I read these last few volumes of Wonder Woman because I wanted to stay caught up before Steve Orlando and ultimately G. Willow Wilson take over the title. I've liked James Robinson before (his Starman comic is great), but this run on Wonder Woman was boring and by the numbers. It ended with the new character he had introduced sacrificing himself so the next writers could do their own thing with the title and not worry about this new wrinkle. Which honestly is fine by me because I didn't find the ...more
Although she has traditionally paired with either Steve Trevor or no one as a main romantic lead, and Superman with either Lois Lane or Lana Lang, there has often been the hint of a romance between the two characters. This began in the 1960 in the series Superman's Girlfriend, Lois Lane which was equal parts romance and action themed. In order to drive along the romance, the theme often came up of Lois Lane believing that Superman really loved Wonder Woman (though this was mostly for the purposes of a case.) In later years the same ideas perpetuated though most in imaginary stories or alternate tellings of the future. Following Crisis on Infinite Earths the characters were briefly linked romantically in Action Comics #600 which was written by John Byrne. Subsequently the characters' interest in one another was generally portrayed as a strong friendship (this occurred under different writers, primarily Messner-Loebs and Rucka.) Following the reboot of the DC universe into the new 52 the characters once again showed a romantic interest in one another. They found common ground in the isolation which their power give them and shared a kiss in Justice League #12 in 2012. It was later on revealed by Geoff Johns that their relationship wouldn't last for long and will end badly.
This volume of James Robinson's run on Wonder Woman shows signs that all the good faith DC comics gain from fans is slowly becoming disappointing. This is very troubling seeing how I have enjoyed James Robinson's writing in many other comic book series. I do agree with many of the other reviewers this volume has some really great art but the story is at times flawed or mediocre. My biggest gripe is with the character of Jason. To me it just felt like throughout this arc of the story they mad Jas ...more
Mikos delivers Ventouras's dead son to him, presumably killed by the rebel faction. This causes him to seek revenge against the Rebels and Diana. They turn into monsters and attack Diana. Diana fights the witch's forces but is overpowered by the witch herself, but only after retrieving the scroll from Stavros who was already attacked and severely wounded. The scrolls ends up in Julia's hands, and she immediately goes to work decoding it in an effort to save Diana and discover the witch's weakness. Diana is taken to the witch's stronghold, where she is revealed to be Circe, a sorceress possessing the soul of Hecate, the moon god after they had entered into a pact to drive the world into chaos. She tells Diana what became of her aunt Antiope, who was killed by Circe herself after manipulating Antiope's husband Theseus's former wife. Circe explains to Diana that her existence is a threat to her mission, due to Diana's goal of promoting peace and equality among mankind, and therefore she must be eliminated. Circe is about to kill Diana when she is interrupted by Julia and the rebels. Julia had decoded the scroll and knew how to stave off the witch's attacks. But they are beaten by Circe and almost killed when Circe herself is suspiciously summoned off from the island by an unknown force, later revealed to be the god Hermes.
The I Ching era had an influence on the 1974 Wonder Woman TV movie featuring Cathy Lee Crosby, in which Wonder Woman was portrayed as a non-superpowered globe-trotting super-spy who wore an amalgam of the Wonder Woman and Diana Prince costumes. The first two issues of Allan Heinberg's run (Wonder Woman vol. 3, #1–2) include direct references to I Ching, and feature Diana wearing an outfit similar to that which she wore during the I Ching era.[9]
Later, Etta was released from hospital and Diana accompanied her to her home. She was shot by a sniper, but deflected the bullet and interrogated the attacker, who called herself Mayfly. She revealed that she had attempted to assassinate Wonder Woman in return for a bounty that had been placed on her.[86] Shortly afterwards, Diana was attacked by five more assassins: Cat Eye, Cheshire, Abolith, Baundo and Plastique, the latter of whom revealed that she had planted the bomb at the wedding. Wonder Woman was able to defeat them all with the help of Etta, and they returned to an A.R.G.U.S. facility. There, Sasha Bordeaux informed her that another scientist, Hamilton Revere, had heard of Dr. Crawford's attempts to harvest Diana's DNA, and had apparently hypothesized that it could be used for the treatment of numerous diseases. Wonder Woman was intrigued and decided to seek out Revere of her own accord and hear out his plans.[87] When she arrived, Revere informed her that in truth, he sought to use her DNA to create an army of super-soldiers. He had also used samples of Diana's blood to grant some of his goons super strength, who attacked her. Etta and Steve Trevor arrived to assist Wonder Woman, and together they bound the attackers in the Lasso of Truth, which once again removed the lie within their bodies. Revere was arrested, and Diana returned home with Steve and Etta.[88]
I thought George's one "mistake" in rebooting Wonder Woman was making her only 25 years old when she left Paradise Island. I preferred the idea of a Diana who was thousands of years old (as, if I recall correctly, she was in the TV series). From that angle, I would have liked to have seen Diana having been Wonder Woman in WW2, and be returning to our world in the reboot. Not having that option, I took the next best course, and had Hippolyta fill that role.[81]
“Noted Psychologist Revealed as Author of Best-Selling ‘Wonder Woman,’” read the astonishing headline. In the summer of 1942, a press release from the New York offices of All-American Comics turned up at newspapers, magazines and radio stations all over the United States. The identity of Wonder Woman’s creator had been “at first kept secret,” it said, but the time had come to make a shocking announcement: “the author of ‘Wonder Woman’ is Dr. William Moulton Marston, internationally famous psychologist.” The truth about Wonder Woman had come out at last.
In August 2010 (issue #600), J. Michael Straczynski took over the series' writing duties and introduced Wonder Woman to an alternate timeline created by the Gods in which Paradise Island had been destroyed and the Amazons scattered around the world.[42] In this timeline, Diana is an orphan raised in New York. The entire world has forgotten Wonder Woman's existence and the main story of this run was of Diana trying to restore reality even though she does not properly remember it herself. A trio of Death Goddesses called The Morrigan acted as the main enemy of Wonder Woman.[43][44] In this run, Wonder Woman wears a new costume designed by Jim Lee.[45] Straczynski determined the plot and continued writing duties until Wonder Woman #605; writer Phil Hester then continued his run, which ultimately concluded in Wonder Woman #614.[46]
Development of a live action Wonder Woman film began in 1996, with Ivan Reitman slated to produce and possibly direct. The project floundered in development hell for many years; Jon Cohen, Todd Alcott, and Joss Whedon, among others, were also attached to the project at various points. Warner Bros. announced the film in 2010 and Jenkins signed on to direct in 2015. Inspiration for Wonder Woman was drawn from Wonder Woman creator William Moulton Marston's 1940s stories and George Pérez's 1980s stories about Wonder Woman, as well as the New 52 incarnation of the character. Principal photography began on November 21, 2015, with filming taking place in the United Kingdom, France, and Italy before finishing on May 6, 2016, the 123rd anniversary of Marston's birth. Additional filming took place in November 2016.
(For the record, Marston and Olive Byrne’s son, Byrne Marston, who is an 83-year-old retired obstetrician, thinks that when Marston talked about the importance of submission, he meant it only metaphorically. “I never saw anything like that in our house,” he told me. “He didn’t tie the ladies up to the bedpost. He’d never have gotten away with it.”)
In March 2005, Warner Bros. and Silver Pictures announced that Joss Whedon would write and direct the film.[74] Early drafts of his screenplay included Steve Trevor as the narrator, a fierce battle between Diana and her mother over Trevor's welfare, and after leaving Themyscira, his need to frequently rescue a Diana rendered helpless by the modern world.[75] Whedon was not able to complete a final version of his screenplay, and left the project in 2007.[76][77]
The character has been featured in direct-to-DVD animated films and CGI theatrical releases, such as The Lego Movie (2014). Within the live-action DC Extended Universe films, Wonder Woman debuted in Batman v Superman: Dawn of Justice (2016) and was featured as the main character in Wonder Woman (2017). In November 2017, she appeared in the DCEU release Justice League.
While living in "Man's World" for a century following World War I tempered some of Diana's more blindly held beliefs, she still held true to her core values of kindness and compassion, and further grew into an exceptionally considerate, diplomatic, and empathetic woman. This can be seen when she silently emphasizes with Lois Lane after the death of Superman had been killed (recalling her own pain after Steve Trevor's sacrifice), smiling knowingly when Aquaman accidentally sat on the Lasso of Hestia and confessed his fears about their upcoming mission and how attractive he found her. With all of her experiences, Diana is also the most diplomatic member of the Justice League, as evidenced by her treatment of the Flash with compassion and patience, despite his tendency to somewhat annoy her and the other Justice Leaguers with his humorous attitude, and the kindness and support she showed to Cyborg while he continued to grapple with his powers.[10] Indeed, through her compassion and unbreakable spirit, Diana has given renewed hope to many of her teammates throughout the years. For example, she motivated and inspired the Wonder Men into looking past purely monetary interests, with Chief resolving to no longer be neutral in the war, Sameer finally admitting his passion for acting, and even the depressed Charlie struggling with PTSD finally beginning to sing again for the first time in years. Likewise, during the Justice League's battle against Steppenwolf's forces, Wonder Woman was able to inspire confidence in the inexperienced Flash and Cyborg, assuring them that they wouldn't need to fight the Apokoliptan invasion alone. Furthermore, she was the most understanding of Superman's confusion upon his ressurrection and remained ambivalent about fighting the newly-resurrected Superman and even implored him not to force her to, showing him compassion and persistence while attempting to get him to remember who he is (even calling him by his birth name). In addition to her general willingness for empathy, however, Diana is also extremely friendly and can step back enjoy the smaller moments in life, as seen in her utter delight in experiencing ice cream and agreement with Superman (who, up until this point she had not spoken to much) about him not missing out on the positive results of their victory over Steppenwolf.
Hermaphroditus Wonder Woman #69 (April 24, 2019) Hermaphroditus is the God of Androgyny, Sexuality, Unions, Fertility and Marriage who is based on the god of the same name. In the DC Universe, Hermaphroditus is a transgender deity with angelic wings and goes by the name "Atlantiades". He revealed that he left Mount Olympus in hopes to get away from his mother Aphrodite and decided to take refuge on earth in a neighborhood called Summergrove in Connecticut. He used his powers to influence the Summergrove residents to submit to their inner desires.