So by mid-2009 I'd gotten tired of hearing message boarders complain about how if the book would just return to its original numbering, we'd be nearing issue #600. I sat everyone down (metaphorically), told them they had a weekend to decide which issue should be #600 (by Monday morning we'd settled on #45, though I still think #44 would have been the right one), and I started an official postcard campaign in time for DC to do something special if they wanted to.

The campaign didn't really get that much participation until Dan Didio mentioned these postcards that he'd started receiving on his "DC Nation" pages, those promotional comic book pages that few people usually read. After that the campaign heated up. (I'm still curious as to how many cards they actually got, or if the few postcards triggered an idea for a publicity stunt that meshed well with DC's 75th Anniversary. Didio said he'd give a follow-up report but never did.) On June 30, 2010, instead of issue #45, Wonder Woman got her 600th issue—and pulled off a huge publicity stunt of her own, publicity that DC not only timed right for once, but got significant mention around the world.

DC changed her costume radically with a design by Jim Lee. Oh sure, the story's set in an alternate dimension and it must take place some eight-ish years before now because the Diana in the story is only about 20 years old. It's one of those wipe-out-everything, the-hero-doesn't-know-who-she-truly-is kinda deals that at this point I hope will emerge from this timeline back into the "real" world with a solidified, positive, easy-to-understand Wondie continuity.

The pic to the right is the publicity shot, the one showing how she'll look once her story arc is finished and she recovers all her powers as well as her lasso. The pic above is how she appeared in this first chapter. The cap sleeves (which Lynda Carter mentioned in publicity quotes) are missing and the gold piping seems to be awkward straps. Which is better than no straps at all, I suppose. The tiara is half upside-down (and the story artist refers to it in interviews as a "headband"). The "spurs," as readers are calling them, as well as the choker, are sometimes absent as well due to what can only be sloppy art/editing, so who knows what this is really supposed to look like?

Adding pants, Gloria Steinem commented, “gives us the idea that only pants can be powerful—tell that to Greek warriors and Sumo wrestlers.” Besides, she added, “in fact, they’re so tight that they’ve just painted her legs blue; hardly a cover-up.” (We did indeed get an awful lot of butt and cleavage shots.)

According to Lee, they were after a more youthful, street feel with the implication of being darker. (Make note that Wonder Woman, Superman and Captain Marvel have always been the "bright" DC characters. DC managed to completely destroy Capt. Marvel by making him dark; perhaps now they were working to do the same for Diana?)

Make note that we get a closeup of one of the guys Diana knocks out. The bracelets, when used together to bash someone with Amazon strength, will leave a "W" mark. Think about this a while. Look at how the bracelets' design go around her wrist. Figure out what kind of move she'd have had to make to leave a tattoo of this kind on someone. Then go to Mythbusters to check their test of the old "Phantom ring imprint" trick, and then check out a viewer's reply about a more temporary result. Either way, this move takes deliberate maliciousness and a LOT of power behind it.

If you don't want to use the link, Mythbusters showed that if you hit hard enough to leave a mark, you'd shatter the underlying skeletal structure. WW fans pointed out that when worn, the bracelets have "M's" on them instead of "W's"; since when is Diana's ego so big that she feels she has to mark her victims?; and Diana's name begins with a "D," not a "W" or "M."

Hopefully in the future I'll be able to edit this entry down to describe something that was a mere blip on Wondie's history. It's obviously been designed to make her look more like a movie X-Man, or one of the Bat-crowd, and to appeal to potential movie producers, who know that getting a decent actress to pull on the WW bathing suit will be a difficult sell. It also comes across as a fairly generic Urban Fantasy Chick outfit, which might be good because Urban Fantasy Chicks are extremely popular in 2010. But I really don't see young girls clamoring for a Halloween costume of this WW version.

However, it is raising such a negative outcry that when we do return, perhaps the door will be open for a real, modernized, Wonder-ific design that readers will give a chance since it's, well, not this design.

 

2010's "DC Universe Online" violent videogame featured a costume and hair redo for Diana.

 

 

 

In an attempt to organize "New Earth," DC finally got around to giving us a timeline of things in Legends. Gone was Hippolyta during World War II. No sign of Diana back there either. Instead she makes her debut after Superman and Batman, wearing this outfit.

Note the nods to the Silver Age: the one-pointed tiara, the traditional manacle-looking bracelets (albeit silver now). Her eagle has wings that look like how the =W= would be, her belt was gold, and her shorts... Where are her shorts? Hotpants? Daisy Dukes? They've got her in briefs. Well, at least the interior artist didn't put her in four-inch heels like the cover artist of this particular issue did.

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Wonder Woman, Donna Troy et al are all trademarked and/or copyrighted by DC Comics, Inc. Buy their comics.