Wonder Woman Is the MVP of the DCEU

The 2017 movie remains the best of the bunch.

DC movies appear to be headed for a reboot. Rumors abound, and I have no idea what to expect. But I do know that the brightest spot of the existing DC Extended Universe has been Wonder Woman.

The 2017 movie starts with clunky exposition and ends as a video game, but the long middle is fantastic. And Gal Gadot is to Wonder Woman as Christopher Reeve was to Superman. (Mild to moderate spoilers ahead.)

We should have had a big-screen Wonder Woman movie long ago, and Supergirl should not have reigned as the best female-led superhero movie for 33 years (it’s not as abysmal as its reputation, but I can’t exactly call it a good movie either).

Wonder Woman has enjoyed some success in television, primarily with the campy but fun ’70s series starring Lynda Carter. The early 2000s Justice League cartoon also demonstrated an excellent grasp of the character. While we never did get Wonder Woman: The Animated Series, the two-part Justice League episode “Maid of Honor” shows us what one might have looked like.

Still doesn’t excuse the lack of a movie, though.

Of DC’s big three, Wonder Woman has the most movie-friendly origin story and the one that most resembles the archetypal hero’s journey.

Superman and Batman have backstory origins. Superman was rocketed from a dying planet as a baby and raised to be a good person. Batman witnessed his parents’ murder as a child. There are plenty of stories to tell about their formative years, but their paths were set long ago. At some point, we skip ahead to when Clark Kent arrives in Metropolis, ready to begin as Superman, or to when Bruce Wayne returns to Gotham, ready to begin as Batman.

Wonder Woman’s origin story, however, is entwined with her earliest adventures.

Wonder Woman grew up in paradise, sheltered from the wider world, until one day pilot Steve Trevor crashes onto the island, where he obviously can’t stay, thus introducing a reason for Diana to leave the only home she’s ever known. However, her mother, the queen of the Amazons, insists that she remain. In most versions, a disguised Diana wins a contest for the honor of representing Themyscira in man’s world, though the movie just has her and Steve sneaking off in defiance of Hippolyta’s wishes. Then, Diana must adapt to a new-to-her world as she faces all sorts of perils and develops into a proper Wonder Woman. She usually journeys back to Themyscira at some point, at least briefly.

When DC Comics rebooted its continuity in the mid-1980s, they updated Superman’s and Batman’s origins in flashback stories. Superman had the Man of Steel miniseries while Batman had “Year One,” “Year Two,” and “Year Three.” The present-day storylines in the main series focused on the more experienced versions of the characters.

But Wonder Woman’s rebooted series, plotted and drawn by the great George Pérez, treated her as a “new” character who was only just then joining the broader DC Universe, where Superman, Batman, and others had already been active for several years. The earliest issues showed Wonder Woman’s origin story, and the earliest storylines showed her acclimating to man’s world.

This approach suited the Wonder Woman mythos, and it made the character more dynamic than if the book had skipped ahead to an already-established Wonder Woman. The Justice League cartoon depicted her in a similar way.

The details of her origin story change, but the basic shape remains, whether the story is set during World War I like the movie, World War II like the earliest comics and TV show, or the present era like the main ongoing comic book series usually is. One 21st-century update I don’t particularly care for (which the movie uses) is making Diana yet another of Zeus’s illegitimate children.

Originally, her mother sculpted her from clay, and the Greek gods infused her with life and power. This immaculate conception positioned her as the link between classical mythology and modern superhero mythology while keeping her unique among both groups. But now she’s just another demigod. I suppose that’s more “realistic,” as far as these things go, but merciful Minerva, we’re talking about Wonder Woman here.

That change isn’t a dealbreaker, though. The movie gets other, more important details right. A big one is allowing Diana to maintain some vulnerability throughout the movie. She’s plenty powerful, but she consistently comes across as much more human than demigod.

Diana enters man’s world as an innocent, and she believes that World War I is being caused solely by Ares, the god of war—because people can’t possibly be that bad on their own. This is a brilliant touch. It not only gives Diana an endearing naivety but also sets up an opportunity for growth later on when she learns that the world is not so simple. Granted, the movie undermines this by then having Ares show up for a CGI fight, but as I said earlier, it’s the middle of the movie that’s excellent, not the ending.

Within that excellent middle, the No Man’s Land scene shines. This is when Diana truly steps into the Wonder Woman role, and it’s on par with Superman’s debut in Superman: The Movie. But whereas Superman’s scene is pure whimsical delight, Wonder Woman’s benefits from a more grounded tone, greater emotional weight, and a sense of risk.

Pay attention to Gadot’s performance as she’s fighting her way across this battlefield. You can see her thinking strategically and monitoring her surroundings. She even flinches a little bit here and there. She shows effort. She’s not some cocky, invincible cartoon flicking off opponents with ease. That sliver of a smile at the 1:03 mark stems from the joy of realizing she has the power to help people; it’s not a smirk in which she revels at being more powerful than others. Victory is not a foregone conclusion. She’s tough, for sure, but she puts the work in.

In this movie, Wonder Woman is just about everything a top-tier superhero should be, with the right balance of strengths and flaws. She inspires people around her to be their best. In return, they inspire her.

As for the sequel, Wonder Woman 1984 … well, it’s not as bad as The Quest for Peace, but Gal Gadot’s Wonder Woman deserves a much better final outing.

If DC and Warner Bros. do proceed with a full reboot, I hope they resist the temptation to rehash the origin story so soon. As solid as that story is, it would be redundant at this point, just as the 2012 Amazing Spider-Man reboot felt redundant despite its different tone.

Personally, I’d rather see a DC Universe already in progress, sort of like how Batman: The Animated Series and the Justice League cartoon started off. Lesser-known characters can have their origin stories so newer fans can get acquainted with them. But virtually everyone knows the basics of Superman and Batman. And now, finally, they’ve filled in some gaps about Wonder Woman as well.