Wonder Woman's new look: At long last, pants!

But WW isn't unique. She is nothing, but a glorified female Superman with a fantasy origin thats suppose to represent feminist values.

 

Sigh. She's no more derivative of Superman than any other superhero. She has her own distinct mythos (very distinct, in its original form, which is probably too unique to work commercially).

 

Costume - B-, not a bad look but too 1990s / Marvel X-men. Besides, the old gear will be back as soon as JMS is gone or sales dip a little

The New Origin - Fucking hell man, how many more times is DC gong to rewrite their own timelines? Seriously, it was fucking old in the 90s, now it seems like every quarter there's a new time-travel based storyline (okay maybe an exaggeration, but you get the point).

 

Amazons are in Greek mythology but they're not Greeks themselves. Diana's Greek-ish. Is she not an Amazon?

Amazons are mortal but Wonder Woman has superpowers. Is she not an Amazon?

Themiscyra has a peaceful society of women only. Amazons are warriors. Diana is supposed to a peaceful Themiscyran but she's also an Amazon warrior?

The character backstory is horribly confusing.

The new costume needs a bandolier and holsters on both hips. And heavy gloves to go with the wrist gauntlets. And a bullet proof vest (so much for the cleavage!) Armbands would be too much, but where are the tats?!?!

Really, if you're going to go with this costume, she needs a gun and forget the superpowers.

But, if you stick with the superpowers, forget the modern day including the Stars and Stripes motif.

 

No wonderwear, no dice.

 

Right I'm a bloke and I prefer the new design, it's MASSIVE improvement on the old one.

Sadly the hardcore comic book fans will hate it, because it's actually an attempt to get the design out of the good awful 40's retro look.

In fact I wish they'd do the same with all those dorky looking superheros. Seriously, they aren't timeless, they're horribly dated. There's a reason Tom Welling doesn't wear it in Smallville, because everyone knows how stupid the outfits look.

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Anyway, we all know it's going to be reverted back. This is merely an attempt to grab new readers, once they're on board they'll probably revert to the old design (probably even the old origin) before the hardcore readers jumps ship.

 

I wasn't even arguing whether WW is unique but the medium itself.

This costume change is probably necessary to make this urban WW idea go but that might suggest also that maybe that means that direction isn't really suited to that character.

The 2010 Justice League

 

Coipel's revamp of Thor's classic look for JMS' run on that book seems to have stuck, at least for a while, and appears to have largely inspired Thor's look in the movie, so that may end up giving it a fairly long shelf life.

At first glance, I don't think this revamp will work as well as Coipel's for Thor. For one thing, it is a more drastic change from the original. I share the general scepticism regarding the jacket. Otherwise it's a pretty strong design, though. Eventually they'll lose the the jacket and end up with something that's closer to a cross between this and the original.

The pants are pretty much a necessity, though, I think. It's just hard to take the character seriously in her Wonder-kini, a bit like Thor in his original god-tights.

 

I would like that. This isn't perfect, but it's got a lot of good points.

I'd say that in strictly functional terms, the shoulder straps and higher neckline are more of a necessity than long pants. But anything that gets rid of the star-spangled panties is a good idea.

 

Maybe Diana bought that suit from Amazon.com.

 

Something besides the panties anyway, yeah. What are the other main options, though? Dress and skirt? A full-length dress seems out of the question, and a skirt strikes me as more Supergirl's style than Wonder Woman. I like the pants, and really the rest of the new look for the most part, with the caveat that the jacket doesn't seem quite right.

 

Actually, most superheroes have changed surprisingly little since the 1940s.

 

THIS.
It's the same mentality that was brought to the X-Men, Batman and new Captain America movies. Thank God Raimi had faith in Spiderman.

 

not a fan of it. why not just dump her in some greek armor or some sort of riff on 300... play up that angle. the look they chose, meh.

the thing with costume changes, the smaller the better. you can get away with lots of small changes overtime... doing one big change is a tough sell.

but it will sell issues, then when it stops selling, they'll switch back... or they'll kill her off! then bring her back in the old costume! then reset everything...

eh, the more i think about it, the more i realize, i dont care what they do. i didnt read Wonderwoman before, i wasnt going to start reading it now (and the costume isnt what stopped me from reading it)

 

Jim Lee sucks and comics have sucked ever since the Gen X fans of comics took over and began making them for themselves and people like them.

Also, they've tried ditching Wonder Woman's classic look before...in the late 60's. They even ditched her powers.

It sucked.

IIRC, in the 90's they did the now cliched-to-death thing of having Diana replaced by someone else, but her still being a hero and having a different costume.

I suspect that sucked, too.

So her ass will be star spangled again. It's all another sad gimmick in an industry that should've been allowed to die 15 years ago.

 

Reboots are unacceptable! Oh wait, they're an absolute necessity, and this new origin sounds like it will generate more story possibilities than the previous Paradise Island silliness.

 

Reboots happen every other month.

SPIDER-MAN RERELOADED, Peter Parker, now a bisexual bike messenger in post-apocalyptic NYC living with his foster Uncle Ben (a Jamaican blues musician)...

BATMAN YEAR START-OVER, young Bruce Wayne, orphaned by Yakuza thugs vows to become a ninja in a cyber-punk Gotham City, aided by A.L.F.R.E.D. (Artificial Life Form Robotic Enhanced Doppleganger) .

X-MEN NO CLASS, restarts the famous mutants and scantily clad high school skanks who try to do good while sexting each other and cheating on their exams.

THOR: NORSE NO MORE, ditches all that Asgardian baggage for a younger, grittier take on the classic character...

 

Comics are a static and oddly conservative industry, at least as far as the dominant companies are concerned (not politically, but in the sense of "resistant to change"). It's hard to create new lead characters to add to the "pantheon." Characters don't change much or not for long. Family and children are problematic. So reboots, alternate universes, "what if?" stories and similar devices provide the variety that would otherwise be lacking. Of course, I am sympathetic to the idea that variety is lacking anyway, but it would be even worse if none of these types of changes were attempted.

Pop culture as a whole is starting to resemble the comics more and more in this regard, actually, with constant reboots and relaunches of existing properties that are already members of the "pantheon," rather than allowing existing characters to evolve or developing new ones. That is perhaps not very inspiring, but anyway it is certainly a dominant trend.

 

One of the problems and weaknesses of a corporate owned franchise.

 

I like it. I don't love it, but I can live with it. I'm with the majority: yay for pants, good for top, get rid of the jacket (maybe keep the shoulder pads), unsure about the gauntlets. I would throw some shiny boots into it, too.

This sums it up pretty well: