Surprisingly few stories have explored what Wonder Woman does in her downtime. Does she read or watch TV? If so, what sort of novels and shows would she enjoy? Wonder Woman #9 by Tom King and Daniel Sampere offers a surprising answer to this question. More, it offers a curious revelation about Amazon culture.
Much of this issue has a dream-like quality, with continual shifts in place and time. This is because most of the issue is devoted to an imagined conversation between Diana and her long-time love-interest Steve Trevor. In reality, Diana has been forced into isolation by the villain Sovereign, in an effort to break her will.
Unsurprisingly, Diana is able to maintain her sanity, by imagining herself somewhere else with the man she loves. This leads to a number of conversations on a variety of topics. One of them concerns her youth and her first fandom.
Wonder Woman Loves Westerns
In the midst of one dream, where she and Steve Trevor are riding horses on a vast plain, Diana tells him that the Amazons knew of Man’s World before he crashed on Themyscira. Somehow, they were able to enjoy the music, books, and movies of the world beyond their borders. This led a young Diana to become obsessed with Westerns.
Diana goes on to tell Steve of why she liked Westerns so much. The simplicity of the stories appealed to her, with heroes and villains being clearly defined by the colors of their hats. However, they were also relatable, as Western heroes also rode horses and used lassos. “It was another world, but I was there,” she explains. This puts an ironic echo on the story, with Diana using the daydreams of her childhood to give her a literal escape in the present day.
Wonder Woman #9 is now available at comic shops everywhere.
