So, as you can see above, in the newly released “official” Justice League #1 cover image from Jim Lee, DC felt like they had to go in and digitally remove Wonder Woman’s pants for some reason. Also, as you can see below, in the New 52 preview comic handed out at Comic-Con, they also removed her pants from the originally released Wonder Woman #1 artwork from Cliff Chiang.
So why is that? After making such a huge deal about contemporizing Wonder Woman’s one-piece swimsuit outfit with a pantsed look in the first place, after Lee made such a big deal about getting rid of Superman’s outer-underpants because of how that look was based on the circus strongmen of the 30s and it’s all outdated now, and after all of Lee’s talk about giving the whole League those popped collars because he wanted to create a ‘formal uniform’ sort of thread of similarity between all the big heroes of the team… why lose the pants? There’s a reason the ‘formal wear’ and ‘swimwear’ sections of beauty pageants are entirely different categories.
Was there seriously that big a backlash against putting the most prominent female superhero of all time into a costume that commands a little more respect? Was there seriously a huge groundswell of sentiment suggesting that she can’t be Wonder Woman if her ass isn’t hanging out? Were the pants really only designed to make the attempt at a TV show work better, and now that that bombed out, she needs to be stripped again? Or is this only for cover images to lure people in with gams, and the inside art for Brian Azzarello’s Wonder Woman and Geoff Johns’ Justice League will remain pantsful?
Seriously, folks, let’s get with the times here. Let’s let Wonder Woman be able to give an address to the U.N. without everybody going ‘man, she really should have worn some pants or something if she wanted to be taken seriously as an ambassador.’ Even if you’re one of those people hellbent on preserving the cheesecake factor, she’s still wearing an uplifting corset with a boob shelf. Isn’t that enough for you?
Just look at those competing Wonder Woman #1 images up there. You could make a specious argument that the pantsless one is technically more “badass” because she’s facing a hail of arrows with more skin exposed, but you can’t deny that the one with pants conveys the fact that she means business in a vastly superior way.
Let’s keep it easier for Wonder Woman to be taken seriously, please.
Let there be pants.
UPDATE: Just released, a David Finch variant cover of Justice League #1, wherein Wonder Woman is pantless and center stage, looking like she’s 15 and not looking like she means business, but more like she needs a chiropractor and a hall pass to go to cheerleading practice. And Superman, for some reason, looks like a supervillain orchestrator, but that’s beside the point.
