A selfie of me wearing my Absolute Wonder Woman t-shirt in front of the Wonder Woman “shrine” in Daniel’s Dorky Dungeon
My favorite superhero - and in fact, my favorite fictional character of all time - is Wonder Woman. This is pretty typical for a gay male comic book fan, but I don’t mind being typical in this regard. There’s a reason fictional characters resonate with us, and the character of Wonder Woman resonates with me for so many reasons.
My journey to having Wonder Woman as my favorite is not like most gay male comic book fans, though. I grew up a fan of the X-Men comics, and in a strange way, I swore to never read any other comics as a sign of some weird loyalty I had to the X-Men. As I got older, I would occasionally read other Marvel comics, but I then swore an allegiance to Marvel and told myself I wouldn’t “betray” the company by reading DC comics. I was familiar with the Lydna Carter version of Wonder Woman (though it aired before my time), but I never really read Wonder Woman comics.
That changed in college. For some reason, I decided to go all in on DC comics as I entered college, which started by my buying and watching the DVD’s of the multiple seasons of the Justice League and Justice League Unlimited cartoon from the early 2000’s. That cartoon was PERFECT as an introduction to the world of DC’s characters, and I still think it is, in many ways, the perfect TV show (or, I guess, two TV shows, although I think of them as one thing). While there were multiple amazing members of the Justice League introduced to me through that show, the one that stuck out as my favorite, almost immediately, was Wonder Woman.
This led me to buying many, MANY DC comics. I started buying Wonder Woman comics around the time Gail Simone - my favorite comic writer - started her run on the Wonder Woman book. Gail’s version of Wonder Woman was perfect - she was simultaneously a very human, relatable character, AND an epic warrior goddess. Wonder Woman, as written by Gail Simone, was both an aspirational figure, and someone you could see yourself talking to for hours in a coffee shop. And the thing that would often get Diana (which is Wonder Woman’s other name) in trouble was that she cared so much about the most vulnerable that she would take risks to defend them.
A close-up of Wonder Woman on my Justice League tattoo
I ended up getting a Justice League tattoo and of course included Wonder Woman in my ideal version of that team. The costume that I had her tattooed in was designed by a famous comic artist named Jim Lee, and at the time, the costume design was pretty controversial. A LOT of hardcore Wonder Woman fans hated this costume. I loved it, and it’s still my favorite Wonder Woman costume, and to be honest, I don’t even know why it’s my favorite any more. Unfortunately, it’s pretty much impossible to find merchandise/collectibles of Wonder Woman in this “Odyssey” costume because so many people hated it.
This post is, thus far, kind of meandering. To be honest, there’s so much that could be said about Wonder Woman. The story of how Wonder Woman was created by William Moulton Marston is absolutely fascinating, and I highly encourage you to fall down that rabbit hole.
But what I really want to write about is why Wonder Woman matters so much to me. There are, at this point, MANY amazing female superheroes. I have always loved strong female protagonists, as evidenced by my long-time love of Buffy the Vampire Slayer. I remember growing up as a devout Catholic and being fascinated with Joan of Arc as well. It’s almost funny to think about at this point in my life (because it seems so obviously true), but I think I was just always in love with the idea of members of the “weaker sex” being the strongest ones and defying the odds.
Wonder Woman is more than just the epitome of a strong female protagonist, though. She encapsulates so much of what feels essential to who I am. Wonder Woman loves animals and has an incredible connection with them. She embraces body positivity and sex positivity and isn’t ashamed of her body, and doesn’t adhere to societal restrictions around “modesty”. She is truly, TRULY the champion of the most vulnerable. In every situation she finds herself in, her words and actions are defined by a commitment to doing what is best for those who are least fortunate. She is not ashamed of her emotions, and outright rejects the idea that one can be blinded by one’s emotions, and lives her life in such a way that communicates that the more she lets herself feel things, the clearer she can see the truth.
Characters like Superman and Martian Manhunter are often depicted in such a way that shows how aliens view humanity from the outside, as a story-telling device to comment on the nature of humanity. But I always think Wonder Woman is a better character for telling those stories. Wonder Woman is SO kind and SO loving and SO authentic that it makes her an “alien” to a society that just blindly accepts ugliness because “that’s just the way it is”. She does not accept that things “are the way they are” if those things - rules, constructs, institutions, governments, etc. - do not serve the most vulnerable among us.
The ways in which Wonder Woman is an outsider - her celebration of her body, her “peculiar” connection to animals, her refusal to just accept the way things are done if that way doesn’t actually align with her authenticity, and (of course) her being a woman defying the expectations placed upon her for being a woman - are the things I love the most about her, and the reasons I relate to her. I of course didn’t know I was autistic for most of my life, but I did know I was queer, and in all of the ways I can conceive of, Wonder Woman is the perfect superhero for a queer autistic person to look up to.
My three all-time favorite comic writers have each written Wonder Woman. If I were to recommend Wonder Woman comics to anyone, those three writers’ works are the ones I’d recommend.
For a relatable, aspirational, human, lovable Wonder Woman, read Gail Simone’s amazing work. The second part of the complete collection of Gail’s run on Wonder Woman is available for pre-order.
For a mature-audiences, extremely feminist, extremely artistic take on the history of Wonder Woman’s culture leading up to the character’s birth, read Wonder Woman Historia: The Amazons by Kelly Sue DeConnick.
For a beautiful, fresh interpretation of Wonder Woman with astounding art and a perfect distillation of who Diana is at her core, read Absolute Wonder Woman by Kelly Thompson. This title is currently ongoing, and the second volume is currently available for pre-order.
Thanks as always for reading!