Wonder Woman

32 years ago - Diana is formed from clay by her mother Hippolyta and given life by the Goddesses.

26 years ago - 6-year-old Diana, lonely on an island of adult women, is granted an enchanted mirror that creates a playmate from her own reflection who is named Donna.

22 years ago - 10-year-old Diana tried to close Doom's Doorway when the adult Amazons try to fight off the escaping creatures. Sensing her strife, Her mirror-sister Donna sacrifices her immortality to assist her. Donna is welcomed by the Amazons and acknowledged as Hippolyta's daughter and Diana's little sister.

12 years ago - 20-year-old Diana wins Hippolyta's tournament in disguise, winning the right to leave Themyscira and act as the Amazon's champion to stop the impending war between Circe and Ares, earning the name as Wonder Woman. She chooses to stay in Man's World, becoming roommates with 20-year-old Etta Candy at Gateway University, taking the name Diana Prince. Begins working with Helena Sandsmark to study Amazonian influence on the outside world, first meeting her young daughter Cassie Sandsmark. Soon she joins the Justice League.

11 years ago - 21-year-old Diana Prince is captured by Doris Zeul who tries to siphon her spinal fluid, leaving her magically empowered. Donna Troy comes to visit her and chooses to become a student at Gateway University. She befriends Barbara Ann Minerva, working with her to find powerful Amazonian artifacts from around the world. Edgar Cizko attempts to use how powers to control her, but she defeats him and he is imprisoned with his powers restrained. She goes to purgatory with Jason Blood to defeat Klarion & free the kidnapped Etta Candy.

10 years ago - 22-year-old Diana learns from Nubia that Felix Faust is siphoning the magic from the island to open Doom's Doorway. She
leads Etta Candy, Barry Allen & Hal Jordan into Themyscira to stop him. She is victorious, but is banished from the island for bringing men to it's shores. Nubia is the only Amazon free to come to her. She also graduates from Gateway University. She & Donna Troy work together to stop Ira Billings from mind controlling people. She accompanies Bruce Wayne & Dick Grayson to the Fortress of Solitude to save Clark Kent from Mongul and his Black Mercy. She stops Niharika Dyal from destroying a town in India.

9 years ago - 23-year-old Diana is not present when the Justice League votes on what to do with Arthur Light. She establishes her own Amazonian embassy after the collapse of the Justice League with help from 23-year-old Etta Candy & 35-year-old Helena Sandsmark. Kobra attempts to infiltrate the embassy, but are routed by Diana.

8 years ago - 24-year-old Diana becomes a Justice League reservist. She is betrayed by Barbara Ann Minerva, who takes a ceremonial knife to an african goddess of the hunt & performing a blood ritual with Amazonian magic to become Cheetah, stealing Diana's ability to commune with beasts. She is attacked by Valerie Beaudry who has become the champion of Ares, but rather than hurting her she helps her discover her own inner beauty and overcome Ares influence.

7 years ago - 25-year-old Diana has to navigate the Godwar between earth's pantheons created by Circe. She & Kent Nelson call Manitou Raven & Dawn from the Stony Path to free Billy Batson from Circe's control. Diana is aided by Valerie Beaudry when she briefly reclaims her powers.

6 years ago - 26-year-old Diana and Helena Sandsmark find and recover the lost Amazons, but they are corrupted by Ares and claim Themyscira. Diana casts aside her powers and, with the help of Donna Troy, undertakes the labors of the gods so that she can overcome the barriers of Themyscira and save it, restoring Antiope and the Lost Amazons. She is continually attacked by a newly empowered Doris Zeul. She & Nubia stop 22-year-old Niharika Dyal from taking control of Doom's Doorway when she gains access to Amazonian magic.

5 years ago - 27-year-old Diana participates in a new tournament to select the amazonian champion, losing the title to Artemis. She chooses to return to exile. When Artemis is taken by Ares, Manitou Raven empowers her to battles him directly, sacrificing her life to free her sister. Hippolyta sacrifices her life to free her from the underworld, and Diana usurps the mantle of the Goddess of Love to battle Ares, fighting alongside Artemis & Nubia as she enters the Paths Beyond to confront him, finally casting him from the material plane. She is called to Themyscira to serve as queen but instead chooses to elevate Antiope, her mother's sister from the lost Amazons. Diana & Doris Zeul assist Wally West in overthrowing Gorilla Grodd's regime in Gorilla City, earning her a retinue of Gorilla City commandos as honor guard for the Themysciran Embassy, & earning Doris Zeul her pardon.

4 years ago - 28-year-old Diana brings Helena Sandsmark to Themyscira to research her book on Amazonian history. Her daughter Cassie Sandsmark steals Amazonian artifacts to become Wonder Girl. When she returns them she manages to gain an audience with Zeus & impresses him, gaining her powers. Diana Prince, Artemis & Nubia agree to help train her on Themyscira. She is poisoned by Barbara Ann Minerva, slowly reverting to clay, slowed only by her magic lasso. They battle within the depths of Barbara's god's domain, until Diana strips her of her curse and leaves her powerless in the jungle.

3 years ago - 29-year-old Diana is among the Justice League reservists that form the Watchtower after the White Martians decimate the League. Edgar Cizko escapes and torments her until he is stopped by Cassie Sandsmark.

1 year ago - 31-year-old Diana, Artemis & 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. When the Titans go to New Cronos to save her, Donna reaches out across space to Diana, who rushes to her childhood room and uncovers her mirror, allowing Donna to be born again, and for the Titans to follow her home.

now - 32-year-old Diana and the rest of the Watchtower head into space to save Superman from Warworld.

There is a LOT to unpack with Wonder Woman, and most of that is because she is the lone female character of her stature in all of comics. That's not necessarily a condemnation of comics in general, mind you, because there are very few characters of her stature, period. Batman and Superman are basically it, and neither of them serve as the loan representation of their gender. Wonder Woman holds an incredibly prestigious position in the history of comics, and it is hugely important how we handle both the character and her legacy.

Wonder Women's Comic History

Already-prominent psychologist William Marston was interviewed for Family Circle Magazine in 1940 when he spoke about the potential for the medium of comics. He became a educational consultant for DC, and settled down to put his money where his mouth was by creating a character that fulfilled that potential; a character who solved problems not with their fists, but with love. Diana's origins becomes even more interesting, however, because Marston was in a polyamorous relationship with his wife Elizabeth and their mistress Olive Byrne, both of whom served as inspiration for the unconventional, liberated woman he intended to create.

This means that to understand Wonder Woman, there are really two main points that need to be explored. The first is that the character's status as a sex symbol was intentional, but that Marstson didn't see it as an impediment to her empowerment. Perhaps the best clue here is that his main visual inspiration for Wonder Woman was the pin-up art of Alberto Vargas. The famous "Vargas Girls" were featured in Esquire magazine and on countless American and Allied World War II-era aircraft. While undeniably sexual, the Vargas girls are all clearly also confidant and in complete control of their sexuality. This implementation of sexual agency is actually a pretty advanced idea, something third-wave feminism is still exploring.

The second point is probably a little more controversial but necessary; we need to understand some rather challenging ideas about what Marston believed about love. He is quoted in many places describing a "willing submission to loving authority". He often included themes of submission and bondage in Wonder Woman's stories. She would lose her powers when she was tied up, but then she would have to overcome those bonds and reclaim her own power. Her primary weapon was a lasso. Her enemies were constantly being tied and forced to submit. These were meant to be parables of feminist strength, but there's really no denying that there are pure fetish elements here too. To ignore this cuts out a huge part of who Wonder Woman is, because these themes are part of her origin.

There is just so much going on in these early versions of the character. It's a fascinating blend of early feminism and fetishism, all the while creating a heroic archetype that holds true today.

Wonder Woman's Evolution

When Marston left the book, it's not surprising that a lot of his particular ideas didn't translate over to new writers. Of course, Wonder Woman has remained a feminist icon, but the book was almost always written by men and not all of them had a clear idea of what a 'feminist icon' should look like.

There've been several writers who seemed to inherently understand the complex formula of ideas that made her so special. George Perez wrote a seminal run seeped in ancient greek myth and monsters, Greg Rucka has crafted whole mythologies for the character more than once, each time seemingly from scratch. Alan Heinberg & Gail SImone both had short but enduring stints with Diana, all full of love and compassion for the character.

Of course, there are two huge interpretations of Wonder Woman that have to be mentioned if you're going to address the evolution of the character, and neither of them are from comics. Linda Carter's Wonder Woman TV series was a downright feminist revolution, and it's influence touches literally all of pop culture like the gravity of a sun. Likewise, Patty Jenkins 2017 feature film starring Gal Gadot is perhaps one of the greatest depictions of a superhero that has happened since Christopher Reeves Superman. I said it. Fight me.

Our Wonder Woman Story

Wonder Woman has had her origin and her overall story tweaked and retold several times over the years, and that can often make it difficult to settle on a single framework for her timeline. As is often the case, the Justice League animated series gave us a nice clean starting point. We tried to use the simplest and most traditional version of her story wherever we could.

The larger structure of her timeline actually pointed out two concepts that had to be solidified. The first is Diana's role in the larger world. We understand that Bruce Wayne is a playboy by day and vigilante by night. Clark Kent is a reporter who becomes a superhero when he's needed. It's not actually clear just what Diana does with her time. We made her a student at first, but she graduates to devote herself to learning about the ways the Amazons have interacted with the rest of the world and collecting Amazonian artifacts. Then she chooses to create her embassy, a bastion of Themysciran teaching and a refuge for women. This becomes a hub of her story as it moves on.

Second, it's her relationship with Themyscira itself. Writers LOVE to alter the status of the island and its inhabitants. We chose to actually continually alter her standing with her island nation, making her sometimes an exile, sometimes the heir to the throne. It fed a lot of stories as she has to earn her place with her people in order to keep them safe. Her home and her sisters are a huge part of her story, and those relationships need to be nurtured.

Wonder Woman's Costume

This was a much more complicated issue a few years ago. Comics have struggled constantly with the fact that Diana is basically wearing a bathing suit, thinking that it was ridiculously sexual, wanting to desexualize their character and alter the costume.... and then realizing just how ICONIC that bathing suit is. Even removing the red shorts from Superman's costume was a bridge too far, how are you going to get away with putting Wonder Woman in pants?

As we said earlier, Wonder Woman IS a sex symbol. It's part of her original design. That doesn't mean she's any less empowered, and the problem seemed to be that no one could figure out how to depict a sexually empowered character without being making her a sexual object.

Of course now the movie has happened, and it's kind of made that entire conversation look a little ridiculous. Still, the decisions at play are actually a little bit more subtle than one might expect. Traditionally, Wonder Woman's costume was pretty clearly a bathing suit at best... or in the case of the failed pilot starring a would-have-been-very-good Adrianne Palicki, pleather bondage-wear. Gal Gadot and the other Amazons in the movie were obviously wearing ARMOR, That simple tactic took costume designs that had been around for 75 years and made them new and exciting and 100% appropriate. Suddenly, questions about just how to go about depicting this icon of heroic feminism seems to have completely vanished. You depict her like a superhero.

Wonder Woman's Future

Our Timeline doesn't leave Wonder Woman on the cusp of a dramatic change in her story, and this is largely deliberate. The character in the comics has a long history of altering her place in the world completely from one storyarc to the next, and what we want is to see her settle into a steady rhythm, as familiar as the Daily Planet or the Batcave. We want to see her relationships with her friends and family grow stronger, see her find new ways to integrate her life among the Amazons on Themyscira and her friends in man's world. As she grows in wisdom, we imagine that her role as the daughter of Hippolyta will mean that she takes on greater leadership among the Amazons, possibly being joined by more of her sisters. Perhaps, she might one day be Queen herself? In any case, she will continue to be a vision of feminist power; a character that is strong, compassionate, fierce and beautiful... a direct, bold-faced challenge to the patriarchy.

Wonder Woman rules!

Related Characters

Troia

Nubia

Wonder Woman Supporting Characters

Wonder Woman Villains

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