Princess Diana (comics) - Costume

Costume

Wonder Woman's costume has varied over time, although almost all of her costume incarnations have retained some form of breastplate, tiara, bracelets and her signature star symbols.

At the time of her debut, Wonder Woman sported a red top with a golden eagle emblem, a white belt, blue star-spangled culottes and red and golden go-go boots. This costume was entirely based on the American flag, as Wonder Woman at that time was purely an American icon. Later in 1942, Wonder Woman's costume received a slight change – the skirt was converted entirely into skin-tight shorts and she wore sandals. While earlier most of her back was exposed, during the imposition of the Comics Code Authority in the mid-1950s, Wonder Woman's costume was rectified to make her back substantially covered, in order to comply with the Authority's rule of minimum exposure. During Mike Sekowsky's run in the late 1960s, Diana surrendered her powers and started using her own skill to fight crime. She wore a series of jumpsuits as her attire, most popular of these was a white one. After Sekowsky's run ended in the early 1970s, Diana's roots were reverted to her old mythological ones and she wore a more modernized version of her original costume, a predecessor to her "bathing suit" costume. Later, in 1976, her white belt was turned into a yellow one.

After Crisis On Infinite Earths, George Pérez rebooted the character in 1987. She wore a costume similar to her 1970s one, but now with a larger golden belt. This costume continued until William Messner-Loebs' run, which had Diana pass on the role of Wonder Woman to Artemis. No longer Wonder Woman, Diana sported a new black biker-girl costume designed by artist Mike Deodato Jr. After John Byrne took over writing and art duties, he redesigned the Wonder Woman costume (Diana was reinstated as Wonder Woman at the end of Loebs' run) and joined the emblem and belt together.

Her costume did not receive any prominent change until after Infinite Crisis. Similar to her chest-plate, her belt was also shaped into a W. This costume continued until issue #600 – J. Michael Straczynski's run of Wonder Woman's altered timeline changed her costume drastically. Her costume was redesigned by Jim Lee and included a redesigned emblem, a golden and red top, black pants and a later discontinued blue-black jacket.

Another major costume change came after DC Comics relaunched its entire line of publications, dubbing the event The New 52. Her original swimsuit costume was restored, although the color combination of red and blue was changed to red and dark blue. Her chest-plate, belt and tiara were also changed from gold to sterling silver. She also wears many accessories such as arm and neck jewelery. The design previously included black trousers, but they were removed and the swimsuit look was restored during the time of publication. Wonder Woman is currently sporting this incarnation of the costume.