So… Now What? Five Ideas for a Wonder Woman Sequel

It’s here!

With Wonder Woman released it’s time
for one last speculation piece in Watchtower’s Seven Days of Wonder Woman
before we all navel gaze and box office track and chances are as you’re reading this you might have
already seen Wonder Woman.  Which makes
me a little envious of you since it’s Monday morning while I’m writing this and all I
have to watch is youtube videos like this:

(Actually… I like this video. Kumamon is the man.)

Anyway, we’ve
looked back for long enough!  It’s time
to look forward.  Let’s ponder possibilities
for a Wonder Woman Sequel and what better way to do that than by looking into
Wonder Woman’s history? (So much for looking forward.)

These aren’t
in particular order, and chances are the best solution for a sequel is to do
what a lot of other Comic Books Movies have done by taking from several stories
at once and melding them together into something new.  So, let’s dig right in:

Challenge of the Gods

When it
comes to Wonder Woman stories, there’s no better place to start than the George
Pérez run.  Pérez’s run came out of Crisis on Infinite Earths and if you’re thinking about Wonder Woman comics chances are you’re
thinking about this run.

Challenge of
the Gods was the name given to the second arc in his run, the first arc was her
post-Crisis origin which makes Challenge a perfect story to build from for a
sequel.  Diana is now established as an
ambassador for the Amazons as she spreads her message of peace but like so many
Greek heroes before her runs afoul of the Gods and is banished to the
underworld then she has to overcome several challenges to return to her life.

Challenge
not only expands the presence of the Greek Gods in the Wonder Woman world but
introduces Barbara Minerva to the run bringing in one of Wonder Woman’s biggest
villain, the Cheetah.  There’s a lot of
meet here with Wonder Woman essentially undergoing her own version of the
Twelve Tasks of Hercules (who also has a role to play in the story.)  The story is full of opportunities for big
action set pieces and character development. 
Lots of good meat for a sequel.

The First Born

Now, the New
52 may be over… kind of, sort of, maybe (nothing’s ever really over in comics,
right guys?)  

However, the
concept that lead to the New 52 will be with us for a while to come.  The New 52 was begun with the idea of making
the characters easier to fit together in a shared Universe for Television,
Games and Movies.  (Even Post-Crisis many
big name DC characters didn’t really fit into the larger DC Universe and often
ended up feeling like they were out there on their own.) 

One of the
bigger hits of the New 52 was Brian Azzarello/Cliff Chiang run on Wonder
Woman.  I myself described the run as “The
Wonder Woman book I never knew I always wanted” at one point.  It not only reimagined and reintroduced
Wonder Woman and all her friends but the Greek Gods and linked them together
with the New Gods.  Which lead to a very
fun (for some, controversial for others) flirtation with Orion as Diana defends
a young woman that is carrying Zeus’ latest bastard while his oldest son, The
First Born. 

The First
Born was prophesied from birth to destroy the rest of the Gods and sit on the
Throne of Olympus.  During the course of
the story Diana unintentionally kills Ares and unwittingly takes his place as
the God of War (which is used for conflict with her desire for creating peace)
before finally defeating the First Born (featuring this badass moment!)

This story
could be great to adapt for the sequel.

The Circle

I am not the
biggest Gail Simone fan, her writing just isn’t my thing most of the time but
the Circle is a great story and if they want do a more personal/Amazon lore
oriented story for a sequel this could be a way to go.

The story
reveals around a cabal of Amazons that fears Diana and what she represents and plot
to kill Diana shortly after her birth. 
They are imprisoned for decades before they escape attempt to overthrow
Hippolyta.

The story
features a lot of crossover characters from other parts of the DC world
(Gorillas loyal to Grodd play a prominent role in the story) The Circle is
first and foremost an amazon story and could be a good way to further explore
the Amazons in a sequel.

And speaking
of more personal stories for the Sequel…

The Hiketeia

The Hiketeia
is the story of a young woman coming to Wonder Woman seeking her protection
from someone.  After Diana swears an oath
to protect her with her life she learns that the woman murdered the people that
killed her sister and the person she’s protecting the girl from is Batman.

Now I know
what you’re thinking but let’s be realistic, Batman is now and will most likely
continue to be DC’s big money character. 
He’s going to play a part in the majority of the movies in this shared
Universe so you may as well accept it. 
Additionally, if Superman were to become involved it could be used to
illustrate how the Trinity have come since BvS.

At the same
time, it doesn’t have to be Batman.  The
story could be reworked with another person close to Diana in the place of
Batman, the point is to force Diana to potentially have to choose between
justice and honor and how that struggle can affect a person.

Still,
Batman v Wonder Woman could be fun.

At the same
time, if you’re going to bring other heroes into Wonder Woman’s sequel you
could always go with:

Justice League of America: A League of One

Faced with a
prophecy about the destruction of the Justice League at the hands of the Dragon
Karfang that seems to be coming true, Diana does the only thing she feels she
can:  She kicks the Justice League’s ass
and takes on Karfang herself.

Well, she
kicks the asses of the rest of the League and outs them in a situation that
only Superman can rescue them from which is how she subdues him.  This story can be used to answer the age old
question: Who would win in a fight between Batman and Superman?  The answer is Wonder Woman.

The story
ultimately shows Diana’s purity of heart and compassion as she uses these to
defeat the dragon even at the apparent cost of her life.  It also does a lot to solidify her place in
the Trinity so this could be a good argument for why Wonder Woman has such an
important place in the DC Universe.

So there you
have it.  Five possibilities for a Wonder
Woman sequel and not only did I only barely cheat (by bringing up the Hiketeia)
I didn’t even include my desire for Maxie Zeus or Vandal and Scandal Savage to
show up in the sequel like LAST TIME.

Here at the
end, I extend my genuine hope that Wonder Woman is a good film.  It’s well past time that the whole world knew
how great Wonder Woman is and can be.  So
enjoy the movie and come back to Watchtower of Babel for more DC News.