So very much agreed. As for the bullshit argument that Wonder Woman is a fetish character, not in my family. I've mentioned before to you (pardon the repetition, but I feel it needs to be said publicly again) that my mother raised me on generous portions of Wonder Woman. A lot of young girls in America grew up reading Diana. Fetishization? Bullshit. For a man to call Diana's strength and persona a fetish is so very much missing the very essentials of her character.

She is a symbol. DC knows this, I suspect.

Thank you. :)

Bullshit called, and I raise you Joel Shumacher.

Spandex to Rubber. With nipples... and codpieces for everyone! Of course I guess here we see the reflection.. well, not really, I'm not sure how Batman & Robin went over with female viewers... I guess somebody's gotta be a Clooney fan.

I wandered over from the wide world of blogs and links, and just wanted to respond to one bit you said:

how many of those people would burst a vessel, if not a vital organ, if Playgirl ran a similar cover/pictorial with a male, semi-erect model painted up as Batman?

How many comic book fans went into a spiraling, exceptionally vocal, homophobic tirade after Justice Society of America #7 hit shelves?

Probably the same number of people who don't see a problem with Wonder Woman in Playboy.

Call me crazy, but I'm guessing very few would be bothered by Playgirl doing it. They get a little crazy when it looks like the sexual picture is being aimed at them because it seem like they are buying a gay picture, but if it was in Playgirl, I think most guys would be fine with it.

Those things you mention are true, David, but I think most guys think those things were marketed to them, to men. But Playgirl is marketed to women. I've never heard of a guy being bothered by a penis in Playgirl. Have you? I think the evidence is that guys aren't bothered by penises marketed to women.

I think those things you mentioned had a whiff of homoeroticism to them to those guys who were bothered and their homophobia kicked in with the fear that someone would think they were gay or supporting something gay if they paid for something with man nipples or dick.

What, Wonder Woman's costume ISN'T exploitative? The cleavage and thong and everything? Wow, that's news to me.

Come ON. Her costume is a friggin' swimsuit, and she's ususally protrayed with vast boobs that barely fit inside the swimsuit. Of COURSE she's treated as a sexual object; she has been treated like a sexual object for DECADES.

IMO, the problem isn't with Playboy's silly cover; it's with the costume itself. We can't really complain when a character who is ALWAYS drawn as a sexual-object in comics suddenly is treated as a sexual-object outside of comics as well.

I think Wonder Woman's costume should be changed for something that a warrior/diplomat superheroine might actually wear. Wearing spandex is one thing, but Wonder Woman's costume is a skimpy swimsuit. Look at Storm: nowadays she wears a beautiful full-body black/golden costume, and it looks CLASSY. Phoenix's costume is another example of a full-body spandex superheroine costume that works perfectly well without cleavages and thongs. Invisible Woman is another good example. Meanwhile, Wonder Woman's breasts are always on the verge of bursting out of her generous cleavage.

And now it's Playboy that's treating her like a sex-symbol??

For what it's worth, mr. Rucka, you wrote the best Wonder Woman stories I've read in 30+ years of comics-reading. To be honest, the only problem with those stories is that her sexploitative costume didn't fit the character AT ALL, and that problem is clearly not your fault. Heck, you even had her wearing classier diplomatic robes and battlesuits quite often, fashion choices that greatly benefitted WW.

Ah, well. Maybe someday that will be allowed to change, and Wonder Woman will be a better character for it.