Power Couple

If you’re not a comic book fan you may not be aware of this but Superman and Wonder Woman are dating. Yes, as I, and many others saw right on the cover of Justice League #12, The Man of Steel and the Amazonian Princess are making out in mid air. And as far as I am concerned, it is about time.

Outside of perhaps the odd lonely fanboy’s daydream (guilty), Wonder Woman and Superman have never gotten together. Not in continuity at least. There have been the odd Elseworld tale where in some future world or alternate reality the two heroes have hooked up. But as far as established continuity, these two heroes have always inhabited the friend zone.

And it seems odd that it has taken so long to get these two kids together. As I summed up in a previous entry (see here), these two heroes have so much in common. They both represent the ultimate example of a male and female hero. Just as so many heroes try to emulate Superman (see here), so many heroines use Wonder Woman as their primary archetype.

There can be many arguments why Superman and Wonder Woman had not gotten together before this issue. The two characters have always been portrayed as having strong love interests in their own respective titles. Superman has long been linked with reporter Lois Lane while Wonder Woman has war hero pilot Steve Trevor. And even when Superman and Lois were separated their always seemed to be a Lana Lang (Clark’s HS girlfriend) or a Lori Lemaris (his college girlfriend, who was also a mermaid) or a brief flirtation with Maxima (intergalactic princess who wanted Supes to be her baby daddy). Wonder Woman never seemed to be a romantic option.

And Wonder Woman certainly was not sitting around pining for Superman when she no longer was dating Steve Trevor. Wonder Woman has been associated with several male suitors, including Batman. Yes, in both the comics and on the TV show Justice League Unlimited, Batman and Wonder Woman were an item. Personally I consider going from dating Batman to Superman to be a step down, but that’s just my opinion.

But if Wonder Woman and Batman could work, why did it take so long for Wonder Woman and Superman to happen? Certainly Superman is more emotionally available than Batman. Maybe it just confirms the whole “Bad boy” theory. Superman is the well-mannered mid-western guy and Batman is the emotionally tortured socialite. There is an air of danger to Batman that would be attractive to women and Wonder Woman is no exception.

 

I’m probably the last person who should be writing about relationships (fictional or otherwise) but I hope that this storyline is not short lived.  So often such relationships are quickly dismissed in comics and forgotten about as soon as a writer leaves or changes his whimsy. But I am hoping that we see the relationship between Wonder Woman and Superman evolve and progress overtime. How will this relationship affect the rest of the Justice League? Will one of them cheat with a former flame? These are questions I hope to see answered in the coming months and maybe even years.