One of the biggest hits of DC’s much-maligned cinematic universe has been Wonder Woman. Finally stepping out of the shadow of her “Big Three” co-stars Superman and Batman, the Star-Spangled Princess is getting the praise she so well deserves as a warrior and hero.
Truth be told, Diana has had a long history of badassery in comic books, which are finally eclipsing her less-than-shining moments. Strap into your invisible jets, as we present 5 Times Wonder Woman Was The Most Badass DC Hero (& 5 Times She Was The Lamest).
10 BADASS: Tower of Babel
One of the most famous arcs in Justice League history was Tower of Babel, in which the League of Assassins infiltrates the Batcave and steals Batman’s contingency plans against his meta-human teammates. In case he had to subdue a rogue Wonder Woman, Batman planned to inject Diana with a nanite that would have her battle an inexhaustible opponent in virtual reality until her body collapsed from exhaustion. That surrender was not an option Wonder Woman was willing to entertain, preferring to fight till her last breath, is a clear indication of just how badass she is!
9 LAME: Clay Origins
You’d be hard-pressed to find someone who didn’t know Superman's or Spider-Man’s origins, but Wonder Woman's is less well-known and perhaps for good reason. Aside from having multiple origins in her 78-year history, one of them stood out from the rest as particularly lame: the clay statue birth.
Supposedly, in the desire of having a daughter of her own, Hippolyta, Queen of the Amazons, sculpted Diana out of clay that was given life by the Gods. This origin has always sounded rather hokey and was recently replaced by a better one that saw Diana’s birth as the result of an affair between Zeus and Hippolyta.
8 BADASS: Onscreen Awesomeness
One of the best and most pulse-pounding scenes in the lukewarm Batman vs Superman: Dawn of Justice film was Wonder Woman’s appearance at the onset of the Doomsday fight. Saving Batman from certain death, Diana followed it up with a stellar battle against the mutated Kryptonian creation which saw her take point against the beast for a good part of the confrontation.
All this was just a precursor to her own cinematic outing, where she ramped up her badass battlefield cred by charging through the No Man’s Land of World War I and handing Ares a sound defeat.
7 LAME: Princess of...Taco Whiz?
For the record, there’s absolutely nothing wrong with working in the service industry. Still for a woman with meta-strength and reflexes, the ability to fly, and decades worth of battle experience, there must have been other options for gainful employment. In Wonder Woman (Vol. 2) #73, Diana is forced to take a job as a waitress at the fast-food chain Taco Whiz when the resources of Paradise Island are suddenly unavailable to her. Surely, someone with Diana’s skill set could have gotten a job as a military advisory, bodyguard, or even a bouncer?
6 BADASS: Batman Beat-Down
Most graphic novels DC has released center on Batman, so it was refreshing to see one focus on Wonder Woman, with the Dark Knight relegated to a supporting role. In The Hiketeia, a Gotham woman seeks Diana out for supplication to gain protection from Batman, who is chasing her for a series of murders she has committed.
Part of Diana's badass nature is revealed when she almost effortlessly deflects everything Batman has to offer in terms of an offense, highlighting the depths of her martial expertise. But even more badass is Diana’s ability to stick to her vow, an indication of her superb moral character.
5 LAME: ‘90s Costume Change
There’s no doubt that the ‘90s was a divisive era for comic books. Some look back on it with fond feelings of nostalgia while some see it as an abomination that should never be revisited. Part of what defined the era was a propensity for publishers to redesign classic characters’ costumes, and Wonder Woman was no exception.
Having lost her station to Artemis, Diana traded in her star-spangled shorts and tiara for bicycle shorts, a cropped jacket, and a black halter top. She looked like a No Doubt concertgoer in one of the lamest costume changes ever.
4 BADASS: Super Beat-Down
As two of the most powerful heroes in the DC Universe, Wonder Woman and Superman have had some epic throw-downs in the past. Perhaps their most visceral was during the Sacrifice arc, in which a mind-controlled Superman attacked Diana, believing she was Doomsday killing Lois.
Outmatched in terms of sheer power by her opponent, Diana managed to hold her own despite a broken wrist with superior battle tactics in a truly badass fight!
3 LAME: ‘70s Comics
The ‘70s saw DC take everything that ever made Wonder Woman an icon and pretty much toss it aside for the sake of a “new and improved” revamp. Depowered following the Amazonian’s retreat to another dimension, Diana took the alias of Diana Prince and opened up a fashion boutique. She still fought crime, but in a white jumpsuit and with martial arts techniques she learned from her sensei, I Ching. Thankfully, DC came to their senses and restored Wonder Woman to her full-powered, star-spangled glory a few years later.
2 BADASS: The Maxwell Lord Incident
Although Wonder Woman’s mission in “man’s world” has always been one of peace, Diana has been trained as a warrior first and foremost. As a warrior, Diana knows how to take out an opponent if necessary, although she opts for a non-lethal solution most of the time.
The most notable time she had to kill an opponent was during the aforementioned Sacrifice arc. To completely free Superman from Maxwell Lord’s control, Wonder Woman had no choice but to snap Lord’s neck. An unexpected but necessary choice, facing that moral quandary was a truly badass moment.
1 LAME: JSA Secretary
Wonder Woman is the second most powerful hero in the DC universe, and one of the best trained. Her experience in battle alone should be enough to have her at the forefront of every confrontation the Justice League faces.
That’s why having her relegated to the Justice Society’s secretary during World War II is a travesty. Rather than holding the fort while the men went out to fight, she should have been leading them against the Nazis. Even the argument that this decision was “product of the time” doesn’t really hold water, as Wonder Woman had already been an experienced hero for years when she was sidelined. By and large, this is the lamest thing to happen to Diana in her history.