Small Details In Wonder Woman Only True Fans Noticed

Wonder Woman has arrived in theaters, and much to the disappointment of comic-conscious nerds, it went incredibly light on the Easter eggs. Sure, we were treated to an island full of name-dropped Amazons that seemed pretty faithful to their comics counterparts, but the film didn't have a single, sassy time-traveling Flash cameo. Which secret DC references were we able to find between the frames of Wonder Woman?

Because it's a comic book movie, Wonder Woman borrowed a huge chunk of its content from, you know, comic books... just in a very general sense. However, eagle-eyed readers of DC's New 52 version of Justice League were quick to spot a story beat cribbed directly from the comic pages.

In the first few pages of Justice League #3, written by Geoff Johns, Princess Diana has the same conversation with an ice cream vendor we see in the film, though the comic presents it in a more modern setting. The story quickly diverges, however—comics Diana is quickly attacked by Parademons, while movie Diana remains hellbent on hunting down Ares. The scene is repeated in the animated feature Justice League: War, further cementing the fact that despite having a pretty good grasp on pleasure, Themyscirans don't have anything on humans. They have an isolated island paradise, but we have Ben & Jerry's. Point, mortals.

Wonder Woman doesn't have a very extensive history onscreen compared to some of her contemporaries, but her '70s TV show remains a fan favorite, mostly because it was straight-up goofy fun. What kind of Amazonian magic does it take to spin around to change your clothes? We never found out, but plenty of people got dizzy trying.

The Wonder Woman series also employed the unrealistic trope that if you wear a pair of glasses, you're completely unrecognizable as the same person you are without your glasses. So when the cinematic Wonder Woman pops on a pair of glasses as part of her disguise to blend in with lowly humans, it's quickly called out by Etta Candy as being completely ridiculous. Honestly, it's about time someone did.

Because Bruce Wayne is the richest man in the world, he can afford to send armored cars anywhere he wants, even if they just contain a single photograph, while the other 99% just has to settle for getting their birthday presents consistently lost somewhere in the black hole that is Kearny, NJ. 

Still, when Bruce sends his Waynemobiles around the world on Bat-errands, you'd think he'd be a little more subtle about the fact that he's the guy assembling a group of superhumans called the Justice League... but no. When you're Wayne levels of rich, you spring for vanity plates, and you make sure they're emblazoned with the initials of your secret super-team. Having the letters 'JL' lead off your armored car's license plate is real subtle, Bruce. What does your other car say? "NOTBATMN"?

Spoiler alert: it turns out that the magical God Killer sword that's protected in a Themysciran tower can't actually kill gods. Just like in the afterschool specials of yore, the power to kick some godly butt was in Diana all along. The phrase "god killer" is thrown around all the time in comics; Godkiller is the name of an indie comic, and in the pages of Marvel, it's a set of armor designed to defeat Celestials. It's not exactly a unique idea.

As far as DC Comics is concerned, the God Killer sword is generally the domain of Deathstroke. The far-too-powerful weapon was crafted by Hephaestus to kill Lapetus, and given to Earth's greatest assassin. So while it's clear that Wonder Woman's big-screen sword wasn't the real deal, there are rumblings of Deathstroke appearing in the DCEU. Could we get a look at the real God Killer sword in the future?

There's not a whole lot of information about whatever it was General Ludendorff was snorting in order to Hulk out, but DC comics has a pretty weird history of its heroes and villains imbibing strange substances to perform superhuman tasks. On early example appeared in 1940 under the name "miraclo," a "miracle vitamin" that enabled Golden Age hero Hourman to do heroic things for a solid hour. While it was developed for positive purposes, it eventually fell into the wrong hands and became a substance Batman fans will be very familiar with: venom. Whether or not Dr. Poison's power-up ampules will eventually find their way into the bubbling tubes of the supervillain Bane is anyone's guess, but the foundations have been laid to break the bat.

DC went all out in including Princess Diana's many, many friends and relatives on Themyscira. While some were named onscreen, a handful are only mentioned in the credits: Menalippe, Phillipus, Epione, Mnemosyne, Aella, Euboea, Penthesilea, Egeria, and Niobe among them. Every single one of these Amazons has had a few comic pages dedicated to them, even if most of them are largely interchangeable warrior women. And while we'll probably never see them again, we were kinda rooting for Ares anyhow, if only to put an end to Kenny Chesney once and for all. We'll take one for the team.