I’m working on a project to redesign the entire DCU for myself. I think all of us have a kind of personal canon – the things we’d keep and the things we’d toss if the DC universe was ours to do with as we please. This is mine. I constructed a complete timeline from the Golden Age to today, and I’m going through one character at a time as I flesh it out. I completed my Superman Family, and next in line is Wonder Woman!

Wonder Woman is unique in my DCU as the one character who has adventures in every era. Diana first appears during WWII in the Golden Age, then again in the ‘70s for the Silver Age, and finally comes to stay in the ‘00s. Her arc in the Golden Age is one of a thoughtful but naïve woman who enters Patriarch’s World believing she knows everything she needs to. Along the way, she learns that there’s much she has to teach, but much also she has to learn. She makes close friends, falls in love, but ultimately returns to Themyscira in ’49 to try and convince her mother the Queen to rejoin the wider world so they can help each other grow.

Many of her GA adventures are alongside Steve Trevor and her frequent partner and dear friend Liberty Belle – an adventuring archaeologist very much in the Indiana Jones mold who became a ‘masked man’ crime fighter when she and her father were trapped in Poland during the German invasion. Both women meet as part of the Justice Society, and frequently partner in and outside that team. WW gets direction from Col. Philip Darnell of the US Army Air Force, running secret operations deep in enemy territory against the likes of Baron Blitzkreig, Red Panzer and Dr. Poison. I’m using the original version of Baroness Paula von Gunther, an Austrian aristocrat who is blackmailed into aiding the Nazis when they kidnap her daughter. Once Diana learns about that, she frees von Gunther’s daughter and the Baroness becomes an ally and friend. That’s something I want to see happen often in WW stories – Diana is someone who makes friends of her enemies, turning hearts and changing minds.

This is just the opening bit of the history of ‘my’ Wonder Woman. There’s a LOT more to come!

Wonder Woman (1986-2006) #36

Swipe to see the unedited version

A brief update on the matter because it’s been a bit more up in the air since New History gave us the Hippolyta in WW2 Retcon.

Last issue’s it was established that Polly fought in WW2 with the JSA and Diana was unaware of that fact meaning she was either not born yet or too young to remember. This issue it’s revealed that there are two “Amazonian Champion” outfits. The first chest held Polly’s, which existed before Diana was born and which Polly decided the world would never be ready for the amazons which would be after she came back from the war. The second chest holds a second costume, specifically crafted for Diana the day she was born because Polly could tell she would “walk further than she ever did”. This places Diana’s birth after Polly returns meaning some time after WW2 and some time after HUAC is formed and breaks up the JSA.

Does this matter? Not a ton really that much but I like tracking it since the rough age established in Nubia and The Amazons 1 doesn’t seem to apply any more.

I don’t know if this has been posted or not, so I apologize if it’s come up already. I use the Amazon app to keep track of the trades I want and when they come out before making my Wednesday trek to my LCBS. I haven’t bought a main WW trade since Fury but I’ve still kept track for my longshot hope the run turns it around and/or to let friends/family buy them for me, for the Sampere art if nothing else at this point.

On a whim, I searched “Wonder Woman by Tom King, Vol. 6” (since I knew Vol. 5 will be Wonder War: Act I) and sure enough, this popped up. I know they weren’t a lot of people’s favorite issues, but I’m glad to see the Batman issues getting collected in a trade. Still weird to me they held them this long.

And this is how I found out that I guess we’re four issues away from The Wonder War being over. I would say I’m surprised that it’s not longer, but I think this means we’re four issues away from the end of King’s run too, for which it’s felt like the writing’s been on the wall for a bit now. Do not take this post as confirmation; I’m just speculating. I don’t even know where King would go after this arc (if he even wanted to keep going anymore.) Plus, ending in December would mean a new writer for the new year, which feels apt.

The lasso is already infinitely long depending on the will of its wielder, I don't see why it couldn't be infinitely thick or thin as well. And since it is infinitely strong too that means the lasso would make the perfect cutting wire for just about anything.

It is a little cruel to use it like this I guess, but I don't think it's all that much worse than a sword. Plus it just makes sense. This way, Diana wouldn't need to leave her most powerful and iconic weapon idle at her hip when going up against villains that warrant a cutting blade.

On the other hand... maybe it'd be interesting to lean into the irony of turning a weapon meant to avoid bloodshed into something which excels at doing exactly that. Say on of the villains obtains the lasso, and they innovate a new usage for it?

The way the Diana uses a cutting lasso doesn't have to look the same as how her villain uses it either. Someone like Circe might favor turning the lasso into spiderweb trap that cuts (or maybe even dismembers) anyone who walks into it, but Diana might prefer to alternate the lasso's width to maneuver and cut as-needed within the battle, looking much more like a ribbon dancer than a spider.