After a brief e-mail conversation with reader Jaclyn, I thought “I’m not really going to do four days of focusing on one male character each, and lump all the women into Wednesday, right?”

Right.

Now, there are plenty of choices left for women with awful costumes (Yeah… that looks like an outfit the Roman Catholic Church would endorse) given that a ridiculously large number of artists and creators seem convinced that the average woman would immediately turn to Corsets-R-Us or Thong Nation when picking out a superhero costume. I understand that superhero costumes have to look cool, and I understand that, for a long time, “looking cool” meant it had to appeal to a male audience. Thus, comics have become, become saturated with scantily clad women who look like they fell out of Hugh Hefner’s daydreams.

It doesn’t have to be that way, though. I don’t see any reason why more women characters can’t have great costumes that reflect the type of character they really are. Artists are begining to take show a greater sense of style and practicality with costumes (in part, I suspect, as backlash against the 90s shoulder-pad and pouch thing). I think that it’s time we focus a bit more on giving the women in comic books costumes that make sense, look good, and reflect on who the character is supposed to be. It’s already starting to happen in some books- When DC introduced Cassandra Cain as Batgirl, she got a costume that made a lot of sense- it’s got a full hood, is almost completely black, and has boots instead of heels. It’s essentially batman’s costume, only it covers her entire face, instead of just the top half. So, in a way, it’s actually better than Batman’s costume.

With that in mind, Lets take a look at what is probably the most famous female hero there is: Wonder Woman.

Wonder Woman is easily one of the most recognizable women superheroes there are. Not only is she one of DC’s “Big Three”, but she’s also got a really fascinating history surrounding her creation and development.

She’s also got a costume that’s patently ridiculous, and nearly as bad as Psylocke’s costume from yesterday.

Let me get the good points out of the way, first. The bullet-proof gauntlets? Fan-fucking-tastic. They’re awesome. Wonder Woman is a warrior, and the gauntlets are completely bad-ass. Not only do they look pretty cool, but they’re functional. Always a plus. In addition, Wonder Woman has been drawn wearing boots instead of heels for a while, now, which is another plus. Again, she’s a warrior- I have a hard time thinking that an Amazon warrior would wander around wearing high-heels. She’d want something she can run in, and kick the crap out of people in… boots, not heels. 

And that, my friends, is wear the good news ends.

Let’s review, shall we? Wonder Woman is an Amazon. She’s part of a proud race of warrior women from Greek legends. The society that Wonder Woman comes from is one strongly influenced by Greek traditions. For the most part, in the DC universe, the Amazons are treated like Greeks living in a magical island in modern times.

Why, then, does Wonder Woman dress like she’s supposed to be DC’s answer to Captain America?

Wonder Woman’s costume doesn’t make sense. As an Amazon, she shouldn’t be wearing a one-piece bathing suit designed to look like the United States flag. She should be wearing the clothing of a warrior. She should be wearing some kind of armor. She’s been raised to fight, and she does it well. She’s got the gauntlets, but what about the rest of her costume? I’m know I’m not the only one to notice that she’s wearing a strapless bustier. It’s been brought to my attention that a woman of her *ahem* build, would never wear a strapless bustier, for the simple reason that she’d fall out of it.

I don’t think that Wonder Woman is completely hopeless, though. I think she needs a redesign. I looked through various pictures of Wonder Woman looking to see how she’s been drawn in some of the Elseworlds stuff, and to see if there were any costumes that could work. The first one that comes to mind is the fully armored up sort of Hawk Woman look she had in Kingdom Come. 

This is a pretty big improvement over her normal costume. I like that she’s actually wearing armor here, since she looks like a warrior instead of a swimsuit model for a change. Wonder Woman has gone toe-to-toe with Superman before, and this is an outfit more befitting a warrior of her nature. The armored boots a big improvement over her regular boots, and look like they’d actually offer some protection in battle. I particularly like the feathered skirt.

“But Roy! Yesterday you complained about Supergirl’s skirt, and Wonder Woman can fly, too! What’s up with that?” 

Simple- if you’ve ever seen pictures of a Greek warrior, you’d see that… they wear skirts. Supergirl is essentially a female clone of Superman, but they dress her like a stripper- that doesn’t make sense. Wonder Woman is essentially a Greek warrior. Putting her in a skirt- particularly an armored one- does.

Still, I’m not super excited about the Kingdom Come costume. There are a few problems with it. First of all, I just don’t think that the costume is all that recognizable as Wonder Woman. It’s hard to tell, at a glance, if that’s supposed to be Wonder Woman, or Hawkgirl. In fact, if you’ve never heard of Kingdom Come, I’d guess you’d think that was Hawkgirl at first. I don’t like the helmet or wings. I’m not entirely against Wonder Woman wearing a helmet, but if she’s going to wear one, it should look more Greek, not like a bird’s head. And the wings have to go.

Another problem is with the color and the continuation of the flag pattern. Get rid of it. I think that Wonder Woman can be recognizable as Wonder Woman without carrying on the weird American Flag pattern. The costume does, however, need color. A mono-colored costume is boring.

Finally, while I appreciate that Wonder Woman has been trained with weapons, and is a serious warrior, I don’t think she needs the weapons. Wonder Woman can put her fist through solid steel if she wants… why would she carry a spear? Wonder Woman doesn’t need, and would quickly break, almost any weapon you give her. I like that they call to mind the hoplite warriors of Greece, but I don’t think they’re needed. The shield carries too much baggage- it’s likely to call to mind Captain America (especially if you keep the damn flag pattern!). Wonder Woman has the lasso of truth. Other than that, her fists are her best weapon. As an additional bonus: swords suck as a comic-book weapon. Swords are a lethal weapon. You don’t subdue opponents with a sword, you kill them. If you give a character a sword, you’re forcing the writers to jump through hoops validating why the character:
a. doesn’t use it.
b. Doesn’t kill people when it is used.

I did, however, find a pretty fantastic costume for Wonder Woman. Of all the costumes I’ve seen artists put her in, this is, by far, the best. Here we see a Wonder Woman that is clearly a warrior, is wearing armor, but is unmistakably Wonder Woman.

There’s a lot to like about this particular costume. First of all, the stars are gone, along with the blue. This costume doesn’t call to mind the American flag at all. Even without the blue or the stars, you’d be hard pressed to think that this was anyone but Wonder Woman. The important elements of her design are still there- the W shape at the top of the armor, the head-band/tiara, the gauntlets, the lasso.

I also really like the shoulderpads. Shoulderpads are a tough thing in comic books- they were so over-used in the 90s that I think artists are loathe to use them now, but this is a case where they’re entirely appropriate. In fact, they’re serving two major purposes here. First of all, they’re clearly attached to the cape (and, as I’ve made rather clear by now, I fucking love capes). Second, they’re clearly holding her top in place. Wonder Woman is an active woman, and it makes sense that she’d have straps holding the bustier in place.

There are only three major things that I’d change on this particular costume (four, if you count getting rid of the sword). First, the skirt should be a little longer. The point of wearing armor is to provide some protection. That’s clearly just a mini-skirt made to look like armor. I’d rather it come down just a few inches more, or maybe have a second layer of the feathering extending down a bit more. When she’s standing still the armor should come around halfway down her upper leg.

Second, I’d change the boots. Those boots are kind of weird looking, and I don’t think that they match the rest of the costume. I think that the boots from the Kingdom Come costume would probably look really sharp with this costume. They’re have a more classic armor look to them, instead of the sort of bio-organic boney look that these have.

Finally, I’d add more color to the costume. Keep the blue gone, but add some red. The Kingdom Come boots could be easily accented with a little red, and the bustier can still look like armor, even if you add the red back in. I think that this would help draw a little more attention to the pattern on her top, and would help keep her visually interesting even if she’s not wearing the cape, or you’re only showing her from the waist up. Superheroes are a colorful bunch, and I don’t think it’s bad to keep them that way.

All in all, I think that a character like Wonder Woman deserves a costume befitting her status- she’s the foremost woman warrior one of the foremost warriors in DC comics… probably in comics period. She should be dressed like a warrior, and not like a sex symbol.

That’s my take.

This entry was posted on Thursday, May 3rd, 2007 at 11:38 am and is filed under comics. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.