I Can Prove Wonder Woman Sucks Part 1

Wonder Woman has been considered one of DC's "Big Three" for a long time. I always thought that putting her up on a pedastal with Superman and Batman was kind of ridiculous, and the result of historical accident more than anything else (because Wonder Woman survived the fifties intact).

The main problem is that she's a pretty hopeless character. Basically, the farther we've gone from the '40s, the worse her origin has become. Ultimately, she's a paradox from the Megaman school of "Fight, Megaman, for everlasting peace." She's supposed to be an incredible warrior sent to "Man's World" (Another aspect that isn't aging particularly well) in order to preach the value of peace. Of course, she spends most of her time engaging in fisticuffs with criminals, so...uh...maybe not the best ambassador for peace.

But, more to the point, look at the quality of the comic book itself, from the beginning of v2 to the present day:

The George Perez years:
Issues (v2) #1-#62
After the first Crisis, DC decided to revamp several of their books, including Wonder Woman, like Superman, it was determined that the character was best served by starting over, and the revamp worked well, at least in the sense that Wonder Woman became a marginally usuable character that some people actually cared about, as opposed to a title that was hanging on primarily because of inertia.

Ironically, I imagine that a lot of this run has been retconned out of continuity because the stories involved Wonder Woman coming to Man's World for the first time, and thus removing her status as a founder of the JLA, which has since been explicitly restored by Meltzer, so he could bring us issue after pulse-pounding issue of Superman, Batman and Wonder Woman sitting around a table and acting like jerks.

Still, 'twas a fine run, and it seemed like maybe Wonder Woman didn't have to be awful...of course, that led to...

The Bill Messner Loebs Run:
Issues #63-100


...And that's when the train started going off the rails. Now, Bill Loebs has done some good work, like his version of the Flash, which was the crucial transition from the Baron uber-jerk Wally West to the Mark Waid run.

The most memorable thing about this run was that Wonder Woman was stripped of her uniform in a convolutated scheme involvong prophecies, rigged contests, and terrible, terrible costumes. It wasn't good, and it certainly wasn't helped by the art which, in fairness, was typical for that time.

But things got worse...

The John Byrne Run
Issues #101-136
It's a John Byrne book make after 1988, that's really all you need to know.

But, in a more specific sense, Byrne kills Wonder Woman, creates a new Wonder Girl, muddies the origin of the old Wonder Girl, tries to retcon Wonder Woman back into the Golden Age, and makes my head hurt.

I guess most of these initiatives were done with the best of intentions, but none of them came off particularly well. As in, I'm not actually sure which, if any, of these comics are still in continuity.

Join me next as I review the many, many aborted runs that followed Byrne.