At first glance, Patty Jenkins’ upcoming
Wonder Woman 1984 doesn’t seem all that different from Wonder Woman’s comic book adventures in 1984. The movie hits theaters and HBO Max on Christmas Day, and if you took the Wayback Machine to a comic book shop in December 1984, you’d find
Wonder Woman #323 on the shelves. Eduardo Barreto’s cover featured familiar faces like Wonder Woman and the Cheetah, while the story inside by Dan Mishkin and Don Heck had elements we’ve seen teased in trailers, including the invisible jet and even the return of Steve Trevor.
But the similarities are only surface level. The real issue is chaos. Wonder Woman was on the cusp of a complete reinvention and it couldn’t come soon enough.