Wonder Woman and Orion's Kiss: What Does it Mean?

Warning: Spoilers ahead for Wonder Woman #19, out today.

Today's issue of Wonder Woman featured a much-publicized gatefold cover depicting a kiss between Wonder Woman and Orion, the son of Darkseid, who has been a supporting character in her book for about eight months now. This, of course, in spite of the fact that Wonder Woman is dating Superman and that Orion has been... ...well, less than respectful of Wonder Woman's personal space in the past. Of course, the immediate question on everyone's mind was, "Does she really kiss Orion?", followed by "What does this mean for her relationship with Superman?". Less tactful commenters on the story of the gatefold reveal asked whether Wonder Woman was going "full metal Andrea," a reference to the character on AMC's The Walking Dead who was attractive to powerful, dangerous men and acted on it more than once. Well, as you can see, kids, the kiss on the cover is not a dream, not a hoax, not an imaginary story...

...okay, well, it's kind of a hoax. It leads to a memorable confrontation between the two children of mighty gods that goes...somewhat differently than you'd expect. You can see it at right, in what's virtually guaranteed to take over a good chunk of the discussion forums for Christina Blanch's Gender Through Comics course. As far as superhero fights go, this one's neither particularly competitive (one might even call it one-sided) nor particularly exciting. But it gets the point across--arguably better than what happens next, although that (which we won't spoil) is a bit more dramatic and certainly promises more for the title's future. You know--it's pretty clear Orion isn't exactly an enlightened guy. Maybe getting brought to his figurative knees by a woman like this is why the New God feels the need to take some of his frustration out on Superman and Wonder Woman later this month.