As a fan of DC comics since the mid-70s, I've seen Wonder Woman go through a lot of iterations. There was the era that focused on the Earth 2 Wonder Woman in wartime (in order to act as a companion TV show starring Lynda Carter), the standard super hero stuff, the George Perez reboot era and so on. I haven't been a fan of everything they've done with the character (Wonder Woman with a sword? Oh geez. No) but thrilled that she's still part of the "big 3".
During lockdowns, Wonder Woman was a book I bought for reasons that mystify even me. I've been in the habit to pick up only a very few (like 4) titles over the past decade or so and while I don't know that Wonder Woman was written any better or worse than other titles but for some reason I found myself ordering it from my local comic shop. It's possible that my partner, who doesn't read comics, found the story of Wonder Woman's creator interesting and that led us to get the first volume of the Golden Age archives (and, later, the second and third volumes as well). Further, the "Wonder Woman Black and Gold" series was top notch writing and those live on my bookshelf along with other special comics and comics related books.
When I heard about the new direction that writer Tom King was going to take the Amazon Princess, I balked at continuing. The premise was that Wonder Woman was going to be 'on the run' from the government. Quite honestly, I have always found this trope to wear out its welcome quickly.
But, I have to say, that Wonder Woman 800 hooked me into the idea and the introduction of her daughter from the future, Trinity, was a masterstroke of storytelling. I've picked up subsequent issues and while some of the narration is excessively arch (another trope that has worn out its welcome quickly), the quality of the writing and the art overcomes it. The interaction with the "Wonder Woman family" was quite brilliant.
As a side note, one of the (many) never ending problems from the mid 80s Crisis was that if Wonder Woman was fresh to the DC Universe in 1986 or so, how could there be a Wonder Girl? At first, Wonder Girl was just portrayed as a younger version of Wonder Woman. Then, when the company was putting together a team of 'junior heroes", Wonder Girl became a separate character - a baby Wonder Woman had rescued from a fire and raised on Paradise Island. Later iterations went in some strange directions but it seems as though we're back to the version where Wonder Girl was a baby that WW rescued from a fire and subsequently had raised on Paradise Island. I think. Some times it's hard to keep up with the retcons. :)
I haven't even gone into the brilliance of future toddler Trinity being babysat by Superman's son, Jon, and Batman's son, Damien. This is some truly amazing comic book writing. I fully expect that DC will somehow bring Trinity into the present, or do the unthinkable, and lurch the entire company 20 years into the future. In either case, in just a few short months, writer Tom King has managed to create an entirely new character from scratch - one that has this reader clamoring for 'more'!
