As the current leading series in the DC Extended Universe (DCEU), Wonder Woman has a heavy burden on her shoulders: keep putting out great movies to form the backbone of the franchise until other characters can get their footing. Fortunately, with more than 75 years of comic history, Wonder Woman has a wealth of stories to draw from to inspire new movies.
However, not all of these stories are suitable for turning into movies. Here are five of the best Wonder Woman stories that wouldn't be good for adaptation, and five more that should definitely be adapted. (Note: this list doesn't include stories that might be in Wonder Woman 1984).
10 Leave In The Comics: Power Couple
In the New 52, DC launched Superman / Wonder Woman, a comic focused on the romantic relationship between Superman and Wonder Woman (which they had deftly sidestepped Post-Crisis in the 80s). The line's biggest problem at first was that so much of its story took place in other books, making it almost impossible to follow if you just read the one comic.
While it set off a wave of backlash among many fans, it found time to say some interesting things about power, professionalism, and relationships, but is totally unsuited to film: those issues would be lost.
9 Adapt: Tabloid Suspicion
On the other hand, it makes sense that romantic speculations would swarm around the members of the Justice League. It's the way of modern culture, fanned first by tabloids and now fueled by Internet crowdsourcing.
It would be nice to build this into at least one of the movies, and Greg Rucka offers a nice template in Nothing Finished, Only Abandoned, the last comic in his run. He gives us a brief refresher on Wonder Woman's history from Crisis on Infinite Earths to Infinite Crisis, with a snapshot of how the tabloids interpreted each event, including baseless romantic speculations.
8 Leave In The Comics: Wonder Woman Is War
One of the biggest simplifications the movie Wonder Woman made from the comics is the elimination of the Greek pantheon. Only Ares survives as a villain Diana has to fight. While Ares is often represented this way in the comics, sometimes things get more complicated (and truer to the Greek myths).
In the New 52, Ares is Diana's tutor when she's young and becomes her best frenemy as an adult. When Ares dies, he passes his throne to her. While this makes for an interesting arc in the comics, it just couldn't be shoehorned into the movies.
7 Adapt: Sons of Ares
However, there is a way to reintroduce some mythic complexity to the DCEU without resurrecting the gods. Ares has two sons: Phobos and Deimos, whom Diana has crossed paths with many times in the comics. These could be easily introduced in a future film, allowing them to let loose fear and panic on the world.
Perhaps the best representation of these two is in George Pérez's early arc that ends in Powerplay. Phobos is a clumsy, overeager goblin, while Deimos is a subtle manipulator with enough snakes growing from his body to make Medusa jealous.
6 Leave In The Comics: Wonder Woman / Conan
As fun as this story is, letting Gail Simone wield her adept talents at writing Wonder woman again, it would be a mess to adapt to film. This is a compelling almost-love story full of magic and mayhem. But it would be hard to explain where it fits in the DCEU as anything beyond a dream.
Not only that, but the legal nightmares in negotiating the contracts, and the challenge of casting a new Conan make this story very difficult to adapt.
5 Adapt: Ends Of The Earth
A better choice might be to attempt a different Simone story: Ends of the Earth, in which Wonder Woman meets Beowulf. The two have a warrior's rivalry that grows into mutual respect bordering on friendship that is compelling even given its limited development.
While the comic story involves an out-of-body experience and parallel dimensions, the DCEU version could involve time travel, since Beowulf is a historical figure (sort of). This could even be part of a slow build to reintroduce Darkseid, which the DCEU has backed away from after the disappointing box office of Justice League.
4 Leave In The Comics: The Mission
In the comics, Themyscira gets revealed to the world for a time. As such, it needs to join the family of nations with regular diplomatic ties. In this context, Wonder Woman becomes the official ambassador from Themyscira to the US.
While this allows for a lot of interesting subplots and one-offs (such as the amazing interview about her duties conducted by Lois Lane), it doesn't make for good film material. If movies have taken anything from the Star Wars prequels, it's that action franchises shouldn't get bogged down in politics.
3 Adapt: The Circle
A better story to adapt is Simone's The Circle, often considered the best Wonder Woman arc ever. It tells the story of an elite unit of Amazons. These are not just their strongest fighters, but also their most devoted idealists. They are sworn to protect Hippolyta, queen of the Amazons.
When Hippolyta fashions Diana from clay, they consider it a betrayal of the values of the Amazons. The story is high-action and focuses on questions of what it means to be an Amazon--and a woman. It's also tightly written, so it'd be easy to adapt.
2 Leave In The Comics: Medusa
Once Wonder Woman became more closely identified with Greek mythology, she started fighting many of the major creatures from myth, including Medusa. The battle is exciting, terrifying, and Wonder Woman only wins by blinding herself.
The consequences of this battle are real and enduring: Wonder Woman is blind for a significant length of time and has to fight a number of opponents blind. She has to go on a major quest to regain her vision. There's not enough room in a film to explore this type of story. Wonder Woman: Bloodlines tried to use Medusa and the result was weak.
1 Adapt: The Hiketeia
Another great story for adapting is Rucka's The Hiketeia. In this story, a criminal flees Gotham and seeks protection from Wonder Woman, who is duty-bound to grant it. This puts her at odds with Batman, who comes to bring the criminal in for justice.
Unlike the superficial conflict and resolution in Batman v Superman, this story uses deep-seated character motivations to drive the conflict. And there are a lot of cool fights where Batman takes it on the chin. This would make a great follow-up if 2021's The Batman succeeds and Robert Pattinson proves up to the role.