Even gods can make mistakes. Wonder Woman was first created by William Moulton Marston and H. G. Peter in 1941 for All-Star Comics #8. In an industry filled with derivative male peers, her mystical origins, feminist angle, and debatably risqué use of bondage as armor or weapons made her an icon of her time – something she still is 80 years later.
During those 80 years, Wonder Woman had highs, lows, and everything in between. Whether in the main canon or in Elseworld tales, Diana hasn't always lived up to her legend.
10 Causing Natural Disasters
The Dark Knight Strikes Again by Frank Miller and colorist Lynn Varley from 2001 was a direct sequel to Miller's classic The Dark Knight Returns from 1986. Wonder Woman plays a disappointing role as a primary love interest for Superman. This is an unfortunate trend in comics, and especially in alternate reality stories where Wonder Woman serves as a prize or trophy for her male counterparts – particularly for Superman.
Aside from being the dryest and most vanilla paring in the DC universe possible, their eventual intimacy is so powerful they create earthquakes, typhoons, and tsunamis. For such a dull couple, this is a price too high to pay.
9 Everything She Does In Flashpoint
For Geoff Johns and Andy Kubert's 2011 time-breaking story, Flashpoint, they establish an alternate timeline that Barry Allen, aka the Flash, must navigate to get back home. In this world, Wonder Woman and Aquaman had an affair that ended with Wonder Woman killing Mera, his wife.
This leads to an all-out war between the Amazons and Atlanteans and results in a worldwide apocalypse. (Talk about bad breakups). Luckily, Flash is able to undo the carnage, and while the New 52 that followed had its own problems, things work out pretty well for Diana.
8 Everything She Does In Injustice
Injustice: Gods Among Us was released in 2013 by NetherRealm Studios. Since then, it's become one of, if not the most popular alternate reality stories in DC history. When Superman is tricked into killing his pregnant wife and son, he snaps and creates a neo-fascist state where freedom is sacrificed for security.
While Superman may sound like the true villain, in both the comics and video games, it's often shown that Wonder Woman is the true mastermind. She constantly manipulates and presses her peers to go to greater lengths to maintain peace. Her actions are the cause of several deaths that could have been avoided. As a result, she's one of the evilest incarnations of the character without her "being evil" the central conceit.
7 Being A Secretary To The JSA
In 1940, Gardner Fox and Sheldon Mayer made one of the most influential decisions in the DC universe and comics in general. Taking several of their most famous characters like Green Lantern, Flash, and Diana herself, they put them together in the Justice Society of America.
Being a god-like Amazon warrior, Wonder Woman should have been an absolute powerhouse and staple member of the group. In reality, she spends much of her time acting as a secretary to the JSA's "boy's club." What adds extra insult to injury is that Johnny Thunder, a literal child, gets to do more for the team than Diana ever does.
6 Body Shaming Etta Candy
Etta Candy is possibly one of the worst members of Wonder Woman's supporting cast. While she's gone through several updates over the years, her original purpose as a misogynistic and fatphobic joke is hard to overcome. In Grant Morrison and Yanick Paquette's Wonder Woman: Earth One, Diana arrives in man's world and is shocked at the state of things. Women dying of old age rather than being immortal like her sisters, rampant sexism and divisive hate, and apparently most shockingly for her, fat women.
Treating Etta Candy as yet another horror of the outside is completely out of character for a champion of femininity and freedom, but Grant Morrison also frames Etta as a selfish and food-obsessed hedonist with no care for others.
5 Losing Her Powers
The late great comic book legend, Dennis O'Neil is famous for bringing a socially conscious bend to an industry (and decade) in desperate need of icons and heroes who truly fought for them. His work on Green Lantern/Green Arrow is arguably one of the most important moments of the 20th century for DC, especially in terms of owning up to decades of segregation and erasure in its books.
When O'Neil took over Diana's series in 1968, it was time for a major change to the then roughly 30-year-old hero. However, what was done received a ton of backlash. By removing Diana's powers and making her subservient to multiple male characters during her Mod era, it was considered the ruination of her character and her inherent strength and femininity. Denny would later go on to profusely apologize for this move, admitting it was a mistake in a genuine attempt to push the character toward new fans.
4 Becoming A Thrall Of Darkseid
Anti-Life justifies the hate many readers have towards Grant Morrison's metatextual cosmic event and conclusion to the Crisis trilogy known as Final Crisis. In this story, Darkseid, the dark god of Apokalypse, obtains his lifelong obsession: the Anti-Life Equation.
Using the mathematical proof that life is meaningless and one must submit to Darkseid, he conquers the world and uses Wonder Woman as the prime hunter in his new Female Furies. Unable to resist his demands, Diana spreads chaos and death across Earth, until Barry Allen tricks the Black Racer into killing Darkseid and Superman makes a wish on his wish-granting machine.
3 Losing To Artemis
The 1990s was an era filled with desperate attempts by DC Comics to shake up the status quo of its stable of characters. For example, the killing of Superman, the breaking of Batman, and the downfall of Green Lantern.
When it's Diana's turn to be killed, her mother Hypolata rigs a contest between her daughter and Artemis for the title and costume of Wonder Woman. With Artemis as the new spirit of truth, Diana resorts to fighting street crime in what might be her worst outfit in the history of bad Wonder Woman outfits. Once the death for Wonder Woman comes, it is Artemis and not Diana who receives the fatal blow and dies in an awkwardly sexualized death scene.
2 Killing Maxwell Lord
Wonder Woman and the morality of the DC Trinity is put to the test in Wonder Woman #219 by Greg Rucka and Rags Morales when Maxwell Lord, Justice League ally and friend is revealed to be behind the OMAC attacks, having mind-controlled Superman into attacking Batman and Diana. With the Lasso of Truth compelling him to be honest, he admits that the only way to stop him is to kill him.
Wonder Woman snaps his neck, which is broadcast worldwide and further divides herself and her peers. Whether her Lasso makes the victim say what they believe is true or the actual truth is something comic writers continually disagree on. However, Diana's actions here set up the DC universe for Infinite Crisis not long after.
1 Amazons Attack!
After Infinite Crisis, Wonder Woman faces her biggest failure in the critically panned, Amazons Attack!. Will Pfeifer and Pete Woods upend the ongoing stories in Diana's own books with an invasion by Themyscira.
The stoic Amazons murder innocent children and commit acts of terror in the United States, and Diana is unable to stop the tragedy in any meaningful way as she and all the heroes are fooled by the machinations of Apokalypse's own Granny Goodness. It's easily the worst Wonder Woman event in DC publishing history, failing to add anything meaningful to the character while assassinating her supporting cast.