Warning: contains spoilers for Wonder Woman #770
DC Comics has been trying to reinvent Wonder Woman’s costume for the better part of a decade and her latest is one of the character’s best of all time. Though the new look removes Wonder Woman from her roots in Greek Mythology, it provides tantalizing hints at how Diana Prince has changed in DC’s Infinite Frontier.
Technically first premiering in Infinite Frontier #0, the new costume had its proper debut in Wonder Woman #770 from writers Michael W. Conrad, Becky Cloonan, and artist Travis Moore. Taking Wonder Woman out of Themyscira and into Valhalla, the beginning of Diana’s Infinite Frontier series sees the Amazonian without her powers and without her memories. As a resident of Valhalla, Diana is forced to kill and be killed in a battle that resets every morning. Given this new setting, it’s appropriate that Wonder Woman gets a new costume far better suited to her environment than her standard costume which became default since its premier in Batman V. Superman: Dawn of Justice.
One aspect of the costume that makes it such a standout look is that it manages the tough balancing act of feeling distinct from Diana’s normal outfit while still having many elements that make it definitively a Wonder Woman costume. Gone are the hoplite-inspired body armor and skirt, replaced with a fur-lined tunic and cloak which make sense given the frost covering Asgard. Also out are the gold accents to her costume which are substituted with silver. All of this adds up to a costume that performs the most important function of any character design; conveying character. Without knowing anything else about the character, readers could glean quite a bit about her just by looking at her. The armor instantly conveys that she’s a warrior, the tiara that she’s royalty.
There is often a debate in comic fandom about female costumes and whether they have too much sex-appeal or not, but that debate misses the forest for the trees. A good costume reflects character. The reason so many female character designs are bad is that they’re not something the character would wear, they’re something the character was made to wear. A reader looks at Captain America and instantly knows everything he stands for, it fits with Steve’s character. A reader looks at Batwoman’s new design and can’t tell much about the character at all. Why is there only armor over her breasts? Why is it so skin-tight that her belly button is literally visible through the fabric? This costume doesn’t feel like something a fighter like Helena would wear and it doesn’t tell readers who she is as a person.
All of this is one of the reasons Wonder Woman’s new costume is strong. This is a costume that someone like Diana would absolutely wear into battle. DC had previously played around with the idea of a Norse Wonder Woman with her costume in Endless Winter, and while that costume was fine in its own right, it was still a little too similar to her normal costume to truly feel special. With Wonder Woman’s new costume in Infinite Frontier, she shows that she’s fully embraced her role as a warrior.
