Is Wonder Woman Invulnerable?

Judging from the comics, cartoons and TV show, one would assume that along with being incredibly strong, Wonder Woman is also invulnerable. I however have a theory that she may not be as strong as previously perceived.

One of the most popular characteristics of Wonder Woman are her magic bracelets. These bracelets were a gift from the goddess Athena and are indestructible. Famously Wonder Woman has been seen using these bracelets to deflect away bullets. This has been portrayed in the comic books, the cartoon shows and the famous live action TV show many many times. It’s one of the major visual gags associated with the character.

But my question is “Why?” Why does someone need to deflect bullets if they are already bulletproof? When Superman, another famed invulnerable character, is shot, he merely stands there and allows the bullets to bounce harmlessly off his chest. He doesn’t use his cape or some other object to deflect them away. In fact in the movie Superman Returns (not the best but not the worst super-hero movie), a bank robber shoots Superman directly in the eye and it bounces off him harmlessly. That should concretely establish Superman’s invulnerability considering that most of us scratch and cry if we get so much as a speck of dust in our eye.

But Wonder Woman needs to deflect the bullets with her bracelets. She needs to place pieces of enchanted metal between her and any other part of her body and the bullets. This leads me to the conclusion that Wonder Woman must not be bulletproof. That or she is just a show off. Also, it seems just in general great leaps have been made to make Wonder Woman weaker than her male counterparts.

The closest male equivalent to Wonder Woman would be Superman. In reality, Wonder Woman was created to be a super hero that would appeal to women the way Superman appeals to men. Two invulnerable heroes. But that’s not completely true. Superman has a weakness. A weakness that is so famous that the very word has become synonymous in our society for meaning a person’s fatal flaw. Kryptonite.

And like Superman, Wonder Woman also has a weakness that renders her powers ineffective. But while Superman’s weakness is a rare piece of his home planet, Wonder Woman’s is much more pedestrian. She has to have her bracelets bound together. That’s it. If someone can tie Wonder Woman up so her bracelets are touching, her powers disappear. And before you say that this must be an impossible feet, it happened in the comics a lot.

But let it never be said that I do not hold some high regard for Wonder Woman. While I do question her invulnerability, I do believe she is one of the toughest heroes in the DC Universe. Man or Woman. In fact, even without Kryptonite, I think Wonder Woman could probably mop the floor with Superman.

For all his amazing powers and abilities, Superman is not a fighter. That is, he has no formal training with fighting techniques. Usually just one punch is enough to take out a villain so you don’t really need to know any strategies or techniques. But Wonder Woman was raised in a warrior culture. The Amazons can fight and they’ve been perfecting their fighting for hundreds of years. Plus, not only does Wonder Woman come from a society of fighters but in order for her to earn the right to come to “Man’s World” she had to prove she was the BEST fighter in that society.

There is also the matter of Wonder Woman and Superman’s origins and power source to take into account. Superman’s powers come from his Kryptonian physiology being affected by the rays of our yellow sun (initially it was a combination of the sun and earth’s gravity that gave him his powers but that has since been retconned away). Wonder Woman however gets her powers from the ancient Greek Gods. Essentially her powers are magic. Now for some reason it has been established in the comics that Superman is weak when it comes to magic. They never completely explain it, but my theory is that magic is just a type of energy and Superman has the potential to absorb energy very efficiently but magic is just not combatable with his physiology. It’s kind of the same reason I think why Kryptonite affects him but is relatively harmless to everyone else.

So after careful examination I think the question can be answered. Is Wonder Woman invulnerable? No. Does that make her any less of a character? Also no. In fact, in a way, her being less powerful than her male counterparts shows how strong she really is because she can still hold her own facing the same threats.