What Makes Wonder Woman Great

[bbow73]

There have been many iterations of Wonder Woman, DC reboots her origin story on a regular basis. But there was one brief window of WW lore that was exceptional IMHO.

The Origin
A lone woman walks along a beach, it is raining. She crumbles to the ground overwhelmed by grief. Through fits of sobbing she starts to sculpt a baby out of clay and sand. She pulls out a blade and cuts deep into her own flesh and cries out in agony. Her blood runs over the lifeless figure. The blood begins to wash away the grit to reveal a real living child, it is Diana, Wonder Woman. The woman is Hyppolyta, queen of Themyscria. Her tears of sadness turn to tears of joy and she holds the child close shielding her from the rain.

Inciting Incident
For the first time there is a young person on Themyscria and all the inhabitants are a part of her upbringing. A small group of women begin to desire children of their own. It is forbidden but their queen got to have a child. Since they are also forbidden to leave Themyscria there is a rebellion and the women escape. Wonder Woman is sent to retrieve them and has an ethical dilemma when she discovers that these women would rather die than go back to the island never to be allowed to have children of their own. Wonder Woman decides to disobey her orders and let the women go their own way. Wonder Woman is banished from Themyscria.

Interaction with other superheroes
At this point the publisher was playing with a subtle romance between Wonder Woman & Batman, more of a mutual respect turned cautiously flirtatious. But then they have their first real conflict.
Batman is trying to bring down a human trafficking ring. A young girl escapes and makes it to the Themyscria embassy where Wonder Woman is the ambassador. Wonder Woman takes her in and vows to protect her. Batman shows up wanting to interrogator the young woman. Wonder Woman says no way, Batman is traumatizing to a normal person on a good day. Batman would trigger this young woman to the edge of hysteria. Batmans says okay, put the lasso of truth on her. Wonder Woman is mortified, it would be another violation on top of what she has already suffered. Batman is frustrated and tries to break in to the embassy, Wonder Woman stops him. Batman says that Wonder Woman doesn't care that these scumbags are out there abducting more girls into a life of torture. Wonder Woman is offended and says there are always evil people doing evil things, we do what we can but we're not responsible for the world's evil but she is responsible for this one girl because she gave her word to protect her. Instead of returning to looking for leeds, Batman studies Themyscria protocol and the Amazonian code and then returns to the embassy for a formal request for help to right an injustice, its a request that Wonder Woman as the ambassador cannot refuse. Wonder Woman is super pissed off but doesn't indulge Batman's desire to have access to the girl but instead flies off and catches the traffickers, she throws them at Batman's feet and says DON'T YOU EVER DO SOMETHING LIKE THIS AGAIN, we're done. Batman cares more about 'getting the bad guys' than helping victims, its an irreconcilable difference that their initial courtship could not withstand.

And then it's over
Then the publisher decided to reboot the character and all of this was erased.
But the stories are still with me and this is why I love Wonder Woman.