These days, Wonder Woman is seen as an icon for empowered women. In her own movie, played by actress Gal Gadot, Wonder Woman is a warrior who believes in the power of love instead of hate and who is willing to fight with all of her fury to protect those who cannot protect themselves. (Yes, I'm aware that sounds kind of ironic.) Judging from Wonder Woman's success, that message resounded with many people. I was not immune to the power of seeing a strong woman kick behind as a super hero on the big screen myself. You don't realize what you've been missing until it's right in front of you.

However, despite thoroughly enjoying her movie, I was never drawn to Wonder Woman in the comics or anywhere else. A couple of episodes of Lynda Carter's portrayal of Wonder Woman on television couldn't grab my attention either. And after revisiting these versions of Wonder Woman, I can see why I distanced myself from them. They're completely messed up and do not even connect with the Wonder Woman we see these days! (Note: Recent Wonder Woman comics have the tough-as-nails Amazon we can all recognize. But earlier Wonder Woman comics show her as a weak link whose biggest struggle is being tied up by men.)

Nonsensical moments in Wonder Woman's career have plagued her since her very origin. Some of these moments you will recognize from her recent portrayal in theaters. Others may come as a bit of a shock to you. Read on if you want to know about some of the weirder, darker, and sillier facts about Wonder Woman and her past.

25 Submit To Me

Not many know much about the people behind our favorite comic book heroes. The one exception to this is Stan Lee, and that's because he constantly has cameos in the movies his comic books have inspired. Not a lot of people could probably tell me who Wonder Woman's creator was. His name was William Moulton Marston, and he was...eccentric? He had a wife and a polyamorous life partner as well, and the three of them lived in the same house with all four of their children. Yeah, that's the man who created Wonder Woman. Sensuous, albeit deviant, behavior occasionally made its way onto the panels of Wonder Woman's comic books. Over time, these perverse undertones have disappeared entirely or they have been altered.

A good example of this is the change to one of Wonder Woman's most symbolic items of clothing. In the movie, Wonder Woman's bracelets symbolize strength, and when Wonder Woman crosses her wrists in front of her chest, we know she means business. It might shock you to know that these bracelets were once called her Bracelets of Submission. I'm telling you, I wish I was joking, but I'm not. All Amazons wore these things as a reminder of their former subjugation to Hercules. True, they were used as a means to deflect bullets, which is cool. But it was also said that if a man welded chains to these Bracelets and bound the Amazon wearing them, the Amazon would lose her strength. Guess what was the number one way to defeat Wonder Woman in combat. Go on, guess.

24 Just Keep Swimming

I have a love/hate relationship with old comic book cheesiness. More often than not, I find myself loving it. Who doesn't like the idea of seeing your heroes in ridiculous situations? Other times, the sheer absurdity becomes an affront to my sensibilities. A good example of this occurs in Superman IV: The Quest for Peace. Superman rebuilds the Great Wall of China with his eyes. No, it has never been stated before this that Superman has wall-building vision.

Wonder Woman is not immune to this hilarity.

At one point, Wonder Woman has to dive underwater on a mission. (Dang, I hate those water levels.) While she is a super-human, she still has human failings such as not being able to breathe underwater. Never fear, comic book readers. Apparently, Amazon scientists figured out a way to graft gills on Wonder Woman's neck. They only appear when she needs them, and they function the way a fish's gills would. What kind of scientists do they have on Paradise Island?! (Note: Themyscira, home of the Amazons, was originally known as Paradise Island.) Why would these scientist think it so necessary to graft gills onto Wonder Woman's neck? Clearly, DC must be ashamed of these former inanities, so magically-appearing gills are no longer one of Wonder Woman's skills. So don't think you can crack open a modern-day Wonder Woman comic and find Wonder Woman swimming along without a care in the world.

23 Dude, Where's My Jet?

How? Just how? One of the things I could never wrap my head around was how and why Wonder Woman owned an invisible jet. She was princess of the Amazons, a tribe of sword-wielding, arrow-shooting warrior-women. They rode horses on a regular basis for crying out loud. What was Wonder Woman doing operating a piece of heavy machinery? Where did she learn how to pilot a plane? In earlier story-lines, Wonder Woman couldn't fly by herself. She could only use the winds to glide around for a bit, so if there was not a hint of a breeze, Wonder Woman would find herself landlocked.

As such, she needed a mode of transportation to take herself long distances.

She built herself an invisible plane that could get the job done. As the times a-changed, her invisible plane became an invisible jet, and it even learned to become sentient. I guess the writers of Wonder Woman realized how nonsensical it was for her to own and operate a jet so two things changed. One, Wonder Woman gained the ability to simply fly like Superman, and two, the plane started to appear less and less in the comics. I find the fact that Wonder Woman even owned a plane absurd. But the fact that it was also an invisible plane makes the situation even more unbelievable.

22 From Domination To Patriotism

In many of the early issues of Wonder Woman, we can see where her creator's proclivities reveal themselves. In one particularly revealing issue, Wonder Woman has to confront corrupt businessmen who do not believe in assisting with the war effort. They would rather see their businesses fall to the ground than to use the facilities of their industry to help American soldiers. Upset by their selfishness, Wonder Woman binds up the most troublesome of the lot, Ivan Torgson, and makes him submit to her and his wife. The two women force him into a typical relationship until he agrees to be a willing participant in these activities.

It gets to be more than a little weird with all of the bondage that goes on, but that wasn't even the end of it. Wonder Woman implements this practice with all of the businessmen who refuse to do their duty to their country. They all end up calling her mistress and agree to help in the war effort. Wonder Woman basically used this to make these men patriots. I suppose there are worse ways to get people to help out during times of national trouble, but I really wish that Wonder Woman's creator would have been a tad more private about his own affairs when penning down Wonder Woman's story.

21 Right In The Taco

Most of us took summer jobs when we were in high school, and I am willing to bet that not all of these jobs were pleasant. It is simultaneously comforting and disturbing to find out that not even our heroes are exempt from taking on odd jobs when they are running a little low on cash. Wonder Woman finds herself in a position where she needs to earn a living for herself, so she gets a job at the local Taco Whiz. Taco Whiz is a chain of fictional restaurants that serve (obviously) tacos to the general public. That's right, folks.

Wonder Woman once worked at a veritable taco stand.

When Diana was looking for employment, she couldn't find anyplace that accepted super hero-ing as prior work experience, so Taco Whiz was the only place that could accept her. Are you serious? Wonder Woman is clearly a strong woman who can lift things no one else can, fly, punch walls, and owns a Lasso of Truth. Are you telling me that people were not leaping after her in order to hire her? Taco Whiz was the best she could do? I refuse to accept that no one thought she was worth hiring. Even if they only hired her based on her fame alone, someone should have sought Wonder Woman for employment. Only a serious fool would have let Wonder Woman slip through their fingers. But I guess in the comic book world, there are a ton of foolish employers.

20 The Trials Of Trevor

One of my personal pet peeves when it comes to comic books is the lack of permanence regarding the demise of characters. Biting the big one has become a mere tool that comic book writers use to spice up the story. Because of that, sacrifices that our heroes make feel cheapened. It's no longer a question of whether or not somebody is going to survive. After a hero's passing, we all wonder how they're going to be brought back. Not even side characters are immune to this trend. Steve Trevor has long been one of Wonder Woman's closest friends  and confidantes. He was the human who discovered her on Paradise Island and brought her to the rest of the world. His importance to Diana has made him ripe material for upping the drama in her stories.

Whenever he perishes, Diana is always distraught, and it really ramps up the tension. In the Silver and Bronze Age (of comic books), Steve Trevor's life ended twice, and each time he was brought back. (It helps when your love interest has connections to Greek deities.) In The New 52, a rebooted continuity of the DC Universe, Steve Trevor is turned into a vampire (which is a kind of perishing, if you think about it). In the recent movie, Steve Trevor also gives up his life in order to stop the Germans from releasing a poisonous gas over the world. I can only wonder if he'll somehow be magically brought back to life now.

19 She Blinded Me With Sighs

Similar as to how heroes who sacrifice their lives to save many are brought back with little to no consequences, so too are drastic wounds reversed in order to maintain the status quo. (A little warning here: I'm going to sound like I want Wonder Woman to be blind.) In the comics, Medusa challenges Wonder Woman to a fight. As all of us who learned a bit about Greek mythology already know, Medusa is this snake-haired woman so horrifying to behold that her gaze can turn you into stone. In order to fight her, Wonder Woman dons a helmet with a visor that covers her eyes completely. During the course of the fight, Medusa pulls off Wonder Woman's helmet and tries commanding her to look into her eyes.

Rather than risk following Medusa orders, Wonder Woman grabs a snake that she had sliced off of Medusa's head and squeezes some of its venom into her eyes, thereby blinding her and making it impossible for Medusa's gaze to affect her. It was a truly awesome moment that showcased how far Wonder Woman was willing to go to protect other people. No hesitation was shown at all; there was no pause after she picked up that snake. But her sacrifice is reversed when she is given her sight back. Come on, DC! You can't even make blindness permanent, let alone the effects of the Grim Reaper.

18 English Language Learners

This nonsensical sin can be laid at the feet of Wonder Woman, the recent movie that came out in the summer of 2017. It's a problem that many writers for Wonder Woman have had to contend with, but the movie handled it in an illogical, albeit understandable, manner. When we meet the Amazons on Themyscira, we learn right off the bat that they are remnants of ancient Greek culture. They worship Athena and Artemis, and they believe in the existence of Ares, the God of War.

If that's the case, why are they speaking English to each other?

Obviously, a lot of movie-goers speak English, and clearly the filmmakers wanted their audience to understand what was going on. But see, if that was what they intended, they should not have brought up the language issue at all. As soon as a movie acknowledges the unreality of having foreign cultures speaking English, they are liable to being queried on it, just as I'm doing now. When Steve Trevor shows up on Themyscira, Diana mentions to him that they have learned to speak many languages. English is just one of the ones they have picked up. Why have they all settled on speaking English? And don't get me started on the Germans speaking German-accented English to each other even when they're plotting among themselves.

17 You Ain't Never Had A Friend Like Me

Oof. Every comic book hero has some skeletons in their closet. A lot of those skeletons are downright embarrassing. For some reason, comic book executives thought it would be a good idea to begin telling the stories of their iconic heroes when they were younger. We're not talking about the teenage years either; we're talking about toddler heroes. Enter Wonder Tot, a very young Wonder Woman complete with a diminutive stature and a little ponytail. And she was actually called Wonder Tot in case you were wondering. If you're not face-palming right now, there's something wrong with your cringe meter.

But wait, it gets even worse.

Wonder Tot had a pal who she would go on adventures with, and this buddy was named Mister Genie. I'm sorry if your face is getting all red from slamming it down onto a table in embarrassment. Wonder Tot seems to be a pretty troublesome friend to poor Mister Genie. More often than not, in her eagerness to solve mysteries and subdue bad guys, she seems to get Mister Genie into spots of trouble that he then has to use his magic to get the two of them out of. Despite the shudder-inducing absurdity of this era of Wonder Woman, I highly recommend you read some of these issues. It will really give you a deeper appreciation for the Wonder Woman we have now.

16 Bat Love

The three pillars upon which DC's house has been built are Superman, Batman, and Wonder Woman. (Though arguably, Batman is the pillar that supports most of the weight these days.) These founding heroes have gone on many the adventure together, including the abominable adventure that is romance. We've seen hints of sparks between Bruce and Diana in the Justice League cartoon, but the comics took it a mighty step further when they had Batgirl and Wonder Woman competing for Batman's affections. What is so strange is comparing those comics to the comics we see now.

The idea of Barbara Gordon and Diana fighting each other over Bruce is laughable.

But, unfortunately, this is part of Wonder Woman's history. One of Batman's villains thinks to defeat Batman when Batman is distracted, and the perfect opportunity presents itself when two of Batman's co-workers begin arguing over him. Little does the villain know that Batgirl and Wonder Woman's argument is a ruse to draw him out. It doesn't end there though. Batgirl and Wonder Woman end up having the same argument for real at the worst possible time. Poor Batman has to reconcile the two women and get them focused on the job at hand. Ugh, the whole thing was just insulting, not just to women, but to comic books too.

15 The Glorified Receptionist

Nothing makes me appreciate the warrior we know as Wonder Woman today as much as seeing how she was treated in old comic books. The submission thing aside, Wonder Woman was relegated to the sidelines whenever she fought alongside the big boys. The Justice Society of America granted Wonder Woman the honor of having her become an honorary member of the JSA. Her role in the group was to be the secretary. I can't even begin to express how disgusted I am with this. Nothing against secretaries, but this is Wonder Woman we're talking about here. She can bench-press planes if she wants to. I think that earns her a higher position on the team than the mother-flubbing secretary.

Plus, it's kind of insulting that she's only an "honorary" member of the JSA. To be an honorary member of anything, it means that you earned your spot within an organization without having the usual qualifications necessary for joining. What qualifications is Wonder Woman missing?! A Y chromosome, perhaps? To add lemon on the wound, Wonder Woman always expressed how grateful she was to be on the team as their secretary. And, whenever the men went off to fight, she would always be the one to stay behind, happy with her place behind the reception desk.

14 Bullet Time

It is a typical occurrence, both in the past and now, to have Wonder Woman deflect bullets with her bracelets (her Bracelets of Submission, if you recall). It's her thing. Some gunman approaches her menacingly and fires his weapon at her. With a determined expression set on her face, Wonder Woman raises her wrists and her metal bracelets ping the bullets back towards her opponent, who is now observing Wonder Woman in dismay. We have seen all of this before. But you know, it just doesn't make any sense. The bracelets have such a tiny surface area compared to the rest of her body. All the people who have ever fired on her before can't all be aiming at her wrists, can they?

Hasn't anyone ever tried to aim for her legs?

Are her reflexes so great that she can move her arms faster than a speeding bullet? In Wonder Woman, Germans in trenches were firing rapid-fire machine guns all over her, and yet she was just swiping her arms up and down to deflect the bullets. Are you telling me not one bullet managed to graze her unprotected thighs? Those bracelets (always remember that they're called the Bracelets of Submission) might look really nifty and they might lend themselves well to iconic arms-crossed-in-front-of-your-face poses, but they should not be considered practical tools of defense. Logically speaking, of course.

13 The Mega Flashback

The Wonder Woman movie was, in essence, one giant flashback. We had first met Diana Prince in Batman v. Superman: Dawn of Justice. (No matter how many times I say it or write it down, I'm still cringing over that title.) Diana had clearly not revealed herself as Wonder Woman to the world at large yet, even though she had made a fairly public appearance in World War I. It took Lex Luthor and the creation of Doomsday to pull her back out of her shell again. While hiding under the pseudonym of Diana Prince, Wonder Woman had clearly worked her way to a top-notch job, seeing as how she got herself invited to a party thrown for Lex Luthor and she had access to fancy gowns.

But how did she get to this position?

At the end of Wonder Woman, she was still, as far as we know, unused to the ways of humans, and she had no one to help her get along with society with Steve Trevor gone. In fact, no one knew that she was an Amazon from Themyscira except for her war buddies. Did they help her hide her true nature? I find it hard to swallow that Diana was able to assume a completely mortal identity so easily for so long. It would be easier to comprehend if there was at least some explanation for how she went from naive warrior to clandestine museum curator. Instead, we're left to drawn our own conclusions, and I can only conclude that it makes no sense.

12 I Do (Not)

Steve Trevor and Wonder Woman's relationship is almost as iconic as Lois Lane and Superman's. It sometimes feels that no Wonder Woman comic series can be complete without at least one Steve Trevor appearance. You might assume that their relationship is all sunshine and daisies given how in love with each other they are, but it's not without its trials and tribulations. In the early comic books, Steve was eager to get Wonder Woman to marry him so that they could settle down. Wonder Woman kept telling him she couldn't marry him until there was peace and justice around the world. (If you think about it, that's kind of like a negative answer. Oh gosh, I sound pessimistic about the world, don't I?)

At one point, Steve got fed up with her semi-refusals, so he took her lasso and wrapped it around her and forced her to marry him. Oh, hold up a second. Did I forget to mention that her Lasso of Truth used to be the Lasso of Obedience? (It goes with her Bracelets of Submission.) That's right. And Steve used this lasso against her and tried to compel her to marry him against her will. Afterwards, she regains control of herself and Steve releases his hold on her lasso, but despite this egregious affront to her free will, the two of them just chuckle over the whole affair and the story ends. There's not even a little bit of annoyance on Wonder Woman's part.

11 More Than A Belt

There's nearly nothing better than when two heroes team up together for a short time in order to accomplish parallel goals. Even if it is for a one-shot story, it's always fun to see the new interactions that you don't normally get to witness. Wonder Woman gets to team up with Orion, son of Darkseid who has turned hero. However, I wouldn't be so quick to call Orion a pure hero. He has a streak of misplaced rage and cockiness that prevent him from being the pinnacle of heroism. When he and Wonder Woman team up to find a missing child, he decides to give Wonder Woman's rear a hearty slap (complete with sound effect lettering).

Wonder Woman is about to go ballistic on him, but she's prevented by some nearby civilians. Despite being that kind of guy, Orion and Wonder Woman still continue along on their journey to find the missing kid, and by the end of the issue, they're more or less on amiable terms. Exsqueeze me, but what?! You can't just present Orion as an all-around cool dude after a stunt like that. He disrespected Wonder Woman! In another separate issue, he disrespects her as well, but this time, she approaches him and threatens to rip off certain parts of his body that he might not want to lose if he disrespects her again. See, now there's the reaction I was looking for the other time.

10 Bringing Her Back

Steve Trevor is not the only one who has paid short visits to an "eternal" rest. Wonder Woman herself has dabbled with being not alive as well. The manner of her demise has varied from fatal encounter to fatal encounter. Her form has been reverted back into the clay she came from by Circe, an evil sorceress who has plagued Wonder Woman relentlessly. She has also perished in a fight with the forces of Apokolips, in a gloriously tragic battle in which most of our heroes also meet their doom. In each instance where Wonder Woman has been dealt a "mortal blow," she has recovered shortly thereafter. I talked about this earlier in the entry about Steve Trevor's constant resurrections, but it's not just his problem.

It's everywhere in the DC universe.

It is as if DC has forgotten how to raise the stakes without putting one of their characters in an early grave. There should be different ways in which to heighten tension without having Steppenwolf stroll over and stab a sword through your chest. I would hate for this kind of thing to translate over to the movie versions of DC heroes. Oh...right. Superman has already passed away and come back once. Well, cat is out of the bag. Might as well just slaughter all of your heroes if you're just going to resurrect them, right?

9 Help Is On The Way

If I was ever in danger and super heroes existed in the world, I would want them to assist me as quickly as possible. Most of our regular superheroes can fly or they have super speed. Both of these abilities negate the problem that is traffic congestion. Some versions of Wonder Woman can fly, so having her rescue me wouldn't be a problem for them. Other versions of her have the Invisible Jet at their disposal. I assume that coming to my aid in a plane would also be rather speedy. But you know which Wonder Woman I wouldn't want to rescue me? The television version. Why? Well, for one reason, her Kryptonite is chloroform, and she goes down faster than a limp noodle.  For a second reason, she might pull out that awful skateboard again.

While trying to rescue a young girl from some baddies in a car, Wonder Woman does her outfit-changing spin and dons some skateboard gear (appropriately colored to match her costume). And then she skateboards after the girl's captors. What never made any sense about Lynda Carter's Wonder Woman is how she was able to spin around and magically change her clothes. What I also don't understand is how Wonder Woman knows how to use a skateboard. I guess if you can fly a plane you can ride a skateboard.

8 Putting The Kick In Sidekick

The stories behind most sidekicks is that these young people desperately want to help their favorite heroes, so they attach themselves to their adult counterparts and assist them in their fight against crime. Robin helps Batman in this way, Bucky helps Captain America in this way, and so on and so forth. Wonder Woman has her own sidekick, Wonder Girl, but their relationship is a little more complicated than what we're used to encountering. At first, Wonder Girl was just a younger version of Wonder Woman herself, but then DC re-worked Wonder Girl's origin story, turning her into a younger sister of Diana, with an alter ego of Donna Troy.

Things alter a bit further after that. Donna's origin changes to an adoptive younger sister of Diana whom the Amazons rescued from the world of man and took on as one of their own. Then it changes even further after that! Donna becomes one of twelve orphans taken in by these powerful Titans. Donna and the twelve other orphans are given special powers and then sent back to humanity with their memories wiped of what happened to them. But it changes even more after that! In another continuity, Donna was made as a clay duplicate of Diana to keep her company. And in yet another version of events, Donna was created by a sorceress to end Wonder Woman's life. Are you lost yet? I am, and I've read the darned books about these events.

7 Doctor Obvious

I have to admit, I am fond of old-timey villains with their corny names and long-winded speeches about their evil plots. Things were simpler back then. Villains were clearly villains, and heroes were always heroes. Doctor Psycho is one of Wonder Woman's main villains (or at least he was way back when). Doctor Psycho indirectly worked for Ares, God of War. Psycho was infuriated over the agency that women had. His goal was to remove women from positions of importance during the war (World War II). Because of certain events from his past, Doctor Psycho had this insane fear and dislike of women everywhere.

After Wonder Woman foiled a plot of his, all of his rage toward women coalesced into a mass of hatred directed solely at Wonder Woman. The thing about him that makes the least amount of sense, despite his anti-women habits, is his freaking name. It's one thing to name yourself Doctor Freeze if you have an ice-motif thing going on. But to name yourself "Doctor Psycho" is insulting to yourself! Psycho clearly has a bit of an ego if he feels the need to constantly put women down. So why would he willingly call himself "Doctor Psycho?" He's basically confessing to the world that all is not right within his head.

6 The Wonder Of Super Relationships

I'm embarrassed to say this, but when I was younger, for some reason, I automatically assumed that Superman and Wonder Woman were...together. This was before I ever read any comic books, okay! I was like...four or five years old at the time. I saw the two of them pictured together on comic book covers and since the color scheme of their costumes were so similar, I thought they were married or something like that. After being properly introduced to comic books and reading them long into the night, the idea of Superman and Wonder Woman being together was downright improbable to me. Superman had Lois Lane as the love of his life, and Wonder Woman usually only had eyes for Steve Trevor.

How could I have known that my childlike assumptions would eventually become reality in the future? Superman and Wonder Woman have started a relationship between themselves, most notably in The New 52 continuity and in the Injustice series. I have to tell you, I was not a fan of this move at all. Probably because I first read of them together in Frank Miller's The Dark Knight Strikes Again. Oof, if you want the grittiness of The Dark Knight Returns with some inane character choices, go ahead and read that particular graphic novel.