Lasso of Truth
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
The Lasso of Truth is a fictional weapon wielded by DC Comics superheroine Wonder Woman, Princess Diana of Themyscira. It is also known simply as The Magic Lasso.
A length of golden cord or fine chain links, it is unbreakable, and is capable of confining even beings as physically powerful as Superman and Captain Marvel. It has no set length -- or rather, it appears to be as long as Wonder Woman requires for the task at hand.
In William Moulton Marston's original conception of the character, and well into the Silver Age, her lasso would force whoever was held to it to obey any command, not just tell the truth. That power was toned down in the mid-to-late Silver Age, following the lead of the live-action television series and the Super Friends animated series.
By the time of George Perez's Post-Crisis reboot, the lasso as an instrument of Truth rather than Compulsion was firmly established.
In the Perez re-invention, the Lasso was forged by the god, Hephaestus from the Golden Girdle of Gaea that was once worn by Antiope, sister of Queen Hippolyta. Empowered by the Fires of Hestia, the Lasso forces anyone held by it to tell the absolute truth. The fires are said to even be able to cure insanity, as they did in the case of Ares, God of War, when he attempted to incite World War III. He renounced his plan when the Lasso showed him that such a war would destroy all life on Earth, including any potential worshippers he sought to gain from it.
In later Post-Crisis comics, the power of truth was written as innate to Wonder Woman herself, with the Lasso merely a focus of that power. Storylines in the Morrison-era JLA comics depicted the lasso as an archetypal manifestation of universal truth, and, once broken, disrupted the underlying truth of reality itself. This allegorical interpretation is often ignored in later stories and by much of fandom, as the lasso was long established as magically unable to break, and was never before stated to be the ultimate representation of truth. During her adventures with the Justice League team of superheroes Diana eventually battled a villain named Amazo who was able to duplicate aspects of the lasso for his own use.
This lasso should not be confused with the lasso of the current Wonder Girl, Cassie Sandsmark. That lasso, given to her by Ares, has the power to shock a target with "Zeus' lightning" if Cassandra ropes her target and becomes angry with them.
In the Elseworlds tale Red Son, Wonder Woman was subdued and restrained in her own lasso by the Soviet terrorist incarnation of Batman. In order to free herself and rescue Superman from Lex Luthor's deadly red sun lamps, Wonder Woman snapped the cords of her "indestructible" lasso. The shock of the incident appeared to age Diana, leaving her grey-haired, frail, and unable to speak.
[edit] The Lasso In Other Media
As mentioned above, the live-action television series and the Super Friends animated series led the way in re-interpreting Wonder Woman's lasso as a device compelling those bound to tell the truth, rather than compelling obedience. In the Superfriends series it also possessed the ability to follow the telepathic commands of Wonder Woman, physically moving on its own to accomplish tasks.
In the Justice League animated series, the lasso is only used as an exceptionally long, flexible, and unbreakable rope. This omission might be explained by the presence of the Martian Manhunter in the cast; his telepathic powers gave the writers a convenient way to extract the truth from adversaries, but could be more readily thwarted when the plot demanded it.
In Justice League Unlimited, Wonder Woman's lasso can once again compel the truth. This ability was finally unleashed in the episode The Balance by Wonder Woman's mother Queen Hippolyta who revealed that Diana had stolen the uniform before being told of its full capabilities. Upon touching the star on the tiara various parts of the Wonder Woman costume began to temporarily glow such as the tiara, bracelets, belt and lasso. It was after this that Diana discovered that the lasso could compel truth. However, in the series, Diana literally only used the truth powers of the lasso once: on the demon Abnegazar to learn the location of Felix Faust. This was also within The Balance, the same episode where the power was revealed. Presumably, the reluctance of the show's makers to use the Lasso of Truth even once established on their show was due to their continued perception of it as a writer's crutch.
