| Adaptations of Wonder Woman in other media | |
|---|---|
| Created by | William Moulton Marston |
| Original source | Comics published by DC Comics |
| First appearance | All Star Comics #8 (December 1941) |
| Print publications | |
| Novel(s) | Wonder Woman: Mythos (2003) Wonder Woman: Amazon Princess (2003) |
| Reference book(s) | Wonder Woman: The Complete History (2000) Wonder Woman: The Ultimate Guide to the Amazon Princess (2003) |
| Films and television | |
| Film(s) | Wonder Woman (1974) Wonder Woman (2009) |
| Television show(s) |
Super Friends (1973) Wonder Woman (1975) Justice League (2001) Justice League Unlimited (2004) |
| Games | |
| Video game(s) | Justice League Heroes (2006) |
The DC Comics superhero, Wonder Woman has appeared in a wide variety of media outside of comic books since her initial appearance in All Star Comics #8 (December 1941), including comic strips, film, television and video games.
Wonder Woman's first broadcast appearance was as a guest in an episode of The Brady Kids cartoon series in 1972, entitled "It's All Greek to Me" (voiced by Jane Webb). The Brady kids meet Wonder Woman and together they find themselves accidentally transported back to the time of the Ancient Olympic Games. The kids plan to compete in the marathon and beat the Greek athletes to qualify for the race. Wonder Woman convinces the kids to disqualify themselves, explaining that if they win the race they will change the course of history.[1] (Wonder Girl had already appeared in a series of Teen Titans cartoon shorts which was part of The Superman/Aquaman Hour of Adventure cartoon show in 1967.)[2]
Wonder Woman appeared in every incarnation of the Super Friends Saturday morning animated series. She was originally voiced by Shannon Farnon and later by Connie Caulfield in Super Friends: The Legendary Super Powers Show, followed by B. J. Ward in The Super Powers Team: Galactic Guardians.
Wonder Woman guest starred in the Superman episode, "Superman and Wonder Woman versus the Sorceress of Time" wherein she and Superman battle a witch named Cyrene. B.J. Ward reprised her role of Wonder Woman for the episode.[3]
Her appearance is notable for being the first and, until her Diniverse incarnation, only Post-Crisis animated version of Wonder Woman. Besides possessing the power of flight and no longer having either an invisible plane or high-heel boots, she also had wavy hair more in line with George Pérez’s Post-Crisis interpretation of her.
In 1992, Mattel planned a line of toys for girls with Wonder Woman leading a new cast of female characters. An announcement for an accompanying animated series was made during the 1993 Toy Fair, however a pilot was never produced beyond character designs and storyboards.[4] A few test samples for the toy line were developed, as well as a short comic book story which would have been packaged with the figures. A mini comic was distributed as a breakfast cereal premium.[5] Artwork has since been published in Les Daniels' 2000 book, Wonder Woman: The Complete History. The cancelled toy designs were recycled as part of the Tenko and the Guardians of the Magic toy line.
Justice League was the first chance to add Wonder Woman (voiced by Susan Eisenberg) to the DCAU, as the rights had been previously tied up in possible movies and television shows.
To introduce her into a universe already populated by long-experienced heroes like Batman and Superman, Bruce Timm and his team took a cue from George Pérez’s newcomer-to-man's-world Post-Crisis interpretation. This Diana started off completely innocent and ignorant of man's world. Also like the Pérez version, she neither keeps a secret identity nor has an invisible plane (although in the Justice League Unlimited first season episode "For the Man Who Has Everything", we see her unveil the plane). However, perhaps as a nod to her Pre-Crisis appearance, she has straight hair and high-heeled boots suggestive of her old Super Friends incarnation. Also, her lasso did not compel truthfulness until the Justice League Unlimited episode "The Balance" in which Hippolyta activated her true power.
Her initial personality consisted of a strict adherence to Amazonian dogma (prompting some of her teammates, especially the more brash and headstrong Hawkgirl, to react to her attitude by calling her "Princess" somewhat disdainfully). Noticeable though is the effect of Man's World on Diana. Her first appearances are marked by her reflexively acting off of Amazonian ideology (in "Fury", she questions how necessary men really are), but as time passes, she becomes more interested in men (in particular, Batman, with whom she has a flirtatious and possibly romantic relationship) and also experiences the emotional excesses of man's world, as compared to the Amazons (who are portrayed as somewhat stoic if not emotionally stunted). Batman's affections for Wonder Woman, however, are somewhat confirmed in the Unlimited episode "This Little Piggy", where he admits his feelings to Zatanna when requesting her help in changing Diana back (she was turned into a pig by Circe). Batman's and Wonder Woman's mutual feelings are implicated in the JLA episode "The Brave and the Bold", when Wonder Woman manages to stop a missile crashing into Gorilla City. When the weight of the missile head crushes her, Batman rushes to the site and attempts to clear the rubble while everyone else is too stunned by Wonder Woman's possible death to help. However, Wonder Woman is found unhurt, and when she sees Batman's gloves covered in dirt in his attempt to save her, she kisses him on the cheek. Batman and Wonder Woman also share a kiss in the Justice League season finale "Starcrossed" (they kissed in order to hide their faces from Thanagarian patrol). In the episode "Kid's Stuff", Wonder Woman, in her eight-year old form (voiced by Dakota Fanning), also flirts liberally with the young Batman.
She finds joy but also discovers a temper that frequently needs to be checked by her teammates ("Hereafter", "Hawk and Dove", "Eclipsed", etc.). Later episodes dealt directly with her temper and Diana’s eventual mastery of it. She since adopted the role of ambassador of the Amazons at her mother’s request ("To Another Shore"), bringing another Post-Crisis trait to the DCAU.
While Wonder Woman’s origin in the DCAU is not detailed, in the episode "The Balance", it is revealed that she indeed was a clay statue sculpted by Hippolyta and somehow brought to life. In the same episode, Hades says that he helped Hippolyta sculpt the clay statue that would eventually become Diana, making him feel almost like a father to her, but was banished before she was brought to life. That claim, however, was never substantiated (when Hawkgirl points out she could use the lasso on him, Diana says it doesn't matter). It was also revealed that the Wonder Woman armor was originally made by the god Hephaestus for her mother, Queen Hippolyta, not Diana. However, in episodes, again like "The Balance", it was insinuated and implied that the armor was eventually made for her purposes and use. She had stolen her armor to use once Hippolyta forbade her to enter the outside world. Later in the series it is revealed also that Diana did not know that the armor had additional abilities, which could be activated by pressing the star on the tiara.
Steve Trevor made an appearance in the first season's three-part finale, "The Savage Time", when the League time-travels back to World War II in order to stop Vandal Savage. In this story, Steve is an agent of the OSS, whom Diana falls in love with. They are separated when Diana returns to the present day. In the episode's conclusion, she visits her friend, now a very old man, at a retirement community.
Her eventual fate is unknown, but Kobra mentions that she is still alive during the time of Batman Beyond.
Her powers are almost the same as her comics counterpart, including flight and super strength, lending Wonder Woman the ability to hold out against Superman in a fight, while both were hallucinating. She also has a weakness to pierce wounds as shown by Devil Ray's poisonous dart harming her. In "Grudge Match", she is able to singlehandedly defeat Vixen, Hawkgirl, Huntress, and Black Canary in a no-holds barred fight.
Wonder Woman was originally supposed to appear in the Batman Beyond episode “The Call”, which featured a future Justice League. However, rights issues precluded the possibility and her cameo was instead taken by Big Barda.
In the Comedy Central animated series South Park, Wonder Woman plays a prominent role in the Imaginationland Trilogy, in which she is depicted as a member of the Council of Nine, consisting of the nine most revered of all imaginary characters. She along with Aslan, Gandalf, Glinda, Jesus, Luke Skywalker, Morpheus, Popeye, and Zeus teach Butters to control his power of imagination to help defend their land against all the evil imaginary creatures created.
Wonder Woman appeared in the 2008 animated adaptation of the award winning miniseries Justice League: The New Frontier. She was voiced by former Xena actress Lucy Lawless.[6]
See below.
In Batman: the Brave and the Bold, Wonder Woman makes a non-speaking cameo as a member of the Justice League in the episode "Sidekicks Assemble". She is only shown from behind and is not identified by name. At San Diego Comic-Con 2010's Batman: The Brave and the Bold panel, it was confirmed that Wonder Woman would appear in an upcoming episode of the show.[7] Wonder Woman appears in the opening segment of the 2011 episode "Scorn of the Star Sapphire!" rescuing Steve Trevor from Baroness Paula Von Gunther. Her appearance is accompanied by an arrangement of the classic 1970s Wonder Woman theme song. She was voiced by Vicki Lewis, who also voiced Star Sapphire in the same episode.[8] She subsequently appears in "Triumverate of Terror!", where she teams up with Batman and Superman to fight the combined threat of Cheetah, Lex Luthor and the Joker.
Wonder Woman appears as a main character in the animated film Justice League: Crisis on Two Earths, and is voiced by Vanessa Marshall. Unlike the traditional portrayal in the comics, Superwoman is not portrayed as being the Crime Syndicate of America's version of Wonder Woman, but instead Mary Marvel. Despite this, Wonder Woman and Superwoman become rivals and the Amazon Princess bested her in the final battle. However, the Syndicate does include a villainess named Olympia, whom was confirmed to be a Wonder Woman equivalent by the film's writer Dwayne McDuffie.[9]
Wonder Woman (voiced again by Susan Eisenberg, who had previously voiced her in the DCAU) plays a role in the animated film Superman/Batman: Apocalypse.[10] The film is based on the Superman/Batman: The Supergirl from Krypton storyline.[11] In the movie, Wonder Woman is tipped off by Batman about the existence of Kara, and she, Lyla, and Batman convince Superman to let her stay on Paradise Island where the Kryptonian will learn to gain full control over her power. After two months of training on Paradise Island, Darkseid sends an army of Doomsday clones to the island, and Diana fights them along with Superman, Batman and her Amazonian army. Mid-way through the fight, Batman realizes something is out of place and leaves the fight. Superman destroys the Doomsday army with his heat vision. Batman informs Wonder Woman and Superman that the Doomsday army was a diversion as Darkseid came and kidnapped Kara and killed Lyla as well. This prompts the three of them to go to Apokolips along with Big Barda. On Darkseid's planet, Wonder Woman fights the Female Furies and Granny Goodness along with Barda. After a long fight, Barda and Diana win and confront Darkseid, throwing Granny at his knees. Back on Earth, Diana wishes Superman and Kara well as they leave the island. She is seen at the end applauding for the latter as she assumes her new identity of Supergirl.
Wonder Woman appears in the San Diego Comic-Con footage for the animated series Young Justice.[12] At New York Comic Con 2010, it was confirmed that there are no longer any restrictions involving DC characters appearing in animation, thus making it possible for Wonder Woman to be used.[13] Wonder Woman appears in the pilot episode, "Independence Day", where she and the rest of the Justice League arrive at Cadmus Labs following its destruction. She is shown having a conversation with Superman about the fate of the newly-discovered Superboy, though her words are not audible to the audience.
Wonder Woman will appear as a member of the JLA in Justice League: Doom, with Susan Eisenberg once again reprising her role from the Justice League animated series.[14]
From 1944–1945, there was a short-lived daily comic strip, written by Wonder Woman creator Charles Moulton and drawn by H. G. Peter.[15]
Wonder Woman was played by Dawn Zulueta in the Filipino Batman comedy film called Alias Batman & Robin.
Wonder Woman starred in an animated feature film of the same name which was released on March 3, 2009. Released by DC Comics and Warner Bros., the movie was a PG-13 rated, direct-to-video movie, part of the line of DC Universe Animated Films. The press release, and the Sneak Peek from the Batman: Gotham Knight DVD, confirmed that the story was of her rebooted origin from 1987 by George Pérez.[16] The casting includes Keri Russell as Princess Diana/Wonder Woman, Nathan Fillion as Col. Steve Trevor, Alfred Molina as Ares, Virginia Madsen as Queen Hippolyta, and Rosario Dawson as Artemis. The film was directed by Lauren Montgomery and, as with all films in this series, produced by Bruce Timm.[17]
The first attempt to produce a television series based on Wonder Woman occurred in 1967. The success of the Batman television series led Batman producer William Dozier to commission a pilot script by Stan Hart and Larry Siegel. Batman writer Stanley Ralph Ross was then asked to perform a re-write, after Hart and Siegel's script was deemed unsuitable.[18][19] A portion of the pilot, under five minutes in length, was filmed by Greenway Productions, the company behind the Batman show under the title Who's Afraid of Diana Prince?[20] The piece starred Ellie Wood Walker (Robert Walker Jr.'s wife) as Diana Prince, Linda Harrison as Diana's Wonder Woman alter ego and Maudie Prickett as Diana's mother.
In the proposed series Diana Prince (not Wonder Woman) would have been the focus of the comedy. Diana, an awkward and rather plain young woman, lives with her mother close to a United States Air Force base. Much of the film consists of her mother berating Diana about not having a boyfriend. When her mother leaves the room, Diana changes into her Wonder Woman costume and admires her reflection in a mirror. What she sees is not Diana Prince, but rather a sexy super-heroic figure (played by Linda Harrison) who proceeds to preen and pose as the song "Oh, You Beautiful Doll" plays on the soundtrack. The pilot ends with Diana climbing out a window and flying away, indicating that, despite her apparent delusions regarding her alter ego, she does have some super powers.[15] This pilot episode was never broadcast and the project was taken no further.
The first serious attempt at adapting Wonder Woman to live-action TV starred Cathy Lee Crosby as a blonde Amazon with superhuman agility[21] (à la Captain America) and gadgets, similar to those used by movie super-spy James Bond and secret agent Emma Peel of TV's The Avengers, both of which were still somewhat popular at that time, when the script of this pilot movie was in its early stages of development.[15]
Though this version owed much to a brief period in the Wonder Woman comic book, in which the Amazon heroine had lost her powers, it did not stray completely from its comic inspiration. This Princess Diana could communicate with animals; run, leap, and swim faster than normal humans; and was agile enough to deflect bullets from her Amazon bracelets, which, by some unrevealed means, she could trigger to explode. In lieu of the magical, golden lasso in the comics, she kept a golden cable concealed in her belt, which was used as a grappling rope and to ensnare fleeing enemies. While the Wonder Woman comic being published at the time of the pilot's screening featured the heroine with her traditional powers intact, no explanation for the differences between the film and the comic were ever given.
Though not successful at the first attempt, network interest was such that within a year another pilot was in production, leading to the familiar Lynda Carter version of the character.
This version of Wonder Woman made a cameo appearance in Infinite Crisis alongside the Debra Winger Wonder Girl as inhabitants of Earth-462.
Scripting duties were given to Stanley Ralph Ross, who had worked on the original pilot reel in 1967, but was instructed to be more faithful to the comic book. "The New, Original Wonder Woman" made in 1975, starred Lynda Carter as Wonder Woman/Diana Prince with Jeannie Epper as Lynda Carter's stunt double. Lyle Waggoner played Steve Trevor. This version was so successful that a TV series, Wonder Woman soon followed and aired for three seasons.
In 1990, Comics Scene magazine announced a new syndicated Wonder Woman series to be produced and distributed by Warner Bros. Later in the 1990s, a new syndicated Wonder Woman project produced and distributed by Warner Bros. was announced for television. However, no pilot was filmed for either project.
The producers of the television show Smallville had wanted Diana to make a cameo appearance (in the manner of Green Arrow, Flash, Aquaman, Cyborg, and the Martian Manhunter) and become a part of the proto-Justice League that appears in that show. However, due to Wonder Woman being developed as a feature film by Joss Whedon, the idea had to be abandoned.[22]
Reports surfaced in October 2010 that Warner Bros. Television was teaming with writer-producer David E. Kelley to pitch a new Wonder Woman television series to networks.[23] The major networks all turned down the series,[24] but NBC, the final network to initially pass on the project, announced that they had ordered a pilot on January 21, 2011. The plot is described as "a reinvention of the iconic D.C. comic in which Wonder Woman – aka Diana Prince – is a vigilante crime fighter in L.A. but also a successful corporate executive and a modern woman trying to balance all of the elements of her extraordinary life."[25] On February 16, 2011, it was announced that Adrianne Palicki was selected to play the title role.[26] Elizabeth Hurley played villain Veronica Cale and Tracie Thoms played Diana's personal assistant, Etta Candy.[27] Pedro Pascal was cast as Ed Indelicato, Wonder Woman's liaison to the police department and Cary Elwes's Henry Detmer runs the day-to-day operations of Diana's company.[28][29] Actor Justin Bruening was cast to play Steve Trevor.[26] Jeffrey Reiner directed the pilot.[30] On May 12, 2011, NBC announced that it would not be picking the project up for a series.[31]
Wonder Woman also appeared in the 1995 Justice League Task Force versions for Super Nintendo and Sega Genesis fighting game, as well as in several Game Boy Advance games based on the Justice League animated series.
Wonder Woman is a featured playable character in the video game Justice League Heroes (voiced by Courtenay Taylor) with two unlockable costumes.
Wonder Woman is a playable character in Mortal Kombat vs. DC Universe, where she is voiced by Tara Platt.
Wonder Woman is set to appear in DC Universe Online. Gina Torres provides her voice.[32]