A short lived Soft Reboot/Continuity Reboot of Wonder Woman by J. Michael Straczynski following Wonder Woman (2006) and preceding the New 52 reboot of DC's entire line. The continuity started in the celebratory 600th issue of Wonder Woman and lasted for fourteen issues.
With the closing of this chapter of Wonder Woman's history Wonder Woman (2011) began, with an entirely new Diana with an entirely new backstory.
Tropes:
- Adaptational Attractiveness: In-Universe done by Doctor Psycho to try and keep Diana from turning away. When she convinces him to show his original self, she still accepts his visions of the alternate times.
- Adaptational Modesty: The new Wonder Woman outfit features a leather jacket and a pair of pants, and Artemis gets a Palette Swap of the same outfit to highlight her status as Diana's rival.
- Alternate Timeline: Themyscira was destroyed when Diana was a young child, leading to the death of Hippolyta and Diana being raised in exile with surviving Amazons. The entire timeline is a defensive measure by the Fate Clotho, who had a backup fate sewn for Diana when she was defeated and assimilated into Nemesis.
- Alternate Self: THIS Wonder Woman actually is, for most of the plot. The "main" Wonder Woman had mostly been overcome by Nemesis, until finally recombining near the end as her proper self.
- The Assimilator: Nemesis has taken over most of Wonder Woman from the correct timeline, barring the part of Diana that escaped into the new timeline as this story's protagonist.
- Caught in the Ripple: Diana, nor the surrounding Amazons, have any knowledge of NOT being driven from the destroyed Themyscira or living in the following exile.
- Conqueror from the Future: Not the cause of the ongoing timeline, but the cause for many of the changes. Nemesis and the Morrigan had plans in the original timeline to siege Themyscira. When Diana is felled in battle, but protected by Clotho's alternate fate she had woven for Diana, Nemesis sends her forces anyway to destroy Diana, which occurs earlier in Diana's lifetime.
- Curb-Stomp Battle: Whenever Giganta, Cheetah, and Artemis show up, they tend to dish these out. Except when they team with Diana against the Morrigan, wherein they receive one instead.
- Darker and Edgier: Invoked by the Morrigan to try and destroy Diana. Either the circumstances would destroy her, or drive her so far into cynicism she would join as the new third member of the group.
- Deliberate Injury Gambit: By impaling Diana on her sword, Nemesis-possessed Wonder Woman allows Diana to get close enough to weave their strands of fate back together as one.
- Demonic Possession: The Big Bad Nemesis is using the body of the earlier timeline's defeated Diana.
- Eyepatch After Timeskip: Philippa has one in the new timeline.
- The Ferryman: Charon remains at the banks of the river Styx, even while the realm of Hades is overflowing and crumbling in the wake of Hades' disappearance.
- Impaled with Extreme Prejudice: Happens several times to several characters. Most significantly, Philippa is killed this way by the Huntsman's antler, the Huntsman in turn is impaled by his own removed antler by Diana, and Diana herself allows Nemesis Wonder Woman to do so to get close enough to re-weave their threads of fate.
- It's a Wonderful Plot: This storyline is surprisingly still fresh ground for comic books. Wonder Woman finds herself in a parallel timeline where Paradise Island was destroyed when she was a child and she was smuggled to Man's World as a baby and raised in the streets and alleys by the few surviving Amazons. Slightly subverted, as instead of just witnessing "the world without Wonder Woman", she'll be living it, and fighting to regain her old status (thereby repairing the timeline).
- Merged Reality: Downplayed. While Diana's new self merges back with the prior timeline's Wonder Woman, the only parts of the new reality to carry over are her new outfit and her memories of the altered timeline. The rest of the original reality appears unchanged... just in time for Flashpoint.
- Mirror Match: The big bad is possessing the original timeline's defeated Diana, excluding the sliver of Diana protected by Clotho's intervention, and they fight in the forms corresponding to each timeline.
- Never the Selves Shall Meet: Inverted. Nemesis, possessing the earlier timeline Wonder Woman, has a plan in place that would necessitate meeting the new timeline's Diana. In fact, meeting her alternate self is required for both of Diana's fates to be woven back together, restoring the proper Wonder Woman.
- Place Beyond Time: Doctor Psycho is able to psychically access something of the sort, and uses it to show Diana ways time has gone wrong. Here they view several alternate timelines, including the correct timeline's origins, setting Diana back on track to becoming her normal, idealistic Wonder Woman persona.
- Psychopomp: Charon's position as a psychopomp is highlighted, though he's very pessimistic and unenthusiastic about his role.
- Ripple Effect Indicator: Several images and items show traditional Wonder Woman, clueing in Diana that something is amiss. Several action figures, a mural, a drawing by a friend's kid...
- Ripple-Effect-Proof Memory: Zigzagged. Diana and her allies do not remember the original timeline. When the timeline is restored, Wonder Woman has full memory of both, due to both timeline's fates being woven together as one. However, no one else has memory of the alternate timeline from there.
- Rubber-Band History: Justified by the strands of fate. The original timeline is still woven and can likewise be returned to as it was.
- Screw Destiny: Ironically enough, done by Clotho, who weaves humanity's fates. When Wonder Woman is fated to be defeated by Nemesis, Clotho weaves a backup fate so Diana can eventually restore herself.
- Take That!: In the previous Wonder Woman volume Diana's love interest was Tom Tresser, aka Nemesis, in a relationship that was nearly universally disliked. Here Nemesis is the name of the Big Bad.
- Temporal Duplication: Thanks to Nemesis possessing the correct timeline's Wonder Woman.
- Temporal Suicide: What Nemesis Wonder Woman attempts when Diana won't join her. It fails, as it allows Diana to get close enough to weave their fates back together.
- Zorro Mark: As of the new Retool, her bracelets leave a "W" imprint on enemies. To quote JMS, "This is a Wonder Woman who signs her work... letting her enemies know that she's getting closer."
