Wonder Woman’s Powers And Abilities

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Wonder Woman has been around since 1940 and there are multiple answers to the question, what are wonder woman’s power and abilities? The reason is although she is one of, if not, the most iconic female superhero ever, she is also one of the most retconned (meaning that they released official new material which rendered all previous facts obsolete). Through the decades and through the various so- called ages of comics golden, silver, bronze and modern, DC comics and it’s writers have constantly reinvented many details about Wonder Woman this being due to changing values in society and amongst their readership. Indeed nothing about the Amazonian has been left untouched from her origins, powers and costume, all have been subject to much tampering, despite this(or perhaps because of) she has endured through the ages to remain both relevant and popular. We would just like to mention that her at Superheroes Central we of course thought we knew Wonder Women’s powers but when we wrote this article we amazed at just how powered up she is, to the point that are wondering could she beat Superman in a fight?  Along with Superman, the Flash, Aquaman, Batman, the Green Lantern and the Martian Manhunter she is one of the founding members of the Justice League of America

What Are Wonder Woman’s Super Powers?

As we said earlier what are Wonder Woman’s powers is a tricky question to answer because the character has been subject to so many  revisions and additions, so we’ll start in the Golden Age of comics, where she was first shown to have super strength nearly the equal of Superman, she was able to run incredibly fast(at least 90 mph without breaking a sweat),  she was extremely durable able to withstand damage and injuries that would maim or kill ordinary mortals, she healed better than mere mortals, she is also trained in hand to hand combat, and in the Golden Age she also had the abilities of teleportation and astral projection, although these are rarely seen and used abilities, Omnilingualism  (the ability to speak any language) is another of her lesser known powers(and she can also talk to animals(including dinosaurs!) which we are not sure if it is an extension of that power or separate power in and of itself, she also was equipped with the lasso of truth(which does exactly what it sounds like it does) and some fancy indestructible bullet proof bracers with which she deflects bullets,(cool right, but the catch is, if she ever has her hands bound the she will lose her powers while she is tied up!). In the Silver Age of comics her abilities were further refined and defined adding the ability of flight(she is able to do this by riding on currents of air). aswell as getting super breath similar to Superman(she can extinguish large fires, with her super strong gust of air from her super strong set of lungs)In the Bronze Age of comics she got her magic sword(which was sharp enough to cut atoms and superman, nice). Let’s not forget her invisible jet either(although if she can teleport, it does seem rather redundant)

In the Modern Age of comics, Dc comics has had two major reboots the first one being the “Crisis On Infinite Earth’s” the second one being “The New 52” and in the Modern Age Wonder Woman’s super powers are more impressive than ever, with her abilities of flight being unconnected to air currents and allowing her to fly at nearly the speed of light, also when she is in contact with the soil of the earth her healing is accelerated experientially making her tough to kill, her speed has been amped up to where she boasts that only the flash is faster than she is.(that’s quick, poor Supes), oh yeah she is also able exhibit mental control over soldiers(more on that later). The indestructible bracer that deflect bullets, well it turns out that was only their secondary function, the first being that they were actually inhibiting her super strength! Yep it turns out that being nearly as strong as Superman wasn’t enough, nope when she takes the bracers off she becomes even more of a badass, the downside is that when she does this she enters a berserker state and will more than likely beat the bad guy to death.(needless to say Wonder Women doesn’t take them off too often, not if she wants to stay friends with Batman and Superman who kinda frown on killing people), oh yeah we almost forgot the bracers can also materialize two magic swords(very handy in tight spot).

As you can seethe question of what are Wonder Woman’s super powers is really dependent on what time period you’re talking about, but what isn’t up for debate is the fact that whenever you are talking her, she is and always has been one of the most powerful superheroes in the DC universe.

How Did Wonder Woman Get Her Powers?

So now we know she can do the next most obvious question is how did Wonder Women get her powers? It all comes down to her origin story, when she first appeared she was presented as simple Amazonian warrior(well maybe not simply an Amazonian warrior, she was after all their greatest champion)With the Amazon’s simply being a secluded tribe of female Greek warriors living on secluded island(aptly named Paradise Island) deep in the Amazon forest, her abilities were attributed to the special nature of her tribe(they are super strong and don’t age, that’s pretty special) and her rigorous and intense training.  But after several months of publication her origins were expanded and explained in far more depth.

Firstly you have to go back to ancient Greek times when the female deities which included Artemis, Athena, Hestia, Demeter and Aphrodite, of the Greek pantheon convened in a council where they voiced their displeasure at the nature of the world in particular at all the violence and aggression in the world, which they saw as characteristics of men. In response they created a tribe of immortal (though not indestructible) women, and settled them in a city in Greece named Themiscrya which they founded.  Now as can imagine these were not ordinary women(apart from being immortal and super strong) but the gods created the women using ancient souls of women who had been murdered by men throughout time, with the Amazonian queen Hippolyta’s soul actually being that of that of the very first cavewomen murdered by a man(impressive right?) They are instructed to live in peace and harmony, espousing what the Greek goddesses thought were women kinds greatest traits especially favouring the use of their intellects. Indeed everything was going fine until Ares(or Mars if you prefer)God of War got jealous and annoyed at their peace loving ways, so he convinced his half-brother Hercules to attack the Amazons(this was not a nice Kevin Sorbo Herc)which he did with his army, he then challenged the queen Hippolyta to single combat outside the city gates which she won(thanks to a god forged girdle called the Girdle of Gaea giving her even more super strength and abilities) Still desiring peace she invited Hercules and his men inside the city(this seems like a mistake) where Hercules seduces the queen and takes her prisoner aswell stealing magic girdle(told you it was a mistake), Hercules’ army take all the Amazons prisoner and begin to loot, pillage and rape(because apparently that’s would conquering armies did back in the day)In her desperation Hippolyta prays to her patron goddess Athena to rescue them from their bondage, Athena answered her call would only agree to Hippolyta’s pleas if the Amazon’s forswear all vengeance as it would go against the principles on which the goddesses envisioned when they founded the Amazons. Hippolyta readily agrees, but once free the rest of the Amazons(including the queen’s sister Antiope, who incidentally, also had a Girdle of Gaea) break the queen’s promise and begin to slaughter to invading army. And they aren’t happy to find that Hercules has already fled taking Hippolyta’s girdle with him.

Athena was most displeased that the Amazons had broken their promise to her, and demanded penance from them, to which a contrite Hippolyta readily agrees, but to which Antiope refuses, and gives her sister her Girdle of Gaea and takes fully half the Amazons with her on a quest to fight Hercules and retrieve the other girdle(they would succeed and go on to found the own land called  Bana-Mighdall, which Wonder Woman would later discover and retrieve the Girdle of Gaea from them). Meanwhile the first thing Athena did to Hippolyta’s Amazons is give them all bracers to remind them of their confinement at the hands of their captors, these braces also had a curse laid upon them, in that if a Amazonian Women was bound she would lose her abilities while she was subjugated.(That is the origin of Wonder Woman’s weakness). Next Athena tells the Amazons that they are exiled to a faraway land (Paradise Island) where they will guard a doorway to the underworld called Doom’s Doorway(Not to worry, you’ll only be guarding this doorway for all eternity, no problem), the journey take a long time and the god Poseidon parts the oceans to allow them to get there where they build a new city named Themyscira in honour of their former home.

Okay if you are still reading we apologize but you needed to know the origins of the Amazons so you can follow Wonder Woman’s origins. So as the millennia pass(a really long time) queen Hippolyta has time to reflect on her regrets, one of which is the fact that she never had children, so she prayed to the gods and they granted her request,  the original goddesses reconvene and instruct Hippolyta to make a clay figurine of a baby into which they breathed life and Diana princess of the Amazons was born(using that term very loosely at this point). not finished patting themselves on the back the goddesses imbued Diana with godly gifts she made as beautiful as Aphrodite, as wise as Athena, as fast as Hermes and as strong as Hercules. They also recrafted the Girdle of Gaea into the Lasso of Truth. Diana was also given the most rigorous training that any Amazonian warrior has ever received including powerful mental abilities.

Wonder Woman’s New Powers

So just when you think you know all there is to know about Wonder Woman’s powers, hang on because we aren’t done yet, in recent years DC comics rebooted their universe again with The Crisis Of Infinite Earths and Wonder Woman’s powers mostly survived intact but with a few origin revisions and upgrades. Now it seems she wasn’t made from clay at all, but rather at some point Hippolyta slept with  king of the gods Zeus, and the brought to life as a clay statue was just a ruse to protect Diana from Zeus’ wife Hera who habitually hunts down and punishes/destroys any illegitimate offspring the Zeus sires. And with this new beginning come new origins of her powers, such as her divine heritage giving her a partial resistance to magical attacks aswell the Olympian gods granting her boons of their own:

•  Aphrodite being the goddess of love gives her beauty and kindness
• Hestia goddess of the hearth makes her attuned her to power of fire, making able to withstand both normal and magical flames, aswell manipulate the flames of truth through her lasso
• Artemis goddess of the hunt gave Diana the ability to communicate with all animals(including dinosaurs)
• Hermes the messenger of the gods gifts Diana the power of speed and flight, allowing her to fly at nearly the speed of light
• Athena goddess of wisdom gave Diana great wisdom and intelligence allowing her learn dozens of languages(originally she had the innate ability to speak all languages) and also help Diana excel in the areas of science and technology
• Demeter goddess of fertility imbued Diana with the blessing of Gaea, allowing her to draw incredible strength from the Earth spirit and the ability to regenerate at an accelerated rate when in contact with the Earth’s soil

Finally after DC comics again reset itself with the New 52 line-up Wonder Woman slays her half brother Ares, god of war obtaining his powers as the new god of war including the ability to mentally influence soldiers, with speculation that she may have gained some of Ares’ other powers aswell such as the power to resurrect dead warriors….. time will time on that one.

We hope we’ve answered your questions on Wonder Woman’s powers and will just say one thing. Wow, she is so powerful, definitely a contender for the most powerful of all DC’s heroes male or female.

How Powerful Is Wonder Woman

Just how powerful is Wonder Woman? As we have said she is an absolute juggernaut in the DC Universe and has a fair chance of defeating Superman, and not many superheroes or supervillains can say that. So we had a look on You Tube and found this great clip that details the power levels of her abilities, so if you want to know more, have a look. Enjoy.