Wonder Woman 1984: Who Is the Duke of Deception?

After a lot of hype and multiple release date delays, Wonder Woman 1984 finally made its debut over the weekend. The DC blockbuster has definitely been a topic of conversation amongst fans, as many try to process and decipher its various Easter eggs and plot threads. One surprisingly essential part of the plot involved the establishment of a mystical force in the DC universe -- and hinting that a long-running DC antagonist could be behind it. Spoilers for Wonder Woman 1984 below! Only look if you want to know!

A lot of the plot of Wonder Woman 1984 surrounds the Dreamstone, an artifact that makes its way to Diana Prince/Wonder Woman (Gal Gadot) and Barbara Minerva (Kristen Wiig) at the Smithsonian. While both initially assume that the stone is a cheap fake, Diana reads its inscription, which claims to have the ability to grant wishes. This sets off a snowball effect of people using the device to make a wish, which ranges from wishing for a coffee to wishing for more nuclear weapons.

Later on in the film, Diana, Barbara, and a newly-resurrected Steve Trevor (Chris Pine) track down a series of Mayan texts surrounding the Dreamstone -- and Diana quickly recognizes where it came from. She rattles off a number of names used for the creator of the Dreamstone -- Dechalafrea Ero, Dolos, Mendacius, and the Duke of Deception.

That last name might be noteworthy to DC fans, as the Duke of Deception is one of Diana's oldest villains in the comics. Created by William Moulton Marston and Harry G. Peter, and debuting in Wonder Woman #2, the Duke of Deception initially served as the propaganda officer for Ares, the God of War. The Duke of Deception had the ability to create illusions in the minds of others, change his physical appearance on a whim, and even invisibly influence the minds of politicians and military leaders. At the time, Marston conceived the Duke of Deception as a physical representation of how exploitative lies - especially with regards to misogyny and patriarchy - can be.

After a series of regular appearances in the 40s and 50s, the Duke of Deception got a bit of a rebrand, appearing across multiple comics in the Bronze Age as a standalone villain outside of Ares. Following the events of "Crisis on Infinite Earths", the Duke of Deception largely was regulated to sporadic cameos, both in the main continuity and in recent out-of-continuity comics such as Scooby-Doo Team-Up and The Legend of Wonder Woman.

While the reference to the Duke of Deception in Wonder Woman 1984 is relatively short, it does a great job of further building out Diana's rogues gallery, and of paying homage to some of her older villains in the comics. It also provides a pretty easy way to justify the villainy of Barbara and Maxwell Lord (Pedro Pascal), both of whom are seemingly reformed by the film's end.

What do you think of the Duke of Deception being name-dropped in Wonder Woman 1984? Share your thoughts with us in the comments below!