The reaction to the recent costume change of Wonder Woman has been all over the place with a lot of visceral reaction.  Fox News claimed the look was the encroachment of globalism and anti-American.

Author Mark Whittington would seem to agree with Fox.  But he doesn’t think Wonder Woman’s change isn’t isolated, but is part of a larger trend:

There is a disturbing trend in American pop culture that is de-Americanizing some of its most iconic figures and making them more — well — international.

Superman no longer fights for the “American way” and G.I. Joe are no longer “Great American heroes.”  Nevermind, Superman is an illegal immigrant and would be chased away by numerous Americans for stealing their jobs, Wonder Woman is an Amazonian and G.I. Joe was an international force in it’s cartoon form.  Whittington things the red, white and blue costume and she fought Nazi’s is enough to claim her as an American.  By that definition, a French resistance fighter is American too.

The Western Front feels the update of the costume doesn’t wipe out years of sexism.  Their take is the way Wonder Woman was dressed (among how most women in comics are depicted) sets up unrealistic expectations and perceptions of women in boys.

The problem with that argument is even though Wonder Woman was wearing a swimsuit with unrealistic physical proportions, she also dominated men.  Her’s was a theme of submission to women.  If the look would influence young males, why wouldn’t this as well?  And think of the stereotypical comic book reader.  Do you picture the alpha  male who treats women badly with unrealistic expectations in looks?  Or do you picture a geeky kid with pimples who can’t talk to a woman?

Also, where does that leave the unrealistic exaggeration of the men in comic books?  It’s not like they’re in a more realistic proportion or don’t set up an expectation in behavior that can’t be met in reality.

And in the end, aren’t comic books the modern day myths started by our ancestors like the Greeks and Romans (among others)?

And finally James Hudnall with the conservative Big Hollywood goes all over the place.  His first argument is that the issue with Wonder Woman is that she’s inherently anti-man, which puts him opposite of the spectrum with The Western Front.  Hudnall thinks that since most comic readers are male, they just don’t like Wonder Woman and she’s part of the “PC crowd and leftists” conspiracy of protected classes.  That she represents that women are just better than men.

Hudnall also thinks that the character is uninteresting and lacks personality.  Something, from the few Wonder Woman comics I’ve read do agree with.  He feels we’re just not given a reason to invest in the character.

And finally Hudnall feels she’s too much of a hodgepodge in her background and origin and nothing stands out.  This is the opposite of his first argument that she does stand out since she’s “anti-man.”  The problem with this is, very few comic book characters are original.  Superman is a mix of Jewish history and Greek mythology.  Batman is a mix of numerous characters, Captain Marvel’s famous saying SHAZAM spells out everything he’s based off of.

Bleeding Cool has a follow up from various people in the industry going back and forth about Hudnall’s article.

That’s just a small sampling of various opinions of what’s wrong with Wonder Woman, all of it digging into more than just a costume.  So, what do you all think?  Sound off in the comments below.