Wonder Woman's bracelets
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This comics-related article or section describes an element of the series in a primarily in-universe style. Please rewrite this article or section to explain the fiction more clearly and provide non-fictional perspective. |
The magical bracelets worn by Wonder Woman, Wonder Girl, and (formerly) the rest of the Amazons have been shown to be indestructible, or nearly so.
[edit] Pre-Crisis
As a penance for having been enslaved by Hercules, the Amazons were instructed by patron goddess Aphrodite to wear forever the metal wrist bands used to chain and enslave them. The Amazons produced their bracelets from a magically indestructible metal called Amazonium, found only on Paradise Island. The Amazonium bracelets were useful, as magically indestructible gauntlets they could use to deflect bullets, energy weapons, and all manner of attack.
In Comic Cavalcade #14, the bracelets were revealed to balance Amazon strength with loving submission to the positive aims of civilization. Wanta, a Holliday College girl despondent over her athletic inadequacy, attempted to kill herself but was saved by Wonder Woman, who took her to Paradise Island for Amazon training. Wanta returned as a superstrong athletic champion, who was advised to replace the Amazon bracelets she wore with plastic equivalents that would be safer on the basketball court. Whenever she removed the bracelets of Aphrodite, however, she found herself troubled by feelings of superiority and desires to exploit her power for wealth. "Strong humans become ruthless self-seekers unless they're bound by love!" Wonder Woman explained.
The consequences of removing bracelets became simplified in later stories. Now, the bracelets came with a curse: if ever broken or removed, the Amazon would go mad with rage. The bracelets were very rarely broken, and then only by magical weapons empowered by the gods themselves (such as Artemis's sword and Aegeus's dagger of Vulcan).
The young princess Diana was given her own set of bracelets of submission when she turned 15 years old. Adopted Amazon Donna Troy was also given her own pair of bracelets. When Donna announced that she was going to marry Terry Long, she was prepared to sacrifice her powers in accordance with Aphrodite's law, but Queen Hippolyta and Diana instead presented her with a new pair of bracelets, with modern communications technology installed inside, as a symbol of Donna's new life bridging her past on Paradise Island with her future in Man's World.
The activity of bullets and bracelets was the final challenge of the contest to determine who would go to Man's World as Wonder Woman. Wonder Woman often invoked the name Bullets and Bracelets when engaged in battle.
[edit] Post-Crisis
Although the Amazons were, as before, charged with wearing their bracelets as a constant reminder of their experience of enslavement, they were not cursed with madness should the bracelets be removed or broken. Additionally, the run-of-the-mill Amazon bracelet provides no special protection.
When Diana won the Contest to become Wonder Woman, she was given special magical silver bracelets. The bracelets were later explained as having been forged from the Aegis of Zeus.
Diana's bracelets have been shown not only to deflect attacks but also to absorb forces from a long fall. When crossed before her, the bracelets are able to generate a remnant of the Aegis, allowing Diana to deflect attacks far larger than the surface area of her bracelets. This remnant takes the form of a semi-visible spherical forcefield roughly twice the height of Diana.
When the Amazons made their first official ambassadorial trip to Patriarch's World, Hippolyta instructed the Amazons to remove their bracelets, in a symbolic display of their new freedom.
During the mid nineties, all Amazons' bracelets became silver, and even the Bana Mighdall Amazons were shown wearing them.
Both Donna Troy and Cassie Sandsmark also have their own indestructible silver bracelets. When Hippolyta continued to operate as Wonder Woman after Diana's resurrection, she likewise wore her own silver bracelets.
When John Byrne took over the writing and art duties, he depicted the bracelets as larger than usual and gauntlet-like, with extension pieces being semi-distinct from the original bracelets.
[edit] In other media
On the live-action Wonder Woman television show, the two-part episode "The Feminum Mystique" established that the bracelets were produced from "feminum," a metal found only on Paradise Island. When Nazi agents learned the truth from Wonder Woman's sister Drusilla, they invaded Paradise Island and forced Amazons to mine the feminum, until the Amazons turned the tables on their captors. Removal of the bracelets left Wonder Woman vulnerable to attack but did not render her powerless or insane.
To create the bullet deflection effect, explosive charges were attached to the bracelets worn by Lynda Carter. She concealed triggering devices in her hands and, on cue, would trigger the devices to create the explosive effect.
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