Artemis

608 BCE - Artemis is born to a Celtic warrior clan in Northern Europe.

593 BCE - 15-year-old Artemis begins fighting the Gauls with the rest of her clan.

586 BCE - 22-year-old Artemis is killed in battle defending her clan.

580 BCE - Artemis is given life by the goddesses, and made an Amazon.

576 BCE - Artemis follows Antiope in her assault on Athens in retaliation for Hercules imprisonment of the Amazons.

571 BCE - 27-year-old Artemis and Antiope's Amazons are used by Ares to start a war between Greece & Carthage before punishing them for breaking their vow, turning them to stone.

6 years ago - Artemis and the lost Amazons are found by Diana Prince and Helena Sandsmark, and awakened by Ares, used to attack and claim Themyscira. Diana saves them, and breaks Ares curse, allowing the lost Amazons to rejoin their sisters.

5 years ago - Artemis wins a new tournament to select Themyscira's champion, taking on the roll of Wonder Woman where she battles Sebastian Ballesteros during his time as the Cheetah. She is defeated by Ares, but Diana Prince battles him directly, sacrificing herself to save her. She and Nubia fight alongside Diana as she enters the Paths Beyond to confront Ares.

4 years ago - Artemis agrees to help train Cassie Sandsmark on Themyscira.

1 year ago - Artemis, Diana Prince & Nubia venture into the underworld to save Donna Troy's soul from Hyperion, the Titan of the Light, but they are cheated and forbidden from trying to restore her.

Artemis's Comic History

Artemis's first appearance was in Wonder Woman #90 in 1994. This was a weird time in DC, as two years earlier the Death of Superman and subsequent Reign of Superman story had set the precident that removing the main hero and replacing them with a new more modern character was the thing to do. Batman's back had been broken by Bane a year previous, leading to the introduction of his replacement Jean Paul Valley as the infamous 'Azbat'. Earlier the same year, Hal Jordan had gone insane, and was replaced by Kyle Rayner. It was in this enviornment that the stage was set for Wonder Woman to have her own new, modern replacement.

In this issue, Diana returned to Themyscira after not being able to for several months, only to find that Circe had attached the island using the Bana-Mighdall (a splinter group of Amazons that had been introduced back in George Perez's run) and then teleported the entire island to a Demon Realm where they had been time-lost for ten years. It was a vast shift in the tone and background in Wonder Woman's story, but in all honesty that really wasn't that uncommon in a Wonder Woman comic. While Diana had just enjoyed one of her greatest runs ever by George Perez for over 60 issues and five years, It was starting to go back to the status quo of the whole story getting wildly altered with each new creative team. In this case, writer Bill Messner-Loebs had actually been on the book for a good long while at that point, but this is where artist Mike Deodato, Jr first joined the book.

Please don't misunderstand me here; Mike Deodato Jr is an amazing talent, a legend in the industry, and responsible for some of the best work in Marvel and DC in the past 30 years. At the time, however, with Image comics having only launched a few years before, certain 90s sensibilities seemed to flood the market, and Deodato just happened to be one of the archetects of that style. Wonder Woman's book was suddenly a showcase of the sort of female figure that would dominate the next decade. As Hippolyta called for a new contest to find a new Amazonian Champion, and circumstances let to Artemis claiming the role, we suddenly had a very different book with a very different style.

Here's the thing, though; for those of us growing up with these comics... we weren't aware of how cheap and gratuitous it all was. It was just COOL. Yes, Artemis was perhaps the most blatant example of the 90s bad-girl comic trend to make it into mainstream DC (you could make an argument for Maxima, but Artemis had more spikes) but it was all just a crazy good time.

Artemis actually didn't stick around for very long at all. The trend to replace the classic heroes was a short one; Superman was already back by the time Artemis had even arrived, and Wonder Woman wasn't crossing over between a half dozen titles, so the story played out much quicker. She was relegated back to being one of many Amazons on Themyscera, although she'd always have the distinction of having once been Wonder Woman.

Artemis had a pretty gigantic gap in her appearances for the next 30 years. She was always THERE, but never really found a role for herself in the main part of Diana's story. She was essentially a relic of that era.

2016's DC Rebirth actually provided a suprising turning point for the character. The series Red Hood and the Outlaws was restarted with a new supporting cast, and we meet a very new version of Artemis. Her personality is more or less intact, but she's now drawn much stockier, looking less like a particularly acrobatic exotic dancer and more like an MMA fighter. The characterization worked within the context of the series, and although I've always thought of Artemis as a queer-coded character, she actually has proven to be a decent romantic foil for series star Red Hood.

The Outlaws have even gotten their own Webtoon where Artemis's look is even further updated, looking for all the world like an anime protagonist. These modern takes on the character do a decent job of updating Artemis as a character and give her a role in modern DC, although we still have a soft spot for the character as she appeared back in the 90s. So it falls to us to try to reproduce that without falling prey to some of the goofier parts of those tropes.

Our Artemis Story

We have to make one change in particular to Artemis's story as it compares to comic continuity, because in the comics the Bana-Mighdall are a lost tribe that just age and die and have children normally, which we're not doing. Instead, she has the same origin as the rest of the Amazons; was a warrior killed by the treachery of man and reborn in the well of souls, just like Hippolyta. She and the splinter group of Amazons were awakened by Ares and used to attack Themyscera only to have their curse broken by Diana, allowing them to rejoin their sisters.

Beyond that change, getting Artemis right is primarily built around her one most important story; her time taking over as Wonder Woman. In the comic, Artemis was meant to be a much more aggressive, less compassionate character, and while there can be elements of that in her, she still needs to be dedicated to concepts like honor and fairness. To get this right it really has to be Diana's story, so when Artemis is finally defeated it's largely about what Diana needs to then do to save her.

Similar to regular continuity, once the mantle of Wonder Woman is returned to Diana, Artemis's main purpose is to serve in the protection and defense of her home, as well in training several of her sisters, including Cassie Sandsmark.

Artemis's Costume

Let's just say this up front; yes, I do think the tropes of the 90s bad girl comic trend are pretty patently rediculous, but I don't think that means we have to throw out everything from that era. Artemis has had a ton of costumes over the decades, including perhaps the most impractical outfit ever as drawn by Michael Turner, but none of them have reallty ever sunk in as her definative look, and I have to imagine that that's part of the reason she went so long without a permant role outside of just being another Amazon on Themyscera.

It's already been established that Wonder Woman's classic bathing suit costume actually does work really well when you start thinking of it as armor, so there's really no reason you can't do something similar with Artemis. Obviously her trademark ponytail shouldn't be quite so Rapunzel-long, but she could still absolutely rock something like it. Even some of the little details of those 90s looks, with their wrapping, and the spikes everywhere, and the giant jagged conan death-metal swords can all be interpretted by a modern artist in a way that celebrates these ideas without them being quite so absurd.

Essentially, I just think this character needs to have a good artist really lean in and refine this look into something that WORKS.

Artemis's Future

As we leave our timeline, there are three living Amazons who have completed the Tournament of Grace and Wonder; Artemis, Diana, and Nubia. Of those three, Diana and Nubia both have their missions; Diana is in Man's World, while Nubia is in the Underworld and the Paths Beyond.

Artemis returned the mantle of Wonder Woman to Diana, and in doing so also gave up her mission... but in a lot of ways this means that she's perhaps the most versatile of the three. Similar to Guy Gardner, who does not have a sector of his own but instead is a problem solver for ALL sectors, Artemis's role is best defined as being available to help any of the other Amazons when she is needed, or to venture out into places that even the other Champions cannot go.

Which does sort of heavily imply that she'd be the Amazon most likely to go into space, doesn't it?

Related Characters

Nubia