Change is vital to any character that has existed for decades upon decades. Keeping things fresh is a way of attracting new readers while keeping old ones engaged. This practice has been done with Wonder Woman over many decades and to great effect.
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The range of changes made to the Amazon Princess are vast in scope, ranging from complete reboots of DC Comics to entirely alternate universes. Often, the heart of the Warrior for Peace's character was maintained -- though in others, it was thrown to the wayside for something entirely new. From infusing Greek myths into her on a deeper scale to making her the daughter of Zeus, the approaches to relaunching Wonder Woman over the years have been varied and deeply interesting.
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10 Robert Kanigher Didn't Care For Wonder Woman -- And It Showed
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Wonder Woman was a layered, unique, and smart superhero that stood out from many of her contemporaries upon her debut. Created by academics who wished to have a deeply political character who stood out from standard, hypermasculine, beat-em-up heroes of the era, Wonder Woman by William Moulton Marston was a triumph. However, under Robert Kanigher, the heroine suffered some major setbacks.
Kanigher was open about how he didn't much care for Wonder Woman. Still, DC was fine with letting him write and edit the character's titles for twenty-two years -- for as long as they were publishing comics with the Amazon heroine, they retained ownership of the character. Kanigher stripped Wonder Woman of much of her political nuance, cast aside several staple villains, had her dream of marriage to Steve Trevor, and even rewrote her origin for the worse. While many of these changes would be undone over time, with Kanigher remedying a few, the damage to Wonder Woman's Pre-Crisis era had already been done.
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9 Mike Sekowsky And Dennis O'Neil Brought About Wonder Woman's Controversial Mod Era
Every superhero has gotten new costumes over the years, and Wonder Woman is absolutely no stranger to new threads. She famously swapped out a skirt for undies for a skirt again. Perhaps the most disastrous new addition to her wardrobe was during her infamous mod era, spearheaded by the legendary creators Mike Sekowsky and Dennis O'Neil in one of their few fumbles.
The mod era was the company's way of making the character modern and hip, swapping out her Amazon tunic for the then-fashionable mod style.
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Wonder Woman had given up her powers to stay in Man's World instead of going to another dimension with her Amazon sisters, opened a fashion shop, and then became an international espionage agent with a martial arts teacher named I-Ching. It was a different direction for the character, though it lasted less than thirty issues. Since then, it's been heavily criticized and left in the past -- where it belongs.
8 The Late Bronze Age Was A Breath Of Fresh Air
Robert Kanigher's departure and the mod era's end signaled a new time for Wonder Woman, one that would last for fifteen years until Crisis on Infinite Earths. It would be varied in the type of stories told and their levels of quality, but they were generally written by people invested in Wonder Woman's story. The main reason for this era's relaunch was, unsurprisingly, synergy.
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The Wonder Woman TV show was in development, so the comics had to receive a mod-less makeover to match its stylings. This era was also notable for introducing Wonder Woman's twin W logo, a departure from it being a stylized eagle. Wonder Woman's mythological roots were restored, and the new character Nubia -- who would become a mainstay decades later -- would debut as the iconic heroine's secret twin sister. It wouldn't last forever, though, as the era ended with Wonder Woman's marriage to Steve Trevor in issue #329.
7 George Perez Redefined Wonder Woman Post-Crisis
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Crisis on Infinite Earths changed the game for DC, kicking off one of the company's most iconic eras. Wonder Woman greatly benefitted from the reboot, with the character and her mythos imbued with new life with the stories of the talented George Perez. He refined William Moulton Marston's early ideas for the character and wove them into a modern setting with all-new characters. Old figures also got great updates; Queen Hippolyta got slight retouches and villains such as Cheetah got a new person taking upon the mantle to avoid any confusion for new readers.
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But the most important changes fell upon Princess Diana, her story tweaked to become a mythological coming-of-age tale. The run saw the heroine undergo notable growth as she became the ambassador of the Amazons, bringing unity to her people and Man's World. Perez ultimately set the status quo for Wonder Woman for years with his #1, establishing a modern template future writers would utilize.
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6 The Aftermath Of Infinite Crisis Gave Wonder Woman A New #1
Until a few years ago, whenever a character like Wonder Woman or Superman got a new #1 issue for their ongoing series, it usually heralded the beginning of a company reboot or the launch of a new line. The latter was the case in the 2006 relaunch of Wonder Woman's third volume, released three months after the final issue of the second volume of Wonder Woman from 1987. It was part of the One Year Later initiative, fast-forwarding the DCU one year past the conclusion of the Infinite Crisis event.
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The event placed Wonder Woman in a new spot one year after such catastrophic events as the death of Maxwell Lord at her own hands. The run was notable for a fair few things, handled by a myriad of writers, like Gail Simone -- Wonder Woman had her secret identity as secret agent Diana Prince again, she got into a relationship with Thomas Tresser/Nemesis, and most importantly, the Amazons got into a conflict with the U.S. in Amazons Attack! and vanished due to the machinations of Circe.
5 Wonder Woman Odyssey Was Cut Short
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The third volume of Wonder Woman didn't have just one relaunch for its title heroine in its pages, but two. The arc at the back end of the run was dubbed Wonder Woman: Odyssey and was initially conceived by J. Michael Straczynski. This turn in the series had Wonder Woman displaced into an alternate timeline where Paradise Island had been destroyed, the Amazons had fled to various corners of the Earth, and the world had no memory of Wonder Woman.
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Odyssey had some strange decisions made throughout its progression, the most needlessly controversial among them being Wonder Woman's new design. It was a biker-esque outfit drawn by Jim Lee, giving Wonder Woman leggings and a leather jacket. This, among many strange narrative choices like Diana being an orphan raised in New York, pointed to Odyssey being a potential soft reboot for the character -- one that got cut off by the approaching New 52.
4 The New 52 Was An Elseworld Made Canon
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2011 was a tumultuous time for DC. To recapture the magic of the Post-Crisis era, the company sought to hard-reboot all its characters again through the New 52, but the initiative was not as well-planned as its predecessor. This led to some confusing and often controversial series with fewer misses than hits -- the fourth volume of Wonder Woman chief among the greatest of the initiative's misses.The fact that the series was allegedly planned initially to be an Elseworld tale was shown on its pages, and it takes a radically different approach to Wonder Woman's mythos.
It focused more on the Olympians than the Amazons and their usual themes of sisterhood, instead emphasizing Diana's blood bonds to her divine family -- something the series itself retconned in. While the series had beautiful art primarily provided by Cliff Chiang, its writing was also bogged down by the uncertain continuity of the New 52; something made apparent when Meredith and David Finch took over the title from issue #36 onward.
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3 Wonder Woman Had A Fresh Slate In Rebirth
The New 52 was an experiment that couldn't last. Ending after only five years, the Rebirth initiative was what took its place to restore the universe to a new status quo. It wasn't a hard reboot, but it redirected many of DC's biggest names into directions more familiar to readers. Wonder Woman was, yet again, one of the characters most affected by this.
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The early pages of Rebirth's Wonder Woman gave readers a new origin for the Ambassador of Truth, streamlining many previous iterations into a breezy six issues released every other month -- with the months between featuring a story set in the present. The series was a return to form that readers enjoyed, especially as it was penned by returning Wonder Woman writer Greg Rucka. It also redefined the villain Cheetah as Wonder Woman's archenemy, giving her a tragic backstory that added layers to her personality.
2 Tom King And Daniel Sampere Had A Hit With Wonder Woman's Main Series
Wonder Woman's 800th issue in 2023 was not just a milestone in the character's history, celebrating over eighty years of top-tier stories and her status as an icon, but in terms of her relaunches? It marked the end of Becky Cloonan and Michael Conrad's run on the character, with the prelude to Tom King and Daniel Sampere's tenure as a ten-page backup.
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Since then, the team has done successful work on the mainline Wonder Woman title, keeping it a top 50 hit in terms of sales every month since its debut. Starting from a new #1, King and Sampere's relaunch placed Wonder Woman in a conflict between the United States and the Amazons after one of her sisters went rogue and killed a bar full of men. The series has been chugging along at a slow but steady pace, and even introduced a new daughter for Wonder Woman in the series' prelude, backups, and fourteenth issue: Elizabeth Marston Prince, aka Trinity.
1 A Recent Relaunch Has Been An Absolute Hit
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The Absolute Universe was released in October of 2024, with Absolute Wonder Woman as the initiative's second title out of a planned six to eight. In an alternate universe constructed by Darkseid himself, alternate versions of the DCU's heroes exist in a world without their greatest assets.
As the second title released in the line, Absolute Wonder Woman smashed all expectations as a critical and commercial success.
It's only one issue deep, but it's no less promising -- Absolute Wonder Woman presents itself as a hellish fairytale in which Wonder Woman is stripped of her Amazon sisterhood by the gods and raised by the witch Circe. The art by Hayden Sherman and Jordie Bellaire adds to the mythical aura of the story, leaving a strong impression on readers of all kinds. With such a great beginning, the only place left for the series to go is up.
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Wonder Woman
One of the most beloved and iconic DC Super Heroes of all time, Wonder Woman has stood for nearly eighty years as a symbol of truth, justice and equality to people everywhere.
Writer Greg Rucka, William Moulton Marston, Joye Hummel, Robert Kanigher, Dennis O'Neil
Penciler Harry G. Peter, Ross Andru, Mike Sekowsky, Don Heck, Ric Estrada, Curt Swan, Irv Novick, John Rosenberger, José Delbo, Gene Colan,
Inker Mike Esposito, Dick Giordano, Vince Colletta, Joe Giella, Bruce Patterson, Romeo Tanghal, P. Craig Russell, Ray Snyder, Bob McLeod, Rachel Dodson, Matt Ryan, Wayne Faucher, Scott Hanna
Colorist Laura Martin, Romulo Fajardo Jr.
Letterer Jodi Wynne
Publisher DC Comics
Publisher(s) DC
Main Characters Wonder Woman , Hercules
Artists Liam Sharp, Nicola Scott
Summary
Themyscira, the island paradise she left behind to defend Earth from the war god Ares, has vanished, and the magical power of her Lasso of Truth has disappeared along with it. In a sprawling saga that bridges her first year as a hero with the present day, the Amazon Princess must team up with her greatest enemy -- the brutal beast-woman Cheetah -- to find her vanished homeland and seek the truth about her origins.
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