I was reading the interview that Grant Morrison was talking about his upcoming graphic novel Wonder Woman earth 1. In the interview as well as other interviews in the past he has expressed that he did not quite understand Wonder Woman and had no idea how to write her.HHe is not the only one to express it. A lot of people say that she is a contradiction and this is something that puzzles me. The concept of a warrior who fight for peace is nothing new in literature or in society as a whole. Throughout human history they have been a member of leaders, generals,kings who have had two plays the role of war Lord and peace keeper. Any general or warrior worth their merit I know that sometimes you must fight to keep the peace, that sometimes you must kill so others can live, that sometimes must destroy so the greater good can survive. the writers of Thor never ever seem to have an issue writing him and these two characters pretty much hold the same position in their respective universes, that of the greatest warrior. So,what's so difficult about writing her?what makes her that much more difficult than writing Thor or any war comic? Any enlightenment?

Well, let's get right to the elephant in the room that always looms over Wonder Woman: she's a woman and a lot of writers just don't know how to write strong female characters.

@herrweis: She represents peace and love, yet is also the only member of the Trinity who would kill outside of the most extreme situations (Say, Joker with the powers to turn all the world's cheese into nuclear devices?

Superman has points you can't argue, same with Batman, while WonderWoman could be interpreted in a multitude of ways.

I recently read that the major problem with Wonder Woman is that every writer that gets her book tries to reinvent her rather than follow what was set out before. They all want to put their mark on the character and as a result her character and personality fluctuate wildly from writer to writer.

people know greek mythology too well

@rdclip: That's a great point. The recent Azzarello run is a perfect case in point. I can't imagine someone taking over that book and trying to sort out what he's done with the character. There'll probably be a bunch of retconning or even a soft reboot.

It seems like the character is stuck in a circular loop of logic. People don't know the character very well, so a new writer wants to redefine her for a new generation. Those changes lead to people not understanding the character, so another new writer seeks to define her again, and the process repeats. Maybe if writers would just try to tell good stories with an established character (as they do for Batman and Superman) people would understand the character better, and it would become easier to write good stories (another circular loop of logic, I realize, but a positive one).

I wonder if this is a case where editorial should set out to define the character. Because right now the Wondy that Azzarello is writing may as well be a different character from the one Johns is writing and I foresee the Wondy that Soule writes will be vastly different as well.

DC should either make the Azzarello's Wondy the defining personality or hire a writer to make it and make sure every writer afterwards follows that mold. She needs a defined personality to build off if she is going to remain their 3rd member of the trinity. Both Batman and Superman have well establish personalities that a writer can easily follow, Wondy needs it too.

Yeah, this is actually what causes everyone to screw her up. Writing a "strong female" character falls into generic archetypes. Rather than writing the Wonder Woman character and letting her strength come out on its own, writers force the issue in a misguided attempt to show feminist-strength. Then we're stuck with the Wonder Woman who beats up fellow Leaguers, is randomly misandrist and is usually overpowered.

Most of the times when people have a problem writing her is because nobody these days knows how to write strong females rather than female writers.But yeah most of the times writers just retcon everything about her and start from the bottom with their own thing.That's why as much as I love the character at times I just can't seem to really attach to her and understand her.

A lot of writers seem to think a "strong female" character just means one with no flaws or weaknesses. Probably coz they all look to Chris Claremont's work on X-Men was the definitive template for writing women in comics...

That's no elephant in the room at all. I don't think that's a problem at all because the statement is so subjective and centered around your personal perception of how a strong woman should be written. Rather than make a vague claim, be specific and say how you think a strong woman should be written, put it up to a vote, and let the consumers decide with their statements or pocket book (post somewhere like christianpost.com, however). Marston wrote a great Wonder Woman and Messner-Loebs wrote a great Wonder Woman, but I guess that's my perception, but others will agree. People just disagree.

I actually think your point ties in well with what others have been saying here. Each writer seems to want to make Wonder Woman into what they think a strong woman should be, as if there is only one way to be a strong woman (or at least only one way to write a strong woman).

Batman and Superman are very, very different, but they are both strong men. I imagine it's easier for writers to write them well because they don't have to portray the single, perfect strong man - they can focus on the traits that make those characters unique. Meanwhile, Wonder Woman has to bear the burden of standing for all strong women, and thus her character ends up being yanked in different and sometimes contradictory directions. If DC could just define her as a strong character who is female rather than as the archetype of all feminine strength there might be more consistency and this could lead to better writing regardless of who is at the helm.

And for the record, I'm not saying that no writer has ever done a good job - Marston, Perez, Rucka, and Simone have all done a good job with the character, largely by focusing on what makes her unique rather than on what makes her universal.

I think a lot of you make a valid point. Writers tried to write a strong female character instead of just writing a strong character. I think that the same issue writers have when they try to write a black character. In which they focus on trying to write a black hero than just trying to write a hero period. They get too caught up in the physical attributes rather than the personality of the character

@herrweis: I think the problem is quite simple, the writers are idiots. Any writer who says there something complex about writing a good wonder woman story has completely lost the plot. (No pun intended)

Stop trying to write for an audience and write the character cause she´s special to you and YOU relate to her story. That simple. Marstons character was perfect. Perez made her even better. Simone, Luke and Rucka made her fricking badass. Go back to there work, write that character and stop focusing on her and start focusing on her bad guys and her original supporting cast. A general rule of comics if you want old readers to love new stories as well as new ones, unless a story is stupid beyond repair, do not subtract, add to it.

So lets break down Wonder Womans story.

1. Amazons of the ancient world are exploited and frequently attempted to be conquered by men.

I like that intriguing.

2. Hercules is either tricked by Ares or he himself captures the Amazon queen or the whole Amazons. Forcing his barbaric will upon them.

Thats dark, cynical, actually has some very mature and adult themes. I´m not seeing a problem so far.

3. The Amazons escape and as recompense for their loyalty to the gods, they are given an island away from mans world where they can live in peace. They are granted immortality by the Gods.

Makes sense in a fantasy kind of way! I mean hey if people can buy into Lord of the rings, whats the problem here.

4. The Amazons make there home in to a virtues monarchy under the leadership of Queen Hippolyta.

Nice. So now we have an all female society. What might that be an interesting set up to explore gender themes, as well as use this as a platform to critique the notion of Utopia or in fact as mirror world to satirize the world we live in or both. Choose your poison.

5. The Amazons nature as women make them desire a child. Hippolyta is granted a very special child by the Gods. A child gifted with many blessing, so that all the Amazons will come to love her and it may quell their aching for a child.

Again an intelligent person should see lots to work with here.

6. The Amazons raise the child to be virtuous and a great warrior, however she who has never seen mans world is curious about it and doesn´t harbor the same prejudice towards it as her sisters.

Nice character, great bot of conflict. And notice the story isn´t man hating, as this child shows that with out the prejudice of these bad experiences you can be open minded.

7. The child who has now lived for thousands of years now feels inside that she is destined for more than this tiny island, however her mother Hippolyta, whose is prejudice against the world of Man and doesn´t want to lose her only daughter will not let go.

Parental conflict. Something we all can relate to, we can´t let our children be free, we don´t want them to grow up, but we children know the only way we can fulfill our destinies our dreams is to sometimes disobey our parents. RELATABLE.

8. Destiny arrives when secret service pilot Steve Trevor lands on the Island. Now again depending on your interpretation, Diana can take him back to be Ambassador of Mans World, or to discover what forces revealed her Island to the rest of the world or to fight Ares.

Perfect setup iconic, multiple themes to work from, so many angles to take and explore as demonstrated.

9. And we finish Diana wins the right to take Steve back to mans world against her mothers wishes, by winning a tournament proving she is the most capable Amazon warrior; however on entering mans world she finds her self a fish out of water. Not understanding its violence, but also seeing it and its peoples inherent capacity for good. Thus she uses her gifts and warrior skills to fight the forces of evil in the world.

9 Simple steps to great Wonder Woman story.

Can we stop having this discussion now AZZERELLO

@jphulk26: Dude that is gold. All my thoughts into one post. How did you know? Haha

@rdclip: I don't want Azzerello to leave I like his book right now. Even though I hate some changes.

Because whenever some big name like Picoult, JMS, David E. Kelly, and even Azzarello (though I like his run) get on the book, it becomes: FORGET EVERYTHING THAT YOU THOUGHT YOU KNEW ABOUT WONDER WOMAN!!!! IT ALL CHANGES AFTER THIS!!!!

@jointron33: well with azzarello he really had that luxury since its not the old universe .we can actually forget what came before it because that does not matter.and I do like his run.I think he cares for the character

@herrweis:

This was not a reboot like say pre-COIE and the Perez reboot. And Azzarello has not suggested such a reboot so far. Obviously, if anyone has been following along, nothing changed except Wonder Woman's knowledge of her past. For a while, Wonder Woman believed she was made from clay. Hermes called that belief into question; Wonder Woman than proceeded to explore her past more closely to discover that she actually had a father and his name was Zeus; no different than suddenly discovering that you had a brother or sister that you never knew about or that the people who raised you actually kidnapped you and finding your real parents; although you're stunned upon learning these differences, your various experiences and actions are still the same; thus, what was before is still what was before, as far as your experiences and actions are concerned. However, the period of time between Wonder Woman's early transition from walking off the island and acclimating to man's world has never been deeply explored and still is not being deeply explored despite my suggestions (and probably others), so we get this big disconnect between Wonder Woman's character in relation to her Amazon people/sisters; thus, although Wonder Woman could have been unaware of the raids on the sailors, she still likely saw things in relation to men in a manner very similar to her sisters; this just has to be natural and logical, if but for only osmosis, if not indoctrination; thus, good stories would involve the period of time when Wonder Woman was becoming acclimated to life off the island and early interaction with Dr. Psycho in helping her through this acclimation process would certainly make for an interesting story, say just prior to him becoming part of her rogues gallery for doing things along the way which may justify his status as one of her rogues. Of course, on the other side you'd have her first encounters with members of the Justice League and maybe Steve Trevor, but probably after about a year or more with Dr. Psycho; of course, you'll have things in the middle, such as the necessity of her interacting with men and women in everyday society; this way, we can get a sense of if Wonder Woman is actually strong-willed, stubborn, and brazen just below the superficial surface (just like her amazon sisters, from the real world historical perspective), humble and noble just below the superficial surface, or somewhere in between just like the average Jane and most peoples’ ideas of her character is a little misplaced, which I’ve began to suspect, after the COIE reboot; the pre-crisis Wonder Woman did have something close to humble and noble traits (e.g. see Wonder Woman 168, pre-crisis and her interaction with Dr. Psycho); however, that also makes her just like any other superheroine, if she’s just an average Jane, character wise. Than, after this period of acclimation, we'll be able to fully understand both the Wonder Woman character, a lot better, and the reason why she see things so differently from her sisters; I'd love to either be the writer or assist in that story development; that way, we also do not have to disconnect the DC Amazons from the real world historical (or mythological) amazons.

@herrweis:

When you say the, you really mean his character. I have no doubt he cares about his character that he has now called Wonder Woman, but thats different about caring about the Wonder Woman that most people on the planet who know of her care about. Very different. And yes more people know Martson or Perrez or Linda Carters WW than Azz.

@dshipp17: Obviously, if anyone has been following along, nothing changed except Wonder Woman's knowledge of her past. For a while, Wonder Woman believed she was made from clay. Hermes called that belief into question; Wonder Woman than proceeded to explore her past more closely to discover that she actually had a father and his name was Zeus; "......she didn't explore or discover,she was told by Eris

I had to quote this. :)

@herrweis: what physical attributes?,wonder woman's power level isn't the problem because like any other hero,she is victim of bad writtin sometimes,when they water her down in some stories for the sake of the plot.

writters that don't know how to writte her is because they are lazy and don't look at the core of the character,to have a good wonder woman story you need to follow the standard.

1)amazons,the perfect world ruled by women where peace and love predominate,the utopia that the amazons represent.

2)the gods and their blessings to wonder woman.

3)diana is a pure soul,compassionate, kind and protective as a mother and also strong,independent,wise and fearless as a warrior.

4)diana's nature,her ability to open the heart of other people,her morals,what she stands for,the way she treats everyone even her villans,without prejudice,and the way her kind heart changes the lives of the people around her,even her villans.

5)diana's supporting cast,vanessa,julia,steve,etta,and how they get involve in diana's mission and try to help her even thought they are just mortals,showing that some humans are willing to go beyond their limits tryng to make a difference in this world,even thought they are vulnerable,they prove to be role models,that you don't even need powers to try to do siomething for this world.

6)diana's villans,they represent wonder woman's antithesis,ares is war,violence and obsessed with having total control. ,cheetah=hate,jealousy,contempt for life and power ambiccion,silver swan=lack of self-esteem,frustration and anger.

dr psycho=small man complex,loneliness,sadness and obsessed with finding someone for him to never be alone,his obsetion with diana.

circe=ego,evil,superiority complex and vindictive.

her villans not only have a lot of power,but they represent wonder woman's antithesis.

if you follow this standard,you have a great wonder woman's story.

That was awesome!

@x35: overpowered?,wonder woman moved the moon and the sun in the 40s,during her original run,so she was actually more powerful back then.

writters that don't know how to writte her is because they are lazy and don't look at the core of the character,to have a good wonder woman story you need to follow the standard.

1)amazons,the perfect world ruled by women where peace and love predominate,the utopia that the amazons represent.

2)the gods and their blessings to wonder woman.

3)diana is a pure soul,compassionate, kind and protective as a mother and also strong,independent,wise and fearless as a warrior.

4)diana's nature,her ability to open the heart of other people,her morals,what she stands for,the way she treats everyone even her villans,without prejudice,and the way her kind heart changes the lives of the people around her,even her villans.

5)diana's supporting cast,vanessa,julia,steve,etta,and how they get involve in diana's mission and try to help her even thought they are just mortals,showing that some humans are willing to go beyond their limits tryng to make a difference in this world,even thought they are vulnerable,they prove to be role models,that you don't even need powers to try to do siomething for this world.

6)diana's villans,they represent wonder woman's antithesis,ares is war,violence and obsessed with having total control. ,cheetah=hate,jealousy,contempt for life and power ambiccion,silver swan=lack of self-esteem,frustration and anger.

dr psycho=small man complex,loneliness,sadness and obsessed with finding someone for him to never be alone,his obsetion with diana.

circe=ego,evil,superiority complex and vindictive.

her villans not only have a lot of power,but they represent wonder woman's antithesis.

if you follow this standard,you have a great wonder woman's story.

@dshipp17: loebs run suck s,one of the worst things that happended to wonder woman.

writters that don't know how to writte her is because they are lazy and don't look at the core of the character,to have a good wonder woman story you need to follow the standard.

1)amazons,the perfect world ruled by women where peace and love predominate,the utopia that the amazons represent.

2)the gods and their blessings to wonder woman.

3)diana is a pure soul,compassionate, kind and protective as a mother and also strong,independent,wise and fearless as a warrior.

4)diana's nature,her ability to open the heart of other people,her morals,what she stands for,the way she treats everyone even her villans,without prejudice,and the way her kind heart changes the lives of the people around her,even her villans.

5)diana's supporting cast,vanessa,julia,steve,etta,and how they get involve in diana's mission and try to help her even thought they are just mortals,showing that some humans are willing to go beyond their limits tryng to make a difference in this world,even thought they are vulnerable,they prove to be role models,that you don't even need powers to try to do siomething for this world.

6)diana's villans,they represent wonder woman's antithesis,ares is war,violence and obsessed with having total control. ,cheetah=hate,jealousy,contempt for life and power ambiccion,silver swan=lack of self-esteem,frustration and anger.

dr psycho=small man complex,loneliness,sadness and obsessed with finding someone for him to never be alone,his obsetion with diana.

circe=ego,evil,superiority complex and vindictive.

her villans not only have a lot of power,but they represent wonder woman's antithesis.

if you follow this standard,you have a great wonder woman's story.

here we go again,Let me tell your what is true of wonder woman

In the comic book,only SA superman,GA shazam,GA wonder woman move the sun

She has plenty of contradictory elements about her. That's why.

@gokuwarrior: what physical attributes? I thought I was clear maybe I wasn't the physical attributes I'm talking about is that she is a woman. some writers get lost in trying to write a "female"hero instead of just writing a hero.

@martianmanhunterisbetterthancy:

writters that don't know how to writte her is because they are lazy and don't look at the core of the character,to have a good wonder woman story you need to follow the standard.

1)amazons,the perfect world ruled by women where peace and love predominate,the utopia that the amazons represent.

2)the gods and their blessings to wonder woman.

3)diana is a pure soul,compassionate, kind and protective as a mother and also strong,independent,wise and fearless as a warrior.

4)diana's nature,her ability to open the heart of other people,her morals,what she stands for,the way she treats everyone even her villans,without prejudice,and the way her kind heart changes the lives of the people around her,even her villans.

5)diana's supporting cast,vanessa,julia,steve,etta,and how they get involve in diana's mission and try to help her even thought they are just mortals,showing that some humans are willing to go beyond their limits tryng to make a difference in this world,even thought they are vulnerable,they prove to be role models,that you don't even need powers to try to do siomething for this world.

6)diana's villans,they represent wonder woman's antithesis,ares is war,violence and obsessed with having total control. ,cheetah=hate,jealousy,contempt for life and power ambiccion,silver swan=lack of self-esteem,frustration and anger.

dr psycho=small man complex,loneliness,sadness and obsessed with finding someone for him to never be alone,his obsetion with diana.

circe=ego,evil,superiority complex and vindictive.

her villans not only have a lot of power,but they represent wonder woman's antithesis.

if you follow this standard,you have a great wonder woman's story.