for centuries.
• Famed In-Story: In Post Crisis DC The Amazons are somewhat reviled by the general public. Wonder Woman is doing a lot to improve their reputation but Circe is doing just as much to ruin it. In DC Rebirth Themyscira and The Bana-Mighdall are both inspirations to the women of "Man's World", but this has seemingly only taken hold in the new millennium, with Martian Manhunter saying Wonder Woman herself was just barely respected in the 20th century. The Gaboymilla tribe were a very respected tribe in the Americas until the new millennium, when they went into hiding after being slaughtered by executioners sent by The Queen of Olympus.
• Fantastic Racism
  • Post Crisis there is enmity between the Themyscira and Bana-Mighdall tribes of amazons after a thousand years of separation, which eventually leads the two tribes to make war on each other. Sometimes on their own over misunderstandings, but their worse war was instigated by Circe as a means of destroying all amazons in one go. This also leads to actual racism in the form of profiling, as The Bana-Mighdall happen to be darker skinned overall than their Themyscira sisters and Themyscira amazons with dark skin sometimes get mistaken for Bana-Mighdall and attacked for it, as the Bana are prone to launching terrorist attacks on the nations of Man's World.
  • DC Rebirth significantly tones down the strife between The Bana-Mighdall and Themyscira. Thousands years of separation has still taken a toll on their relations, however. The Bana-Mighdall see the Themyscira amazons lyre playing pansies who don't contribute any good to the world and boast that they could easily conquer the island, but Faruka II is the only Bana-Mighdall that actually wants war and every time she tries to push for it the Themyscira sisters either refuse to take the bait or her own Bana-Mighdall sisters shout her down. Themyscira in turn see the Bana-Mighdall as tobacco filled drunken savages that weren't worthy of acknowledgement. Wonder Woman convinced Theymscira to recognize The Bana-Mighdall as a legitimate tribe, but her sisters still boast that the Bana-Mighdall only exist because Themyscira allows it. The worst that ever happens between them are unarmed fist fights in the streets of man's world, however. The revelation there is a third tribe of amazons known as The Esquecida doesn't improve things, however, as Faruka II is almost successful in leading The Bana-Mighdall to war against The Esquecida at the first formal introduction between the tribes. War is averted mostly because this introduction happens to be while both are visiting Themyscira, and the islanders don't want to clean up a blood bath in their own backyard. It's the challenge of Hippolyta, Antiope, Atalanta, Diana, Nubia and Donna Troy to put an end to these hostilities, but the latter three are Locked Out of the Loop and have no idea how long the former three have been working on easing the tensions.
  • Atalanta also reveals that the monsters of Doom's Doorway have been conditioned to hate amazons, to the point that most upon escaping will cross oceans to find and kill them. Half of this is punishment from The Olympians to show their displeasure with Amazonia, but it is equally because Atalanta sent many of the creatures to Hades personally. When monsters start breaching the doorway more regularly those with specific grudges against Atalanta do attack the Bana-Mighdall stronghold in Qurac, while those that simply hate amazons in general either stay on Themyscira or go hunting for Yara Flor in Akahim...which they can't find but nonetheless manage to draw Esquecida ire with the damage they cause to The Amazon Rain Forest.
• Fantasy Counterpart Culture
  • Themiscyra was a real town in the Roman province of Asia that got its name from the mythological amazon capital. As such, the Post Crisis amazons draw a bit from real life Turkey, Themyscira being more like Ancient Turkey and The Bana-Mighdall being more like modern Turkey. Themyscira also have an Athens vibe, ancient and modern to Bana-Mighdall's ancient Sparta. Theymscira even abolished the monarchy, though it was brought back before Post Crisis was over and retained in the following two continuities while The Bana-Mighdall prefer to have two queens at once in DC Rebirth. There is also a bit of a Persian Empire vibe going for Themyscira, during DC Rebirth Diana and Nubia have a personal Badass Creed swearing to dedicate their perspective lives to Truth and Understanding, in contrast to The Bana-Migdhall having a strong ancient Kemet to modern Egypt theme, with some added Somalian trappings. The conflict between the two tribes draws heavily on Athens versus Sparta and Persia versus Egypt.
  • The Esquecida are primarily based on The Ticuna of Amazonas, the largest indigenous ethnic group of that region of Brazil(though a minority in The Amazonas not overlapping with Brazil's borders), but also take at least some visual inspiration from The Tupi, Cariri and even Incans.
• Hard-Drinking Party Girl: Like their Athenian inspiration Themyscira's amazons prefer to keep their minds unclouded, but when they have a cause for celebration can guzzle wine like there's no tomorrow. The Bana-Mighdall tend to be less noted for their partying and just for their drinking.
• Lady Land: Whether men are even allowed on the island is a question that is answered in different ways over the years. (The typical answer is "No, unless Wonder Woman invites them". Also, there are occasional jokes about what the Amazons do for fun on an island inhabited only by women... Post Crisis the amazons are eventually forced by Zeus to share the island with their male counterpart nation, The Gargareans. In New 52 Wonder Woman commands the amazons to stop leaving their sons and brothers for dead upon becoming queen, but most of these "brothers" end up getting slaughtered by their resentful sisters anyway.
• Multiple Government Polity: Infinite Frontier sees the three amazon tribes unite as one nation during the Nubia Coronation Special, as Nubia becomes queen of all. Bana-Mighdall and Akahim are too far away to be ruled directly, however, so Faruka II and Gaboymila remain queens of their respective tribes.
• Not the Intended Use: Depending on the continuity, the bracelets of submission are either symbols of an amazon's dedication to Aphrodite, markers that the amazons have been forgiven for their sins or reminders that the amazons were once defeated in battle and made into sex slaves. Regardless, the Proud Warrior Race quickly realizes the things are functionally indestructible and start playing games involving the deflection of projectiles with them. During volume four the goddess Artemis does complain about how the amazons use the bracelets, but she doesn't have the authority to do anything about it.
• Poison Is Evil
  • In the Bronze Age, Panthea's insurgents are conditioned to poison themselves in the event they are captured to keep her conspiracy against Hippolyta secret.
  • Post Crisis, the stance on poison is major division between Themyscira and Bana-Mighdall, the Bana tribe being much more favorable to the poisoning of enemies.
  • The Esquecida of DC Rebirth are highly knowledgeable in the sciences of poison and venom, but prefer not to resort to them if possible, as they tend to be powerful enough to take down prey and enemy combatants alike without it and find assassination to be dishonorable. The Bana-Mighdall and Themyscira tribes have an even lower opinion of poisoning, although Themyscira custom finds it acceptable in the event a suffering person can't be saved from death, and the Bana-Mighdall accept the use of a poison that erases twelve hours worth of memories but otherwise tends to leave the body unharmed.Artemis manages to piss off everyone when she uses poison to kill a woman enjoying a party.
• Poor Communication Kills: As DC Infinite Frontier heats up it is repeatedly shown that Themyscira, The Bana-Mighdall and The Esquecida, queens and subjects alike, often have very similar goals and similar solutions to common problems, but tend to get in each other's way simply because there is little to no communication between the three. This is not at all helped by the fact that prior to Trial Of The Amazons, only Hippolyta, Antiope, Atalanta, Donna Troy, Cassie Sandsmark and Artemis are even aware that the The Esquecida Tribe exists. Two assassins Hippolyta sent to Brazil begin to suspect that there might be other amazon tribes, but have no idea where to look for them, Faruka II's assassins only find Yara Flor before getting their clocks cleaned by her, Artemis has only seen one Esquecida besides Yara Flor, Atalanta has only seen one Esquecida outpost abandoned before they were even called Esquecida, Hippolyta only has a report from Donna Troy, Antiope only has secondhand knowledge from Hippolyta, while Donna and Cassie have been to Akahim but don't regularly stay with any of the tribes, and are largely Locked Out of the Loop. Strengthening the connections between the three tribes is Hippolyta's chief goal in particular, after Yara Flor rejects Hera and successfully escapes Olympus to Akahim anyway.
• Pretender Diss: The Themyscira Tribe of DC Rebirth did not see The Bana-Mighdall Tribe as legitimate until Wonder Woman convinced them otherwise. Before Diana's discovery and advocacy on the Bana's behalf not even queen Hippoylta could accomplish that! The Bana-Mighdall tribe in turn see The Esquecida as lame pretenders and are outraged that Themyscira is so readily accepting of them after denying The Bana-Mighdall for thousands of years.
• Proud Scholar Race
  • Pre-Crisis, Golden Age especially, the Amazons of Paradise Island often came off this way. They had developed a range of impressive tech including having their own space worthy fleet before any other nation on earth had made it into orbit, invisible aircraft and incredible medical advances but generally didn't share any of these advances with their supposed allied nations like the United States.
  • The Silver Age severely downplays it, and towards the end of the Earth One continuity in the Bronze Age it is even Played for Drama as Panthea resents that she can't even study astronomy properly with the wards protecting Paradise Island from Man's World in place, leading her to conspire to stage a coupe against Hippolyta and provoke war with The United States in order to put an end to the stagnation of the amazons.
  • Post Crisis downplays this even further with the Amazons of Themyscira. While they are well learned in arts and well read in literature, they have developed almost entirely in isolation from "The Patriarch's World" for thousands of years, and have thus missed out on several modern inventions, like guns. They do have some incredible technology, including some signature inventions like the Purple Healing ray and even a much despised but there if they need it artillery of death rays. The Bana-Mighdall are even less so. They occasionally send select scholars out to report back on advancements in "Man's World", but on the whole are even less interested in educating themselves than their sisters on Theymscira beyond getting more destructive weapons.
  • The Bana-Mighdall don't exist in the New 52 universe, but the Themyscira tribe of this continuity put them and their anti intellectual ways to shame, being a society of pirate raiders and borderline evil luddites, who would actually have a point about the corruption of man's world if they weren't so misandrist. Still they do see value in man's advancements in warfare, but that's it.
  • DC Rebirth's Themyscira is second only to the Golden Age Paradise Island in terms of advancement, largely because it lacks most of the specific inventions of Golden Age Diana and Paul Von Gunther. None the less they have working interplanetary spacecraft again! The Bana-Mighdall are as anti intellectual as ever and don't even have select scholars anymore. The Bana maintain their armory of modern weaponry but Atalanta and Faruka II alike despise it and opt only to bring out the guns when necessary. The Esquecida are a bit of a middle ground between the the two, largely moving in and out of man's world and enjoying its advancements as they please, but not being quite as studious or inventive as Themyscira and have yet to integrate bombs or bullets into their arsenal like Bana-Mighdall.
• Proud Warrior Race Girl
  • (Post-Crisis) The Bana tribe, who are far more combative than their Themysciran sisters, place a lot of emphasis and pride on their skills as warriors. They even serve as mercenaries and acting queen Nehebka openly admits to Wonder Woman that by the 20th century Bana-Mighdall had long abandoned any notions of altruism, vengeance or even self defense, only engaging in warfare for the sake of profit and enjoyment.
  • New 52 has the most combative version of DC's Amazons yet to be in the main continuity, outside of maybe the alternate universes where The Cryme Syndicate reign, and they're on Themyscira!
  • DC Rebirth has the Bana-Mighdall spend thousands of years as a peace promoting society until Faruka II becomes acting queen and drives the nation to become more militaristic to the point it drives a further rift with Themyscira, but it starts to slowly wind down when Atalanta returns.
• Public Domain Character: The Amazons (not all of the specific Amazons, as even some who are named after their mythological counterparts are original characters) and their queen Hippolyta are all Older Than Feudalism. Some Escquecida characters like Gaboymila are younger but still Older Than Steam.
• Rape as Backstory: Post-Crisis Perez made this part of the backstory of all the Amazons besides Wondy who was born later; they were made sex slaves by Hercules and his men and only received Themyscira after they fought their way free, with the caveat that they couldn't seek revenge and had to swear themselves to a lifestyle of peace to get their safe haven.
• Real Women Don't Wear Dresses: During the Rebirth's Heart Of The Amazon arc a Flash Back shows Hippolyta's subjects berating their queen for allowing princess Diana to sleep with a doll, demanding the queen start conditioning the child to sleep with a weapon instead. The flash back ends with Diana throwing the doll away to stop embarrassing her mother. However, "Young Diana" shows that Antiope would gift the princess with children's books, even teach Diana arts and crafts from "Man's World", during her visits to Themyscira. Hippolyta protested this when she found out but Antiope said Diana was becoming a better fighter than Hippolyta and so was earning the right to enjoy a softer side of her fleeting childhood. By the time of Diana's adulthood the amazons have taken to disarming and dressing up as Queen Nubia's coronation as ruler of all three tribes arrives, but most amazons of Themyscira and Bana-Mighdall view this as a matter of diplomacy, not something to enjoy. All the same, it's significant progress on their part.
• Religious Bruiser: In the Post Crisis and Rebirth continuities amazons were created specifically to be servants of the gods. The amazons of Themyscira in particular tend to maintain their piety even after having personal disputes with their god and goddesses and in turn have the largest amount of god crafted or god blessed treasures.
• Sex Slave: Depending on the continuity, Amazonia as a whole may have suffered this after being defeated by Heracles and left at the mercy of his men. The Post Crisis Bana-Mighdall shunned all attachments to outsiders with the exceptions of captured males used for breeding. Ostensibly these are only supposed to be prisoners of war, but queen Anahid had actively engaged in the slave trade before Cheetah killed her for The Girdle of Gaea.
• Straw Feminist: In a few stories, much to the annoyance of the fans... don't even mention Amazons Attack!. DC Rebirth has reduced this severely for both the Themycira amazons, who sometimes begrudgingly find themselves acknowledging some good developments from the minds of mortal men, and Bana-Mighdall, who started out in this timeline less misandrist than Themyscira and only started sliding into misandry on a cultural scale when original queens Antiope and Atalanta were MIA. The Esquecida are even less misandrist still...but on the other hand DC Infinite Frontier spent two years teasing a new version of Amazons Attack and indeed went through with the story line, which further embitters some Bana-Mighdall against the world of man.
• Surprisingly Realistic Outcome: Dawn of DC shows the death and ascension of Hippolyta, attacks by Echdina then Chaos and coronation of Nubia of queen of all three tribes did not completely put an end to the Fantastic Racism between them. These events did come remarkably close to it, but there are more than enough records to confirm these kinds of issues persist more often than not.
• Tragic Bigot: Several Amazons just can't get over their misandrist views even after Themyscira opens its borders. However, they are women who were abused and murdered by men, given new life in stronger clay formed bodies, and then betrayed by Hercules and his men and turned into sex slaves before spending centuries in a isolationist state that was imposed on them by their very deities. That they were demonized in-universe as the bad guys while the man who committed such a horrible atrocity against them was lionized as a hero is just the cherry on top.
• Tyop on the Cover: Given it is the name of both a mythological and historical location, "Themyscira" would be DC's most infamous example, if Wonder Woman was as popular as Superman and Batman. Someone at some point accidentally switched the "y" and "i" back in the 1980s, with DC never bothering to switch them back.

Queen Hippolyta

Hippolyta / Masquerader / Wonder Woman III

Hippolyta as the Golden Age (and Post-Final Night) Wonder Woman

First Appearance: All-Star Comics #8 (1941)

Created By: William Moulton Marston · Harry G. Peter

Universes: Earth-One, Earth-Two, Wonder Woman '77, New Earth, Prime Earth, DCEU, DCAMU, DC Animated Universe, The Legend of Wonder Woman, Sensation, Black And Gold, Historia.

The Queen of the Amazons always longed for a child, because out of the Amazons, it was she who was reincarnated from a pregnant woman. In reward for her service and leadership, the Gods gifted her with Diana. Hippolyta is a stern leader, but she is also a nurturer who loves her daughter.

---

• Action Mom: Never mind the fact that Diana is an adult...
• Adaptation Dye-Job: Was originally black-haired like her daughter in the Golden Age, then blonde after the Silver Age reboot in the 1950's, then became black-haired again after the Crisis on Infinite Earths reboot in the 1980s, went back to blonde again after the New 52 reboot, then returned to black in Rebirth. Was blonde in Justice League but dark-haired in the direct-to-video movie.
• All Amazons Want Hercules: In her case she was attracted to Hercules himself before he betrayed her and turned her and her people into sex slaves. When Hercules was initially redeemed and had a Heel–Face Turn, she expressed that she still had attraction for him despite everything he did to her and gave him a kiss before Hercules left for Olympus. Also, when she was in the JSA, she was into Ted Grant, pretty much the embodiment of the gruff masculinity of his time. In the New 52 she slept with The King of the Gods, Zeus, though these versions of Hippolyta and Zeus were later revealed as fakes...only for Hippolyta to have a fling with Zeus in Rebirth as well.
• Alternate Self: In DC Rebirth Queen Hippolyta creates a mirror that reflects Empress Hippolyta. Generally, for every decision Queen Hippolyta makes the Empress will either do the opposite or otherwise choose the most callous alternative. Queen and Emperess come into conflict when young Diana gets curious about the mirror and is captured by The Empress in what has come to be known as "Dimension Chi".
• Ambiguously Bi: Hippolyta's attraction to men is literally the stuff of legend, but Post Crisis Hippolyta tends to show disapproval of Diana's attraction to men and prefers her daughter seek out a strong woman, excepting for when the rest of the amazons were believed to have perished and she wanted Diana to help repopulate the race. As of DC Rebirth Hippolyta is officially bisexual, and no longer cares about who or what Diana expresses attraction to on the basis of sex, though Hippolyta still prefers women and still doesn't like many of Diana's male interests as individuals.
• Ascend to a Higher Plane of Existence: Happens at the end of Artemis: Wanted as a result of her death in Trial of the Amazons. All according to plan.
• The Atoner
  • On The Golden Age Earth Two the Amazons were a far more aggressive and kill willing tribe prior to settling on Paradise Island, and their more pacifistic lifestyle following is an attempt to make amends for that. On the Silver Age Earth One Hippolyta doesn't become queen until after the Amazons settle on Paradise Island, so she has less to atone for.
  • Hippolyta's stint as her daughter's replacement was part of her penance for inadvertently causing Diana's death in the first place. (She had an Amazon sorceress cast a spell to transfer some of Diana's power to Artemis, and never had the spell reversed.) She later started to enjoy the role. She becomes one again after the Amazons Attack!, where she is punished for her hand in the death of thousands in Washington D.C., and is punished to serve alone on Themyscira as it's only resident as penance and to rebuild Amazon culture from the ground up.
  • In Trial of The Amazons Hippolyta attempts to form a bond with Yara Flor, the woman she had previously sent assassins after. Yara herself is trying to make up for nearly instigating war between The Esquecida and The Bana-Mighdall, to do better as the ambassador Gaboymila sent her to Themyscira to be, so the two end up hitting it off quite well after an awkward start.
• Ax-Crazy: When she's written badly or lets her wrathful temper get the best of her, most famously in Amazons Attack!. It's noted during her tenure as Wonder Woman when she fought with only a sword instead of a lasso and was described as more conscientious, less warlike, and considerate of civilians than Artemis, but less pacifistic and merciful than Diana considering she had no code against killing and didn’t think twice about chopping off a man’s arm to disarm him.
• Breaking the Fourth Wall: "The Impossible Day, which would retroactively become the first of a series of Silver Age Impossible Tales'' that explicitly had nothing to do with the "main" stories of DC Comics, has Hippolyta entering the scene with fan mail that is demanding an explanation to a question Diana can't answer. Hippolyta and Diana proceed to edit a movie at super speed and use the footage to please the readers, even though being a fictional story in a fictional story means it still fails to answer anything.
• Can't Catch Up: Post Crisis Hippolyta tries to keep serving as Wonder Woman after Diana returns to the role, but Diana orders Hippolyta to go into hiding when Imperiex probes touch down on Earth, arguing that Hippolyta simply isn't powerful enough to handle them even while using artifacts like her girdle to bolster her abilities. Diana is proven correct and Hippolyta dies in action, but Hippolyta does die saving several civilians.
• Cerebus Retcon: On the Golden Age Earth Two Hippolyte lead a Legion Of sky kanga cavalry against Valhalla and defeated the defending Valkyries, who were attacking Allied Nations in favor of Axis Powers and had kidnapped Diana by threatening Steve Trevor. They spare as many as they can and then proceed to negotiate terms with Odin before Gundra screws everything up. "DC Rebirth" changes this to Axis Agent Warmaster wanting revenge against The Amazons for slaughtering a company of Valkyrie without provocation, and while Diana suggests that the past may not have been so cut and dry, she has to acknowledge there may be some truth to the story, as Warmaster is directly descended from Gundra, who is a far more virtuous figure in the Rebirth continuity.
• Clothes Make the Superman: Pre Crisis, Hippolyta has a girdle that renders the amazon nation unconquerable as long as she keeps it on. Post Crisis though, all it does is increase Hippolyta's strength. This Post Crisis alteration makes Hippolyta similar to the Wonder Woman from the 1970s television show when she is forced back into the past and ends up retroactively becoming Wonder Woman before Diana.
• Complaining About Rescues They Don't Like: Hippolyta was happy to be free of the cacodaemon world Circe had banished all of the amazons sans Diana and Donna to, but said she was disappointed Diana spent time helping them instead focusing on Diana's job as ambassador to the world of man. This was instigated by the cacodaemons tormenting Hippolyta with visions of the future, where Wonder Woman was going to die in battle, but since Hippolyta didn't share this information until much later, the other amazons just thought Hippolyta had either gone mad or was playing some kind of trick on her daughter.
• Dark and Troubled Past: Though it depends on the writer. Her past usually consists of being a Sex Slave.
• Designer Babies: In the Silver Age Hippolyta crafts two children out of clay, and only wanted one of them to look like her. Both children have the beauty of Aphrodite among their divine gifts but none the less look very different from each other, with long, straight black hair being the only phenotype trait Nubia shares with Diana. In Future State they don't even share that much, as Nubia's hair is much curlier in that take.
• Deus Exit Machina: During Lazarus Planet Hera has to remove the patrons goddess of the amazons before she can set about extirpating Themyscira and torturing Diana. This includes directing Hecate at the newly ascended Hippolyta.
• Did You Just Flip Off Cthulhu?: Has shown she's not afraid to mouth off to the Olympians, such as Zeus◊, when it comes to her daughter. Not just her own god either, as Hippolyta gets in the face of Doctor Fate during Infinite Frontier to voice her disapproval of the work he'd have Diana doing.
• Doting Parent: At the beginning of DC Infinite Frontier Hippolyta takes offense to being called "doting" but she is glomped by a returning Diana before she can voice it and soon proves to be exactly what she was called.
• Dream Weaver: During Infinite Frontier, Hippolyta gains the ability to manipulate huma subconciousness and dreams after becoming a goddess
• Foreshadowing: At the start of DC Infinite Frontier Hippolyta praises Diana for taking her rightful place among the gods, causing Diana to wonder if her mother is upset that Diana returned to her mortal life.Turns out Hippolyta had plans to become patron goddess of the amazons herself if for whatever reason Diana didn't have the desire or vision to.
• Full-Frontal Assault: The established history of Themyscira in George Perez's run shows that Hippolyta fought in the nude when she led the Amazons into fighting back against Hercules's oppression.
• Good Is Not Nice: During Infinite Frontier she learns there is a powerful demigoddess on Earth that Hera is seeking to turn into an immortal Living Weapon. She sends two assassins to Brazil to find and kill this person before that can happen. When they find no leads she asks Cassie Sandsmark to assist them, and while Sandsmark is eager avert a potential international incident, suggesting it might be possible to spare the target, she's annoyed by the request to comb an entire nation. Asking Hippolyta to be more specific gets Hippolyta to "clarify" that Brazil is somewhere on South America.
• Good Parents: When written right, Hippolyta is a caring, supportive mother to Diana.
• Has a Type: Hippolyta has two types. Polite, respectful but troubled {{Hunk}]s and stern, disciplined martially inclined women.
• The High Queen: The ruler of Themiscyra, who's held in awe.
• I Cannot Self-Terminate: The reason behind her death in Trial of the Amazons. She tasked Artemis with the duty of killing her in a gambit to ascend to godhood in hopes of uniting the tribes.
• Immortal Ruler: Is usually depicted as the first and only ruler of Paradise Island or Themyscira.
• It's All About Me: She can come off with this attitude when she gives demands, especially when she shirked her duties as Queen of Themyscira during her stint as Wonder Woman and derided any opposition to her choices which put her kingdom into an upcoming civil war.
• I Want Grandkids: Occasionally shows this inclination around Diana. Especially when Diana was in a relationship with Nemesis. Granted, this was during a time when Diana and Hippolyta were the only two Amazons left, which strongly influenced how they were thinking. And of course, Hippolyta was so desperate for a daughter that she moved the gods into miraculously creating Diana. Diana and Nubia in the Silver Age and Future State continuities.
• Keystone Army: Pre Crisis, The Amazons cannot be conquered as long as Hippolyte or Hippolyta is wearing her girdle. The moment Hippolyte's or Hippolyta's girdle is removed defeating the Amazon Nation becomes possible. This is inadvertently changed to an Upgrade Artifact on the Golden Age Earth Two when Priscilla Rich steals the girdle but all the women on Paradise Island, foreign athletes and amazons alike, collectively refuse to swear allegiance to Cheetah, causing all of its protection to be concentrated solely on the Cheetah, though Diana is still able to pull the girdle off of her after a little tussle and return it to Hippolyte.
• Lady of War: No matter what iteration of Polly is in play her past is always as a graceful but brutally dangerous leader of a people who fought in many wars during the Bronze Age.
• The Leader: Hippolyta was a born leader and strategist and is excellent in the arts of persuasion and diplomacy.
• Legacy Character: After Diana died and ascended to godhood, Post Crisis, Hippolyta became Wonder Woman in her place. She traveled back in time to fight alongside the Justice Society, long before Diana's time, making her kind of the first Wonder Woman and making Diana a legacy heroine herself. This time travel aspect of the legacy was ignored by subsequent writers even though it, among other things, finally solved the continuity snarl of Donna Troy because the events that lead up to the reveal were disliked^note The Diana dying explanation was punishment for Hippolyta's idiocy, and changing it to for her role in Amazons Attack! was even more disliked. Plus despite coming up with a way to reconcile Donna Troy's original origin and nature with the Post Crisis continuity John Byrne decided to rewrite Donna's origin and change her nature again anyway.. Then it was done away with when DC rebooted its history during the New 52.
• Mama Bear: When she's written right, Queen Hippolyta will gladly fight bow, sword, fist, tooth and nail for her daughter(s) and even adopted daughter Donna Troy.
  • Philippus apologized for having to restrain Hippolyta for putting her daughter ahead of the island but Hippolyta didn't give Phillippus the chance, beating Philippus into the dirt and rushing into Doom's Doorway to join Diana on what Zeus wanted to be an individual mission to serve as Diana's penance.
  • She willingly teamed up with a male and trusted him to displace them from their own time period to stop Dark Angel from destroying Donna Troy's history.
  • She presented a deconstruction of the trope when she manipulated Wonder Woman into giving up her title and sacrificing an unknowing and loyal Artemis to prevent a prophecy about her daughter's death as Wonder Woman from coming true.
• Manipulative Bastard: During DC's Bronze Age Hippolyta increasingly became unnecessarily controlling of everyone on Paradise Island and of Diana in particular, to the point she extracted and hid Diana's own memories from her. This was a result of writers not realizing "The Impossible Tales", where this sort of behavior first manifested in Hippolyta, were meant to be jokes that had no bearing on the main DC stories.^note Robert Kanigher stopped labeling the Impossible Tales/Wonder Woman Family side stories as such, figuring everyone had come to recognize that they did not count. He severely overestimated his readers and coworkers alike. This character trait of hers was significantly toned down, Post Crisis. Hippolyta still winds up punished for her scheming by her gods and fellow amazons alike on three separate occassions, however.
• Minidress of Power: She was depicted as the Golden Age Wonder Woman in some modern stories starting with Wonder Woman (1987), and "returning" to the role. She usually was depicted wearing a skirt.
• Mirror World: During DC Rebirth, Hippolyta creates a mirror world, or at least creates a portal to one called "Dimension Chi" by playing with a mirror that reflects choices Hippolyta never made. Where Queen Hippolyta took the amazons into isolation on Themyscira Empress Hippolyta used Themyscira as the capitol of her world conquering empire. When Queen Hippolyta wanted a child she was given clay she molded into a daughter where Empress Hippolyta cast the clay back into the ocean...and then kidnapped Diana!
• Mythology Gag
  • When Diana goes missing during "Infinite Frontier" following Perpetua's invasion, Hippolyta trolls a group of her subjects fighting over the right to be the substitute Wonder Woman by declaring that only by staring into a box containing the severed head of Medusa and not turning to stone can a woman prove herself worthy. Nubia takes the bait and finds a crown in the box, as Hippolyta never had any intention of letting anyone but herself serve as Wonder Woman and departs from the island while leaving Nubia in charge. This is a reference to her "Post Crisis" stint as Wonder Woman both being a "punishment" for far more serious misbehavior and her refusal to give it up and let someone else do it once her time had been served. Infinite Frontier shows Hippolyta is all too happy to stop filling in for Diana, however little she trusts anyone else to do so.
  • Artemis Wanted sees Hippolyta become the patron goddess of all three amazon tribes. As a goddess she later interrupts The Wizard Shazam when he tries to get Billy and Mary Batson to share his gifts by saying Mary will no longer get second hand treatment. This is in reference to the original Fawcett Comics before DC acquired Captain Marvel, when Hippolyta was among the people who empowered Mary Marvel. Something that had been lost in the previous DC continuities when they decided to integrate Captain Marvel/SHAZAM.
• Parents as People: She was very obstinate when asked to give up the mantle of Wonder Woman by her daughter since she enjoyed the freedom and adventure that she experienced and wanted to follow her dreams instead of being tied down as a queen and mother. It became so extreme she forced the position of rulers unto her daughters so she could continue playing the superhero, despite being consistently warned her own kingdom was approaching civil war and unrest without firm leadership.
• Perma-Shave: Post Crisis, Hippolyta engages in a two day or longer duel with Saturnette that results in Hippolya developing a tan under the intense sunlight of the Sonoran Desert. Her legs and arm pits remain bare, however.
• Purple Is Powerful: Hippolyta is often seen wearing purple in George Perez's run and Rebirth.
• Rank Scales with Asskicking: She is the queen of the Amazons, so you have to expect she'd be just as badass as the others. Her sister Antiope is of this opinion, warning that Diana will soon be bossing Hippolyta around on the basis Diana was becoming a better fighter...though Hippolyta remains in charge despite this.
• Royals Who Actually Do Something: She isn't above getting her hands dirty (and, in the Post Crisis comics continuity, was Wonder Woman during World War II).
• Sex Slave: In her backstory she was once enslaved by the demi-god Heracles (sent by Ares in his war against Athena) along with her people for his sexual desires. Athena freed Hippolyta on the condition that she would not seek revenge, but Heracles escaped despite half of them disregarding this order.
• Inconsistent Spelling: On the "Golden Age" Earth Two Diana's mother is named Hippolyte, which is just an alternate way of translating Hippolyta from ancient Greek. It is nonetheless the easiest way of telling her apart from her "Silver Age" Earth One counterpart, after their different hair colors.
• Significant Monogram: In Greek "Dimension Chi" would come out to "DX", which denotes infintismal variation in calculus. Hippolyta's Dimension Chi counterpart doesn't go so far off the rails as to abandon her throne while Hippolyta still sits on it on the other side of the mirror, but the Dimension Chi Themyscira ends up radically different due to the choices she makes within the confines. In English "Dimension Chi" is "DC'', so it still works.
• Stable Time Loop: It is later revealed in the Secret Files of the pre-52 Post-Crisis Wonder Woman series that Hippolyta's punishment to serve as Wonder Woman after her hand in her daughter's death actually caused her to be sent back in time in the 1940s to serve as the first Wonder Woman, which inspired Steve Trevor's mother to start her flight which led her to fight and die on Themyscira culminating in her American colors being used for Wonder Woman's costume, inspired Steve Trevor to become a pilot and land on Themyscira in the first place, and start the events that would lead to her daughter becoming Wonder Woman in the first place. Hippolyta's tenure also inspired the legacy of Wonder Girl by first inspiring Donna and Cassandra to bear the title. Chronologically speaking, Hippolyta kicked off the entire Wonder Woman legacy Post Crisis.
• Staff of Authority: Hippolyta is often seen carrying a long, golden scepter with winged creature on its crown.
• Straw Hypocrite: Post Crisis she tears into Diana for spending too much time fighting to save individual lives instead of cosulting the leaders of the world, while propping up Artemis of Bana-Mighdall, who has no negotiation skills and a much stronger violent streak than Diana. Artemis herself knows things don't add up but has too much of an ego to consider she's a pawn in the games Hippolyta is playing.
• Strong Family Resemblance: Diana gets her looks from her. This is Depending on the Artist as sometimes Hippolyta is depicted with blonde hair instead of black like her daughter.
• Super-Strength: All of DC's amazons have a degree of this, but Post Crisis Hippolyta's girdle boosts hers to the point she's the strongest of the amazons while wearing it, initially. By Our Worlds At War Hippolyta is far behind Diana even with the girdle's boost and Diana makes it clear Hippolyta can't survive fights with Imperiex Probes. In the Rebirth continuity, starting with Infinite Frontier, strength becomes Hippolyta's most notable attribute after she becomes patron goddess of the amazons, to put her in line with Golden Age Hippolyta who empowered Mary Marvel in the SHAZAM comic books.
• Thanatos Gambit: In the events of and leading up to Trial of the Amazons, she has her death planned out, assigning the task to Artemis, in hopes of ascending to goddesshood and uniting the Amazonian tribes.
• Truly Single Parent: In most continuities Hippolyta created Diana with her own artistry and love, though an argument could be made for Aphrodite being Diana's second bio-mother as Hippolyta could not have brought Diana to life without the goddess.
• Victory by Endurance: Post Crisis Hippolyta and Artemis team up against Duke Mephisto Saturno and Saturnette. While Artemis defeats Saturno by evicting him from the Earth, Hippolyta takes the opposite approach by drawing Saturnette to the Sonoran Desert and dueling her until Saturnette collapses. This takes days to accomplish and Hippolyta is shown to have developed a tan!
• Walking the Earth: Hippolyta was already regularly disciplining herself in the forests of Themyscira for most likely sending Artemis to her death. When Diana finds out and reprimands Hippolyta for it, Hippolyta leaves the island altogether out of shame and guilt.
• What the Hell, Hero?: Post Crisis, Hippolyta became upset after hearing what while the amazons had been fighting for their lives in a cacodaemon realm Diana had been kidnapped by aliens, served food at a fast food restaurant, worked for a low level private investigator and figured out how to move Themyscira back to its original location, declaring Diana had been slacking off in her duties as the island's ambassador to the world of man. Even Artemis of Bana-Mighdall, who instantly started off on the wrong foot with Diana, thought Hippolyta couldn't possibly be serious and must be playing some kind of game.(Hippolyta was, but Artemis ended up being a pawn in it anyway)
• You Can't Fight Fate: Post Crisis, Hippolyta's vision of Wonder Woman dying was accurate, but her attempts to prevent it from coming true just resulted in two Wonder Women dying. It was ultimately up to the goddess Athena to find a loophole that gave Wonder Woman a fighting chance at not being killed by some demon.

Mala

Mala

First Appearance: All-Star Comics #8 (1941)

Created By: William Moulton Marston · Harry G. Peter

Universes: Earth-One, Earth-Two, New Earth, Prime Earth

Mala is a competitive and athletic Amazon who has competed every time there is a competition to see which Amazon will represent their people in the outside world. She has come in second to Diana every time but holds no resentment towards the princess and is supportive of her mission.
Her chosen duty is on Transformation Island, working with the inmates to try to improve their actions to a more moral set.

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• Always Second Best: While she usually leads the competition through some sections, actually outperforming Diana, she always comes in second in the end. Except when Artemis competed which pushed Mala even further back in the field of competitors.
• Badass in Distress: She's been captured before, but this doesn't work out well for her captors as Mala is even stronger and more skilled than the average stronger-than-human, well-trained Amazon.
• Childhood Friends: (Golden-Age) Mala and Diana were some of the very few children on Paradise Island when they were growing up and became fast friends who've been fiercely competitive with each other since they were quite young.
• Deprogram: (Golden-Age) The poor women Paula von Gunther brainwashed into her enslaved operatives were taken to Reformation Island in order for Mala to oversee trying to make them functional on their own again, and capable of making their own choices and such. Her efforts are shown to be partially successful.
• Fight Clubbing: In the underground Themysciran fighting ring called the Victor's Circle, Mala holds the record for the most victories by TKO.
• Hair of Gold: A competitor who enjoys seeing her competition win and is completely supportive of them.

Donna Troy

Wonder Girl I / Troia / Darkstar / Wonder Woman IV

Donna as Troia

AKA: Donna Troy

First Appearance: Brave and the Bold #60. (1965)

Created By: Bob Haney · Bruno Premiani

Universes: New Earth, Prime Earth, DCAMU, Earth-1, Earth-16, Earth-21, Earth-22, Earth-462, Earth-496, Earth 2, Super Best Friends Forever, Tiny Titans, Bombshells, DC Universe Online, LEGO Batman, Teen Titans Go!, Batman: The Brave and the Bold, DC One Million, The New Order, The Legend of Wonder Woman

Donna Troy's past is... complicated. But basically, she's Diana's sister. She is known for being a sweet woman and a good listener, but she's faced much tragedy and a tangled past in her life. She was originally Wonder Girl of the Teen Titans, and now she forges her own path as simply Donna Troy. Comes equipped with the same bracelets as her sister, and a lasso that can override the mind of its victim, provided that Donna's will is stronger than their own.

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• See Wonder Girl: Donna Troy

Nubia

Nubia/Nu'bia/Wonder Woman of the Floating Isle/Carolyn Hamilton/Zahavah

Accept nothing less.

First Appearance: Wonder Woman Volume 1 #204. (1973)

Created By: Robert Kanigher · Don Heck

Universes: Earth-One, New Earth, Prime Earth, Earth 23, Earth-1, Wonder Woman (1975), Historia

"And I am Wonder Woman."

— Nubia, Wonder Woman, Nubia: Future State

Diana of Themyscira's twin sister, molded from dark clay instead of Diana's light.

Created by Robert Kanigher and Don Heck, Nubia first appeared in 1973 in Wonder Woman #204. In it, she was a mysterious stranger fully clad in armor who challenged Diana for the title of Wonder Woman, as there can be only one. Originally envisioned as Wonder Woman's twin sister, formed through the same methods and at the same time as Diana but stolen as an infant by Ares and raised to oppose her Themysciran sisters. In the decades since, she was usually portrayed as just another Amazon, if she showed up at all and on Earth 23 she is Wonder Woman.

In the New Earth continuity Nu'bia is the guardian of Doom's Doorway and vary rarely sees her Themysciran fellows as she has spent decades rigorously guarding the door from its far side.

Nubia made a resurgence in 2021, being the title character of her own YA graphic novel and backup story in Immortal Wonder Woman, both written by L. L. McKinney of A Blade So Black fame.

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Nubia appears in:

Comic Books:

• Wonder Woman Vol 1 (1973-1985)
• Wonder Woman Vol 2 (1999-2002)
• Wonder Woman Vol 5 (2019-ongoing)
• Nubia and The Amazons (2021-2022)
• Trial of the Amazons (2022)
• Nubia: Queen of the Amazons (2022)
• Amazons Attack Vol 2 (2023)

Elseworlds

• Final Crisis (2009) Earth 23
• Wonder Woman '77 (1977-2017)
• Wonder Woman: Earth One (2016) Earth 1
• Wonder Woman: Black and Gold (2021)
• Nubia: Future State (2021)
• Nubia: Real One (2021)
• Wonder Woman Historia: The Amazons

Live Action TV:

• Wonder Woman (1975) (1977-2017) played by Jayne Kennedy

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Tropes associated with Nubia include:

• Adaptational Nationality: Infinite Frontier Nubia was initially a mortal woman from Madagascar named Zahavah, who had been betrayed and murdered by her lieutenant, who went on to kill the rest of her family. It was running on the theme similar to "Post Crisis", that the Amazons had been murdered women reborn to serve the Greek Pantheon. Infinite Frontier had her spring from "the well of souls" at the same time Diana was born, in an attempt to make her as close to being Diana's sister, as she was in the "Silver Age", without contradicting the then newest continuity.
• Adaptational Sexuality: There is no evidence that Nubia was anything but heterosexual in the Silver Age, Bronze Ange and Post Crisis continuities but as of DC Rebirth she's strongly implied to be homosexual. As of DC Rebirth, she's officially bisexual, first starting a family with a loving husband but then pursuing women after that had was brought to a violent end.
• Adaptational Weapon Swap: In her original incarnation, Nubia used a magic sword. Her DC Rebirth portrayal has her using the Staff of Understanding which can transform into a bladed lasso.
• Awesome Moment of Crowning: In "DC Infinite Friontier" Nubia is among a group of Themyscira Amazons brawling with each other to decide who will substitute for Diana as "Wonder Woman" while the Quintessence are trying to get Diana to Ascend to a Higher Plane of Existence. Hippolyta decides simplify things with a less violent, more orderly contest which Nubia wins, but instead of awarding her the title and job of "Wonder Woman", Hippolyta thinks Nubia's talents are better served as queen of Themyscira, and Hippolyta herself decides to venture out into "Man's World".
• Affirmative-Action Legacy
  • Pre Crisis, Nubia is the second Wonder Woman, and the first black person to have the mantle (some later continuties have Phillipus substitute for Diana). Technically speaking, Nubia is the disputed Wonder Woman, and the actual second Wonder Woman comes five years later in the form of another white woman, Orana, but Orana cheats for the title, gets herself killed on day one, and Diana comes to recocille with Nubia after the curse of Ares that causes them to fight is removed.
  • Played straighter in DC Future State, where Nubia and Yara Flor explicitly succeed Diana as Wonder Woman while Diana is absent. Defied in DC Infinite Frontier, however, as Nubia's attempt to fill in for Diana is blocked by Hippolyta. Hippolyta has no idea Nubia is motivated in part from wanting to be accepted by the wider world, that Nubia hasn't recovered mentally from being rejected for first time in her centuries of existence for being black, but Nubia does get to start finding the acceptance she craves as Themyscira's Queen, since Hippolyta leaves Nubia the throne.
• Anti-Climax: The Rebirth Return of The Amazons two parter ends with Grail giving Diana the Sadistic Choice of Themyscira or Isadore Kale's life, Diana backing down only for Nubia to spear Grail In the Back, ending Grail's reign.
• Artifact of Doom
  • "Silver Age" Nubia wore a ring, which she didn't realize had been "blessed" by Mars to make the wearer hate Diana.
  • "Future State" Nubia wears Oshun's crown...which turns out to be half of a key that can unlock the prison of very angry and homicidal gods.
• Artificial Family Member: In Pre-Crisis, Nubia was created the same way Diana was and was Hippolyta's second daughter.
• Ass Kicking Leads To Leadership: During DC Infinite Fromtier Faruka II comes to Themyscira challenging Nubia's rule as queen, but aims to take it by suckering Nubia into a wager "secretly" stacked against her rather than try to fight Nubia, as Faruka openly if spitefully admits to respecting the decades/centuries Nubia spent guarding Doom's Doorway. However, between unexpected misdeeds of Faruka's own tribes women and Nubia's actions in defense of Themyscira against them and a flat out divine invader, Faruka II becomes so impressed and grateful that she declares Nubia Queen of "both" amazon tribes. Nubia tries to reject it but ends up crowned queen of all three amazon tribes anyway.
• Black Viking: When she first appeared, Nubia was the only black Amazon and all the other Amazons were white women. Since the George Perez reboot, there have been more Amazon of diverse ethnicities.
• Braids of Action: While chasing The Manticore in Chicago she happened to have her hair braided. She successfully cornered and defeated the beast too.
• Breast Plate: Her original costume was a fully covering suit of armor, though the breasts were impractically molded to her form. Her subsequent costumes and armor tend to cover as much or less than a bathing suit and either have a random hole over her stomach or have the metal there be so tightly molded to her that it's astounding she can breath or move at all. Her Rebirth redesing of her first armor undoes this, though it now leaves her legs bare, seemingly as a tradeoff.
• Captured Super-Entity: In Post Crisis DC The Antigod Ahriman actually defeats mono god Ahura Mazda, but before Angra Mainyu can get about with flooding the world full of evil Nubia nearly kills him in revenge, as Ahura Mazda was her boyfriend, and takes him captive with the goal of either finishing the execution, using him to ressurect Ahura Mazada, or both.
• Cerebus Retcon: More so a tone shifting revision. During the start of DC Infinite Frontier, Nubia's desire to substitute for Diana is presented from a comical angle, showcasing how brutal Themyscira's society can be for all of their artsy fartsy ways and scientific pursuits. The Nubia Coronation Special reveals that Nubia had very personal reasons for wanting to fill in for Diana, and puts the fierceness with which for fought for the right in an entirely new light.
• Changeling Tale: (Earth-One) She was stolen by Ares rather than the fey, and not replaced, but her tale remains the same. Taken from her family and raised as something she's not, only to learn as an adult she's actually an Amazon and has a twin sister.
• Character Focus: Headlining her own stories for the first time in the five decades since her introduction allows Nubia some organic growth of her own.
• Combat Pragmatist: Rebirth shows Nubia to be a proud athlete who finds good clean fights fun. But when lives are on the line Nubia will gladly gang up on the enemy while they aren't looking and lie about it. Lethal force as a last resort and preserving the troops at all costs will be her only reservations.
• Cosmic Retcon: DC Rebirth gave Nubia her saddest origins yet as a woman who had been taken captive, then repeatedly beaten and raped by a man until she died. The events that lead to Infinite Frontier altered the time stream, with Nubia experiencing some of the most dramatic changes to her past. Now she was the proud hunter, princess and general Zahavah up until the moment of her death when she was betrayed and slain by her own Lieutenent, Azariah, who took issue with Zahavah sparing the prince of enemy kingdom Aridai on the grounds she did not kill children.
• Darkest Africa: How the Floating Island is portrayed in Wonder Woman #205 - full of black men in headdresses and plant skirts.
• Deadly Gaze: Her Post-Crisis counterpart could turn people to stone, a power that was gifted to her by the Gorgons.
• Defeat Means Friendship: DC Infinite Frontier sees Medusa's ghost escapes through Doom's Doorway and start haunting Themyscira. Nubia offers Medusa her severed head back in exchange that she stop possessing amazons. Medusa uses the head to restore her body, but then decides to continue her attack anyway. In the ensuing fight Io's "Staff Of Understanding" doesn't just allow Nubia to beat Medusa, it lets her beat Athena's gorgon curse out of Medusa, at which point Medusa decides to become an amazon and serve Nubia.
• Dreadlock Warrior: Post Crisis, Nu'Bia tended to wear dreadlocks, though she would tie them up if she was getting ready for a fight.
• Divine Date: Post Crisis Nu'bia found and frequently dated "mono god" Ahura Mazda on the otherside of Doom's Door, traveling through several "worlds of light and darkness" with him.
• '80s Hair: In the Silver Age Nubia has this look about a decade before the nineteen eighties, and given the Floating Ilse are constantly obscured by fog it would either have to naturally grow that way or she'd need some supernatural hair care products! "Rebirth" very briefly brings back her classic look before it and "Future State" lean into it even harder, giving Nubia her biggest hairdo yet and making it far less relaxed to the point it's almost a giant Afro puff. Themyscira seems to have some super strength relaxing agent as well in DC Rebirth, as Nubia's hair suddenly becomes much straighter during her coronation ceremony, and even then it starts curling again as she's dunked in the Hotsprings Of Gaia.
• Emotional Bruiser: During the silver age, the warlike lifestyle Ares was trying to impose on her island would drive Nubia to tears if she stopped to think about it. But that wouldn't stop her from fighting against it to maintain order.
• Engagement Challenge: Nubia fights one of the other Floating Islanders for her own hand in marriage in Wonder Woman #205.
• Fake Defector: When Grail decides to put herself on Hippolyta's throne, Nubia openly sides with the invader with the long term goal of overthrowing Grail when Grail's guard is down.
• Fight Clubbing: She holds the record for most knockout victories within the secret fighting ring on Themyscira called the Victor's Circle.
• Fire-Forged Friends: In DC Infinite Frontier Nubia respects Queen Faruka II and The Bana-Mighdall tribe from the start, but she can't stand Faruka from a social standpoint or to be around most of Faruka's tribeswomen for any extended amount of time, concluding they've been corrupted by man's world. Faruka II in turn respects Nubia as a warrior who competently defended Doom's Doorway, but sees her as a weak politician who will be easy to goad into ruin. Between both of them grieving the losses of loved ones, in Hippolyta and Atalanta, and fighting alongside one another in defense of Themyscira they do become legitimate friends.
• Flying Brick: L. L. McKinney stated in an interview she restored Nubia's powerset, which was equal to Diana's with a few tweaks. While Diana didn't have true flight in the "Silver Age", she does in both the "Future State" and "Rebirth" continuities, and as such Nubia has flight, super strength and nigh-invulnerability in both lines. Infinite Frontier Nubia needs some extra equipment to truly keep up with Diana and the Wonder Girls, but is otherwise a league above the other amazons.
• Front Line General: Downplayed, as Zahavah is seen commmanding her army from the rear. When they reached the capitol of the enemy nation however she sprinted to the front lines to directly engage the enemy and ensure she would be the one to execute their king.
• Genre Savvy: Post Crisis, she's read enough about the Greek Gods to know they put Doom's Doorway on Themyscira to entertain themselves and guarded it from the "wrong" direction specifically to stop it from being a source of drama on the island. After two cosmic retcons, however, this plan stops working, and then Nubia falls back into the Genre Blindness of sticking to the rules with the expectation the gods will too.
• Harp of Femininity: She learned to play a lyre to pass the time guarding Doom's Doorway.
• Healing Shiv: During Trial Of The Amazons Nubia quickly smacks several amazons of The Bana-Mighdall tribe who had been turned against their Queen, Faruka II, by a Hate Plague. She smacks them in their heads with the blade of her lasso, but the Black Blood is not for censorship, but to show a healing process is at work, purging the influence of Chaos. Nubia assures Faruka her subjects will not only recover from the blows but that their minds will be restored.
• Helmets Are Hardly Heroic: In the Silver Age Nubia is introduced covered head toe in armor that conceals all of her features solely to disguise the fact that she is dark skinned. Once it is revealed she is black Nubia remains bareheaded throughout the rest of her appearances. Averted with Zahavah in DC Rebirth however, as she keeps her helmet on in battle, though Zahavah's doesn't completely conceal her face the way the Silver Age helmet did.
• Hero of Another Story: When she was Nu'Bia in the post crisis, pre flashpoint continuity she led a life of adventure all her own, which included gaining the power of the stone gaze from the Gorgons and becoming the lover to the Zoroastrian god of light, Ahura Mazda.
• Horse of a Different Color: As of DC Infinite Frontier she didn't live a mundane life even as the mortal Zahavah. Her kingdom on Madagascar bred rather large saber toothed cheetah and horned zebras to ride.
• Hotter and Sexier: After the Silver Age, every subsequent contuity tends to dress Nubia in something more revealing than her full plate armors. Zigzagged With DC Infinite Frontier, as Zahavah tends to keep her helmet on when wearing a variation of Nubia's Silver Age armor but has no plating on her legs.
• Human Weapon: In the Silver Age Ares/Mars intended for the humans of slaughter island in general and Nubia in particular to be weapons that would annihilate the amazons.
• I Want My Beloved to Be Happy: Rebirth Nubia has romantic feelings for Hippolyta, but Hippolyta is too much of a mother figure in Nubia's mind to act on them. This is why Nubia is a subtle but determined Shipper on Deck for Philippus and Hippolyta, as Nubia feels someone should be giving Hippolyta what she deserves. After Hippolyta surprises Nubia by naming her Themyscira's new queen Nubia plans to use her new found authority to force them to spend more time being a happy couple, but circumstances keep foiling Queen Nubia's plans.
• Kind Hearted Cat Lover:
  • She does let one thing pass from Doom's Doorway to Themyscira freely in DC Rebirth: an ordinary black cat. As queen the animal has free reign of the island, and it takes full advantage because it doesn't get along with Nubia's lover, Io.
  • In her past life in Infinite Frontier as Zahavah, she had a sabertoothed cheetah that helped her hunt...and once ate her family's dinner.
• Knows the Ropes: In "Future State" she finds the lasso of truth Diana lost and puts it to use in the same manner Diana did. In "DC Infinite Frontier" Nubia instead boxes the lasso up and puts it away until Diana comes back, but Io's "Staff Of Understanding" can turn into a bladed lasso when Nubia wills it to.
• Legacy Character: In "DC Future State" she becomes Wonder Woman in Yara Flor's absence, after Flor herself took the title in Diana's absence. Ultimately Diana does return.
• Long-Lost Relative: When she was first introduced, Nubia was Diana's long lost fraternal twin. In the "Future State" continuity she is presented as this once again, though there is a strong implication they are no longer twins.
• Meaningful Name: "Nubia" refers to a region in present-day Egypt and Sudan that was inhabited by people of Black African descent. Naturally, Nubia herself is Black like the region's inhabitants. Infinite Frontier places her far away from the Mediterranean though, as Zahavaha originates from Madagascar. This gives one the impression that the amazons of "Rebirth/Infinite Frontier" Themyscira just saw a black woman and called her the first thing that came to mind.
• Mythology Gag
  • While The Quintessence are trying to recruit Diana into their ranks at the start of "Infinite Frontier" Nubia is seen fighting with two other Amazons for the right to succeed Diana, since no one knows where she is. Hippolyta decides to settle things by forcing them to stare into a box containing the severed head of Medusa, proclaiming only someone truly selfless won't be turned to stone. Every Amazon except Nubia chickens out at the challenge...only for it to be revealed Hippolyta was bluffing and had hidden the gorgon's head where no one would be able to find it. This is a reference to Nubia fighting Diana for the title of "Wonder Woman" in the "Silver Age" and "Post Crisis" Nu'Bia having "cold sight" that let her turn people to stone, gifted to her by the gorgons.
  • During her coronation ceremony in Infinite Frontier Nubia is dunked in the Hotsprings of Gaea, which cause her to flashback all the way from her mortal life as Zahavah to her time guarding Doom's Doorway to her first return to "Man's World" as an Amazon. As the scenes cut she is seen where variations of her outfits from The Silver Age and Post Crisis continuties would match the time frame, despite being in completely different situations.
• Only One Name: In the "main" comic books Nubia has no last name in her non-Wonder Woman identities that we know of. Some miniseries give her the civilian last name "Hamilton".
• Parental Abandonment: We're told Hippolyta is her mother in the Future State continuity but not told why her mother has not been part of her life. In this tale Nubia grew up away from Themyscira, and it is said that at least some amazons considered Themyscira a lost cause after an invasion from the Dark Matter Multiverse, so it might have been for her safety...but this would make Nubia MUCH younger than her sister.
• Power Crystal: More like power stone, but The Staff of Understanding Io forged has a rock Hestia, Demeter and Athena all blessed inside of it, which is why the weapon can be used to help undo the Gorgon curse Athena put on Medusa.
• Pragmatic Hero: In Infinite Frontier Nubia didn't just remove Medusa's curse out of compassion or pity, but because it's a lot safer to interrogate Medusa as a human than a gorgon. Medusa becoming a productive, law abiding citizen was deemed worth her lack of useful information regarding monsters more easily escaping through Dooms Doorway, however.
• Precursor Heroes: Post-Crisis Nubia was the Amazons' champion before Diana was born. She was tasked with guarding Doom's Doorway and decided the best way to do so was from the other side to make sure nothing escaped. She was presumed dead by her fellow Amazons until her return.
• Privately Owned Society: In Infinite Frontier this is her opinion of society outside of Themyscira. After hearing of court cases where corporations could be considered people but their victims under circumstances could not, Nubia starts to consider "Man's World" an outdated term, but has yet to come up with anything as catchy.
• Punctuation Shaker: Technically the "Post Crisis" Amazon is named "Nu'Bia"
• Rank Scales with Asskicking: As Queen of Themyscira Nubia is the "just because it drives the narrative" version of "authority eqauls ass kicking". She was kicking the asses of two other amazons prior to being crowned queen, but the three women weren't fighting to be queen but ambassador, and Nubia isn't crowned queen for her ability to punch faces, but for her selflessness. Nonetheless, the fact Nubia's ass isn't as kickable as Hippolyta's leads those seeking to take Nubia's throne, such as Faruka II, to try to take it through wagers and subterfuge.
• Rescue Romance: While hunting The Manticore in "The Patriarch's World' Nubia rescued Chicago school teacher "Miss Knight" twice, and then fell in love with her. Their relationship could not last, as Nubia had to get back to guarding Doom's Doorway. Miss Knight is reborn as through Themyscria's well of souls, one of the first to follow Nubia in over a hundred years, as the amazon Andromeda, but by Andromeda's arrival Nubia started another relationship with Io.
• Royals Who Actually Do Something
  • As Zahavah, that "something" was "kill". She wasn't just a princess but also a hunter, a general, and an executioner.
  • As Queen Nubia does not just go on diplomatic trips to the nations of "The Patriarch's World" but even visits countries on other planets via "The Hecatess". Nubia is also willing to personally restrain amazons who act up and throw down when trouble comes to the island. Nubia personally takes part in investigating the False Flag Operation that has turned Canada and The United States against the newly unified Amazon Nation in Amazons Attack volume 2.
• Scary Minority Suspect: In DC Infinite Frontier, Nubia's memories of man's world came from Madagascar in antiquity, where pretty much everyone was black and she was royalty and military. While Themyscira does develop emnity with a largely brown skinned tribe, Nubia spent most of her time as an amazon guarding Doom's Doorway, which has granted her nigh universal respect among both tribes. Nubia's completely unprepared for operating in a society where her physical apperance is a problem, just barely grasps the concept of profiling and never thought she herself would ever be so far down a social ladder to be assumed a criminal, even in a foreign nation. Martian Manhunter, an alien, albeit a mind reading alien all too familiar with apperance fueled schisms on his homeworld, has to lecture Nubia while impersonating a black lieutentant before she finally starts to get it, and it still takes Nubia decades to come to terms with this blow to her self esteem. So much so Nubia is later surprised when Diana makes first contant with barely humanoid life on the planet Eiereni and tells her they prefer Nubia to Diana when two tribes of Eiereni decide they want to engage more with amazons. Both Diana and the alien tribes are oblivious as to why this surprises Nubia, given she's since become queen of Themyscira.
• Separated at Birth: Nubia's original origin restored by L. L. McKinney, at least in Future State and her YA comic. She and Diana were twins and as a baby, Nubia was stolen away.
• Sibling Rivalry: The Silver Age Nubia was Diana's rival to the title of Wonder Woman, though being siblings was only part of the reason. The main driving forces were the different islands they grew up on, and Ares's influence on Nubia's island in particular.
• Spirited Competitor: When Hippolyta was queen of Themyscira she took her council's advice and denied Antiope's request for an official fighting ring. When Nubia ascended to the throne and new amazons started rising from Themyscira's well of souls for the first time in over a hundred of years, Nubia insisted on fighting the new comers in the victor's circle Antiope "secretly" constructed anyway, even though such behavior was considered beneath a queen. Nubia insisted they be tested and trained as needed beforehand, as she didn't want things to be too easy for her.
• Spock Speak: Nubia is far more formal and verbose than Diana in the "Silver Age" and "Post Crisis" continuities. Rebirth Nubia still speaks more formally than Diana and most other amazons, but is much more laconic than the previous two takes.
• Teleporters and Transporters: "Post Crisis" Nu'Bia could travel between different continents, worlds and planes of existence through gateways projected from her armor...her lion insignia armor.
• The High King: After Trial of The Amazons, Faruka II decides Nubia has earned the right to be queen of all amazons and Potira agrees. Following Nubia Coronation Special, Nubia leaves Philippus in charge of Themyscira while Nubia ventures out to address the issues the Bana-Mighdall and Esquecida are facing in the patriarch's world. Nubia's first stop is a rally against illegal logging in the Amazon Rainforest.
• The Rival: Post Crisis, Nu'Bia is initially a little standoffish with Diana, but this is significantly less hostile than Nubia was when under the influence of Mars in the previous continuity. During Infinite Frontier Nubia's rival is Faruka II, who it is implied had a contentious relationship with Nubia before they became queens of two rival tribes.
• There Can Be Only One: The plot surrounding Diana and Nubia's first meeting in the Silver Age. Nubia was Wonder Woman of the Floating Island and challenged Diana, Wonder Woman of Paradise Island, to a series of contests to determine who the one and only Wondy really was.
• Thou Shalt Not Kill
  • Not even wearing a mind altering ring cursed by the god of war himself could make Silver Age Nubia take a human life, and she would have rather not killed anything ever if she could help it. This is why Nubia and Diana never had a decisive victory over the other, as they were both too squemish about killing and ended up wrestling to stalemates.
  • This, moreso than the stated reason of "selflessness", was why Hippolyta selected Nubia to ascend to the throne of Theymscira in her place. Nubia was the queen most likely to send Artemsis to Transformation Island instead of executing her in the event Artemis proved sloppy enough to get caught assassinating Hippolyta, which Artemis indeed was.
• Took a Level in Kindness: Zahavah cut down her enemies without a second thought, only staying her hand when there were children in her path. Nubia prefers to restrain her foes if she can avoid cutting them.
• 24-Hour Armor: In the Silver Age Nubia is the only woman on the floating island that wears armor and the only times she is shown without armor on are flashbacks to her childhood.
• Unrelated in the Adaptation: There's been about as many Nubia incarnations that aren't Diana's sister as there are where she is.
• War Refugees: Strongly implied to be this in DC Future State as it's said the amazons have neglected Themyscira following an invasion from The Dark Matter Multiverse and that Nubia has spent her formative years among mortals after settling in Atlanta Georgia.
• Weapon of Mass Destruction: In the Silver Age The Floating Island has a volcanoe that will erupt on command, and the inhabitants can direct the rocks and lava towards their enemies. Even with the cursed ring on it takes extra coercion from Ares before Nubia is willing to use the eruptions offensively.
• Wonder Child: Her Pre-Crisis version. Desiring a child, a queen was instructed to mold two infants out of clay, and then these children were given life by a quartet of goddesses and a god.
• Wouldn't Hurt a Child: Zahavah was merciless when it came to dealing with the enemies of her kingdom, with the exception of children, which she swore not to harm.
• You Need to Get Laid: During the first night of hosting the two sister tribes in Trial Of The Amazons Nubia insists she has the situation under control, to the point she orders Philippus to stop trying to help and spend more time with Hippolyta.

Orana

Orana

Original version

Modern version

First Appearance: Wonder Woman Volume 1 #250. (1978)

Created By: Jack C. Harris & Jose Delbo

Universes: Earth-One, Prime Earth, Historia.

Once upon a time when Diana returned to Themyscira, she found her position as Wonder Woman challenged by a fiery redheaded Amazon who thought she would get better results in changing Man's World with her more aggressive attitude. Said redhead only then going to die shortly thereafter but not before gaining some respect for the challenges Diana faced. Only we're not talking about Artemis here but rather the character she was based of Orana, who unlike her successor would stay dead for the remainder of the Pre-Crisis Wonder Woman title.

A new version of Orana was re-introduced into Wonder Woman comics in 2020, now depicted as the guardian of Themyscria's armory.

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• Adaptational Nice Guy: The Silver Age Earth One Orana was needlessly aggressive, self centered and would have been guilty of negligent homicide of dozens of Amazons, of millions if not billions of humans, if not for Diana's intervention and then proceded alienate the people of "man's world" she had sworn to guide and protect. Every subsequent version of Orana is at worst an uninteresting introvert or a whiny underachiever, and usually a perfectly decent member of society.
• Breast Plate: Her Wonder Woman outfit consisted of a metal breast plate with no shoulder straps and a metal skirt. Prior to the "Post Crisis" Artemis this was the single most skimpy version of the Wonder Woman costume and remains the most painful looking. However, Orana is only shown wearing this on the covers, having the standard "Wonder Woman" outfit on panel.
• Colony Drop: The final stage of the challnege to Wonder Woman's title and position was a race through space on asteroids, asteroids Orana started kicking towards the planet Earth, causing Diana to double back to intercept the resulting meteors. Hippolyta disqualified Orana, stating her willingness to endanger so many lives proved she was unworthy of being Wonder Woman but the gods, at Mars's insistence, overruled her.
• Diabolus ex Machina: Orana was denounced and disqualified for her actions during the challenge she asked for, as she endangered the lives of several amazon sisters and ultimately the planet Earth itself, only for the Olympic gods at the insistence of Ares, to overrule Hippolyta and force her to make Orana the new Wonder Woman. Hippolyta was ready to defy the gods but Diana told her mother to stand down, and even vowed to do all she could to ensure Orana would become worthy of the role. After Orana gets herself killed Ares wants the gods to punish Diana for not doing a good enough job guiding her but at this point the other gods are tired of him.
• Fiery Redhead: The original one of the Amazons, at least on the Silver Age Earth One. She's so passionate about her own self advancement that it ends up putting everyone around her in danger.
• Serial Escalation: The Silver Age Wonder Woman had a harder time blending into "Man's World" than the Golden Age Diana. Orana has an even harder time still.
• The Bus Came Back: A new version of her was re-introduced into Wonder Woman comics in Wonder Woman #750 under Steve Orlando.
• Expy: Would get two in the Post-Crisis and the New 52 versions of Wonder Woman. Artemis and Aleka respectively fulfilling her niche as the fiery redheaded Amazon who has a contentious relationship with Diana, though both sticking around longer than Orana ever did.
• Green-Eyed Monster: Jealousy over her position in this case. Orana sees a newspaper article about Diana Prince becoming an astronaut and confronts Diana about it, believing she is trying to undermine Orana's mission as Wonder Woman, even though the new job would put Diana has far away from Orana as mundanely possible.
• Killed Off for Real: She was killed in the issue following her debut and remained so for the remainder of the Pre-Crisis continuity.
• Legacy Character: Introduced as a short-lived one. Aside from Nubia, she's the first person to have taken the title of Wonder Woman after Diana.
• Race Lift: Her re-introduction to modern comics sees her now as a red-headed woman of color.
• Sucksessor: Her short-tenure as Wonder Woman was not a succesful one. Orana is powerful, but she's not as skilled as Diana, has no idea what to do in "Man's World" and disregards what little advice Diana gives her until it is too late.
• Unskilled, but Strong: Orana is stronger than most of the other amazons but Diana observers that for all of the training Orana claims she was doing she has little skill and that Diana could easily best her. Orana knows this however, and before her temper gets the better of her she opts not to engage with Diana directly and win the contest another way. The one exception is gliding. Orana is better at riding air currents because Diana has become too reliant on the invisible jet.
• Unwitting Pawn: She unknowingly serves as a means for Mars to get Diana out of the picture. Without her entire challenge would have been an averted disaster and a lesson in humility.

Antiope

Antiope / Alcippe

First Appearance: Wonder Woman (Vol 1 #312. (1984)

Created By: Dan Mishkin · Don Heck

Universes: Earth-One, DC Animated Universe, New Earth, Prime Earth, DCEU, Earth-1, Sensation, Black & Gold, Historia.

Hippolyta's sister, Diana aunt, who took a bit more after their father Ares than did Hippolyta. In the Post-Crisis (New Earth) continuity she lead a contingent of Amazons to found their own city state in protest over the gods punishing their people for defending themselves against Hercules and his men, and thus lost her immortality.

The New 52 makes Antiope Hippolyta's mother.

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• Adaptation Dye-Job: Much like Hippolyta, her hair color changes depending on the universe. She's usually blonde but was a redhead in the Silver Age and in The Legend of Wonder Woman (2016).
• Cave Behind the Falls: Hippolyta and her council of advisors collectively rejected Antiope's proposed "Victor's Circle" in which any amazon on Themyscira could challenge any other to pankration esque fights. It's revealed during Infinite Frontier that Antiope carved out a cave behind a waterfall while they weren't looking, then invited amazons to come beat each other up and stretch each other out.
• Chessmaster: Rebirth Antiope is playing a centuries spanning long game that interects with the plans of Hippolyta and Atalanta, but is the one doing the most to make sure things go right while they end up bogged downs in The Chains of Commanding the Themyscira and Bana-Mighdall tribes. She approves of Wonder Woman's mission to bring peace between the two tribes and to man's world, but unfortunately for her Wonder Woman isn't willing to sacrifice the people necessary to make it happen, in Antiope's mind, and is too powerful to stop directly, so misdirection is her strategy.
• Clothes Make the Superman: Post Crisis she has a Golden Girdle that increases her strength. Hippolyta has one too, but Antiope gives hers to Hippolyta after Hercules steals it and leads the Bana-Mighdall Amazons to get Hippolyta's back from Hercule's men, and the Bana-Mighdall collective refuse to wear it themselves, even after Hippolyta's subjects refuse to acknowledge The Bana-Mighdall tribe. After Wonder Woman brings the two tribes together again, Hippolyta finally gets her girdle back...Antiope's had been reforged into the lasso of truth!
• Crisis of Faith
  • Post Crisis Antiope ends up forgiving Theseus, realizing the betrayal of the amazosn was due to Heracles being driven mad by Ares, and that Heracles being there at all was due to being driven mad by Hera, that the Olympians were ultimately to blame and that Theseus deserved a second chance if he really wanted peace. And there was peace, until Circe screwed it up!
  • DC Rebirth Antiope respects the gods a lot more than her Post Crisis self, with the notable exception of Zeus, who she comes to view as an evil bastard. Ironically Rebirth Zeus is nowhere near as evil as his Post Crisis self.
• Death by Origin Story: Post Crisis, Antiope manages to bring peace between The Amazons and Athenians. So the witch Circe, who hates peace and wanted war, has Antiope assassinated by Theseus's ex wife, frames Theseus for it, and lets the Amazons of Bana-Mighdall do the rest.
• Fight Clubbing: She founded the Victor's Circle, a quasi-official underground fighting ring on Themyscira. Antiope herself holds the record for the fastest knockout/shortest fight within the Circle.
• Founder of the Kingdom: Of the Bana-Mighdall tribe of Amazons, post crisis. DC Rebirth she shares the honor with Atalanta, though Antiope still is pulling strings fron the shadows, and presents herself as founder when Atalanta is indisposed.
• I Believe I Can Fly: Rebirth Antiope had a sword that allowed her to fly. It was lost by her and found by Maggie, who went on a quest to find Antiope and return it to her. Antiope refused, instead declaring Maggie an "honorary" amazon and giving her free access to Themyscira.
• Posthumous Character: Antiope, in the post-Crisis universe, died several thousand years before Diana was brought to life.
• Redemption Equals Death: In Wonder Woman (1942) (Silver Age) after betraying Hippolyta the power hungry Antiope redeems herself by sacrificing her own life in battle to save Hippolyta's.
• Stealth Hi/Bye: In DC Rebirth she spends a lot of time shadowing Diana, only making her presence known when Diana starts doing things that may threaten Hippolyta's Thanatos Gambit. Diana assumes she's being stalked by a ghost. Queen Hippolyta knows better, but keeps Diana and later Nubia ignorant, since it serves her own purposes.
• Sucksessor: During her time away from The Bana-Migdhall Faruka II is elected to take Antiope's place as their second queen next to Atalanta. Everyone except possibly Diana, who wasn't there to know better, even some women who elected Faruka II, think that Faruka is a poor substitute. Even Artemis would have been ready to murder the new queen if not for her popularity with the majority of her sisters. The Bana-Mighdall do have a breaking point though, when Atalanta, who is still interested in her throne returns, and Faruka has her imprisoned. When it's found out, the Bana force Faruka to acknowledge Atalanta as co queen, still Antiope refuses to take back the crown and allows Faruka II to rule alongside her aunt as queen too.
• Trickster Mentor: During DC Rebirth she appears to be trying to teach Diana to be less selfish and more focussed on the duties that need to be done. In reality she and a few other amazons have grand plans for the greater good that will require some women die, and doesn't want Diana's Chronic Hero Syndrome and personal feelings screwing it all up. Still, Antiope has Diana's best interest at heart.
• Uncanny Family Resemblance: Her post-Crisis incarnation looks almost exactly Diana save for her blonde hair.
• We Have Become Complacent: DC Rebirth sees her leave Themyscira not to pursue Heracles, but in defiance of Zeus and out of belief The Amazons should be actively serving the world, showing Man's World how to be better, instead of relaxing on Themyscira, following her aunt Atalanta to form the Bana-Mighdall tribe and serving as co queen alongside her until the pocket dimension of Olympus started collapsing and Antiope felt Themyscira needed their general back. Even then, after leading her sisters to refuge in Dimension Chi Antiope left again, because she still felt they were complacent.

Philippus

Philippus

First Appearance: Wonder Woman (Vol 2) #1. (1987)

Created By: George Pérez

Universes: New Earth, Prime Earth, DCEU, DC Animate Universe, The Legend of Wonder Woman, Sensation, WW '77, Black and Gold, Historia

The Amazon Guard Captain, military leader of Themyscira, and Hippolyta's lover. Something of a second mother to the Princess, Philippus took an active role in raising Diana, most notably teaching her an early lesson in using one's wits instead of strength alone. Eventually becomes one of the two leaders of Themyscira alongside Artemis as both Chancellor and Archon Eponymous (head of civic affairs).

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• Ambiguously Gay: Her dedication to Hippolyta is suspiciously homosexual in nature, but Philippus does not openly admit to loving her queen in that way until after fourteen years of publication time during Our Worlds At War.
• The Captain: Her role as Hippolyta's general.
• Cassandra Truth: For the first twenty years of her life Diana is only slightly more powerful than the other amazons, with her most notable trait being survival in the face of Philippus's extra harsh training, so no one takes Philippus's concerns about Diana becoming far too powerful far too quickly seriously. By the time Diana is powerful enough to pose an exestensial threat to the island, Philippus's lessons on restraint were hammered into her, so Philippus ends up much better than the mythological Cassandra on that point. On the otherhand no one take's Philippus's warnings about The Circle's insanity seriously either and this lack of concern almost gets Philippus and Diana killed.
• Combat Pragmatist: In the Post Crisis continuity Philippus shoots a young Diana in the back of the leg after arranging for a boulder to come rolling down a hill as a distraction. This all because she felt Diana was becoming too reliant on her wonderful powers and that Diana needed to be taught that her divine gifts did not make her untouchable.
• Determinator: Getting an arrow through the chest doesn't stop her from saving her Queen from The Circle's treachery.
• Does Not Like Men: Philippus is typically the amazon most vocal about executing Steve Trevor when he crashlands on Theysmcira. In the Injustice Gods Among Us continuity she's Right for the Wrong Reasons, as Trevor is a Nazi spy that the amazons would have saved themselves much future trouble in killing, but Philippus just wants him dead because he's a man who committed the sin of involuntarily intruding on their space.
• Dreadlock Warrior: Most often seen with dreads.
• Fight Clubbing: She was the grand champion of the Victor's Circle, a secret Themysciran unarmed fighting ring, for 200 straight years.
• Fighting Your Friend: Post Crisis, Philippus decided to scare what she believed to be an unhealthy sadistic streak out of young Diana by masking some soldiers and ordering them to assault Diana. As Diana was beating them up Philippus unmasked the attackers and Diana was horrified to realize she was beating up her friends. While this was simply meant to teach Diana to use more restraint in battle, it ended up being a more valuable lesson than even Philippus anticipated, as several future enemies would manipulate, brainwash or outright control Diana's friends against their wills.
• Gender-Blender Name: Philippus is traditionally a man's name. The female equivalent is just one letter away in English, Philippis, and Philippis was the name of an amazon during the labors of Heracles, but Philippis also died trying to kill Heracles, not that that's ever stopped DC before.
• The Good Chancellor: Eventually becomes one of two joint leaders of Themyscira after Hippolyta steps down and dissolves the monarchy, Post Crisis. During Infinite Frontier Philippus is Nubia's first choice to run Themyscria when Queen Nubia has to be elsewhere.
• Interservice Rivalry: Head of the General Guard and harbored (warranted) suspicions toward Hippolyta's personal bodyguards, The Circle.
• Knows the Ropes: As Philippus likes to remind people, she's the one who trained Diana. Philippus also demonstrates in Trial of The Amazons that she's better with ropes than Donna Troy is, especially when it comes to applications outside of lassoing monsters.
• Lady of War: Not quite as regal or graceful as Hippolyta, but still shows shades of this as a consummate warrior woman. She proves she knows more about hair dressing than Nubia's actual hand maidens.
• Legacy Character: In many adaptations, such as Kingdom Come, when Diana steps down from the Wonder Woman mantle, Phillipus is the one to become the heroine.
• Like a Daughter to Me: Philippus took an active role in raising Diana, essentially serving as a second mother to her.
• Locked Out of the Loop: All of the amazons on Themyscira were, especially those who weren't Donna Troy, but Philippus most of all as giant sea shell containing a burned, broken and bleeding Diana washed up on the beach ahead of a horde of sea monsters and Hippolyta ordered Philippus to hide Diana in a cave as Diana sobbed about she wanted to save Genocide. From Philippus's perspective the princess seemed to be speeking gibberish and her condition had to be heralding the arrival of something even worse than the invaders already seen.
• Mistaken Nationality: As Hippolyta takes inspiration from Wonder Woman's mission in the Post Crisis continuity and decides to strengthen contacts between Themyscira and "Man's World" Circe is provoking The Bana-Mighdall tribe, who are mostly black and brown women of African and West Asian descent, to increase their attacks on Man's World and even commit acts of terrorism. Thus the "black" Themysciran is mistaken for a Bana-Migdhall, attacked and hospitilized for it in an act of Misplaced Retribution. Wonder Woman is able to thwart Circe, pacify the Bana and clear Philippus's name.
• Only Sane Man
  • In the Post Crisis continuity The Circle were well liked among the amazons, with even Hippolyta finding their obssessions towards her endearing, Philippus being the only person on Themyscira to realize they were insane. While trying to fight them alone as they attempted to murder infant Diana wasn't Philippus's wisest decision, the ensuing struggle did convince the rest of the guard to see things her way and imprison The Circle.
  • Philippus tends to be the one amazon to advise the rest not offend and defy their gods when it can be avoided, though she admits that it sometimes can't be helped. Stopping Zeus from raping Diana was good. Interferring with Zeus's punishment for denying him, which amounted to sending Diana to the otherside of Doom's Doorway, that was bad, to the point Philippus tried to restrain Hippolyta when she wanted to go with Diana and suffered a beating from her queen for it.
  • In the Post Crisis and especially The Rebirth continuity, Philippus is one of the few amazons consistently shown to be aware of the power difference between Diana, Donna Troy, Nubia, Cassie Sandsmark, Yara Flor and the rest of the amazons. In many ways Philippus doesn't take the Wonder Girls that seriously but knows better than to try and take them on directly and definitely knows when to give Diana and Nubia their space.
• Overshadowed by Awesome: As a post crisis amazon Philippus has been reborn into a stronger than should be humanly possible body and is among the most martially talented individuals in a society full of the same. Her dedication to her training often lets Philippus keep up with Wonder Girls Donna Troy, Cassie Sandsmark and Yara Flor, even berating them for undestimating her, but Philippus is still fully aware that she's not as powerful as they are and perfectly content with the knowledge Diana and Nubia can outshine her. Still, as queen, Nubia has to periodically tell Philippus to go enjoy herself and stop trying to help when it isn't needed.
• Prayer Is a Last Resort: Philippus can heal injuries and eject toxins from her body by praying to Gaea. Protogenoi can be just as fickle as Olympians, however, so Philippus always tries to make sure she's really out of options before trying.
• Rank Scales with Asskicking: Even without weapons, Philippus's fighting prowess befits a military leader. In the underground Themysciran fighting ring known as the Victor's Circle, she holds the record for the most fights and was the Circle's grand champion for two solid centuries.
• Retgone: Post-Flashpoint, Philippus was erased from the DCU and seemingly replaced by a similar looking Amazon named Dessa. Post-Rebirth, it's revealed Philippus is still an Amazon and was actually living on the real version of Themyscira alongside Hippolyta, whom she is now in a physical relationship with.
• The Rival: To the much more dangerous captain of the guard Alkyone, whose radical views led her to attempt to murder Diana.
• Save Your Deity: After Hera declares that the gods are dying during the Wonder Woman/Shazam Lazarus Planet tie ins, then removes the wards protecting Themyscira while proclaiming the amazons will soon be too and Faruka II taunts the Themyscira amazons that their patron goddesses are worthless, Philippus is Driven to Suicide, believing that such a gesture done in faith can save the island and the ascended Hippolyta. Hippolyta arrives just in time to stop Philippus and save the island as it comes under seige from Hades.
• Serious Business: Sensation Comics Featuring Wonder Woman shows Philippus treating organizing a party like a military operation, shouting orders and directing Amazons as though the situation is far more serious than it is. She still finds time to flirt with Hippolyta, who finds the whole thing endearing.
• Shooting Superman
  • Post Crisis Philippus does shoot Diana as a youngster, knowing that it won't seriously hurt her but will teach Diana that she is not an untouchable Physical God, despite being as strong as one.
  • Philippus does not approve of Diana's desire to escort Steve Trevor back to Man's World, but since Diana won The Contest to do so, she can't deny Diana either. What she can do is shoot bullets at Diana to get her ready for what she can expect from "Man's World". Diana of course passes this test with flying colors.
• The Chains of Commanding: Philippus takes over as regent queen of Themyscira after Hippolyta becomes depressed from guilt by her plot to have Artemis die in Diana's place, and goes into excile. Philippus hates being queen however and tries to pass the crown to Diana every chance she gets.
• Token Minority: Not the only black Amazon, following Crisis On Infinite Earths, but is the only one with any significant panel time. Times when Nubia comes out of limbo being the exceptions.
• Tomboy with a Girly Streak: To Nubia's surprise and slight annoyance, the stern and rigid Philippus insists on being the one to handle Nubia's hair during her coronation ceremony, to ensure her queen looks her best. The work of Nubia's chosen handmaid was undone when Nubia was dunked in the Hotsprings of Gaia and Philippus was subtely implying she hadn't approved of it.
• Tough Love: Her approach to "training" Diana, Post Crisis in particular, bordered on abusive and was often designed to be traumatic, but Philippus's intentions were to instil caution, restraint and humility into a frighteningly powerful practical goddess among practical mortals.

Menalippe

Menalippe

First Appearance: Wonder Woman (Vol 2) #1. (1987)

Created By: Greg Potter · George Pérez

Universes: New Earth, Prime Earth, DCEU,The Legend of Wonder Woman, Historia.

High Priestess and oracle of the Amazons. Frequently predicts disaster and very rarely foresees any good news. Menalippe is one of Wonder Woman's three maternal aunts.

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• Crisis of Faith: Of all the Amazons, it is she who most deeply worries that the gods may have forsaken them. Fortunately, they haven't.
• Death by Adaptation: Her post-Flashpoint version is killed as soon as she's introduced by an Amazon who bore a child of Darkseid's.
• Dumb Blonde: She's not the sharpest tool in the shed...
• Fainting Seer: Sudden onset visions have a tendency to knock her out.
• High Priestess: She is the High Priestess of the Amazons who worship the Greek pantheon and is in particular dedicated to Apollo who has granted her powers as a seer.
• Heroic Sacrifice: Gives her life to save Hippolyta from Circe's attack during War of the Gods.
• Infallible Babble: Sometimes. Accompanied by Throat Light and Glowing Eyes of Doom.
• Lipstick Lesbian: Same as her girlfriend, Penelope.
• Mad Oracle: Seeing the future is not good for her sanity.
• Mystical Waif: Oddly scrawny for an Amazon, and gifted with magical powers.
• Public Domain Character: Menalippe is an Amazon from mythology, sister to Hippolyta, Penthesilea and Antiope who in the original myths was taken hostage by Hercules to force Hippolyta to give up her girdle.
• Waif Prophet: Quite scrawny for an Amazon and their oracle.

Aella

Aella

First Appearance: Wonder Woman (Vol 2) #1. (1987)

Created By: Len Wein & George Pérez

Universes: New Earth, Prime Earth, DCEU, Historia

One of the earliest Amazons and an excellent warrior. Her resistance to change and support of their isolationist policies is taken advantage of by an enemy who posed as a friend and convinced Aella to attack the Bana.

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• 24-Hour Armor: Aella is pretty much always wearing at least some of her armor and is never seen without it.
• Character Death: Post Crisis, she is killed in the battle she started against the Bana. Rebirth, she is executed by Eros at Hera's command.
• Character Shilling: Aella's talked up a good bit by Hippolyta in the Rebirth continuity. This is justified, however, as Hippolyta is speaking to Yara Flor, who is both Aella's daughter and someone Hippolyta was willing to have assassinated before even knowing who Yara was, inorder to prevent Hera from doing far worse.
• Conflict Ball: While she might have voiced concerns about such things as Themyscira rejoining the world stage she accepted the vote without hesitation and was not even implied to be one of the few who voted against it. That she was so opposed to the Bana being on the island after being alright if wary of welcoming others is quite the stretch.
• Death by Origin Story: In DC Rebirth her execution occurs in the past on the order of Olympian Queen Hera, whose soldiers also slaughtered many of their number to get to Aella, is what drives the proud and revered Gaboymilla Tribe to become the elusive Esquecida tribe. In particular it begins the conflict between future Wonder Girl Yara Flor and The Olympians, as Yara was only a child at the time, was traumatized by seeing her mother's decapitation, and had the additional problem of basically being imprinted on by Eros, who accidentally charmed himself to fall in love with her when The Gaboymilla put up more resistance than expected. Her death also makes introductions to Themyscira and The Bana-Mighdall more akward for The Esquecida, when breaches of Doom's Doorway spur them to visit their "distant cousins".
• Divine Date: In the Rebirth continuity Aella begins dating a river god in what eventually becomes the state of Amazons in Brazil during her search for the fabled Gaboymilla Tribe. The two continue to see each for awhile after this but a "tragedy" Potira refuses to elaborate on separated the lovers by the time Yara Flor was born, so she never got to meet her dad.
• Going Native: In DC Rebirth Aella hears rumors of an umatched army of women while trekking through Central America and follows them to The Gaboymilla Tribe in what eventually becomes the state of Amazonas in Brazil. This goes both ways, however, as while The Gaboymilla do adpot Aella they also adopt much of what she has to teach them, to the point they consider their claim to be amazons equal in validity to Themyscira and The Bana-Migdhall Tribe, since Aella joined them before those two technically existed, and legitimately don't understand why The Bana-Migdhall resent them when they decide to visit their distant cousins with Aella's daughter in tow as proof of their shared heritage.
• Maligned Mixed Marriage: Aella never got to officially marry the river god she met in South America, due to some tragedy that left them separated, but the years one of their amazons meant to be their champions spent away from her post romancing a previously unknown god was a constant source of annoyance and embarrassment to The Olympians. When Hera learns that Aella has had a child of this god Hera decides Aella has to be executed for this "sin" while the child must be dead and tortured in Tartarus for the crime of existing, and since Hera is the goddess of marriage it basically is this trope in function, if not literal application.
• Missing Mom: In the Rebirth continuity Hera orders Aella's execution after she abandons the amazons in the Mediterranean region, starts dating a god previously unknown to the Olympians on a different continent, and ends up bearing that god's child. Granted, Hera wanted Aella and her child dead, but one of Hera's executioners, Eros, accidentally pricks himself with one of his own arrows in the ensuing struggle with Aella's new tribe, and is charmed to fall in love with Aella's daughter, Yara Flor, whom he convinces Hera to spare. Eros goes on to explain Aella had to be killed so that he and Yara could be together, once Yara is old enough to be his bride.
• Noble Savage: In the Rebirth continuity Aella is regarded as this by The Gaboymilla tribe of South America, who welcome her with open arms and are at first eager to adopt the things she teaches them about her native culture. The more The Gaboymilla learn about Amazonia, the gods worshiped in particular, the more backwards and baffling they find it to be, but they admire Aella's compassion and martial prowess nonetheless.
• Parrot Pet Position: Her falcon is usually found perched on her shoulder.
• Present Absence: Both the amazons of Themyscira and The Esquecida tribe realize how valuable Aella's presence would be when they officially meet for the first time and quickly realize how little they have in common. Yara Flor is initally elated to be the "bridge" between cultures Aella would have been in more idea circumstances but comes to realize what a poor substitute for Aella she is and internally admits she has no idea how to act.
• Walking the Earth: In DC Rebirth Aella leaves Amazonia before its internal tensions split it into the Themyscira and Bana-Mighdall tribes to strike out on her own. This eventually comes to an end when Aella becomes fascinated with another warrior woman tribe in the jungles of South America and convinces them to let her join them.

Euboea

Euboea

First Appearance: Wonder Woman Vol 2 #10. (1987)

Created By: Len Wein · George Pérez

Universes: New Earth, Prime Earth, DCEU, Historia.

"Even now the Council of Justice ponders the gifts and records you brought back with you from man's world!"

—Euboea, Wonder Woman (1987) #10

A high ranking Themysciran warrior and one of Diana's closest friends and companions on the island. Leads the Cult of Amphitrite, responsible for honoring Themyscira's sea patrons and organizing fishing teams.

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• Bling of War: Like most Amazon warriors Euboea has had centuries to refine and modify her kit, and hers is gold plated with delicate etchings and other decor with a red cape and a red plume on the helmet.
• Cool Helmet: Her helmet is pretty unique as Amazon helmets go, since she's added short horns reminiscent of Ares' own dark helm.
• Iconic Item: Euboea is never seen without her headband, though colorists can't seem to decide if it's yellow or orange.
• Token Minority: Euboea is usually the only Amazon with East-Asian features, and is definitely the only one with a name and repeat appearances.

Epione

Epione

First Appearance: Wonder Woman Volume 2 #7. (1987)

Created By: Len Wein · George Pérez

Universes: New Earth, Prime Earth, DCEU, Historia

The Amazons' chief physician, and one of the first gay characters in comics to be fully out and in a committed and happy relationship.

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• Adaptation Dye-Job: She was traditionally a brunette but has become a blonde in Post-Flashpoint appearances. Her orange headband is also pink now.
• Color-Coded Characters: She wears an orange headband, and often wears orange in other parts of her dress as well.
• Depending on the Artist: Her hair color was originally brown but some colorists would make her blonde.
• Meaningful Name: Epione's name means soothing, and she is named after the goddess of the soothing of pain.
• The Medic: She does most of the patching up of Diana and the rest of the Amazons.
• What Happened to the Mouse?: Near the end of Wonder Woman (1987) her position was filled by Carrisa and Epione disappeared without explanation.

Mnemosyne

Mnemosyne

First Appearance: Wonder Woman Vol 2 #10. (1987)

Created By: Len Wein · George Pérez

Universes: New Earth, DCEU, Historia

"As a teacher, as the mother of memory, I know the inestimable value of knowledge!"

—Mnemosyne, Wonder Woman (1987) #10

Part of the Themysciran council who has dedicated her long life to learning and is one of the first to support the idea of reconnecting, at least on a small scale, with the outside world. She is the Amazon's chief librarian and historian.

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• Badass Teacher: She's an Amazon who has spent centuries honing her craft as both a historian and warrior.
• Depending on the Artist: Mnemosyne has been drawn as a blonde and a brunette.
• Everything's Sparkly with Jewelry: The effect is sometimes a bit ruined in the coloring stage as her rings often end up the same color as her skin but she wears more jewelry than most Amazons, including multiple rings and a silver headband.
• Meaningful Name: She is named after the Titan mother of memory, who later became a supporting character to Donna Troy.
• Milking the Giant Cow: She makes a lot of gestures with her hands during her speeches and proclamations.
• One-Steve Limit: She's not only named after Mnemosyne the Titan she even calls herself the "mother of memory" at one point, which is the Titan's title.

Oenone

Oenone

First Appearance: Wonder Woman Volume 2 #27. (1989)

Created By: George Pérez · Chris Marrinan

Universes: New Earth, Prime Earth, Historia

The chief botanist of Themyscira and one of the few Amazons who voted against the island changing its isolationist stance and rejoining the world at large.

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• Does Not Like Men: She doesn't necessarily hate men, but she's been victimized at the hands of too many men to ever trust one again and is distraught at the mere idea of having to see any on Themyscira.
• Race Lift: Oenoe is changed from a red-haired black woman to an Asian woman in Wonder Woman (Infinite Frontier).
• Rape as Backstory: While Perez made this the case for all the Amazons she is in particular driven by her memory of the event and wanting to avoid any possibility of it ever happening again.

Timandra

Timandra

First Appearance: Wonder Woman Volume 2 #22. (1988)

Created By: George Pérez

Universes: New Earth, DCEU, Historia

"It's true I'm an architect [...] but my area of expertise is in the design of individual buildings, where I try for simple harmony and symmetry. Themyscira's city planner was Consivia, and she perished long ago, defending Doom's Doorway."

—Timandra, Wonder Woman (1987) #38

The Amazon's chief architect following the death of Consivia. She has interest in the ways architectural design has developed the world over while also wanting to preserve the aesthetic Consivia created on Themyscira.

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• Color-Coded Characters: Timandra always wears green.
• Dead Artists Are Better: She invokes this in a way, heaping praise for the design of Themysciran on her long deceased mentor.
• Humble Hero: She defers when anyone wants to praise her for aspects of Themysciran architectural design, instead claiming Consivia is responsible for the pleasing aesthetics of the island even though Timandra has been acting as an architect there for centuries.

Cydippe

Cydippe

First Appearance: Wonder Woman Volume 2 #50. (1991)

Created By: George Pérez · Jill Thompson

Universes: New Earth

One of Queen Hippolyta's personal handmaidens whose orange hair and the distinctive way she styles it make her easy to pick out.

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• Distinctive Appearances: Her red hair, which she keeps in puffy modified nodus style, makes her easy to recognize regardless of the vastly different styles of the artists on the book.
• Undying Loyalty: Cydippe's loyalty to her queen is absolute.

Artemis of the Bana-Mighdall

Artemis / Wonder Woman II / Requiem / Shim'Tar

Artemis making friends with her own Bat.

First Appearance: Wonder Woman (Vol 2) #90. (1994)

Created By: William Messner-Loebs · Mike Deodato, Jr.

Universes: Earth-One, New Earth, Prime Earth, DCEU, DCAMU, Earth-1, WW 2009, Sensation, Black & Gold

"To be crystal clear going forward — do not — call me — princess."

— Artemis, Red Hood and the Outlaws (Vol. 2) #2

Artemis of Bana-Mighdall is an Amazon from the Bana-Mighdall Tribe and first appeared in Wonder Woman Vol 2 90, which was published in 1994. In her introduction, Artemis challenged Diana for the responsibility and title of Wonder Woman, as she felt Diana's approach to her mission was too passive. Artemis won the new contest to determine the new Wonder Woman and acted with a more "warrior"/aggressive attitude in contrast to Diana. She was rather promptly killed but she got better, and despite her disdain towards men and warrior attitude, she's become a close and loyal ally of Diana's and a true hero.

She is not to be confused with her namesake Greek deity Artemis, Goddess of the Hunt, the Villainous Silver Age Earth One Amazon Artemis, or with Artemis Crock, who started out as the villainous Tigress before being made famous as a young hero in Young Justice (2010).

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Artemis appears in:

Comic Books:

• Wonder Woman Vol 2 (1994-2006)
  • The Contest (1994)
  • Artemis: Reqiuem (1996)
• Wonder Woman Vol 3 (2006-2010)
  • Amazons Attack! (2007)
• Wonder Woman: Odyssey (2010-2011)
• Red Hood and the Outlaws (2016-2020)
• Wonder Woman (Rebirth) (2017-2021)
• Wonder Woman (Infinite Frontier) (2021 - ongoing)
  • Trial of the Amazons (2022)
  • Artemis: Wanted (2022)

Elseworlds

• Flashpoint (2011)
• Wonder Woman: Earth One (2016) Earth 1
• Sensational Wonder Woman (2021)
• Wonder Woman: Black and Gold (2021)

Live-Action Film:

• Wonder Woman (2017) played by Anne Wolfe

Western Animation

• Wonder Woman (2009) voiced by Rosario Dawson
• Superman/Batman: Apocalypse (2010)

Web Comic

• Red Hood: Outlaws

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Tropes associated with Artemis include:

• '90s Anti-Hero: Is much more violent and brooding than Diana, and very quick to use lethal force and irreverent over civilians who end up in harms way. Bonus points for being introduced during the 90s run.
• Action Girl: She's an Amazon after all.
• Adaptation Dye-Job: Prior to Flashpoint most of Artemis' costumes included at least a little bit of green, and green combined with her red hair was her signature look. After her reintroduction she's in red and black. She's been seen decked in red before, but only in Elseworlds style tales and Flashpoint.
• Adaptational Modesty: She achieved that pinnacle of Amazonian costuming and acquired pants in DC Rebirth, something even Wonder Woman can't claim. Both she and Di previously got pants in Wonder Woman: Odyssey, but those costumes didn't last beyond the storyline and her pants there were a part of her costume being a recoloring of Diana's to highlight their status as rivals.
• Adaptational Nationality: Some continuities have Artemis as being an Amazon born and living amongst the Amazons of Themyscria with the Bana tribe she originates from being Adapted Out.
• Aloof Archer: Well known for using a bow and arrow in combat and is rather antisocial and arrogant. In ''Redhood And The Outlaws' title she gains a magical Bow with fire powers made by the god Ra.
• Always Someone Better: Would never admit it but obviously forms the basis of her rivalry with Diana.
• Ambiguously Bi: Rebirth Artemis says that Jason Todd kisses well...for a boy.
• Ambiguously Brown:
  • Her exact ethnicity is never specified but the Bana-Mighdall Amazons are from Egypt and have been there since antiquity, making her red hair and pale skin really stick out when she's with her tribe. DC Rebirth makes her skin tone more peachy, and Trial of the Amazons sprinkles in a larger numver of peachy skinned Bana-Mighdall, though they still have a higher ratio of black and brown women than Themyscira.
  • The eighth annual of Wonder Woman Volume 2 gives her skin a slight tan.
  • She has a much darker skin tone in Earth One and the Wonder Woman 80th Anniversary special.
• Amplifier Artifact: Post Crisis Artemis uses a gauntlet of Atlas, which increases the wearer's strength by ten, and sandals of Hermes, with let the wearer fly, while acting as Wonder Woman.
• Arrogant Kung-Fu Guy: Artemis is the greatest warrior of the Bana-Mighdall and never misses an opportunity to remind people of this, especially Diana.
• Anti-Hero Substitute: Took over as Wonder Woman for a brief time during The '90s.
• Black Magic: Post Cisis, she has some working knowledge of demonic sorcery after her time in Hell.
• Blood Knight: She absolutely loves a good fight. In DC Rebirth she comes to respect Cassie Sandsmark, who she otherwise despised at this point, because Cassie put up a better fight than the Themiscyra Amazons trying to break them up.
• Boxing Lessons for Superman: Post Crisis, Diana of Themyscira becomes concerned about Cassie Sandsmark and Kara Zor-El's lack of progress as fighters, requesting Artemis train them, as Diana could not do it herself for increasingly dramatic reasons that culminated in Diana being mortally wounded by Neron. Rebirth Artemis scoffs at the idea when Cassie herself expresses interest in being taught by Artemis.
• Breakout Character: Was initially just an antiheroic replacement for Diana. Now one of the most beloved Amazon characters in the WW mythos. She even had her own miniseries.
• Cavalier Competitor: Artemis was determined to see The Contest to become Wonder Woman through the right way, preventing her sisters of Bana-Mighdall from assassinating Diana. To Artemis's displeasure, amazons of the Themyscira tribe had aready rigged the contest for Artemis against Diana.
• Character Development: While she started out as one of the Bana least likely to turn their misandrist views into outright murder and was perfectly willing to save men from danger she still considered men inferior and distasteful. The longer she spends with the Themyscirans and society at large the more she starts losing some of her misandrist views.
• Character Exaggeration: Some continuities make Artemis's misandry and unpleasant attitude much more extreme than in the comics, from being instantly hostile to any man she sees at best (Smallville, WW 2009) to wanting to wage war to wipe them all out at worst (Earth One). Ironically, these adaptations tend to make Artemis a Themysciran Amazon, with the Bana Adapted Out.
• The Chosen One: While she might not have been chosen (mostly) as a leader, she was chosen by Hippolyta in a Suicide by Cop pact in absolute secrecy for the latter to ascend to godhood. She was chosen because of her absolute loyalty.
• Conflicting Loyalties: From the start of DC Rebirth Artemsis has to deal with the fact The Bana-Mighdall have two rightful queens. While Antiope and Atalanta are gone she is willing to faithfully serve acting Queen Faruka II, but willing to execute Faruka when Atalanta returns and Faruka starts acting up. Her Bana-Mighdall sisters' continued loyalty to Faruka II stays Artemis's hand, but her sisters also insist that Faruka II let Atalanta lead alongside her. Then it turns out Antiope is still out there, plotting, giving Artemsis three conflicting loyalties. Then it turns out Artemis is also taking orders from Themyscira's former queen Hippolyta, even after Hippolyta stepped down and put Nubia on the throne. It's of ease to Artemis when Hippolyta, Atalanta and Antiope reveal they've been working together all along, reducing her conflict back to two. Nonetheless Faruka II still goes behind Atalanta's back to give Artemis contrary orders while the other three continue their secret plans they make her swear not to make public.
• Demon Lords and Archdevils: After dying and ending up in Hell, she briefly serves as a general/fiancée of a demon lord named Dalkriig-Hath. Diana convinces her to quit and return to Earth.
• Does Not Like Men: One of the more vocally misandrist Amazons, though she gets over it soon enough by getting sexually involved with various males.
• Dressed Like a Dominatrix: Artemis's outfit in Requiem is a white and green Leotard of Power with opera gloves and thigh high boots with spikes around them.
• Engineered Heroics: Artemis becomes frustrated over the fact everyone seems to think Diana was a better Wonder Woman and hires a public relations agency to improve her image. Artemis attacks Diana out of jealousy when Diana tells her said agency has been paying criminals to cause crimes where Artemis could be seen stopping them. Artemis eventually comes to realize Diana is right, but not soon enough to prevent an angered Diana from going back to Themyscira to get away from Artemis.
• Escaped from Hell: Basically resurrected herself by escaping Hell and crawling out of her own grave, also rescuing an unconscious Diana in the process.
• Everyone Has Standards: She is violent, brash and has a low opinion of men and is from the "bad" Amazon tribe compared to the "good" Themysciran ones. Despite this, her misandrist views are that men are annoying and inferior at worst. These views never lead her to want to kill them just for being men, something that some, possibly more, of the "good" amazons want deep down. Artemis is even visibly disturbed when Hippolyta declares war on the US and starts massacring all the men in Amazons Attack.
• Expy
  • She's an Amazon named Artemis who competes with Diana. She's not the same as the black haired, blue eyed "Silver Age" Earth One Amazon named Artemis, who also fought with that world's version of Diana. In fact the overall stories of Silver Age and Post Crisis Artemis are almost in reverse, but they end up serving similar roles nonetheless.
  • Visually this Artemis is one to Zealot from Wild CATS Wild Storm. Both are super powered members of female warrior tribes and both debuted in the 90s. Artemis' hairstyle is even based on Zealot's.
  • She is also based on an Amazon character from the 70s named Orana. Like Artemis, Orana was a red-haired Amazon who challenged and defeated Diana for the role of Wonder Woman, and then was killed in the line of duty. Unlike Artemis, Orana was not resurrected. Also, while Orana initiated the contest and cheated to win, Hippolyta initiated and cheated for Artemis, without Artemis's knowledge. There are some instances where Artemsis challenges Diana to various things for various reason of her own accord, but Artemis always plays/fights fair, and invariably ends up losing when the contest is fair.
• Expy Coexistence: As of DC Rebirth Artemis shares the same world with both Orana and Zealot. Orana now being Artemis's more level headed counterpart and Zealot managing to be even more of a pariah among the amazons of Themyscira.
• Fan Disservice: Her final battle with White Magician results in Clothing Damage that could have been alluring if not for the fact the fight ends with Artemis bleeding out with a broken back.
• Fiery Redhead: Redhead with a well-deserved reputation for jumping into things half-cocked, and loudly with a particular love of a good fight.
• Forgot About Her Powers: Rebirth Artemis has an ever expanding arsenal but you're liable to miss most of it unless you read every last book she appears in. Artemis rarely use The Bow Of Ra, for example, outside of Red Hood And The Outlaws and books related to it.
• Front Line General: While Queen Faruka II appreciates Artemis's skill in battle, she often shoots down Artemis for wanting to do things that aren't technically her job. She doesn't need Artemis to cut down every problem personally where there are plenty of soldiers for that, and Artemis often insists on personally doing things she's not particularly good at too, like scouting and assassinations.
• The Good Chancellor: Eventually becomes one of two joint leaders of Themyscira with Philippus Post Crisis after Hippolyta steps down and dissolves the monarchy. She ran and oversaw security on the island while Philippus handled civic affairs.
• Good Wears White: After she became more of an ally to Diana, Artemis started wearing a white Leotard of Power.
• Green-Eyed Monster: During DC Rebirth Artemis storms through the Bana-Mighdall stronghold scolding her sisters for celebrating the return of "their champion" Wonder Woman and demanding they get back to work or return to guarding their posts. She actually had a point about the posts but there was still plenty of time for a little celebration.
• Handwraps of Awesome: Her Rebirth outfit has these.
• Hero with Bad Publicity: The general public does not take kindly to this more vicious and abrasive Wonder Woman to the point the Justice League refuses to acknowledge her as a viable replacement for Diana.
• I Call It "Vera": She likes to name her weapons, if they're not already named when she gets them. For instance her axe is Mistress, and her lasso, which was previously called the Lasso of Submission, she and Diana renamed to the Golden Promise.
• Iconic Sequel Character: Debuted in 1994, six decades after Wonder Woman's conception. She is also the most popular of the Bana-Mighdall despite not debuting in the comic run where the Bana were introduced.
• Ignored Epiphany: At first Artemis realizes no other amazon should have been able to best Diana in the contest to replace Diana as Wonder Woman, that Hippolyta must have been playing games. But Artemis lets her arrogance get the best of her and she proclaims she will succeed as Wonder Woman where Diana failed. It's not until Neron has mortally wounded Diana that Artemis comes to terms with the fact Hippolyta cheated and Diana would probably have survived that fight if Hippolyta had not had a spell performed that was transferring Diana's strength into Artemis.
• Impossibly Cool Weapon: Her axe Mistress and later in Rebirth she gains the Bow Of Ra.
• Improvised Weapon: She once made a weapon similar to a meteor hammer out of her hair and one of the skulls on her outfit. Since the skull was made of silver, she was able to use it to injure the demon lord Neron.
• Jerk with a Heart of Gold
  • Artemis is brash, violent, ruthless, crass, and spiteful. Even so, she still cares about defending innocents and took her short tenure as Wonder Woman seriously.
  • She lets Cassie Sandsmark know at length that her presence is not appreciated, lays down an extensive list of ground rules for Cassie being allowed to help her, and promises to turn on Cassie as soon as Yara Flor is found, but quickly threatens to cut Potira's throat when Potira threatens Cassie with a stick. She doesn't follow through with turning on Cassie either, though Artemis still has to be talked out of assaulting Yara.
• Knows the Ropes: Post Crisis she gets to use the Lasso of Truth for awhile, while acting as Wonder Woman. In the New 52 and Rebirth continuities Diana takes Lasso of Submission after Super Woman dies, keeping it until a worthy wielder can be found, which she finds Artemis to be in DC Rebirth.
• Legacy Character: During the 1990s, the Wonder Woman mantle was briefly passed to Artemis before she was killed off.
• Leotard of Power: One of her more well-known outfits is a white leotard with green gloves and boots.
• Let's You and Him Fight
  • The series of events that lead up to Diana's death, Post Crisis, began when Artemis interrupted a conversation between Diana and Jason Blood to kill Jason for his connection to the demon Entrigan. Diana naturally defended Jason, but not well enough to keep Entrigan from appearing and setting off the Disaster Dominoes that lead to Neron mortally wounding Diana.
  • While the entire Yara Flor debacle was a result of all three Amazon tribes assuming the worst and not bothering to talk to each other, Artemsis is one of the worst offenders, as her first meeting with Cassie Sandsmark in "DC Rebirth" is punching Cassie for "following her", causing a fight so noisy two Themyscira Amazons Cassie had been sent to assist threaten to throw them both out of Brazil for being an embarrassment to their kind. Upon finding Yara, Artemis picks a fight with her too before Cassie defuses the situation.
• Light Feminine and Dark Feminine: The dark feminine to Diana's light. Where Diana is warm, friendly and kind, Artemis is brash, crude and impulsive.
• Like Cannot Cut Like: The Bow Of Ra refuses to harm Amazons it deems worthy of becoming Shim'Tar. It can only be used to harm them indirectly.
• Ms. Fanservice: Her tenure as Wonder Woman had in her what was probably the skimpiest version of the Wonder Woman costume ever to be drawn.
• Multi-Melee Master: Her go-to weapon is a bow when she has one, but she's usually carrying a pair of sai, a broadsword and giant battleaxe as well and she's very good at wielding them, which gives her Super-Strength an edge in a fight.
• My Country, Right or Wrong: After Artemis left to retrieve the Bow Of Ra and returned to see what a mess of things Faruka II made in her absence, on the advice of a man no less, Artemsis was willing to execute Faruka on the spot. Seeing that the rest of her Bana-Mighdall sisters still considered Faruka II their queen not only made Artemsis spare Faruka but return to serving Faruka herself.
• Mythology Gag: On the "Silver Age" Earth One an amazon named Artemis competed with Hippolyta for the crown of paradise island 3000 years before Diana was born. Artemis lost, but the goddesses Athena and Aphrodite decided to give her the mission of serving as an ambassador to "Man's World" as a consolation prize. Artemis was supposed to be Wonder Woman before Diana was, but she rejected the mission and instead joined Creon in his conquest of Greece and eventually died after picking a fight with goddess Athena herself. Artemis is brought back from the dead by Circe to kill Diana in the then modern age, but spell can't hold up against Diana and Artemis returns to bones and dust. While Post Crisis Artemis is a completely different character, not even being from Hippolyta's tribe(who themselves are on Themyscira rather than "Paradise Island"), Hippolyta herself turning to magic to ensure Artemis beat and succeeded Diana as Wonder Woman so Artemsis would die instead of Diana, that Artemsis would be helped back to life partially by Diana, these were deliberate allusions to the earlier stories.
• No "Arc" in "Archery": Justified with the Bow of Ra, which isn't actually a bow so much as a solar energy conduit the Bana-Migdhall Amazons wield like a bow. That said, it can be used to shoot regular, arching arrows.
• Noble Bigot: Her dislike of men and rampant misandry doesn't stop her from saving them from danger. She has also expressed romantic interest in multiple men despite outwardly decrying all men as stupid and inferior.
• Nothing but Skulls: Had a prominent skull motif prior to being retgonned by Flashpoint.
• One-Steve Limit: Not only does Artemis share her name with the Greek goddess of the hunt, but she also shares her name with three other characters; Amazon character named Artemis whose corpse was reanimated and forced to fight Diana in a pre-crisis story; Artemis Crock aka Tigress from Justice Society of America and Young Justice (2010); and Artemiz a Female Fury who first appeared in John Ostrander's Suicide Squad.
• Only the Chosen May Wield
  • Invoked by Diana, who felt Super Woman was unworthy to wield the lasso of submission and kept it locked away until deciding Artemis was a worthy wielder.
  • The Bow Of Ra will only accept Shim'Tar of the Bana-Migdhall Amazons, and even then only women of the tribe it deems worthy of being Shim'Tar. If the tribe nominates an unworthy candidate by its standards it will merely reject her. If she doesn't even have that much going for her it will immolate her. All of the Egyptian gods can also wield the Bow Of Ra, they just don't need to. The exceptions are when the Egyptian gods override the bow's decisions and let someone who is neither of their "pantheon" nor a worthy Amazon wield it. While Diana of Themyscira is of a different tribe, enough Bana-Mighdall consider her their champion to let Artemis's rival use the bow too.
• Power of the Sun: Does not have it inherently, but is gifted some Star Power as long as The Bow Of Ra considers her a worthy wielder. She can even radiate a little solar energy when not holding it.
• Proud Warrior Race Guy: The Bana prize fighting skills above all else and Artemis is one of their best fighters.
• Pursued Protagonist: During the Artemis: Wanted one shot, when Cassie and Donna are chasing her.
• Race Lift: Artemis has a noticeably dark skin tone befitting someone of Middle Eastern or North African descent in Wonder Woman: Earth One and Wonder Woman 80th Anniversary 100-Page Super Spectacular.
• Redhead In Green: Prior to Flashpoint most of her costumes and armor contained a significant amount of green to look nice with her red hair. In animated adaptions and group shots of Amazons fighting she's usually easy to pick out as the grinning Amazon with a long red ponytail wearing green.
• Red Is Heroic: Her red hair is her most distinguishing feature. She also wears red and black in DC Rebirth.
• Retgone: At the start of the New 52, Artemis was replaced by a similar-looking Amazon named Aleka, who was actually much more cruel and contemptuous of Diana, frequently mocking her by calling her "Clay." As part of DC Rebirth, Artemis was brought back in Red Hood and the Outlaws.
• Rise from Your Grave: She crawled out of her own grave after fighting her way back to life.
• The Rival: She was introduced as a less scrupulous rival for Diana, who believed she could better carry out Wonder Woman's mission than the princess and challenged her for the title and responsibility.
• Rookie Red Ranger: One of the reasons The Justice League rejected Artemis as Wonder Woman is that Diana happened to be leader of the group before Hippolyta up and decided to have Artemis replace her. Artemis simply would not have been ready to take command even if she had a more compatible personality with more league members.
• Sacred Bow and Arrows: As the name implies, the Bow of Ra is a weapon created by the Egyptian sun god Ra and gifted to the Bana-Mighdall. Only those worthy of becoming the Shim'Tar may wield it.
• Sidekick: As Wonder Woman Artemis had none other than Diana of Themyscira herself as a sidekick. Artemis becomes jealous of Diana and accuses Diana of trying to sabotage her, leading Diana to briefly take a break from being around Artemis.
• Significant Green-Eyed Redhead: She's a major player with ludicrously long red locks and bright green eyes.
• Spanner in the Works: Hippolyta hadn't initially planned on the amazons of Bana-Mighdall taking part in the contest to replace Diana as the champion in Man's World. Though Artemis was one of the nicer members of the splinter tribe she was still thrown into Tartarus upon death, something that would have unlikely happened to Mala. Diana would have been less likely to save a fallen amazon from Hades or Elisia, making Hippolyta's plan more likely to succeed.
• Spikes of Villainy: During her time as Dalkriig-Hath's bride, she wore a variation of her white and green leotard that featured spiked gauntlets and boots.
• Stock Shōnen Rival: Artemis originally served this role to Diana when introduced. Artemis is a member of the Bana-Migdhall tribe, a more militant and less trusting tribe of Amazons. She was chosen to serve as an Anti-Hero Substitute to Diana during the 90s and was characterized as Diana's opposite, being arrogant, ruthless, much more eager to use violence and obsessed with proving her superiority to Diana. Eventually, Artemis underwent Character Development and became more of a Friendly Rival to Diana.
• The Straight and Arrow Path: Like the goddess for whom she is named, Artemis is well known for using a bow and arrow.
• Stripperiffic: Her outfits tend to be quite a bit skimpier than Diana's, showing off much of her shapely rear end. Thankfully averted as of DC Rebirth where she finally gets pants as part of her default outfit.
• Sucksessor: Artemis' tenure as Wonder Woman was marred with criticism from the public and even other superheroes due to her antisocial personality and excessive use of violence which often made situations worse. Batman refused to let her sit in at Justice League meetings and Diana's own sister Donna Troy voiced her disapproval of Artemis. To add insult to injury, the only reason Artemis was actually given the title of Wonder Woman was because Hippolyta was trying to prevent a vision of Diana's death from coming true.
• Summon to Hand: Rebirth Artemis has several weapons she can call upon this way. At first just Mistress but it's a perk The Bow Of Ra also has that she has learned to use on other things.
• Super-Strength: The Bana-Mighdall lost their immortality when they split from Themyscira but passed down the strength granted to the tribe to their descendants. While that strength is waning for many members of the tribe Artemis isn't one of them, and is considered their strongest member.
  • In the post crisis continuity Hippolyta still needed to use magic to siphon some of Diana's strength into Artemis to ensure Artemis would win the challenge for Diana's title. Diana eventually gets her strength back and Artemis needs to use the Shim'Tar magitek armor to close the gap.
  • In the Rebirth continuity The Bow Of Ra boosts Artemsis's physical attributes, including her strength, to make her capable of wielding it properly. Without it she's weaker than Diana, the Wonder Girls and Nubia, even after Nubia's Coronation as queen of all three tribes grants the Bana-Mighdall all of the amazon gifts.
• Suspiciously Similar Substitute: Was this to Orana as mentioned above. Orana eventually returned as a much different character, but Artemis then got a similar replacement in Aleka from the New 52 Wonder Woman run.
• Taken for Granite: Post Crisis Artemis almost loses the contest to be the next Wonder Woman when she was turned to stone by a Medusa replica meant to stop Diana. This ends up working in Artemis's favor as Diana ends up losing time doubling back to restore the petrified amazons and lets Artemis unwittingly siphon more of Diana's strength.
• Token Heroic Orc: One of the only Bana characters to ever be portrayed positively.
• Tomboy and Girly Girl: When teaming up with Diana she is the Tomboy to Diana's Girly Girl.
• Tomboyish Ponytail: How she usually wears her hair.
• Took a Level in Kindness: Upon coming back to life, she noticeably mellowed out from her stereotypical Fiery Redhead characterization during her early appearances and time as Wonder Woman. Becoming a genuine friend of Diana and a mentor to Cassie Sandsmark.
• Undying Loyalty: To Hippolyta as it turns out, during Infinite Frontier. She is the one chosen to carry out a Suicide by Cop pact in absolute secrecy in order for Hippolyta to ascend to godhood and unite the Amazonian tribes. It helps that she learns Hippolyta's plan is supported by Bana-Mighdall founders Antiope and Atalanta.
• Unexpected Successor: Eventually becomes Polemarch (leader of the military, essentially), one of two joint leaders of Themyscira after Hippolyta steps down and dissolves the monarchy.
• Unwanted Assistance: While she comes to respect Cassie Sandsmark's strength after their first meeting in "DC Rebirth", their personalities clash. Cassie loves Artemis when not being punched by her but Artemis still can't stand Cassie and only accepts Cassie's help in finding Yara Flor once she realizes Cassie at least knows where to look, Artemsis doesn't, and Artemis has knocked out the only other Amazons who could also help.
• Unwitting Instigator of Doom: Artemis dying should have been enough to restore Diana's strength that was siphoned into Artemis, except Diana went to save Artemis's soul when Artemis ended up in Tartarus instead of Hades or Elysian Fields. Then Artemis returned to Earth and kept getting involved in Diana's affairs, horrifying Hippolyta when she witnessed the two fighting on television. Hippolyta and Artemis are both too late to stop Neron from killing a weakened Diana.
• Vitriolic Best Buds: Eventually becomes this with Diana. Even more vitriol but still a degree of friendship with Cassie Sandsmark in Rebirth.
• Weapon of Mass Destruction: The "Bow" of Ra can destroy stars. Luckily for all life on Earth Artemis is not a sun god and unlikely to pull this feat off, but she could still cause more than enough damage to anything on the planet if not careful with it.
• White Magic: Her hands glow purple when using it, but in the during Infinite Frontier Artemis gains access to Amazons magic unconnected to Hecate that lets Artemis break cursesas payment for her role in helping Hippolyta ascend to patron goddess of the Amazons.
• White Sheep: While Bana-Mighdall Amazons in general were treated as more of a persecuted race than Always Chaotic Evil after George Pérez left the book, Artemis remains the White Sheep of the tribe... comparatively speaking. Akila, their champion, is also more decent than the average, preferring scholarship to war. In Rebirth the tribe's founder Atalanta is the white sheep of the flock, with Artemis as a distant second and Akila as bad as the rest.

Akila

Shim'Tar/Akila

First Appearance: Wonder Woman (Vol 2) Annual #8. (1999)

Created By: Doselle Young · Brian Denham

Universes: New Earth, Prime Earth

Akila is the Shim'Tar—chosen champion—of the Bana-Mighdall Amazons after their society rejoins the Amazons of Themyscira and starts adapting to be a bit less horrifically and murderously misandrist. Prior to becoming the Shim'Tar she spent a lot of time sneaking away to study and is far more interested in scholarship than the art of being a warrior, which makes her very different from the average Bana Amazon.

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• Adaptation Dye-Job: In DC Rebirth her Shim'Tar uniform becomes primarily teal, and loses its practical armor components.
• Adaptational Personality Change: Originally an intellectual pacifist, Rebirth sees Akila reimagined as a warrior rival of Artemis turned villain.
• Adaptational Skimpiness: While the Shim'Tar armor always showed way more leg than necessary in Rebirth it lost the signature helmet, and added a bare back, shoulders and arms to the deal, the better for ridiculously sexed up poses while fighting.
• Breast Plate: Prior to Flashpoint her armor was cut impractically low and molded around her breasts when drawn by most artists. It also didn't provide any protection for her upper legs. In Rebirth her "armor" is not drawn to resemble armor at all, looking more like a tight halter-top swimsuit.
• Death by Adaptation: Rebirth have the character go mad with power and get killed by her best friend, then come back and get killed deader than dead, while her pre-Flashpoint self was alive and well and trying to lead her people to be more tolerant and kind.
• Magitek: In the post crisis continuity she is sent away to acquire a "man's world" education and builds a cybernetic exoskeleton made to increase an amazon's strength with what she learns. Amazons of the Shim'Tar rank have their exoskeletons boosted by magic to make them even stronger.
• Meaningful Name: Her name means "intelligent" in Arabic. Fitting for one who prefers scholarly pursuits over battle.
• Race Lift: She's always been from Egypt and prior to Flashpoint was usually drawn looking Middle Eastern, while in Rebirth she drawn with Sub-Saharan heritage.
• Smart People Wear Glasses: Prior to Flashpoint she was a scholar who wore reading glasses.
• Voice of Reason: While she is also called on to fight as their champion one of the main reasons she was chosen as Shim'Tar was to act as a voice of reason for her proud warrior people, who tend to jump to more violent solutions to problems.
• White Sheep: (Pre-Flashpoint) The reason she was chosen as Shim'Tar is part of the promise for the future of the Bana-Mighdall as a more peaceful culture.

Io

Io

First Appearance: Wonder Woman (Vol 2) #196. (2003)

Created By: Greg Rucka · Dave Johnson

Universes: New Earth, Prime Earth, Historia

"No! I won't build it, don't ask me! We are Amazons, we are sworn to peace! It is a betrayal of everything we stand for, everything we believe!"''

—Io, Wonder Woman Vol 2

An Amazon blacksmith with a huge crush on Diana.

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• All Love Is Unrequited: She's got it bad for the princess. Diana seems to notice, but simply isn't interested.
• The Blacksmith: She is the premier blacksmith on Themyscira, and is even addressed as "Blacksmith" by Ares.
• Cannot Spit It Out: She'd like to confess her feelings to the princess, but she's too nervous to do it.
• The Cutie: She's neither as cut nor trim as most of her amazon sisters, but still far from fat, giving her a softer girlish look.
• Eye Scream: During Trial Of The Amazons Io appears to die after Doom's Doorway is breached, either by Chaos or Echnica, but she ends up surviving, just with a black scar on her face where her eye used to be.
• Forging Scene: Creates a suit of armor for her princess.
• Gentle Giant: Huge even for an Amazon, but she's a total sweetheart.
• It's What I Do: During a time where the gods forbade the presence of weapons on Paradise Island, Io persisted in crafting blades knowing they would instantly disappear upon completion. Why? Because it's her job.
• Kind Hearted Cat Lover: Initially not the case in DC Rebirth, where Nubia's cat flat out hates Io, who is just fine to leave it at that, but the two start to get along while everyone is mourning Hippolyta's death.
• My Greatest Failure: Io is devastated when Ares easily defeats her and takes Lyta.
• Official Couple: Established in the Nubia and The Amazons miniseries to be in a relationship with Nubia.
• Parental Substitute: She took responsibility for raising and protecting Lyta Milton, the daughter of Ares and Circe, and the girl very understandably prefers Io to her own mother and has a meltdown when she thinks her father killed Io.
• Please, Don't Leave Me: It pains Io to watch Diana go off to face Medousa. During DC Rebirth she also fails to hide her hissy fit when Nubia agrees to meet with The President Of The United States alone while US ally Canada is rattling its saber against Themyscira.
• Shrinking Violet: She's fairly shy and reserved.
• Stout Strength: She's nowhere near as strong as Diana or Nubia, but is otherwise amoung the biggest strongest women on Themyscira, though she doesn't have the most visible musculature at a glance until she starts moving.
• Weapons of Their Trade: While she's used swords in fights, most remarkably when she garnered some goodwill with Ares when she surprised him with a stab wound from a blade he himself had blessed, she's more often got a hammer on hand.
• Wrench Wench: She's responsible for the construction and upkeep of most vehicles on Themyscira, but she doesn't drive many herself. In particular, she tends to end up directing her ire at the pilots of the island's main spacecraft, The Hecatess, for how often she apparently has to repair it.

Carrisa

Carrisa

First Appearance: Wonder Woman Vol 2 #201. (2004)

Created By: Greg Rucka · Shane Davis

Universes: New Earth

"Leeches and bloodlettings, like I said. Don't tell me the ambassador hasn't told you glorified barbers about our purple healing ray?"

—Carrisa, Wonder Woman Vol 2 # 211

A touted Amazonian surgeon, who is the first to run to the Themysciran Embassy when news of any of Diana's more serious injuries reaches Themyscira.

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• Dr. Jerk: Carrisa is well known for her sharp tongue and judgmental nature.
• The Medic: She's usually the one Diana and the other Amazons turn to when they need to get patched up after Epione's mysterious unaddressed vanishing from the books.
• Sacrificial Lion: Killed in the OMAC attack on Themyscira to prove just how dangerous the things are, even to the Amazons.

Alkyone

Alkyone

First Appearance: Wonder Woman Vol 3 #14. (2008)

"You were not there. You can't know. What this place was like before she, before the dragon, was born. "Paradise Island", we called it. And it was. Since then, it's been endless war and invasions and death and pain. And yet the Amazons still love her. Still see her as the helpless baby in the rain."

A member of The Circle, Hippolyta's elite blood-sworn bodyguards, and a former weapons master. Alkyone calls Diana "The Dragon" and was convinced that she would destroy Themyscira, and tried to kill the infant, resulting in her imprisonment with the other members of The Circle.

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• Bald of Evil: Has no hair and no sense of benevolence in her.
• Black Eyes of Evil: After taking some of Genocide's powers, along with Red Eyes, Take Warning. For extra emphasis on "evil", her pupils now look like skulls.
• Bodyguard Betrayal: Betrays Hippolyta by trying to kill her daughter.
• Bodyguard Crush: On Hippolyta, which drives her turn to villainy.
• Dark Action Girl: Like any evil Amazon.
• Deal with the Devil: Alkyone made a deal with Ares that bore no fruit until Ares died and Alkyone and The Circle were granted some of Genocide's power. Alkyone also made a deal to free Cottus from Themyscira, on the grounds he take what he wants from it and go away.
• Death of a Thousand Cuts: The Circle's first plan to kill the adult Wonder Woman is to gang up on her in an ambush and do as much damage as they can to Diana, hoping it will add up. Alkyone later contemplates manipulating Achilles Warkiller in order to get his spear, which is capable of impaling Diana outright.
• Exotic Eye Designs: After taking some of Genocide's powers, her pupils now look like skulls.
• Feeling Oppressed by Their Existence: Alkyone already has a trump card in Hippolyta guaranteed to make Wonder Woman surrender, but can't resist the temptation of arranging a Duel to the Death between Diana and Donna Troy, seeing it as a fitting punishment for them daring to be born. After Diana pacifies Donna Alkyone is willing to settle for just getting rid of Diana.
• For Your Own Good: Alkyone has Hippolyta restrained and displayed as a means of luring Diana to her death, justifying it to Hippolyta that Hippolyta sometimes does not know what is good for her.
• Green-Eyed Monster: Hinted to be a major reason she despises Diana as she is the child all the Amazons wanted but could never have. Upon being defeated by Diana the first time, her words were "You could have been mine."
• I Did What I Had to Do: Her justification for killing the Amazon Gennes after she went mad and thought a doll was her child.
• I Have Your Wife: After Achilles Warkiller is twice repelled by Diana in battle Alkyone commands that he take Hippolyta hostage and threaten Hippolyta's life to make Wonder Woman surrender. Alkyone has no intention of letting any harm actually come to Hippolyta but tells Achilles that skinning the body guards Diana left behind on Themyscira to protect Hippolyta, will be enough to convince Diana that they mean business.
• Ignored Epiphany: Alkyone starts to reconsider her stance on Diana after a broken, bleeding and burnt Diana travels miles across the sea to defend Themyscira from an invasion by sea monsters, but seeing Diana violently reject Zeus for his "gift" of husband made from the remains of Diana's adoptive father cements the idea in Alkyone's head that Diana is The Dragon that must be slain.
• Immortal Procreation Clause: A major source of angst not just for Alkyone, but all the Amazons, since none are able to have children.
• Interservice Rivalry: Was frequently at odds with Philippus, Captain of the General Guard.
• Knight Templar: The Circle was well-known for being overzealous about protecting Hippolyta. Alkyone takes it even further with her obsession with defending what she sees as proper Amazon culture by destroying Diana.
• Loophole Abuse: Alkyone agrees to taking Achilles Warkiller as king of Themyscira on condition he preserve as many of the island's laws as possible, while not telling him how these laws can be used to undermine his rule.
• Love Makes You Crazy: Her secret love and intense loyalty to Hippolyta and the Amazon way of life led her to commit increasingly immoral actions to the point she became set on destroying anything that she felt threatened the "proper" Amazon way of life.
• Necessarily Evil: How Alkyone views her own actions.
  Alkyone: I did this to save our people, Diana! I have made terrible choices. I never wanted to be queen. I just wanted... I just wanted things to never change. Your beautiful mother, and my Circle to watch over her until the end of time!
• Never Found the Body: Meaning she comes back.
• Praetorian Guard: She leads Queen Hippolyta's bodyguard, and like the real Praetorian Guard, ultimately betrays the person she is supposed to protect.
• Psycho Lesbian: Sadly, the first in Amazon history. For Hippolyta, no less.
• Super-Reflexes: Post crisis Amazons have a degree of these compare to pure humans, but much less than Wonder Woman until she takes some of Genocide's power
• Super-Speed: As a Post-Crisis Amazon she's been granted faster than human speed by the goddesses.
• Super-Strength: As an post crisis Amazon she can attain slightly higher levels of strength than a pure human, but has nothing on Wonder Woman until taking some of Genocide's power.
• Straw Feminist: Takes her misandry far further than even most other Amazons.
• The Rival: To Philippus. They should have mostly unrelated duties but Alkyone tends to overstep her boundaries and into Philipus's territory.
• Would Hurt a Child: Would try to kill a baby actually.

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