Comics Stories We Want To See In Wonder Woman 2

We now know that Wonder Woman 2 will be released on December 13, 2019. Of course, we don't yet know if that will be the official title, or anything about the plot. We do know that Patty Jenkins is returning to direct, and she's already working with DC Comics' superstar writer Geoff Johns on a treatment for the script. The first World War ended at the end of the first Wonder Woman movie, so presumably the sequel will either show her getting involved in some other human conflict, or it will tell a less historically based tale of her mythology-inspired adventures.

Wonder Woman has been starring in comics for almost 76 years, so there's certainly no shortage of stories that could serve as the starting point for a movie. Below are the comic book storylines that we think have the most cinematic potential.

Since Wonder Woman was about World War I, it makes a lot of sense that Wonder Woman 2 might involve World War II. And in the World War II-era Wonder Woman comics, one of her greatest enemies was the Baroness Paula Von Gunther. Gunther first appeared in Sensation Comics #4, in an early story by Wonder Woman's creators, William Moulton Marston and Harry G. Peter. Wonder Woman discovers and has to break up Von Gunther's secret school—run more like a cult—where the Baroness brainwashes young women and trains them to become spies for the Nazis. 

The whole thing is infused with strong lesbian BDSM overtones, like most Paula Von Gunther stories. While the BDSM stuff would probably need to be a little subtler—not because 21st Century movies are more conservative than 1940s comics, obviously, but because audiences are quicker to recognize that sort of thing—the basic premise of Wonder Woman uncovering a vast spy network run by her opposite number would work really well as the plot of a movie. Patty Jenkins has implied that the movie might be set in the 1930s, just before the outbreak of WWII, but that certainly leaves open the possibility of Nazi spies as a plot element.

In this mid-1970s story from Wonder Woman Vol. 1 #212-222, Wonder Woman must perform twelve feats, much like Hercules once did, in order to rejoin the Justice League. The real point of the story was to get Wonder Woman back to her roots, and the issues were written and drawn by a wide array of DC Comics superstars of the era, including Len Wein, Curt Swan, Cary Bates, Elliot S. Maggin, and more. 

The part about earning her way back into the Justice League hasn't aged well, because it feels like the mostly male team is just gatekeeping one of their most powerful members, but the "Twelve Labors" part is still pretty cool. Not only does it draw on mythology, which makes sense for Wonder Woman, but the different missions take her to different parts of the DC Universe and often involve other DC heroes. While there might be a risk of the story being a bit episodic, some variation on this structure could definitely make a great movie.

Wonder Woman spent the late '60s and early '70s without her usual costume, weapons, and powers. Under the guidance of creators Denny O'Neil, Mike Sekowsky, and Dick Giordano, Diana spends Wonder Woman Vol. 1 #178-203 wearing stylish clothes, doing karate, and traveling the globe having spy adventures. Basically, she's a female James Bond. Or, if you prefer, a dark-haired Atomic Blonde. 

A whole movie based on this era would probably be a bad idea, mostly because it wouldn't feel like a Wonder Woman movie, but it would be awesome to learn that Movie Diana did this for a while during the Cold War, and maybe see an extended flashback to the era featuring a rip-roaring action scene and at least two or three costume changes.

When Wonder Woman leaves the Amazon island of Themyscira, she never expects to see her home or her mother again. In the odd numbered issues of #1-15 of the current Wonder Woman series, Greg Rucka and Liam Sharp tell a story in two parts, titled The Lies and The Truth, in which Diana goes on a quest to find the way back to Themyscira. She thought she'd been there in fact, but it turned out to be an illusion created by wicked gods, featuring much less welcoming Amazons. 

Everyone who loved Wonder Woman loved the opening scenes on the Amazon island, so it would be incredibly easy to get audiences invested in a story about Diana trying to find her way home. And if she manages to get another hug from Connie Nielsen's Queen Hippolyta at the end of the movie, there won't be a dry eye in the house.

Batman v Superman would pale in comparison to a movie in which Wonder Woman fights Batman. And it just so happens that one of the most popular Wonder Woman stories of this century is Wonder Woman: The Hiketeia, an original graphic novel by Greg Rucka and J. G. Jones, which hinges on exactly that premise. 

A young female criminal sublimates herself to Wonder Woman using the ancient ritual of the hiketeia, which obligates Diana to protect her from harm. Then it turns out that Batman has pursued the girl from Gotham City, bringing the two heroes into conflict. Batman's no match for Wonder Woman's strength, but he also never gives up, leading to the question of whether the two friends must fight forever. 

Seeing Gal Gadot and Ben Affleck enact this story would be amazing, and here's a way to up the ante all the more: what if the woman who performs the hiketeia isn't a character audiences have never seen before? What if it's someone we know from previous movies? What if it's Margot Robbie as Harley Quinn?

Doctor Psycho is a twisted man with a powerful brain, able to read minds, create illusions, and even channel other people's psychic energy. And he uses those powers to take revenge on the people he hates the most: basically every woman in the world. 

A super-powered misogynist is a natural enemy for Wonder Woman, which is why he's had a lot of staying power in her comics over the years. That means there's a lot of stories you could draw on for his movie debut. There's his first appearance in Wonder Woman Vol. 1 #5 by William Moulton Marston and Harry G. Peter, in which he kidnaps a woman and steals her psychic ectoplasm (sounds like a metaphor). He made a memorable return in the 1980s in Wonder Woman Vol. 1 #289-290, by Roy Thomas and Gene Colan, in which he creates an illusory identity for himself as a derivative male superhero named Captain Wonder. George Perez and Jill Thompson gave him a retooling a decade later in Wonder Woman Vol. 2 #55, where he became an even more frightening character for a time when comics were that much more intense. 

Whatever the specific story is, a misogynist who creates illusions would make for a meaningful and potentially mind-bending Wonder Woman sequel.

Wonder Woman Vol. 1 #6, another classic Marston/Peter joint, introduces a young woman named Priscilla Rich. Angry at Wonder Woman (and everyone else in the world), Rich gives in to her own dark side and becomes the ruthless predator known as Cheetah. She went on to become one of Wonder Woman's most important villains, even appearing regularly as her arch enemy on the well-remembered 1978 animated TV series Challenge of the Superfriends. 

In Wonder Woman Vol. 2 #7, George Perez reimagined Cheetah as Barbara Ann Minerva, an archaeologist who actually physically transforms into a human wildcat. In Wonder Woman Vol. 5 #1, Greg Rucka and Liam Sharp reintroduce Minerva as a full-on were-cheetah, as much feline as human. No matter the era or her degree of monstrousness, the point of Cheetah is that she's a violent impulsive animal, in contrast to the thoughtfulness and restraint that characterizes Wonder Woman's worldview. In short, she'd make a fantastic movie villain.

In Wonder Woman Vol. 2, by the '90s power team of William Messner-Loebs and Mike Deodato, Diana is challenged to participate in a Themysciran contest to see if she's still the best choice to represent the Amazons in Man's World, or if there's a better Amazon for the job. And inevitably, it turns out that there is. 

The Amazon known as Artemis wins the title and costume of Wonder Woman away from Princess Diana, who must continue fighting her own battles in a black leather jacket. Assuming Diana does make it back to Themyscira in the movies, as discussed above, this plot line could easily happen there. Diana having to put up with a brasher, more violent version of herself, while they both have to deal with villains as well, could make for a very cinematic storyline.

In Wonder Woman Vol. 2 #206-210 by Greg Rucka and Drew Johnson, several of Princess Diana's enemies team up to resurrect Medusa. Not like Marvel Comics Medusa, who moves stuff with her hair, but actual original-model mythological Clash of the Titans Medusa, whose head is covered in snakes and whose gaze turns people to stone. 

After a heartbreaking initial encounter in which Medusa kills a child, Wonder Woman is ultimately forced to fight her in a stadium, where the monster threatens to turn countless people to stone through the magic of television. Diana is only able to defeat Medusa by using snake venom to blind herself, leaving everyone who's watching in awe of her heroism. This is one of the most emotionally powerful Wonder Woman stories of all time, and could make for quite a film. And if they wanted to leave Wonder Woman blind at the end (as she is at the conclusion of the comic story), that could serve as quite a cliffhanger for whatever film comes next.

This story from Wonder Woman Vol. 2 #215-217, by Greg Rucka and Rags Morales, is where Wonder Woman ultimately regains her eyesight after her battle with Medusa, but you could separate it from that plot line and it would still work. The important thing is that she goes on a journey to the literal Underworld, ruled by Hades himself, to rescue the god Hermes who's been imprisoned there. 

Sure, the first movie said that all the gods were dead, but that's just further evidence that they'd be down in the Underworld, waiting to be found. A journey into the mythological afterlife would obviously make a fantastic movie. Also, Diana is accompanied on her quest by Cassie Sandsmark, also known as Wonder Girl, a character it would be awesome to see onscreen.

It's no coincidence that Greg Rucka's name appears on this list so often. He's the writer with the best handle on how to make Wonder Woman work in a modern context, and the filmmakers working on Wonder Woman 2 would be foolish not to turn to his comics for inspiration.