History YMMV / WonderWoman

* FauxSymbolism: It's fairly noticeable when you're looking for it, and those expounding on the idea on the internet abound, but there was supposedly no intended symbolism or deeper meaning behind DC trying to change the feminist hero's signature item from her vulvar lasso to a phallic sword while they were making her DarkerAndEdgier from the '90s on.

** Every incarnation of Cheetah is a broken base, and the very concept of Cheetah itself as a foil to a woman stronger and faster than most gods is a point of contention. There's the intense, cunning and competent Golden Age Rich versus the in over her head Silver Age Rich versus the sympathetic Debbie Domaine petty murderous thief and out permanently empowered Barbara Minerva, versus the evil cultist Barbara Minerva, versus the good [[TheCorruptible but corruptible]] Barbara Miverva. There are those just sick of DC erasing the other Cheetahs to make Barbara the only one, and again, whose who think Cheetah's use should be scaled back altogether and or not treated that seriously because ''they'' can't take it that seriously, versus those who don't find anything inherently silly about a predatory animal theme or find the animal lady silly but a [[NarmCharm good kind of silly.]]

** John Byrne's run got a lot of flak for throwing out Diana's supporting cast for a bunch of [[{{expy}} younger knockoffs of them]], basically turning Wonder Woman into a supporting character in her own book by finding ways to remove her from action, giving Diana disliked love interests in the forms of Mike Schorr, Jason Blood and Champion, sending Hippolyta back in time to be the first Wonder Woman and then redoing Donna Troy's origin to be more convoluted when putting Hippolyta back in the 1940s USA could have made Donna's origins simpler. Byrne's run has it's defenders though in that he took the "Stronger Than Hercules, Faster Than Mercury, As Wise To Athena" part of Wonder Woman to heart, portraying her as the mightiest she had been in the Post Crisis Continuity to that point and establishing a firm if contrived justification for Wonder Woman being ImmuneToBullets even when she didn't block them with her bracelets. He's also credited with making Artemis more likable than William Messner-Loebs had...though whether Artemis should have been made likable or not is also a subject of debate.

** Fausta Grables was probably the franchise's first case. She wasn't a particular competent villain, her plans were rather easily foiled by Trevor and the Holiday Girls, but she did managed to trick Wonder Woman, and that apparently left an impression. Grables was only used once in the comic books, even during {{alternate universe}}, {{what if}}s, {{elseworlds}} and {{cosmic retcon}}s where it would make sense for her to appear but Grables ''has'' shown up in ''three'' Wonder Woman adaptations. Twice these have greatly expanded and developed her character. [[Film/WonderWoman2017 Another time]] Wonder Woman meets her two decades earlier than in the comics, when comic book Grables would literally have no reason to have any involvement with Wonder Woman and would be an early teen at best.

** Nubia has gained a bit of a following for being the first black Amazon character in the Wonder Woman universe and being the most prominent one next to Philippus.
** Lady Steel was only around for one arc of ''World's Greatest Superheroes'' crossover newspaper strips, [[TheHeavy but left a lasting impression]] when she tracked down and defeated a Silver Age style Wonder Woman, gave a Silver Age style Superman such a fight the [[NiceJobBreakingItHero collateral damage that he caused]] forced him to let her escape, and she did such a [[LatexPerfection good]] job [[CostumeCopyCat impersonating]] Wonder Woman that Superman with his super senses couldn't tell the difference until the real Wonder Woman returned. While Lady Steel is later outsmarted by Superman and handily defeated by Wonder Woman in a rematch, she's far better remembered than the "masterminds" of her arc who put her mercenary company to work, and more liked than anything from Wonder Woman's own newspaper strips, even though her own creator only vaguely remembered Lady Steel, confusing her with a DistaffCounterpart of ComicBook/SargeSteel, who wasn't even owned by DC yet.

** Achilles Warkiller, a resurrected version of the Greek hero. While he was far from the first use of Achilles as a villain in a Wonder Woman comic, he was by far the most popular. Wonder Woman had drifted away from the Greek to the Hawaiian gods at the time and [[TheBadGuyWins Zeus had created this form]] of Achilles out of the mutilated remains of Kāne Milohai, one of the most revered Hawaiian deities and [[ALighterShadeOfGrey far more benevolent than Zeus]]. As expected, Warkiller and the Gargareans he was installed as king of opposed Wonder Woman and the Amazons but he was so popular he underwent a HeelFaceTurn and got a RedemptionPromotion, becoming far more powerful as a good guy. Poor Kāne Milohai went from one of the {{Big Good}}s to an after thought.

* JerkassWoobie: Hera in The Comicbook/{{New 52}}. She's just as nasty in the comic books as she was in the recorded classical myths and literature. However, while Zeus ''is'' an AdaptationalNiceGuy in New 52 who has the big picture in mind and is ultimately working for the greater good, he's still a lecherous adulterer and Hera is still the goddess of marriage. It's explicitly shown in the New 52 comics that stepping on a god's domain, at least gods of the Hellenistic pantheon, causes them to irrationally lash out. Hera's cruelty still suggests some unpleasant things about her personality, but one gets the impression that if her husband could keep it in his pants she'd be able to suppress her more vindictive urges.

* MainstreamObscurity: Her status as being one of DC's "Big Three", the other two being Superman and Batman. This is entirely due to the three being continually published from their debuts in Medianotes/TheGoldenAgeOfComicBooks to the start of MediaNotes/TheSilverAgeOfComicBooks, not because of her sales figures overall, which tapered off after the deaths of Marston and Peters, or even her in story importance, which was also reduced in order to cash in on the Modernist fashion craze sweeping the United States in the 1960s. The sad fact is is that they're both far more popular than she is, and the details of their series are far more well known. Wonder Woman's mythology and supporting cast have often suffered inconsistencies, with even the writers struggling to figure out what her driving motivation is. As detailed elsewhere, most potential adaptations of her ended up never being made, with the live action series being the only one that's really well known for a long while. The result was that the general audience was introduced to her by proxy -- either through marketing or through works in which she isn't the protagonist, such as in ''Justice League'' cartoons -- and thus wasn't familiarized with her mythos and supporting cast. She ''was'' undeniably famous -- but mainly in the sense that most people knew ''of'' her, less so in the sense that many people knew that much ''about'' her. She's also currently the only member of the trio to be of the LGBTQ persuasion, hence she was better known in such circles. The Franchise/DCExtendedUniverse version played by Creator/GalGadot, however, greatly helped her popularity and mainstream recognition eventually.

** Unfortunately, the tail end of the Silver Age and entirety of the Bronze Age until ''Crisis On Infinite Earths'' revealed there were perhaps ''too'' many ideas, as every time sales dipped a new writer or editor would come in and disregard whatever the previous creative team had established. While "Crisis" was itself another even bigger shakeup than ever before, Wonder Woman fan appreciated that the book finally stayed consistent from then on...until John Byrne's shake up anyway.

** Achilles Warkiller, a resurrected version of the Greek hero. While he was far from the first use of Achilles as a villain in a Wonder Woman comic, he was by far the most popular. Wonder Woman had drifted away from the Greek to the Hawaiian gods at the time and [[TheBadGuyWins Zeus had created this form]] of Achilles out of the mutilated remains of Kāne, one of the most revered Hawaiian deities and [[ALighterShadeOfGrey far more benevolent than Zeus]]. As expected, Warkiller and the Gargareans he was installed as king of opposed Wonder Woman and the Amazons but he was so popular he underwent a HeelFaceTurn and got a RedemptionPromotion, becoming far more powerful as a good guy. Poor Kāne went from one of the {{Big Good}}s to an after thought.

* IconicSequelOutfit: Wonder Woman originally wore a pair of culottes in the Golden Age with her red and yellow bustier. Later the culottes were ditched and she began to wear the iconic LeotardOfPower inspired by the American flag. Since the release of ''Film/WonderWoman2017'', Diana is more known to modern audiences for wearing an Ancient Greek-style skirt/kilt with her top.

* MainstreamObscurity: Her status as being one of DC's "Big Three", the other two being Superman and Batman. The sad fact is is that they're both far more popular than she is, and the details of their series are far more well known. Wonder Woman's mythology and supporting cast have often suffered inconsistencies, with even the writers struggling to figure out what her driving motivation is. As detailed elsewhere, most potential adaptations of her ended up never being made, with the live action series being the only one that's really well known for a long while. The result was that the general audience was introduced to her by proxy -- either through marketing or through works in which she isn't the protagonist, such as in ''Justice League'' cartoons -- and thus wasn't familiarized with her mythos and supporting cast. She ''was'' undeniably famous -- but mainly in the sense that most people knew ''of'' her, less so in the sense that many people knew that much ''about'' her. She's also currently the only member of the trio to be of the LGBTQ persuasion, hence she was better known in such circles. The Franchise/DCExtendedUniverse version played by Creator/GalGadot, however, greatly helped her popularity and mainstream recognition eventually.

** Future kid Trinity was this upon introduction in issue 800 to fans of Fury and Yara Flor, who thought those two desperately needed CharacterDevelopment they could be getting in the spot this new character was in. This slightly died down, for Fury fans, as Trinity's story developed in ''ComicBook/DawnOfDC''. Yara making another appearance that, revealed details fans had been waiting three years to learn caused Yara's fans to ease up a little too.

** There wasn't much wrong with Wonder Woman's "Mod" phase in of it self, other than the fact it was forced on The Wonder Woman book, which DC had to keep publishing to keep their right to use the character. Otherwise there would have been nothing wrong with just dropping the Wonder Woman book entirely until they could figure out something that would sell better while still being true to the character and just telling stories about an entirely new kung fu fighting fashion boutique owner. Things like Diana largely ignoring the women's liberation movement and proclaiming to not even like women in general would have been just fine bits of depth for a character who had never been Wonder Woman, but since this all ran quite contrary to everything established about Diana Prince, it was just jarring. None the less these comic ''did'' sell so long as the modernist fad was popular in the US and ''Series/TheAvengers'' television show pulled in ratings, ultimately saving the Wonder Woman book from cancellation and preventing the character from reverting to the Marston estate. Once the mod fad was over with and sales started dropping back again as the fandom backlash changes never really relented, DC was quick to return to form and now had plenty of writers with plenty of ideas for more traditional Wonder Woman stories and readers ready to welcome them.

** John Byrne's run got a lot of flak for throwing out Diana's supporting cast for a bunch of [[{{expy}} younger knockoffs of them]], basically turning Wonder Woman into a supporting character in her own book by finding ways to remove her from action, giving Diana disliked love interests in the forms of Mike Schorr, Jason Blood and Champion, sending Hippolyta back in time to be the first Wonder Woman and then redoing Donna Troy's origin to be more convoluted when putting Hippolyta back in the 1940s USA could have made Donna's origins simpler. Byrne's run has it's defenders though in that he took the "Stronger Than Hercules, Faster Than Mercury, As Wise To Athena" part of Wonder Woman to heart, portraying her as the mightiest she had ever been in the Post Crisis Continuity and establishing a firm if contrived justification for Wonder Woman being ImmuneToBullets even when she didn't block them with her bracelets. He's also credited with making Artemis more likable than William Messner-Loebs had...though whether Artemis should have been made likable or not is also a subject of debate.

** John Byrne's run got a lot of flak for throwing out Diana's supporting cast for a bunch of [[{{expy}} younger knockoffs of them]], basically turning Wonder Woman into a supporting character in her own book by finding ways to remove her from action, putting Diana into a disliked relationship with Jason Blood, sending Hippolyta back in time to be the first Wonder Woman and then redoing Donna Troy's origin to be more convoluted when putting Hippolyta back in the 1940s USA could have made Donna's origins simpler. Byrne's run has it's defenders though in that he took the "Stronger Than Hercules, Faster Than Mercury, As Wise To Athena" part of Wonder Woman to heart, portraying her as the mightiest she had ever been in the Post Crisis Continuity and establishing a firm if contrived justification for Wonder Woman being ImmuneToBullets even when she didn't block them with her bracelets. He's also credited with making Artemis more likable than William Messner-Loebs had...though whether Artemis should have been made likable or not is also a subject of debate.

** John Byrne's run got a lot of flak for throwing out Diana's supporting cast for a bunch of [[{{expy}} younger knockoff of them]], basically turning Wonder Woman into a supporting character in her own book by finding ways to remove her from action, putting Diana into a disliked relationship with Jason Blood, sending Hippolyta back in time to be the first Wonder Woman and then redoing Donna Troy's origin to be more convoluted when putting Hippolyta back in the 1940s USA could have made Donna's origins simpler. Byrne's run has it's defenders though in that he took the "Stonger Than Hercules, Faster Than Mercury, As Wise To Athena" part of Wonder Woman to heart, portaying her as the mightiest she had ever been in the Post Crisis Continuity and establishing a firm if contrived justification for Wonder Woman being ImmuneToBullets even when she didn't block them with her bracelets.

** ''Convergence'' sees Wonder Woman visit Hephaestus to get a new suit. It makes her look more like a woman on a mission, less like a lady out to have fun on the beach. The problem is that after getting her new outfit Wonder Woman proceeds to get her ass kicked by everything with legs that dislikes her, in her own book no less, while she's [[InformedAbility supposed to have gained the powers]] of a WarGod. It turns out there is [[WorfHadTheFlu a good reason for this]], as Wonder Woman became the god of war involuntarily, and her refusal to embrace her status as such is causing the power to turn against and weaken her. All the same seeing Wonder Woman slumped over and bleeding so often did nothing to sell fans on the new clothes, which is a problem when you're trying to make them let go of an IconicOutfit.

** Wonder Woman being the biological daughter of Zeus in the New 52 has also been quite the hot button topic among fans. Some see it as an interesting twist and updating of the character while others see it as a violation of everything Wonder Woman was ever meant to represent.

** Fausta Grables was probably the franchise's first case. She wasn't a particular competent villain, her plans were rather easily foiled by Trevor and the Holiday Girls, but she did managed to trick Wonder Woman, and that apparently left an impression. Grables was only used once in the comic books, even during {{alternate universe}}, {{what if}}s, {{elseworlds}} and {{cosmic retcon}}s where it would make sense for her to appear but Grables ''has'' shown up in ''three'' Wonder Woman adaptations. Twice these have greatly expanded and developed her character. Another time Wonder Woman meets her two decades earlier than in the comics, when comic book Grables would literally have no reason to have any involvement with Wonder Woman and would be an early teen at best.
** When DC editorial decided to start telling stories about the Earth One Wonder Woman in the "Silver Age" instead of the Earth Two "Golden Age" version, they held a fan poll asking which "Golden Age" villain should get an Earth One counterpart. Countess Draska Nishki, who had only appeared in two issues and was barely a threat to Wonder Woman, won handily. Nishki left an impression on readers for the opposite reason Grables did, as Wonder Woman saw through and defeated Nishki fairly easily, Nishki did manage to fool every one ''but'' Wonder Woman.

** Lady Steel was only around for one arc of ''World's Greatest Superheroes'' crossover newspaper strips, [[TheHeavy but left a lasting impression]] when she tracked down and defeated a Silver Age style Wonder Woman, gave a Silver Age style Superman such a fight the [[NiceJobBreakingItHero collateral damage that he caused]] forced him to let her escape, and she did such a [[LatexPerfection good]] job [[CostumeCopyCat impersonating]] Wonder Woman that Superman with his super senses couldn't tell the difference until the real Wonder Woman returned. While Lady Steel is later outsmarted by Superman and handily defeated by Wonder Woman in a rematch, she's far better remembered than the "masterminds" of her arc who put her mercenary company to work, and more liked than anything from Wonder Woman's own newspaper strips, even though her own creator only vaguely remembered her.

* TheyChangedItNowItSucks: There wasn't much wrong with Wonder Woman's "Mod" phase in of it self, other than the fact it was forced on The Wonder Woman book, which DC had to keep publishing to keep their right to use the character. Otherwise there would have been nothing wrong with just dropping the Wonder Woman book entirely until they could figure out something that would sell better while still being true to the character and just telling stories about an entirely new kung fu fighting fashion boutique owner. Things like Diana largely ignoring the women's liberation movement and proclaiming to not even like women in general would have been just fine bits of depth for a character who had never been Wonder Woman, but since this all ran quite contrary to everything established about Diana Prince, it was just jarring. None the less these comic ''did'' sell so long as the modernist fad was popular in the US and ''Series/TheAvengers'' television show pulled in ratings, ultimately saving the Wonder Woman book from cancellation and preventing the character from reverting to the Marston estate. Once the mod fad was over with and sales started dropping back again as the fandom backlash changes never really relented, DC was quick to return to form and now had plenty of writers with plenty of ideas for more traditional Wonder Woman stories and readers ready to welcome them.

** Trevor Barnes was written to be a regular guy a super talented foreign princess might plausibly find attractive but was disliked by a vocal section of readers felt a passive black man was worth of taking Wonder Woman's virginity. Again, [[AlasPoorScrappy killing him off]] was not the solution most reader seemed to want, though it's not clear how much overlap there was between those upset he was dating Diana and those who didn't want him dead.

* ReplacementScrappy: One thing not helping the evil version of Donna Troy in New 52 is that the very concept of male Amazons, which Donna Troy is supposed to be vilified for slaughtering, are seen as less cool than the Gargareans, the Amazon's actual male counterparts from the Greek myths, even if DC's previous depiction of the Gargareans wasn't any more accurate to said myths. Gargarean King Achilles Warkiller was also better liked than Wonder Woman's brother Jason.

** Trevor Barnes was written to be a regular guy a super talented foreign princess might plausibly find attractive but was disliked by a vocal section of readers who didn't like the idea of Diana losing her virginity to a passive black man. Again, [[AlasPoorScrappy killing him off]] was not the solution most reader seemed to want, though its not clear how much overlap there was between those upset he was dating Diana and those who didn't want him dead.

* JerkassWoobie: Hera in The Comicbook/{{New 52}}. She's just as nasty in the comic books as she was in the recorded classical myths and literature. However, while Zeus ''is'' an AdaptationalNiceGuy in New 52 who has the big picture in mind and is ultimately working for the greater good, he's still a lecherous adulterer and Hera is still the goddess of marriage. It's explicitly shown in the New 52 comics that stepping on a god's domain, at least gods of the Hellenistic pantheon, causing them to irrationally lash out. Hera's cruelty still suggests some unpleasant things about her personality, but one gets the impression that if her husband could keep it in his pants she'd be able to suppress her more vindictive urges.

** In the 1970s Wonder Woman lost all of her super powers in the comics and had to rely solely on martial arts. While she had a mentor/sidekick in I Ching to help with some problems that could not be handled conventionally, reporters, critics and even some fans cried fowl for weakening an iconic character. The comic chugged along for a few years, with the writers trying everything from giving Diana a harsher personality to an expanded supporting cast which included the witch Morgana to prove it wasn't just about taking super powers away from a woman, before finally relenting and giving her powers back. The televised pilot based on the non super powered Wonder Woman was a flop however, leading to a better received pilot with the classical super powered Wonder Woman before the comics returned to form.

** Max Lord's inclusion into Wonder Woman's world since ComicBook/InfiniteCrisis and her killing him via snapping his neck. One set of fans find him to be an interesting villain for Diana to go up against as a villain from Man's World. Others despise that a character Diana had no meaningful relationship or interactions with prior was given such a pivotal moment in her character history and think he's redundant in a rogues gallery with Dr. Psycho and Veronica Cale.

** Wonder Woman's Golden Age characterization as an [[CasualKink openly kinky]] thrill-seeking paragon who was good at literally everything and left her enemies awestruck. Her only real weaknesses were her pride and squeamishness regarding killing, and even those were rarely issues due to the fact she was "as wise as Athena". Some see it as the most well-rounded version of the character that fit her era's stories best, and the most fun, while others like her later incarnations better for having more relatable flaws to overcome, for fitting in better with the SharedUniverse and for their stories being less obvious vehicles for the creator's political views and kinks.
** Silver Age Wonder Woman was more emotionally fragile than her Golden Age counterpart, taking insults much more personally, being openly lovesick and unafraid to admit to fears of injury and death. Some liked this take for being more relatable, others disliked it for being too wimpy.
** Post Crisis onward it has been Wonder Woman being characterized as the only one of the "Big 3" to kill, not the least because of how her Silver age and especially her golden age incarnations were MORE ThouShallNotKill than Superman and Batman. DependingOnTheWriter muddies things further, as it appears there are some who fall among the same divisions as the fans about how kill happy she should be. Some praise her willingness to kill, so long as limited to extreme situations and characterizes, as making her feel like a warrior who is willing to make the tough calls. Others feel that just breaching the topic opened the door to the same DarkerAndEdgier antics that DC has been criticized for and that too many writers make her either too violent or crowbar in too many ShootTheDog situations for bloodshed.

%%* CreepyAwesome: Dr. Psycho, Dr. Poison

* TheScrappy: Jason, Wonder Woman's twin brother, first alluded to during Geoff Johns' run on ''ComicBook/JusticeLeague'', has steadily become one for readers ever since his proper introduction in ''ComicBook/WonderWomanRebirth''. His first strike was being a CallBack to the [[ComicBook/WonderWoman2011 New 52 run]] volume and that his existence solidifies Diana being Zeus' daughter (arguably the biggest BrokenBase argument in Wonder Woman's fanbase). Every complaint after that is how he formed a SpotlightStealingSquad with Grail and Darkseid, coupled with inconsistent characterization and how hard he's being forced into a prominent space in Diana's life at the expense of the rest of her supporting cast. None of this is helped by how utterly boring he's perceived by the readers, and how inconsistent his character is, with his one defining trait seeming to be his entitlement.