I made this one inspired by a Brazilian song about Absolute Diana! The song is really good!!

Maybe some tea as well!

I recently picked up the DC Finest: Wonder Woman: Origins & Omens compilation. These are the first stories mainline WW stories I've read. Absolute WW was my first real introduction to the character, and as I love that story — her hopeful outlook, the humour, & the kaiju fight with a massive sword hooked me — I wanted to dive into the OG flavour. I am only a few issues in (literally just reached #21) and I am.... completely enamoured with her.

I know different writers will have different takes on her character but the way Gail Simone writes her, as someone who enjoys battle for the challenge it poses — for the opportunity to test herself and her skills — but who HATES unnecessary bloodshed, who is always, always, ALWAYS looking for an opportunity to stop fighting and resolve things peacefully.... it honestly makes me emotional.

She stops mid-battle with Tolifhar to try to convince him that he's meant for more than waging war. She shows compassion to a man who calls himself CAPTAIN NAZI even while he's sending an invasion force to wipe out Themyscira; "Punishments for the adult, empathy for the child. Even for him." She gives those invaders a chance to surrender, and when they inevitably don't, she prays that they choose the path of peace — "To those above from those below, I ask that my enemy surrender, or failing that, that he fall in battle, without further bloodshed and grieving from his loved ones." When she beats them and they ask for mercy, even though they'd shot down her mother, she grants it to them. She forgives Alkyone for trying to kill her and her mother. She stops in the middle of a fight that the Khund started to talk things out peacefully when they call for a ceasefire.

My absolute favourite moment so far is the one above, where she reaches a hand out to a grieving GL after she beats him and steadfastly refuses to retract it, even when he continues to lash out. That scene made me tear up.

There's a lot in this run I'm a bit confused by (why did the Amazons attack humanity? Why does Diana have a secret identity? Why is she some kind of SpecOps agent? Who the hell is Tom Tressor?) but man, there is nothing confusing about the kind of person Diana is. Every opportunity she is given to try to understand rather than fight — to hold out an open hand instead of a fist — she takes. When she fights, she anticipates the end of the fight. She is ready and willing to drop her sword the minute her opponent says, 'Stop.' She sees the worst, most cruel people the universe has to offer and loves them anyway, because she understands that saving the world means changing it, and that change begins with love.

That's my favourite theme from Absolute Wonder Woman: "Love is transformative." I think I'm starting to see where Kelly Thompson got her inspiration from...

I apologize for rambling. There's not much point to this post lol. I just wanted to say, as someone who's relatively new to comics, I absolutely fucking love Wonder Woman

As it turns out, if you search "who killed Myndy mayer" into Google, it just spoils the ending. So I want to know if the story is good enough that my enjoyment won't be ruined by knowing the ending.

I really enjoy Cassandra Sandsmark, she's my favourite wonder girl and I feel other than being a daughter of Zeus and a member of the young justice she hasn't got much going on. So I've come up with a idea. What if Cassandra Sandsmark was Veronica Cale and Ares daughter. I know big change but think about it we just switch Isadore Cale for Cassie it makes Phobos and Deimos hunting her down make more sense as they're trying to bring her back to her true father. Also it creates a more interesting dynamic between Diana and Veronica as Cassandra slowly becomes wonder girl and becoming more distant from her mother while also training the daughter of the god of war. Anyway that's enough of my rambling what do you guys think?

(I also thought of making her the daughter of Sif and Thor tying her to her nordic surname)

I just got the physical copy hard cover, Absolute Wonder Woman volume 1. I love it so far, reading in short parts to make the excitement last longer.

Do you guys and gals like to buy the individual short comics or the combination volumes? Just curious.

I actually wish I had bought the alternate dust cover artwork. But I had already purchased this.

Personally I kinda like the idea of her being a bit younger (around 23-26 years old). But her wisdom, kindness, and compassion makes her one of the top heroes really fast.

In Greek Mythology, after Prometheus gave fire to humanity, the Gods decided to punish Mankind. They took some clay and molded it into the first mortal woman, Pandora, whose name means "Gift to All" or "The All-Gifted," they named her that because each God gave her a divine blessing and she herself was meant to be given to mankind as a gift.

Hephaestus crafted her with a perfect body, Athena blessed her with wisdom, Aphrodite blessed her with grace and beauty, Hermes blessed her with cunning and deceit, Apollo blessed her with artistic talent, and so on until every God has given her with a gift to make her the perfect wife. And then she was given an insatiable curiosity and she was a box (technically it was a jar) and was told never to open it.

She was given to Prometheus' brother as a wife, with the knowledge that she would eventually defy her husband and open the box, unleashing all evils and sorrows onto mankind.

Diana's origin is obviously inspired by this as another child born from clay and blessed by the gods but instead of being a curse to mankind who released evil she helps mankind and fights evil. She's also a response to inherit misogyny of the original myth by being a feminist icon.

I think in George Perez's run he has a flashback sequence that's meant to imply that Diana is a reincarnation of Pandora, and I think in the current DC canon, since the New 52, Pandora is a magic anti hero who mostly does her own thing in the more mystical side of the DC Universe.

But overall it feels they haven't really done much with all of the thematic and lore connections Diana has to Pandora. There's no other Greek Myth that ties more directly to Wonder Woman's origin and theme than Pandora yet there's not been any content that I'm aware of that emphasizes that. Pandora could be a tragic villain, an arch nemesis, a lost sister, a past life, or anything. It feels like a gold mine for emotionally rich story telling that's hardly ever touched.

But what do y'all think? Am I just missing something? Is there an incredible Wonder Woman story that adapts the Myth of Pandora that I've never heard of?

EDIT: I completely forgot to include it in the title image is from Wonder Woman (Volume 2) #1 by George Perez and Greg Potter

source

Art by Nicola Scott (Aphrodite, Artemis, Hestia), Rags Morales (Athena), Cliff Chiang (Demeter), and Phil Jimenez (Hestia)

I recently read Greg Rucka's time on Rebirth Wonder Woman and I had a really good time, so I went back to read his pre-New 52 stuff on her, which I also enjoyed. Today, after having read both runs, I realized that these two AREN'T the same character, as they have different names (Leslie and Adrianna), BUT both have the lastname Anderson and are both the partners of Veronica Cale.

Therefore, I ask, is there more to this name change or did they do that just because?? I would really appreciate an answer to this.

first panel by Rags Morales for Wonder Woman #215 from the early 2000s.

second panel by Bilquis Evely for Wonder Woman #16 from the DC Rebirth Era.

Also what other eras of Wonder Woman should be covered in the DC Finest collection?

I’ve recently finished Messner-Leon’s run and one of the aspects I didn’t expect to fall in love with was Donna Milton, her initial presentation of learning to allow empathy and love into her heart that she learned to be friends with Diana even when being her enemy was so cool and was wondering why she didn’t appear in future stories.

This may be dramatic but the reveal of her being a complex false identity by Circe and her in real time realizing her life was fabricated kinda broke me, the last remnants of Donna even reappearing to save Diana as she reverts to Circe was so good.

Id personally love if she’s brought back in modern continuity which hear me out, from magic schenanigans, she is split from Circe and becomes her own being holding remnants of her progenitors magic. I think her being in the WW supporting cast would be nice as she’d serve as an example of how Diana’s compassion can bring out the good of anyone, even her worst enemy, quite literally

As the title suggests, what do you think were some of WW’s worst defeats?

Against villains she shouldn’t have lost to, or some of her heaviest losses.

it does make a lot of sense for the Amazons to prioritize the liberation of children alongside women. Children are a group with perceived less autonomy and dare I say seen with less sentience compared to other people. So it does make sense that the Amazons would really focus on protecting such groups.

The journey of Wonder Woman—Princess Diana of Themyscira, or Paradise Island—is also a coming-of-age story, which explains why she is constantly reinvented to reflect the young woman in tune with the times that she represents. Her companions are her sisters, not daughters—a dynamic interestingly portrayed in the post-Crisis era. She left the island at twenty; by the time she was twenty-four or twenty-five, she had died and ascended as the Goddess of Truth; and by twenty-six, she had already completed much of the journey known to us from the post-Crisis continuity.

In the continuity also known as New Earth, various issues provide information that allows for the reconstruction of the age relationships among the key members of the Wonder Family.

 In Wonder Woman #47, the first meeting between Diana and Donna Troy takes place. The story establishes that the two are relatively close in age, with Diana referring to her two decades of life. In the following issue, Wonder Woman (Vol. 2) #49, it is confirmed that Diana emerged while Donna was still using the mantle of Wonder Girl; just a few months later, Donna adopted the identity of Troia.

Subsequently, Wonder Woman Secret Files and Origins #1 (1997) provides a more precise detail regarding Diana: she was 20 years old when she won the Themyscira tournament and became Wonder Woman. The 1998 issue of the same title also notes that Diana had already been operating as Wonder Woman for six years, placing her at age 26. Around the same time, Titans #5 (1999) reveals that Donna Troy was 23 years old. Thus, there is a difference of approximately three years between Diana and Donna, with Diana being the older of the two.

Regarding Artemis of Bana-Mighdall, Batman/Superman/Wonder Woman: Trinity #3 (2003) depicts the Trinity's meeting during "Year One"—which corresponds to Year 0 of Diana's career in this reconstruction. Artemis reveals she is 14 years old. Although she is 14, her physique can make her appear considerably older—a point explored earlier in the miniseries in Trinity #1, where she is presented as a young woman who could easily be mistaken for someone around 18. Since Diana was 20 in Year 0, this establishes a six-year age gap between Diana and Artemis.

As for Cassie Sandsmark, Wonder Woman #105 establishes that she was 14 years old when she debuted as Wonder Girl. Meanwhile, Wonder Woman Secret Files and Origins #1 (1998) reveals that Cassie had already been active as Wonder Girl for two years, and during that period, Diana was 26 years old. Consequently, Cassie was approximately 16, while Diana was 26. This establishes a 10-year age gap between Diana and Cassie.

Additionally, Wonder Woman (Vol. 2) #47 establishes that Vanessa Kapatelis was nearly 14 years old when Diana and Donna met. Therefore, Vanessa was still 13 at that time. Given that Diana was 20 in Year 0, this places Vanessa 7 years younger than Diana.

After reading a good portion of the material, this is the information I found regarding the ages of the Wonder Women. Does anyone know of any other publication that reveals more details?

In Rebirth, after Diana and Steve broke up, reunited in #783, and right up until Rebirth ended with #800, they were definitely closer to being friends than lovers. But being portrayed as soulmates right from the start of Tom King's run feels so strange. It would've been nice if they had just slowly become lovers again. Or Did I miss something?

I really really enjoyed this story, and I love Diana's character, but this story seems to try and spread a message that to be truly kind means even forgiving your abusers when they are sincerely apologetic, and I can't help but deeply dislike it, specifically in the instance of Heracles. He literally lead the mass rape of their entire race. Under no circumstances should a woman ever, EVER have to show an inch of kindness or forgiveness to a man who did that to her. This message could have been better written if the Amazons decided not to hold Heracles's actions against all of mankind, choosing to forgive "men" and avoid collective punishment instead of forgiving him, but for them to forgive him, the individual? I find that writing really misogynistic and icky.

When I was first reading, and I saw the Amazons be punished for slaughtering their rapists, I at first thought it was bizarre to depict them as wrong for it, but rationalised it as "oh, the story is just depicting the misogyny of Zeus and Greek Mythology as a whole", like how Hera and Aphrodite punish women victims of male abuse. Turns out I might have been right in my first interpretation.

Am I misunderstanding anything here? Also be aware this does not make me hate the writers or the story, I still really enjoyed this book. I just hate the idea that a woman should ever be depicted as "right" for forgiving her rapist, in any circumstance, as rape is a deeply evil and unforgivable act of cruelty. And hey, even them just showing him mercy and letting him leave could have been tolerable, but "all hail heracles"? pfffttt

I took a day off for myself, and I made this one before going to bed!