Is Wonder Woman REALLY One Of DC’s Big Three Heroes?

That’s what I keep hearing. There’s a “trinity” of heroes in the DC Universe: Batman, Superman, and Wonder Woman. They’re the most important characters, the closest of friends (except when they’re not because modern DC), and all of DC’s heroes in-universe look up to those three especially.

And yet, when it comes to Wonder Woman, that’s up for debate by the way she’s treated by the people who actually run DC Entertainment. I’m seeing a lot of people notice it. For three examples (links will open a playing YouTube video in another tab/window depending on your settings), check out videos by M Enterprises, JesterBell, and Nightwingstan. The last two came out within days of each other. The amazing Amazon has fans across gender lines, and those fans would love to see more Wonder Woman material.

However, they aren’t getting it. Two live-action movies, one of which was terrible, a beloved live-action series, two animated movies, and a bunch of guest spots and team shows are all she has, while the comics have completely reversed what she stood for in the DC universe. So if Wonder Woman really is as big and important as we’re always told…why isn’t she utilized more?

Let me start off by saying I like Wonder Woman. She’s one of the heroes I go to as evidence I grew up with strong female heroes. She is the most prominent heroine in the DC pantheon of heroes. I like her outfit. I like her powers. I miss her invisible plane. When Diana isn’t being written as “lady Kratos” she’s great, evidence that you can be feminine but also smart and powerful and still get the guy she loves. Well, until that was taken from her post-Crisis as they set Steve Trevor up with re-imagined Etta Candy, and even pre-Crisis when they killed Steve off for a while as part of the dumbest way to appease feminists DC could have come up with by sending the Amazons to another dimension and stripping her of her powers in favor of learning martial arts Emma Peel style. There was once a popular essay online by fan Bluefall called “When Wondy Was Awesome”, and she was right. I am not putting down Diana Prince, or just Diana, at all. I’m a fan. However….

I like her cape, though it makes her look like Flutterina.

Since everyone else is talking about her out-of-comic usage, let’s start there. One of the events pushing this thought out there is the cancellation of a Wonder Woman video game I didn’t even know was in production. Having her be the only permanent death in Suicide Squad: Kill The Justice League post-retcon didn’t do her any favors, either. Otherwise she’s only shown up in games starring the rest of the Justice League, and there aren’t a lot of those. So video games are not exactly giving her the spotlight.

Movies? Two theatrical films, one of which was considered good (and the only one I’ve seen) and one that has her sleeping with Steve while he possessed another man’s body. Otherwise she cameoed in Batman V Superman to setup the Justice League, and then both cuts of Justice League, so she’s in the really controversial Snyderverse films. In direct to video animation she’s also had two movies, and again I’ve only seen the first one. So not a great showing there.

Television is where she’s had the most attempts…and only one of them made it past pilot. I didn’t even know there was another cartoon planned besides the Wonder Woman & The Star Riders proposal that got as far as doll prototypes and a promotional minicomic. The other three minicomics in that Cinnamon Mini-Buns cereal promotion were set in DC continuity or some version of it while Wonder Woman got a mix of Sailor Moon and Amethyst, Princess Of Gemworld.

We all know the leaked David E. Kelley pilot starring Adrianne Palicki, but there were two more failed pilots. One was turned into a made for TV movie with Cathy Lee Crosby, and her Amazonian opponent looked more like Diana than the actress playing Diana. She was also a “secret weapon” agent Steve would send out with a wink wink nudge nudge disguised as his secretary at the investigation group he was the head of, but the baddies all knew who she was. That’s oddly close to The New Adventures Of Wonder Woman, the rebooted version of the only live-action series that got made. She stopped fighting Nazis in World War II and returned in present day (well, 1970s) with Steve’s son. Lyle Waggoner played Steve’s son, Steve Junior (having also played Steve Sr and was actually a love interest in WWII), who sent Diana on missions for the IDAC, fighting mad scientists (I also miss mad scientists) and the occasional alien. Linda Carter was perfect in the role, no question. It’s better than the more recent failed pilot, or the attempt by the Batman 66 creators that was just an insult to the character.

Come on guys. You successfully introduced Batgirl to the masses and for Wonder Woman you gave us…this? “Lady Kratos” is actually an improvement!

Diana’s done a bunch of cameos, though. There’s an episode of Filmation’s The Brady Kids, where the kids from the Brady Bunch meet Merlin’s talking bird and for some reason two astronaut pandas who they keep around with their not-Tiger dog, which has them doing a time travel adventure in ancient Greece with Wonder Woman. Fun fact: Both Superman and The Lone Ranger & Tonto have appeared on that show. That was, if my memory is right, AFTER Wonder Girl showed up in the Teen Titans cartoons part of Filmation’s DC shows. She’s also popped in on Superman in his Ruby-Spears produced cartoon and Scooby-Doo on Scooby-Doo And Guess Who, the poor man’s version of The New Scooby-Doo Movies. She also showed up in Batman: The Brave & The Bold I think once.

Otherwise, Wonder Woman has only shown up on team shows. Superfriends depicted her as the scientist of the group, followed by Aquaman doing sea testing. Justice League/Justice League Unlimited and both versions of DC’s Super Hero Girls depicted her as a “fish out of water” type, though the DCAU dropped that quickly. It was in the DCAU that she might have gotten her own series along with Batman and Superman, but that was shot down. Justice League Action depicted her as Superman’s girlfriend (@#$%$ you, New 52!) and we won’t get into the Injustice version. If you watched M Enterprises’ video, that said it all. Her more recent appearances in DC Heroes United and Metal Force, both on YouTube, is the rare occasion of her working as part of a trinity with Bruce and Clark, and even that had other DC characters as partners or collaborators.

So she must be important in the comics, right? Ask yourself…has Wonder Woman even had another title besides her solo series and the Sensational Comics anthology she came from? Ignoring sidekicks and spinoffs, Superman and Batman have both had multiple books, including ones where they teamed with other DC heroes besides the various Justice League versions. They even took over their old anthology homes, Action Comics and Detective Comics respectively, plus adding extra titles that occasionally crossed stories over and sometimes stuck with their individual story arcs. Wonder Woman doesn’t even have spinoff characters, Wonder Girl only existing because someone didn’t do their homework about Diana’s time travelling adventures with her previous selves and thought she had a sidekick. That’s a whole other disaster. Outside of the occasional homage to Wonder Woman, Sensational Comics doesn’t even exist as a title anymore.

Even the Super Powers collection had to pair her against Superman villain Brainiac because none of her villains had figures. Yes, Brainiac looked like that in the 1980s. I don’t know why.

And how many of Diana’s villains can you name? Circe has had something of a breakout recently, but you only know Cheetah and Giganta from Superfriends, and Giganta was altered from what she was in the comics so Apache Chief could have someone to be oversized with. Can you name any of the others? Some of you might, but now many. Even in the Ruby-Spears Superman cartoon appearance they created an original villain instead of just using Circe. Forget the villains…how many of her FRIENDS can you name? Steve Trevor, maybe Etta Candy (speaking of heavy alterations–no pun intended for the knowledgeable), and that’s it. Writers would toss out her supporting cast the moment they took over in favor of their original characters (when not turning her friends into villains, corpses, or both), so she was never allowed to have a long term supporting cast. They even tried killing Steve off or paring him with the altered Etta in the past. Somehow Steve survived while Etta made it to the movies, one of which was set in World War I because they didn’t want to be compared to Captain America despite both heroes fighting World War II in their comics debuts. The other was the first animated movie, and she’s more of an easter egg than a character. So even the people AROUND Diana aren’t at the level of the Wayne Enterprises staff, nevermind the Daily Planet.

But she’s still called part of the alleged trinity. They even gave her an Absolute counterpart, the first time she’s had a second ongoing title. It just happens to be one where she was raised in Hell and has become more warrior than even the Darker DC we currently operate under. So I’m not even sure how much that counts.

So…is Wonder Woman really part of a trinity or just the best girl hero they have, too often given to writers who are incapable of elevating the character to the levels of her supposed trinity partners. She had ONE successful TV show and various Justice League cartoons to put her as part of the extended culture, which at best is more than Thorn. Starfire and Jessica Cruz have cartoons announced, the latter in the My Adventures With Superman style if not continuity, and Harley Quinn has had her own show for awhile now. Supergirl had her own movie first. Vixen had her own  animated series first. JesterBell noted that Wonder Woman’s comic sales aren’t at the level of Superman and Batman, and they have more comics to read each month.

I love Wonder Woman. She deserves better…but are we really sure there’s a trinity, or are they just stuffing her in because she’s the most popular hero girl not attached to another hero’s legacy? It’s not Kamala Khan levels of force, but still…