The reason the batman rouge gallery is so memorable is because they each in some way reflect Batman's nature. A good villain for Diana must do the same, and to some extent Circe and Cheetah does that. For Diana, Penthesilea was pretty good for that, but her only representation was from some of the weaker books of Flashpoint which hurt her. Penthesilea's plan was actually pretty maniacal when you think about it.

The Joker isn't a good WW villain/rogue, imo.

Good points Razza. Although, having the Joker appear with Diana is kind of cool. The best part would be Diana's portrayal I think. How she dealt with him...

Nice Blog.

Joker is not a good opponent, real or imagined for Diana. His "craziness" would merely annoy her and she would most likely make the executive decision to simply remove him entirely from the scene.

The precedent is there with Maxwell Lord. She will eliminate any threat to innocents

There's plenty of things in Greek mythology that already overlap with the Joker. There's Apate, the personification of deceit, and Eris, the personification of discord. Madness is also a pretty big theme in Greek tragedies.

In Vol. 2 she was supposed to be spreading the Amazon message of peace. I'd have liked to see her tackle more real world stuff which would have made regular people the villains. Not every arc obviously but it would have made sense. Her real arch villain in a way would have been the chaos and hate that exists outside Paradise Island. It's always great to see her beat $hit up though =D

@RazzaTazz: didn't she fight a clone of herself once? that made a good villian IMO while it lasted...

@RazzaTazz said:

@difficlus: Do you mean Genocide? She fights clones of herself often enough actually, it happened at the end of Odyssey as well.

aha Genocide. the way her character is built it should be easy enough to make clones of her. Clone arcs can be really good is done well and short and sweet. Apart from that, like Flash she generally suffers from lackluster villains. Also what does she do when not sleeping in London hotels and setting snuck up on my teleported women or fighting her rogue gallery. does WW actually go out on hero patrol?

AN aside: i think it would be interesting for her and Captain Marvel to be partnered together for a short while and fight some rouge given their similar powerset and heritage of powers. I would have thought writers would have caught on with this and given it a go before.

It would be very interesting to have the Joker screw around with Wonder Woman.
 
No ... I didn't mean it like that. Get your head out of the gutter. xD

They could just reimagine some characters and creatures in Greek mythology. There are quite a few people, monsters, gods, and titans suffering eternally in Tartarus. The Greek gods smote/punished a lot of people, many of whom did not really deserve their fates. Not to mention how plenty of good people suffered horrible fates in Greek myth. All they need to do is rework some of these characters a bit and they can be great villains.

@KingofMadCows said:

They could just reimagine some characters and creatures in Greek mythology. There are quite a few people, monsters, gods, and titans suffering eternally in Tartarus. The Greek gods smote/punished a lot of people, many of whom did not really deserve their fates. Not to mention how plenty of good people suffered horrible fates in Greek myth. All they need to do is rework some of these characters a bit and they can be great villains.

interesting concept, sounds good. One of my peeves about reading WW is it diverts too much form classical Greek mythology and idk whenever i see that (like in the new Immortals film) it really puts me off.

@RazzaTazz: He needs to have more people like Grodd. Also the good thing about this in one sense if that he has to rely on his wits more than just bltizing them since most of their plans are extremely elaborate and actually require thinking to take them down.

Damn they need to develop that aspect of her, all that power and what does Diana prince do in her spare time? doesn't one wonder? I mean with no real civil identity she could be doing loads of hero work...

Joker is not a good opponent, real or imagined for Diana. His "craziness" would merely annoy her and she would most likely make the executive decision to simply remove him entirely from the scene.

They could just reimagine some characters and creatures in Greek mythology. There are quite a few people, monsters, gods, and titans suffering eternally in Tartarus. The Greek gods smote/punished a lot of people, many of whom did not really deserve their fates. Not to mention how plenty of good people suffered horrible fates in Greek myth. All they need to do is rework some of these characters a bit and they can be great villains.

@SC said:

I think therein lies the interest in story possibilities with a clash? You know, just need the right writer to pit each characters strengths and weaknesses against each other? (not directly, but in ways that are even) Like include other characters into the scenario for Joker to manipulate. He could bring out a really nice philosophical side to Wondy as a character. One on one I agree with you, but putting any character up against a situation where their fists aren't adequate solutions? Where the enemy is faceless or worse the enemy is sort of humanity/peoples ignorance? Cool blog. I always wished Diana had a defined enemy that was so crazy they were almost sane were almost crazy were almost sane - but at her power level but with a twisted sense about them, and maybe an endearing sense about them? Like they were always kind to children and old people, but they also liked stealing buildings and leaving giant statues of themselves where the buildings were... uhm...

haha

@RazzaTazz said:

@difficlus: Yes Grodd is a good one. As for Diana I think it is implied that she does that, but an issue about her doing humanitarian work would not sell very well

it doesn't even have to be a whole issue. Like superman comics *hero patrolling and saving the day when...oh no so so enemy has arrived or..." something like that lol. or it could take a Fathom approach and bring in suspense where we know the crime but can't fathom the perpetrator we we know the perpetrator but can't fathom the crime (no puns intended) . That way it won't always be about going up and hitting someone. i think the new WW series in going on that hunch from the issue 1 i read. We know the perpetrator but can't fathom the crime.

I'm seeing a problem if an arc about superman trying to solve world hunger or Green Lantern forcibly bringing peace to the universe can sell well but one with Diana won't. :(

@RazzaTazz: btw you already know i don't really read WW so if i'm talking rubbish just don't mind me lol.

@RazzaTazz said:

@difficlus: Well that is where you are slightly wrong, I could track down as issue or two with Diana (but not with others) that actually shows her either doing that or thinking in her mind that she is on the way back from doing that. In fact I think it might be WW vol 3 issue 5, 6, or 7. So I guess for Diana she is one of the rare ones they show that for, but even for her they dont show it much. Not all heroes have her same attitude either

ok then you would know more =]

I think it has a lot to do with writer's hesitancy to give Diana weaknesses, which means that villains can only be a threat to her if they're of comparable power, thus leading to story problems down the road, because not every issue can be "Wonder Woman vs Genocide", the same way it can't always be "Superman vs Mongul".

If it could be done perhaps in a two issue story arc, then maybe. I still retain my original position that Diana would not allow the Joker to simply run rampant as Batman has for all these years, and would certainly not tolerate the body count he has been able to accumulate. What if the Joker had discovered the location of Themyscira and plotted a devastating attack ? How's that for a scenario ?

That's really not the Joker's style. Unless it's an Emperor Joker type story where one of the Greek gods tried to use him for their own purposes or where he steals the powers of some ancient artifact.

Way back when Joker took on Wonder Woman. It's a great story and though WW could hurl Joker into space, it shows that Joker can toe to toe with anyone because his brain makes him dangerous combined with chemicals, buzzers & toys!

Pretty sure Ares is her arch nemesis. She's all about peace and he's the freaking God of War. The problem with her villians is that they haven't really "crossed the line". Don't get me wrong they're evil, but they haven't cemented themselves as the bane of her existance. Look at Superman and Doomsday, the latter killed the former in what was one of the biggest comic plots of all time. Batman has Joker and Catwoman, Catwoman and him have this hate/love relationship and Joker has even gone so far as to kill one of the Robins. Besides that her villians need more face time. How often do you see large story arcs that encompass other characters (Batman, Superman. Flash, etc) that center around Diana? Look at all the major crossovers and tie-ins. Yes she maybe "featured", but that's it. DC wants to boosts her comic sales, but refuse to go the needed mile of actually making her seem like an important worthwhile character by putting her in the sidelines. Yeah she's the lone female in the group and there's the sexual tention that's always apparent and comical in every new incarnation and reboot of the JLA, but they need to probe deeper and make Di a more stand out character.

@RazzaTazz: I have a story idea about Diana, but it mght be too controversial to mention. I'm actually pretty excited about Diana's new origin (Being a child of Zues.) as it'll potentially give her something that I've thought she's always missed, which is a potential to grow when it comes to powers. Superman gets new powers, Batman upgrades his tech, Flash finds different ways to tap into and use the speedforce, Martian Manhunter even became Fernus for goodness sake, but Diana's powerset is stale and stagnant. She lacks vesatility and range. I'll be happy to see if she gets any other godly powers besides her standard setup.

@RazzaTazz: That might be useful, but let's be honest that's BORING! She needs better kickass weaponry or new powers. I really wanted the new power that the lasso showed during the Simone run to be further explained. Genocide used it and from what Diana said it seems she's always known it had this type of power, but refused to use it.

@RazzaTazz: This is a new age and a new Diana. It's time to make some changes in my book.