Couture Shock: Aftermath of the Wonder Woman Makeover

Wonder Woman #600, Courtesy DC Comics

I was just as surprised as everyone else was. Wonder Woman was getting a complete overhaul. My God, how could they? I'd been reading Wonder Woman since I was a small child--I even remember the shortlived "Mod" phase! Some of my cousins loaned them to me in 1970 after I'd started reading Supergirl, and my first thought was, ugh, those clothes....

I had my share of misgivings, but some opinions on this event were downright nasty. Some of the comments were fun:
"When did Wonder Woman join the X-Men??"
"Fact: New Wonder Woman costume redesign comes complete with Ace of Base discography."
"It won't last, so I won't sweat it."
"Oh, I detest it. Evenmoreso, the attempt to 'Dark & Gritty' her up. They keep trying it and it keeps failing."
"Hotter if you ask me but I suffer from testosterone poisoning..."

Wonder Woman’s costume IS so infused into our understanding of the identity of the character, as Jim Lee mentions later, that it was amazing how passionate some of the comments could be.

I followed a number of the comment boards all day and heard numerous complaints about the costume change. Some thought it was downright unpatriotic--but of all the complaints, I noticed one thing...not one of the complainers had bought a copy or read the book yet. Nope, not one. I thought it cute when I noticed a couple of the artists (yes, I know who you are) dropping onto the boards incognito to defend the book, but no one was listening. Well, it's not my style to spend all day complaining over something I know nothing about, so I called my buddy at The Comic Vault in Radcliff, KY: "Say--do you have any copies of Wonder Woman #600 left?"

"Sure!" He said. "I bought extra."

"Well, pull a copy for me," I told him. "I'll be right over." I bought two. One is safe in its mylar comic bag, the other has been rifled through repeatedly by now. Well, haha, since I actually went out and not only bought the book but read it, I've got some exclusive STUFF for YOU!

First thing that hit me as I sat in my car reading the book was the "OOH" factor. Not since I opened that copy of Wonder Woman #1 back in 1986 to check out George Perez' awesome work have I sat back and said, "OOH!" to a page. And the list of creators on this project! Page after page of amazing art by Adam Hughes, George Perez, inker Scott Koblish, Nicola Scott, Ivan Reis, and on and on and on. Geoff Johns, Phil Jimenez, George Pérez, Gail Simone, Joe Madureira and more! Breath-taking pinups--I'm going to have to go out and buy a third copy so I can rip it up and put them all on my studio walls. That's another thing I haven't done since the 70s.............

This book is a stunning tribute to all that Wonder Woman ever was and is ever going to be. Jaded snarks who can't do anything but complain no matter what anyone tries to do had better not waste your money. Stay on the comment boards and gnash awhile. But the rest of you who have a real love for the Amazon Princess as I do, this is a collector's edition, and the stories really do lead up to this startling upheaval of a costume overhaul that J. Michael Straczynski has sprung on us unawares. Darn him. Not to mention that this centerfold by Phil Jiminez is absolutely to DIE for. :)

J. Michael Straczynski explains: "The timeline has changed in the blink of an eye. The gods – (for reasons of their own, which we will gradually discover, and which may involve both their survival and the survival of Earth itself – altered the past. So we literally have Wonder Woman turning a corner in the story right before mine in 600...and when she finishes turning the corner, the timeline has shifted, and she's now in her new iteration."

That being said, I've gone and collected a number of tidbits for everyone to enjoy. In the next paragraphs Jim Lee and J. Michael Straczynski will explain the amount of collaboration that went into this project, and what was their rationale in doing so:

JIM LEE ON HIS DESIGN:

“There’s nothing more daunting than re-designing an icon but what was refreshing and novel in Joe Straczynski’s directive to be bold in our choices was that we were starting with no preconceptions. This was no mere tweaking, no change of half-measures like haircuts or alterations of color schemes. We decided to go for broke, take no prisoners, and let me tell you—it was difficult. Wonder Woman’s costume is so infused into our understanding of the identity of the character that it took many numerous back and forths ‘til we broke down what existed, got back metaphorically to the clay from which Wonder Woman started and something new started to form. A design worthy of the mantle of Wonder Woman but one that didn’t scream classic superhero! So we played down and scaled back the iconic elements—the stars, the eagles, the double WW’s, lightened up the motifs and added armor which could pass as street gear. Visually, the character seems edgier than before but stylish enough to warrant a second, albeit cautious, glance. The jacket and boots confirm the costume’s functionality and the open, thinner tiara and shaped bracelets reveal a lighter, even youthful, bent to the Amazonian Princess. All in all, a difficult but rewarding reworking of an iconic costume to usher in a new age; a fresh look worthy of the character defining journey JMS has in store for her ultimate rebirth!”

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CBR News had a number of questions for J. Michael Straczynski on what this rebirth would entail:
CBR: Well, here we are with another big change in the life of yet another DC icon. Before we get into the specifics of the costume change, I wanted to ask a bit about how this series has developed. We know that you didn't come in to the "Wonder Woman" assignment with quite the experience with the character you've had with, say, Superman. What have you learned about her as a character in developing the story?

J. Michael Straczynski: "There's a difference between experience with a character and identification with a character. I've been reading "Wonder Woman" on and off over the years almost as long and to much the same degree as I've read "Superman" on and off over the years. That Superman is the guy I've always identified with or aspired toward doesn't detract from her or Thor or any other character I've ever written. I know some fans were concerned that in previous interviews I spoke more about Superman than Wonder Woman, but that's the result of two factors: 1) There were more questions about the former than the latter, which skewed the results and 2) we were keeping a lot of what we were doing with Diana under the radar until we were ready to launch.

"In terms of character, I decided to circle in to try and figure out what needed to be addressed and what didn't. Diana is one of the DC Trinity, and should be selling as many copies a month as those other guys. But the book hovers in the low 70s/high 80s, and for the last year or two has been hemorrhaging 500-1000 readers per month. That means that those who are reading are dialing out, and nobody new is checking it out. What this suggests is that the stories are becoming too insular, they're not accessible, and there's nothing going on that will get somebody who hasn't picked up an issue to do so.

"This coincided with my sense that, as happens from time to time with characters, Diana had gotten buried beneath years of mythos, backstory, supporting characters and an environment that required a lot of familiarity from the reader that made it a bit inaccessible to casual readers. There's nothing inherently right or wrong with any of that, in sum or in pieces...Gail in particular was and is a terrific writer and did some great stories during her tenure...it's just a matter of one kind of storytelling that is designed to bring in new readers, vs one that is aimed at retaining the current readers. You need both of those at various points.

"What I finally came away with was a sense of a character who had kind of ossified within the pages of her own book not through any fault of her own, but because the world she occupied had constricted around her. As I've noted elsewhere, she became this Ferrari that everybody kept in the garage rather than taking it out on the open road. A Ferrari in the garage is safe...but that's not what a Ferrari is for.

"So in the end, it became clear that half-measures weren't going to work. If we really wanted to do this right, we'd have to go all the way to the wall. If Wonder Woman hadn't appeared in 1941, if she appeared for the first time today, how would you design a Wonder Woman for the 21st century and beyond? What would she look like? How would she act? It took off from there.

"When the Destruction of Paradise Island aspect was announced, everybody assumed it would go the way we've seen before...old hat, and it doesn't really change the character because with or without Paradise Island, she's still the same Wonder Woman. Unless you move the destruction back far enough into the past that Diana was around three, because then it affects how she grows up, who she is, and what she fights for.

"So that's what I went for."
Check out the rest of this interview with J. Michael Straczynski at ComicBookResources.com.

We learn that Paradise Island fell when Diana was just a child, when the gods withdrew their protection. Hippolyta and many of the other Amazons died in a last-ditch defense against an army with weapons that could kill even them, while some of her guards and handmaids smuggled a young Diana off the island. She was thus raised in an urban setting, but with a foot in both worlds, courtesy of her guardians and teachers from Paradise Island. They expect her to retake Paradise Island, defeat the army that's still hunting for the escaped Amazons (and Diana in particular), and restore all her people to their previous glory. This is a lot to ask of someone who has no recollection of that world, and obviously has no idea about the timeline shift. (Some of the other Amazons do know about the shift, as we see in #600, and there are others in the DCU who also can sense what happened.)

Well, gosh. When I got to the ending--rather the To Be Continued--I almost cried. Every page before, leading into Odyssey: Prologue (see 11 page preview below) actually made sense. The teaser hasn't given away a thing, yet it's tantalizing enough to make me actually want to see what happens next. So to quote the Mysterious Observer narrating Diana's story just before everything turns topsy-turvy: "Diana is far too undervalued by this world. This must change. Let the Odyssey of Wonder Woman begin."