Wonder Woman’s Dark Reboot Revealed Why the Amazons Hated Her

While current depictions of Wonder Woman tend to treat her as Themyscira’s favorite daughter, beloved by the Amazons, her New 52 stories revealed that many of her contemporaries actually hated her, and all thanks to her origin story. Princess Diana’s legend of being sculpted from clay became a form of mockery and ridicule among her Amazon sisterhood, making her feel inhuman and different among those she trained and fought alongside. Even when she returned to Themyscira years later as Wonder Woman, old habits began to resurface as the Amazons’ iconic representative was seen as being responsible for ruining paradise.

In Wonder Woman’s classic origin story, the infertile Queen Hippolyta sculpts a child out of clay and the gods take pity on her by breathing life into it, Hippolyta waking up to find a baby girl in her arms. Thanks to her Amazonian training and her god-given superpowers, Diana juggled the responsibility of being a warrior and a princess. When she was old enough, the outside world appeared on their shores and Diana left her people to explore the world of man, acting not only as the heroine Wonder Woman but also as a diplomatic representative of the Amazons. Although this origin was modified and updated throughout the years, the biggest changes came in DC’s company-wide New 52 reboot in 2011. Creators Brian Azzarello and Cliff Chiang sought to redefine and update Wonder Woman’s backstory, identity, and personal relationships for a contemporary audience, and one of the biggest changes was rewriting her classic origin as a lie to cover up Diana’s true nature.

In the New 52, Wonder Woman’s origin story is known to the people of Themyscira, but acceptance doesn’t come easily. Amazons like Aleka considered Diana to be a freak, calling her names like “Clay” behind closed doors or even to her face in the heat of battle. The miracle of her creation is made into something that separates Diana from her sisters, a disconnect that continues years later when Diana is known to the world as Wonder Woman. When she returned to Paradise Island seeking sanctuary for her latest allies, she is welcomed warmly by her mother, but others are less than thrilled. When the goddess Stryfe’s presence causes the death of some of the Amazons, some of the survivors blame Diana for their deaths, believing her presence attracting the unwanted wrath of the gods and contaminates their paradise.

The Amazons’ isolation and xenophobia may have supposedly created an idyllic society, but Azzarello and Chang highlighted that the worst traits of humanity can poison even the most perfect places. Diana suffered ridicule and judgement from her peers despite experiencing no special treatment or privilege while training. She was considered inferior and thus weak, an idea that apparently awakened when Diana returned to Themyscira. Although her people celebrated, childhood rival Aleka couldn’t help challenging their princess, declaring her time in the world of men had made her soft.

Although Diana proved herself the same level of mighty warrior, her entire world shattered when she learned of her real status as the child of Hippolyta and Zeus. She took this particularly hard because not only did her mother lie to her, but she also said nothing while she suffered rejection and humiliation from her people because of that lie, even if it was told to protect her from the legendary wrath of Zeus’ wife Hera.

Azzarello and Chang sought to balance Diana’s previous history with her new direction, exposing a dark underbelly of lies, conspiracy, and truth that radically changed the famous heroine’s life and view of the world. When Aleka tried to rally support against Diana, an angry and guilty Wonder Woman declared she was neither clay nor a princess but rather something much more powerful than either: Wonder Woman. Now, with DC’s Infinite Frontier bringing past stories such as the New 52 back into continuity, it’s possible Diana will once again be inspired by the lie that made her sister Amazons hate her as a child.

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