Queen Hippolyta tells Diana the story of how Diana came to be — she made a clay statue of a baby and Zeus breathed life into her. This is an obvious reference to Wonder Woman's origin in her first, second and third comic book incarnations where she was formed out of clay by Hippolyta and brought to life by Aphrodite, or a whole contingent of Olympian goddesses. The truth in the film, however, is different, closer to her New 52 incarnation.
Hippolyta's exact wording, that she wanted a child so much she sculpted Diana out of clay herself and begged Zeus to give her life, is also a reference to actual Greek mythology — specifically the story of Pygmalion, who sculpted a female figure so beautiful he fell in love with it and begged Aphrodite to turn it into a living woman.
Diana catching Steve in the bath may also be an inversion of the Greek myth where a man encounters the goddess Artemis (Roman name "Diana") in the bath.
Diana's first time ever in a department store includes a bit when she questions why women need corsets "to flatten [their] tummies," to which Etta snarks that only a woman with no tummy (i.e. like Diana) wouldn't understand, which is near identical to a bit from an episode of the animated Justice League where Diana's first time in a department store leads her to questioning why women need cosmetics "to cover [their] natural beauty," to which a saleslady snarks at her.
While Diana is trying on different outfits in order to blend in, Steve Trevor gives a pair of glasses like she wore in the TV show — not to hide her secret identity (since she doesn't have any identity known to the world at this point), but to make her less "distracting". (The futility of this is lampshaded by Etta Candy, as described in the main page under Clark Kent Outfit). Five minutes later, the glasses get crushed underfoot during a fight and are never seen again.
During the same montage, Etta lets out a shocked "Woo!" when Diana accidentally rips a skirt. The delivery is significantly different, but it's almost assuredly a nod to how Etta during The Golden Age of Comic Books had a Three Stooges-esque "Woo! Woo!" as a catchphrase.
The scene with Diana and Steve Trevor being ambushed in an alley and Diana blocking bullets is a gender flipped homage to a scene from the 1978 Superman film. Gal Gadot even wears a hat and glasses just like Christopher Reeve did.
Diana tries ice cream for the first time and is ecstatic by how good it tastes, even complimenting the server for their craft. This is near identical to a scene from Justice League: Origin and Justice League: War.
Steve at one point refers to Themyscira as "Paradise Island", its original name in the comics, though he seems to come up with it just because he has trouble pronouncing Themyscira.
At the ball in the German castle, Diana wears a blue dress similar to one Lynda Carter wore in the 1970s series.
The credits identify the woman Diana "borrowed" the dress from as Fausta Grables, a villainess from the 1940s comics and the 1970s TV show.
Ares's appearance brings his Injustice: Gods Among Us depiction to mind, where his face is visible under the dark suit of armor and during the final confrontation, he uses telekinesis to throw objects at Diana and spontaneously creates blades just like his special attacks where he summons weapons out of thin air to attack his opponents.
Ares in the flashback is wearing blue armor like his classic comic counterpart.
The fight with Ares ends with Diana using his own lightning against him, as in the animated movie Wonder Woman.
Diana putting on Antiope's tiara, with the camera revolving around her, is a nod to the "Wonder twirl" from the television series. The look on the British soldier's face while she does this is priceless.
During Diana's confrontation with Ludendorff in the tower, there is a layout triangle in a prominent position in the background. Is this a random piece of set dressing, or a reference to the Angler, the tool of the Angle Man, one of her villains from the comics?
The War of the Gods is illustrated like a Renaissance painting. It pays homage to the artists of the time, inspired by greco-roman myths... and also to Zack Snyder, whose own cinematography owes a lot of visual inspiration from these paintings.
In the comics, Ares (called Mars in the Golden Age) has been depicted with a few very different character designs over the decades. The movie appears to homage no less than three of them. Ludendorff looks like the brick-faced Golden Age Mars, Sir Patrick Morgan looks like the mustached New 52 Ares, and his armor during the climax fight resembles George Pérez's Post-Crisisversion of the character.
One of Steve’s on-the-fly cover stories for Diana is that she is his secretary. When one of the officials questions how she knows ancient languages perfectly on sight, he simply says weakly “she’s a very good secretary.” Wonder Woman as an overqualified secretary echoes her original introduction to the Justice Society of America, where she was a secretary to the team at first, and her original cover story for her secret identity seen in Sensation Comics where she became the secretary to General Darnell.
The entire plot of the German army using poison gas so strong, gas masks couldn't protect their victims, comes from the very first issue of Sensation Comics.
◊ that resembles her Golden Age
