by Hanley, Tim
They journeyed deep into Hades to the womb of Gaea, the mother of the Earth itself. In this most secret part of Hades, Gaea had hidden the souls of women who had been killed by men, their lives cut short by violence and hatred. Artemis released the souls and they became the Amazons, bursting forth as fully formed women in a new land. Hippolyte was the first to emerge, and she became their queen. The newly born Amazons were visited by the goddesses, who told them that they were a “sacred sisterhood,” a “chosen race—born to lead humanity in the ways of virtue.”
Then came Hercules, goaded on by an irate Ares. Hercules tricked the Amazons, they were captured, Athena freed them, and they left for a new home far away from the world of men. The Amazons hadn’t succeeded in their mission to change the world, but the goddesses were playing a long game. Something great would come from the Amazons.
The bearer of Hippolyte’s original soul was pregnant when she died, and so the queen felt a yearning for a daughter. The oracle of the Amazons told her to form a baby out of clay and then “open yourself to fair Artemis—that the mid-wife of all Olympus may enter you.” There was one soul remaining in the womb of Gaea, specially saved for this moment, and it gave life to the clay baby. The goddesses also granted the baby gifts: power and strength from Demeter, great beauty and a loving heart from Aphrodite, wisdom from Athena, the eye of the hunter and unity with beasts from Artemis, “sisterhood with fire—that it may open men’s hearts to her” from Hestia, and Hermes gave her speed and flight. The baby was named Diana, and she soon became the champion of the Amazons.
Borrowing the Hercules story and the clay from Marston and the gods bequeathing powers from Kanigher, Pérez continued the post-Marston trend of Diana being unique among the Amazons but he also made the goddesses the source of the majority of her powers. The Pérez origin was a hybrid, referencing the past with an eye to the future.
Soon grown, Diana won a tournament in disguise and became Wonder Woman, saved Steve Trevor and returned him to America, and then she saved the world from a great evil, but these familiar elements had new twists. Steve was older, a pilot near retirement age forced to fly a secret mission by a cult of Ares that had gained power in the American military. Ares, still upset about the Amazons, was about to start World War III and wanted to eliminate the champions of the goddesses who would oppose him. Steve unknowingly flew the secret passage to Themyscira, the home of the Amazons, and his possessed copilot tried to blow up the island. Not surprisingly, Wonder Woman lassoed the missile, saved Steve, and, once she arrived in America, foiled Ares’s master plan.
She did so with a new supporting cast. Etta Candy was a lieutenant in the air force, a nod to her military role in the TV show, and Etta and Steve soon became a couple. Wonder Woman’s main companion was Julia Kapatelis, a professor of Greek history at Harvard, and her teenage daughter, Vanessa. They became her surrogate family in America. Wonder Woman also had a publicist, Myndi Mayer, who helped her establish herself and her message of peace and compassion in the world of men.
The Amazons were more fleshed out as well, with characters like Epione the healer, Hellene the historian, Menalippe the oracle, Philippus the captain of the guard, and many more. Themyscira was no longer a generic all-female utopia; it housed women with varied personalities and different ideas of the Amazons’ role in the world. This came to a head when Wonder Woman wanted to open up Themyscira to the rest of the world. There was much debate, and it came to a vote. The majority decided to rejoin the world, and the isolationism of past incarnations of the Amazons ended. Instead of barricading themselves to maintain some sort of superiority and purity, they became part of the world again. Themyscira welcomed visitors, male and female, and Hippolyte even traveled to the United Nations to speak.
Wonder Woman faced challenges from patriarchal forces, both mortal and divine. She spent most of her time battling rogue gods and mythological beasts, but Pérez kept the series planted firmly in the real world and he tackled some heavy topics. Myndi Mayer died of a drug overdose, and an issue explored alcohol and drug abuse. In another issue, Vanessa’s cheery friend Lucy Spears committed suicide, and the book dealt with depression and the loss of a loved one. Wonder Woman’s human friends kept the series grounded and relevant to a modern audience.
Wonder Woman was also notable for its many female creators. Janice Race developed the book before handing the editorial duties to Karen Berger, who remained editor for Pérez’s entire run.* Women were involved in Wonder Woman at every level while Berger was in charge. Mindy Newell cowrote twelve issues with Pérez, while Jill Thompson penciled most of the last third of Pérez’s tenure and did occasional covers. When Thompson needed a breather, Colleen Doran and Cynthia Martin took over illustration duties. Tatjana Wood did the coloring for the early issues of the book, and Nansi Hoolahan was the regular colorist by the end of the Pérez era.
While the Pérez relaunch is well regarded, the book wasn’t without its problems. The series continued the depiction of Wonder Woman as an unattainable ideal, and other female characters weren’t empowered by knowing Wonder Woman so much as they felt bad about themselves in comparison. For example, Vanessa was concerned her boyfriend wouldn’t like her anymore once he got a look at Wonder Woman, and Wonder Woman’s lithe figure made Etta Candy feel sensitive about her weight.
Nonetheless, the Pérez era revitalized Wonder Woman, however briefly. He combined elements of her Golden and Silver Age past into a new, modern take on the character that retained her feminist leanings and also established Wonder Woman as a champion of global peace and cooperation. For the first time in decades, Wonder Woman was relevant and the book was selling well. This didn’t last for long.
Background Player
After George Pérez left Wonder Woman in the early 1990s, the series remained stagnant for the next two decades. William Messner-Loebs replaced Pérez as writer and took Wonder Woman in a new direction. She became a space pirate for a while, then got a job at the Mexican fast food restaurant Taco Whiz when the Amazons disappeared and left her homeless.
Messner-Loebs was soon joined by artist Mike Deodato Jr., whose style sexualized the book. Wonder Woman had impossibly long legs, a minuscule waist, breasts that jutted out like torpedoes, and a perpetual sexy glare. She and her fellow Amazons were always positioned so as to best emphasize their features, and Wonder Woman’s briefs turned into a painful-looking thong that pulled up past her waist, while Hippolyta wore what can only be described as dual breast hammocks. Deodato’s artwork was a far cry from Pérez’s more classic, tasteful style.
John Byrne took over as writer and artist after Messner-Loebs left and largely ignored everything that had happened before. He moved Wonder Woman to the fictional Gateway City, gave her a new supporting cast, and even killed her for a few issues. The book wasn’t terrible, but nor was it particularly good. By the mid-1990s, the series had settled into a middling quality with middling sales, and it never came back in any lasting way.
There were some good moments: Phil Jimenez’s run on the book as writer and artist is very well respected; writer Greg Rucka was twice nominated for an Eisner, the comics industry’s biggest award, while writing Wonder Woman; and Gail Simone became the series’ first regular female writer.* There were occasional sales jumps, but they quickly petered out. Another relaunch in 2006 lit up the sales charts briefly, but delays and a tie-in to Amazons Attack, a poorly executed miniseries in which the Amazons invaded America, soon dragged the book down. When Wonder Woman was renumbered to mark its 600th issue overall, J. Michael Straczynski came onboard as writer and sales rose initially until Straczynski abruptly left the book. Then sales plummeted again.
DC Comics often refers to Superman, Batman, and Wonder Woman as its “Big Three” or the “Trinity,” its three heroes who have been around the longest and are most well known. However, while Wonder Woman spent most of the Modern Age trucking along in the middle of the pack with her one series, the men were much busier. Batman and Superman didn’t j
ust have their own starring books; they were a brand. Along with their own titles, their sidekicks and associates had titles of their own, all tagged with the bat symbol or the S-shield to show they were part of a larger family of books. Wonder Woman just had Wonder Woman.†
The chart on the next page shows a timeline of select ongoing series that starred or were closely related to the Big Three.‡ Wonder Woman costarred in Justice League books and is involved in big, line-wide events with everyone else, but she and her supporting cast have only had one book of their own for the entire Modern Age while Superman, Batman, and their many associates have had scads of titles. Wonder Woman hasn’t been a priority at DC, and so she’s faded into the background.
Part of this is due to a lack of iconic stories. Batman has books like Frank Miller’s Batman: Year One and The Dark Knight Returns that invigorated Batman in the late 1980s, and later books like The Long Halloween and Hush that continue to sell well. Superman has classic shorter stories from the 1980s, like Alan Moore’s “Whatever Happened to the Man of Tomorrow?” and “For the Man Who Has Everything,” along with later successes like Superman for All Seasons and All Star Superman. All of these books have been reprinted in various editions over the years, and the Batman and Superman sections in bookstores are always jam-packed.
Wonder Woman doesn’t really have any iconic stories. The Pérez issues were collected once, and her new issues come out as graphic novels twice a year, but those don’t stay in print for long. One of her only standalone graphic novels, Greg Rucka and J. G. Jones’s Wonder Woman: The Hiketia, was a critical success in 2003, but it’s out of print now too. Wonder Woman’s back catalog is very thin. In May 2013, DC Comics put out the DC Entertainment Essential Graphic Novels and Chronology 2013 guide, a comprehensive handbook of its extensive backlist catalog. Batman had eighty-four titles listed and Superman had fifty-three, while lesser-known heroes like Green Lantern and the Flash had forty-six and fifteen titles, respectively. The Wonder Woman section listed only six titles.
Batman and Superman have also had huge event stories that were key moments in the DC Comics universe. The villain Bane broke Batman’s back in Knightfall, and that story along with Batman’s return has been a touchstone for Batman comics since. Furthermore, Bane became a regular villain in the DC universe, and he and the breaking of Batman were a key part of the blockbuster movie The Dark Knight Rises.
Causing even more of an impact was the death of Superman, which received international press attention. The issue where the monster Doomsday killed Superman is one of the bestselling comic books of all time, and the collections have been extremely successful and are constantly reissued. Doomsday remains a key part of the DC universe, as do characters created in the wake of Superman’s death, like Steel and a new Superboy. The story hasn’t been on the big screen yet, but it was turned into an animated movie that launched DC’s direct-to-DVD line.
Both Superman and Batman had catastrophic events with ramifications still felt in comic books today that are known even outside of the comic book world. Over the same period, Wonder Woman died twice and lost the title of Wonder Woman, and no one particularly cares or remembers. She died very briefly during the Pérez era in the crossover story War of the Gods, lost her title to the upstart Amazon Artemis during the Messner-Loebs/Deodato era, and then died and was replaced by her mother before coming back to life as the goddess of truth during the Byrne era. All of those stories have been out of print for years, and their lasting effects are practically nonexistent. They’ve certainly not inspired new characters or been adapted into movies.
For the vast majority of the Modern Age, Wonder Woman has been an afterthought. Batman and Superman have had innumerable comic books, several movies each, live-action TV shows, and cartoon TV shows. Wonder Woman has had her comic book, and that’s about it. Other DC properties have been expanded into brands and found success elsewhere. Green Lantern was turned into a live-action movie and a cartoon show, and there are five titles in the Green Lantern comics family right now. Lesser-known teams like the Teen Titans and Legion of Super-Heroes have had Saturday morning cartoon shows. Marvel has put nearly all of its characters in its many movies. There have been rumors of Wonder Woman movies and TV shows over the years, but they haven’t come to fruition yet. All she’s had is her one comics series and a few costarring, background roles elsewhere on cartoons like Super Friends and Justice League.*
The Fridged Women of DC Comics
Wonder Woman has been relegated to the background for quite some time, in a comic book limbo where she’s there each month but not really doing anything good or bad, fascinating or controversial. However, given how things have gone for a lot of the female characters at DC Comics over the past couple of decades, limbo might not be the worst place to be.
Though not for Lois Lane, who’s had a decent go of it for the most part. Clark Kent told her that he was Superman and they eventually got married, and she continued working hard as the world’s foremost journalist.† Sometimes this got her into trouble, like when she was shot while embedded with troops in wartorn Umec as she tried to help an injured soldier, but even that didn’t keep her down for long. She hasn’t had her own ongoing series since Superman’s Girl Friend Lois Lane was canceled in 1974, but she’s costarred in most of those Superman-related series and remains a fixture at DC.
She’s also far and away the Modern Age’s most prominent female character outside of the comics. Lois was played by Margot Kidder in the Christopher Reeve Superman movies, then by Teri Hatcher in the TV show Lois and Clark: The New Adventures of Superman. She was excellently voiced by Dana Delany in Superman: The Animated Series, then portrayed by Erica Durance in Smallville, Kate Bosworth in Superman Returns, and multiple Oscar nominee Amy Adams in Man of Steel. No female comic book character has been onscreen more often than Lois Lane. Wonder Woman had one live-action TV show in the 1970s. Since then, a live-action Lois has costarred in two shows and six movies.
In fact, the movies have been good for a lot of female characters in the Modern Age. Catwoman was played by Michelle Pfeiffer in Batman Returns, by Halle Berry in her own eponymous film, and by Anne Hathaway in The Dark Knight Rises. Sue Storm, the Invisible Woman, was portrayed by Jessica Alba in two Fantastic Four movies, while Natasha Romanoff, the Black Widow, has been played by Scarlett Johansson in several Avengers-related movies. Mary Jane Watson was played by Kirsten Dunst in three Spider-Man movies, and now Emma Stone stars as Gwen Stacey in the franchise’s reboot. Supergirl had her own movie starring Helen Slater, and Batgirl was played by Alicia Silverstone in Batman & Robin. Even Carol Ferris, a.k.a. Star Sapphire from the Silver Age, made it to the big screen, portrayed by Blake Lively in Green Lantern. It seems that everyone has made it to the movies except for Wonder Woman.
These successes for women on the big screen didn’t continue in their monthly print adventures. The dominant trend for female characters in the Modern Age can be defined by this seemingly nonsensical phrase: “Women in Refrigerators.” First coined by Gail Simone, this term is a reference to Green Lantern #54 when Kyle Rayner, the Green Lantern, returned home to find that a villain had killed his girlfriend, Alex DeWitt, and stuffed her in the refrigerator. Simone argued that a disproportionate number of female characters were killed, seriously injured, or sidelined, often in a sexualized manner, in the service of furthering a male character’s story. It’s a plot device used to create emotional turmoil in the narrative of a male character, often at the expense of ending a female character’s very existence. The theory gained a lot of traction and even inspired a new verb. To be “fridged” is to be dispatched in such a manner.
One of the most famous fridgings involved Barbara Gordon, the Bronze Age Batgirl. In Alan Moore and Brian Bolland’s 1988 graphic novel Batman: The Killing Joke, the Joker showed up at the home of Barbara’s father, police commissioner James Gordon, and shot her through the spine when she opened the door. The Joker then undressed her and took nude pictures of her as she la
y on the floor, bleeding. Barbara was paralyzed and wheelchair bound for the next two decades.*
Barbara wasn’t shot because she was Batgirl, or because she was out stopping a crime of some sort. She was shot because she was the commissioner’s daughter and the Joker wanted to upset him and Batman. The Joker displayed her nude photos in a carnival meant to drive Commissioner Gordon insane, and her injury prompted Batman to be even more determined in his quest to track down the Joker. Crassly, the book ended with the Joker and Batman laughing at a dumb joke, with nary a mention of Barbara.
Another notable fridging involved Supergirl, when she sacrificed herself to save Superman while battling the Anti-Monitor during Crisis on Infinite Earths. One of her last thoughts was “I may never be as good as he is, but Kal always taught me to do my best.” She died so Superman would be around to lead the charge to save the universe, and the story made it clear that his life was far more valuable than hers. When the universe rebooted, she was wiped from existence entirely because DC wanted Superman to be the only surviving Kryptonian. It would be almost twenty years before a Kryptonian Supergirl returned to DC Comics.
Continuing with sidekicks, Stephanie Brown became Batman’s new Robin in 2004. After patrolling Gotham City for years as Spoiler, Steph was promoted when the current Robin, Tim Drake, quit. She was Robin for three whole issues before she was brutally tortured and killed by Black Mask during a massive gang war. In fact, the only reason she got to be Robin was to raise her profile before they killed her. Her death was going to be the emotional climax of the Bat-books’ massive “War Games” crossover, and the editors decided that her death would hit readers harder if she was Robin. And, in typical Women in Refrigerators fashion, it spurred the male characters into action. Both Batman and Tim, now Robin again, took to the gang war with new fervor and ended it.
