Wonder Woman for beginners?

October 10, 2013 7:33 PM

My seven-year-old has recently become interested in learning more about Wonder Woman. She knows almost nothing about her, but has heard of her and is intrigued by a strong female superhero. I was never much of a comics/superheroes person myself, and don't really know what good stuff is available on her level.

We did pick up Justice League season 1 and started watching that together. The plots can be a little complicated for a second grader, but she's enjoying them. If there are good book/comics we could pick up to feed her interest, that would be great. Reading level is advanced for her age--about fourth or fifth grade. Suggestions?

posted by Pater Aletheias to Media & Arts (13 answers total)

Best answer: My seven-year-old likes a book we found at a thrift store: Wonder Woman: Cheetah on the Prowl. The reading level is more like 2nd grade, I'd guess. The first 10 or so pages are about her origins.
posted by The corpse in the library at 7:50 PM on October 10, 2013

Best answer: My seven year old also is in love with Wonder Woman. We got into it by watching the first (only?) three seasons of the 70's show with Linda Carter, and then watched the 2009 animated feature. S2E1 of the Linda Carter version has a great intro to who the hell Wonder Woman is and how she ends up in the USA. Season 1 is all about fighting the Nazis. Seasons 2 and 3 are set in the 70s and fight, uh, well, bad guys. The 2009 movie also has a pretty good explanation of where WW comes from, along with throwing some Greek mythology in the works.
posted by spikeleemajortomdickandharryconnickjrmints at 7:53 PM on October 10, 2013

Not really for children, but you might be interested in this recent documentary:

http://wonderwomendoc.com/
posted by intermod at 8:57 PM on October 10, 2013

FYI, there's currently a Kickstarter campaign (already fully funded) to reprint Nelvana of the Northern Lights comics from the 40's. She's a part-Inuit female superhero who appeared prior to Wonder Woman. If the Kickstarter campaign get enough funding beyond the initial level, they are planning to print extra copies to be sold at comic book stores. So keep an eye out for this next year.
posted by needled at 9:14 PM on October 10, 2013 [5 favorites]

Best answer: Tiny Titans and Li'l Gotham don't feature Wonder Woman, but they're all-ages comic books from DC that she might be interested in as she becomes familiar with the characters in Justice League. They're super cute--I'm a grown woman and I love reading them.

Yale Stewart's JL8 comic features "Diana" (Wonder Woman) and "Karen" (Power Girl) as leads in the 8-year-old Justice League. This isn't official DC, but it's faithful to the characters.

She's only in 2-3 episodes, but Wonder Woman's appearances on Batman: Brave and the Bold are absolutely worth watching. You also get quite a bit of Black Canary, Huntress, and Catwoman in this show. It's more comedic in tone than Justice League.

Marvel's current Captain Marvel is pretty solid. The books are listed as 12+ so you might want to read through one or two first to make sure they're appropriate (I think it's mild language and themes--no sex). She's what I really wish DC would do with Wonder Woman: an A-list superhero who does a lot of exciting stuff and isn't defined by her gender or romances. It's definitely a more kid-friendly book than Wonder Woman's right now.
posted by almostmanda at 9:38 PM on October 10, 2013

When she's older she may find the Kate Beaton take on Wonder Woman amusing.
posted by crocomancer at 4:26 AM on October 11, 2013

A number of old Mary Marvel comics have become public domain and are available online, but be aware that you will need to pre-read them to screen out issues with depressing 1940s overt racism, classism, sexism, etc. (These honestly may not be worth the bother; there's more problematic material here than I'd have guessed.)

At least one Nelvanna story is available online already. Several of her stories from the anthology are also available here, and cover the first full serial story of the character in issues #1-7. The second serial starts in 8, but is incomplete at the linked site.
posted by kewb at 4:34 AM on October 11, 2013 [1 favorite]

Best answer: I think you''l find that the older stuff is more appropriate for kids in terms of both accessibility (less complicated plots, less canon wank) and content (not as outright sexualized as the last decade or two).

Try Wonder Woman: The Greatest Stories Ever Told, Wonder Woman: The Complete History (out of print but available cheap), and Wonder Woman: The Twelve Labors. There may be some redundancy in the three volumes, but they should give your daughter a crash course in the highlights of Wonder Woman from her introduction in the 1940s through the last decade.
posted by valkyryn at 5:08 AM on October 11, 2013 [1 favorite]

The current "New 52" WW series is pretty good, but maybe not a good introduction, as there's a lot of mythology wrapped up in it that you'd have to explain. Also it might be a little mature. But it's worth the price of admission just to see Hades depicted as a kid with a bunch of flaming candles on his head and wax dripping down over half his face.

Here's a discussion on ComicVine.

Also, if you're wanting to introduce her to awesome women in spandex, then I enthusiastically second almostmanda's recommendation of Captain Marvel. Kelly Sue DeConnick is crushing it on that series.
posted by middleclasstool at 6:35 AM on October 11, 2013

Best answer: this animated movie Tells the or gun story of Wonder Woman and is fairly kid friendly if I remember correctly. Bonus star studded cast.
posted by bq at 6:39 AM on October 11, 2013

The New 52 WW is almost too mature for my 13 year old! It's fantastic, but I wouldn't recommend it for elementary school students.

Looks like there are some short chapter books on Amazon. I haven't seen them in person, so I have no idea of the quality. Your library may have some.
posted by Biblio at 1:52 PM on October 11, 2013

Response by poster: Thanks, everyone! We'll be checking a lot of these out. And I don't know how I missed the 2009 animated movie, but my daughter will love it because it's Wonder Woman, and my wife will love it because of Nathan Fillion's voice. So, wins all around there.
posted by Pater Aletheias at 3:59 PM on October 11, 2013

If you've got Netflix streaming, I'd recommend the Justice League (and justice league unlimited as well). The show features Wonder Woman and her origin well enough for the young fans and it's not too hard to watch either. And as a comic book fan, it does a nice job of introducing you to the DC universe.

The series uses as lot of the classic "golden" and "silver" age comics for forming the back story for this series, so its not quite like the newer comics out now. So you get the fundaments of what a strong lady hero Diana is, but not all the angst. Well, some ansgt, but hey its a comic book right? And these cartoons are not as violent as the 2009 movie, if that's a concern.

I say this as this series has been the reason my 6 year old is going as WW this Halloween and is insisting that my wife go as Wonder Woman's mom, Hippolyta (who is featured in the series as well).
posted by cleverdesigner at 7:31 AM on October 12, 2013