I am a big fan of the Gail Simone run on Wonder Woman, but in two of her last few issues there was something which bothered me. I have never been a big fan of the "who is the better hero?" questions among comic fans. I personally don't see what this knowledge adds to your favourite character. There are many reasons behind this, but the main one is that most characters are designed to operate in their own world with their own ethos. This is one of the things that people complain about when characters are integrated into team books, that their beliefs underlying their heroic nature is subverted to usually fit one of a few stereotypes (one of the ones that always bothers me on this is how Batman is portrayed in the Justice League.) In the last ten issues of her run though Gail gave the readers both a Wonder Woman versus Donna Troy, and a Wonder Woman versus Power Girl matchup. For being a plot device that I generally don't like they were handled relatively well. Still with this in mind I hope to now solve the eternal question of who would win between Space Cabbie and Star Hawkins:
Actually I would never do that, as I said I don't really understand the ranking of characters against one another. Space Cabbie is out of place in Star Hawkins' stories even if they are both futuristic based characters (this is not to say I begrudge the people that enjoy the battle forums - it is just not for me.) So what Gail did was first of all not something that I very much enjoy in the first place. Secondly though it only exacerbated the fact that Wonder Woman is only allowed to fight females (her only major male villain is Doctor Psycho.) Most male heroes get a female as a villain, but the reciprocal does not happen as often. My main problem with this though was the sort of voyeuristic vicariousness that it gives the (male) reader. A lot of comic book readers would never think about picking up an issue of Wonder Woman unless they got to see a fight inside between two female heroes. I don't think a heroine against a hero, or a heroine against a female villains has the same interest. I know that Gail sometimes uses a bit of mockery for the way that Diana is portrayed, but she resorted to it herself here. This is one of the ways that writers get the writing of Wonder Woman wrong.
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I'm with you on that. I know some people, though, just love the "Grudge Match" aspect of seeing which of two powerful women is most powerful. And some of these same people don't want to see a man fight a woman, because when he hits her it is viscerally wrong to see happen, however lame that sounds in the context of a super battle. WW vs. Power Girl is interesting just because their outlooks and personalities are SOOO different. But again, you're right: the cheesecake factor is probably at pkay here. I think editors are afraid of alienating readers, quite frankly, by having Wonder Woman beat a man. I doubt that really would alienate modern teens, however - or 30-somethings, because of the superpower aspect. If you have the power, no matter your age, gender, etc. YOU WILL WIN. And it's more tense a situation if Wonder Wonman fights ,say, Hercules or Ares. They are men, these particular men are vicious fighters without a great deal of respect for their fellow humans; WW is committed to peace - through strength when needed, but not a first resort - and her feelings for those around her may intitially make her hold back.
Now that Donna has achieved her full powers and that it has been revealed that Donna is a magical mirror image of Diana come-to-life, Donna should be virtually as strong as Diana. Her height and weight should also be very similar.
I would be very interested in seeing how Donna would fare against Power Girl and Mary Marvel.
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