7 Great Things Tom King Has Done for Wonder Woman

It’s a good time to be a Wonder Woman fan. Absolute Wonder Woman has been an unstoppable juggernaut; while all of the Absolute books have been doing well, Absolute Wonder Woman is easily the most critically acclaimed. Meanwhile, over in the mainline DC books, Wonder Woman has gotten its first A-list team in years, with the book under the aegis of writer Tom King and artist Daniel Sampere. Wonder Woman can be a divisive book, but that doesn’t mean it doesn’t also deserve its flowers. King’s run on the book so far has made it one of the best DC books on the shelves for over a year, doing some amazing things with the character and her world.

King can be a controversial writer; not everyone enjoys his style of writing. However, it’s hard to deny just how well King has done with Wonder Woman. This is peak Wonder Woman, bringing in many of her greatest villains and allies, taking multiple parts of Wonder Woman’s past and modernizing them. These sevens things are the best part of King’s Wonder Woman, a run that will go down in history as a divisive masterpiece.

WARNING: Spoilers below for Tom King’s Wonder Woman

Making Steve Trevor Important Again

Steve Trevor is an important part of the Wonder Woman mythos that fell by the wayside for a long time. Trevor was the entire reason that Wonder Woman wanted to leave Themyscira/Paradise Island and was her connection to Man’s World and the United States. Over the years, Wonder Woman comics have gone in different directions and Trevor has been put on the shelf as these other aspects were explored. However, King’s Wonder Woman reminded everyone why the character was so important to Wonder Woman’s world.

King likes to give his characters a love interest, and Trevor fits the role in Wonder Woman brilliantly. Wonder Woman is the star of their relationship, but Trevor plays an important role in Wonder Woman’s battle with the Sovereign, doing everything he can from inside the U.S. military machine to help the woman he loves. Steve and Diana are a perfect couple throughout the run, which makes Trevor’s surprising death in issue #14 such a heartbreaking shot. King has made Trevor into a key part of Wonder Woman’s life again, and it will be interesting to see how that plays out over the years. Trevor may be dead, but King has given him a new lease on life.

The Sovereign

Wonder Woman’s villains don’t have the same cultural cache as Superman or Batman’s. This is partly the fault of DC itself; Superman and Batman have had movies, video games, and TV shows, so their worlds are more well-known than Wonder Woman’s. This is something of a tragedy — Wonder Woman has some excellent villains (more on them later), despite most people not knowing anything about them, and King has added another great villain to the fold with the Sovereign. Wonder Woman has, in many ways, become one of DC’s more patriotic heroes; her lover is a part of the military, her costume shares designs with the American flags, and she chose the U.S. as home because she believed in its ethos. The Sovereign, the secret king of America, is the perfect villain for her.

The Sovereign is a representation of everything wrong with the United States. He’s a vain misogynist/bigot who has been groomed to believe that he is the best and has all the power. He’s diametrically opposed to Wonder Woman in every way; their beliefs are incongruent, as are their attitude towards royalty. The Sovereign is King’s clever way of pointing out the problems with the United States while also adding something interesting to the mythos of DC’s United States. He’s an awesome villain, one who is quite different from just throwing Wonder Woman at a god or a monster, and gives King’s Wonder Woman a certain je nais se quois that the book is often missing.

Trinity

Wonder Woman fans were introduced to Trinity at the end of Wonder Woman #800, in the prequel to King and Sampere’s run. She’s Wonder Woman’s daughter and the prequel story sees her paying a visit to the imprisoned Sovereign to learn about the days of her birth. From there, the run has been a story told to her by the Sovereign, revealing her mother’s actions, the identity of her father, and how badly the Wonder family defeated the Sovereign. However, Trinity also got to play another role in King’s Wonder Woman.

Trinity started to get her own backup stories in Wonder Woman, written by King with art by Belen Sanchez. These stories co-starred Jon Kent and Damian Wayne as put-upon babysitters for the young and exuberant Trinity, giving readers amazing slice-of-life stories with the characters. They were funny and heartwarming, and the perfect dessert for a Wonder Woman comic that was getting pretty dark. Trinity is one of the best new characters created in the 2020s, and if DC plays their cards right with her, they can have a multimedia megastar.

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The Wonder Girls

Wonder Woman has some of the best sidekicks in the DC Multiverse, but they rarely get the credit they deserve. Donna Troy is one of DC’s original sidekicks and has anchored the Teen Titans, New Teen Titans, and Titans for decades. Cassie Sandsmark reminded everyone why Wonder Girl was an awesome idea in books like Young Justice and Teen Titans and deserved much better than she got post-New 52. Yora Flor is the new kid on the block, and the only one to get her own solo series, a very different kind of Wonder Girl that shined in her own ways.

King brought the Wonder Girls into the book and showed them working as a unit, which isn’t something that fans have often gotten. Each of them is extremely entertaining whenever they show up — Donna is the older sister, the wise, quiet leader of the trio. Cassie is the younger sister who is an exemplar of what a hero should be, and Yora is loud and dramatic in the best possible way. King has given everyone a blueprint for making the Wonder Girls work as a team, showing off their camaraderie and the foibles of their relationship, and giving them some entertaining feats.

The Villains

Tom King has always done a spectacular job with villains and Wonder Woman has been no different. While the Sovereign is definitely the main villain of the run, King has made sure to bring in Wonder Woman’s other villains as lackies for the main villain. Cheetah, Grail, Circe, Giganta, Silver Swan, and Doctor Psycho have all made appearances in the run, and have been involved in one of the coolest Wonder Woman action scenes ever — the battle at the Washington Monument.

It’s an amazing fight scene, showing off just how dangerous Wonder Woman’s villains can be. King also remembered to highlight the special relationship between Cheetah and Wonder Woman, pitting them against each other in an issue that sees them have a no-holds-barred battle that brings their rivalry — and friendship — to another level. King is also building Grail into a special threat to Wonder Woman, finally paying off their relationship and teasing an epic showdown to come. King gets Wonder Woman’s villains, and it will be great to see how he deals with them once the Sovereign story is over.

The Action

Wonder Woman is a character who is built for amazing action scenes. She’s one of the most skilled fighters in the DC Multiverse, and strength, speed, and durability are all top tier. Wonder Woman is a true titan, and King has shown that off multiple times throughout his run. Of course, the best battle in the run is the aforementioned battle at the Washington Monument. Wonder Woman battles against Silver Swan, Giganta, and Grail. It’s an exciting fight scene, one that keeps upping the ante over and over again. It’s the kind of issue that takes readers on a roller coaster ride, and seeing Wonder Woman throw the Washington Monument like a spear is an amazing Wonder Woman moment.

All of the action scenes in the run so far have been amazing. From seeing Wonder Woman run through the troops sent after her to her battles with her greatest foes, this has been one of the most exciting DC books in ages. The battle between Cheetah and Wonder Woman is also a highlight of the book, the two friends turned enemies ripping into each other before coming to an understanding built on the love that they’ve always had with each other. King’s action in Wonder Woman does it all, and that’s before even getting to the Wonder Girls and their own awesome battles in the run.

The Portrayal of Wonder Woman

Wonder Woman is a deceptively complex character. She can seem pretty simple at times, but there are layers and depths to her that make the character one of the best characters in the DC Multiverse. There’s a reason she’s spent decades as the greatest superheroine of them all, and King has done a brilliant job of showing off why fans have loved the character for so long.

King has done a fantastic job of digging into who Wonder Woman is throughout her run. He’s captured her power and her vulnerability, her love, and her hate. Wonder Woman is a warrior for peace, someone who always fights for those weaker than herself. She never allows the people in power to abuse those under them, which is a key part of this entire run. She is a warrior, yet she is also a woman, and that’s been a huge part of the book so far. King’s run shows off the best parts of the character and has added dimensions to her that weren’t there before. Sampere has played a huge role in this as well; King sets up the emotional stakes of every scene and Sampere brings them to life brilliantly. The naked emotion on display throughout the run has given readers one of the best Wonder Woman portrayals ever, investigating the nooks and crannies of Wonder Woman wonderfully.

What do you like most about King’s run on Wonder Woman? Let us know in the comments below!