Wonder Woman Once Beat The Entire Justice League

Wonder Woman may be one of the most compassionate heroes in the DC Universe, but that doesn’t mean anyone should underestimate her. She’s an expert fighter trained from birth, and in the past Wonder Woman has taken on some of the most powerful characters in all of DC. Being such a seasoned warrior, Diana of Themyscira has the determination to risk her life for the greater good. You could even say that Wonder Woman’s greatest strength isn’t her battle prowess but her willingness to sacrifice herself and put her own safety on the line for others. Which is why she was even willing to fight her fellow Justice League members in order to save them from certain doom.

Six hundred years in the past, a group of European knights fought and cornered an evil dragon named Drakul Karfang. Unable to kill the beast, they sealed it away inside a cave, where it remained trapped until the day it was fated to escape its prison alongside an army of goblins. This is the basic premise of JLA: A League of One a 2001 one-shot (by Christopher Moeller) that fully showcased Wonder Woman’s power as a hero and her willingness to sacrifice herself for others. While on her home island of Themyscira, Wonder Woman hears a prophecy from an Oracle about Drakul and is told that the Justice League is fated to slay the dragon, but they will all be killed in the process. Not wanting to see her closest friends die, Diana decides to cheat the prophecy; she will defeat all of her fellow Justice Leaguers so that she can be the only member of the JLA left. Therefore, Wonder Woman will be the only hero that has to die.

Wonder Woman knew that the other League members wouldn’t let her fight the dragon alone, so she devises a plan to separate the League with a fake emergency so she can take them out one by one. It’s similar to Batman’s own contingency plans for taking down the league that was showcased in JLA: Tower of Babel. Her plan succeeds in taking out most of the Justice League until there’s only one other hero left standing: Superman.

Unlike the rest of the league, Superman is able to match Wonder Woman in a fight. At this point, Superman has realized the dragon is rampaging through Switzerland and insists that he fight it alongside Diana. Realizing that she might lose this battle, Wonder Woman pulls another trick and convinces Superman to go save the rest of the League so she can fight Drakul by herself.

Wonder Woman finally heads off to confront Drakul and his minions, and when she does the monster is just as fearsome as the prophecy foretold. After a fierce battle, Diana is finally able to bind the dragon with her lasso of truth, and is able to kill him despite being gravely injured in the process. Wonder Woman dies in the aftermath of the fight, but in a surprise twist Superman is able to restart her heart and bring her back to life. True to the prophecy, the entire Justice League did die in battle with the Dragon, because at the time Wonder Woman was the only member of the League left. The story turns the usually badass idea of one member taking down their entire team on its head, giving Diana the appropriate props for her combat skills, but also focusing on those qualities that make her such a hero. While she learned that even the greatest heroes can’t do everything on their own, the story reifies the idea that Wonder Woman could defeat the entire Justice League, but she’d only ever do it to save them.