Worst Wonder Woman Covers

[Free-Man]

Wondy has had some pretty awful and embarassing covers over the years. Let's take some time to reflect on them....for those who do not remember the past are doomed to repeat it:

[WorstThingUS]

I cannot stand this:

[Gail Simone]

I'm sorry, I LOVE that cover with the two buildings. It is like a drug-addled nightmare! :)

[meek?]

LOL! Yeah, that cover w/ the buildings is hilarity. XD It's a treasure.

That cover w/ the gun achieved its shock value, most def. Is that Bolland?

Peace.

[WorstThingUS]

LOL! Yeah, that cover w/ the buildings is hilarity. XD It's a treasure.

That cover w/ the gun achieved its shock value, most def. Is that Bolland?

Peace.

Yeah, it's Boland. He did some of the most beautiful WW covers ever, so I guess he's allowed this one.

[Wonder Watcher]

Both look good to me.

[meek?]

Yeah, it's Boland. He did some of the most beautiful WW covers ever, so I guess he's allowed this one.

Right on!

Peace.

[AndyMangels]

I absolutely abhorred the Bolland cover above, and it definitely ranks as one of the worst covers.

I love horror movies, but this is the equivalent of the "Hostel version of WW" in my eyes. It's not WW who is strong and capable, staring down the barrel of the gun, daring the guy to try and shoot her before she ducks out of the way.

This is WW as a victim, defeated, demoralized, about to die, and grimacing as her life is about to be ended by a man. The only thing more horrifying would have been if Bolland had added tears streaming down her face and a snot bubble.

Seriously, put your mother or your sister in that image, and then tell me you'd think it "looks good."

[Kevenn]

I've always particularly despised these two covers - combined with a pretty rotten story, they're, at best, forgotten issues.

[MWGallaher]

Since you brought up the subject, I've noticed instead that Wonder Woman has been blessed with fewer bad covers than any other long-running comic book that I can think of. Even in the pits of the 90's, when every other superhero comic was getting grossly distorted Image-influenced disasters, DC was putting Brian Bolland on WW's covers, then artists like Adam Hughes...wow...looking at the complete cover galleries, it's hard to spot many real clunkers in the modern era--unless you have problems with the content, as Andy does above, it's hard to argue with the execution.
The Bronze Age covers can be pretty conventional, but they were almost always highly dynamic and technically competent. The Silver Age covers were pretty wacky, but, again, well-executed and definitely serving sales well. And the Golden Age covers? Those H. G. Peter covers were sui generis--I wouldn't trade any of his covers for more conventional works.
The only stretches of WW cover runs that leave me cold are the Irwin Hasen covers after Peter died, and even those aren't particularly bad, just mundane.
Nope, bad WW covers are the rare exception.

[Black Atom]

I absolutely abhorred the Bolland cover above, and it definitely ranks as one of the worst covers.

I love horror movies, but this is the equivalent of the "Hostel version of WW" in my eyes. It's not WW who is strong and capable, staring down the barrel of the gun, daring the guy to try and shoot her before she ducks out of the way.

This is WW as a victim, defeated, demoralized, about to die, and grimacing as her life is about to be ended by a man. The only thing more horrifying would have been if Bolland had added tears streaming down her face and a snot bubble.

Seriously, put your mother or your sister in that image, and then tell me you'd think it "looks good."

I sorta think that's why this is a great cover. There's no drama in an image of WW tied up with a gun to her head with a "make my day" grin on her face.

[Calvin Government]

I sorta think that's why this is a great cover. There's no drama in an image of WW tied up with a gun to her head with a "make my day" grin on her face.

There's no drama in this cover, either - after all, you know beyond a shadow of a doubt that she would survive the issue. Thus, rather than making a cover show an interesting character moment or trait, or at least one that suggests that she's a heroine for a reason, it went for shock value. Even if you know she'll survive, it's an image of the strongest superheroine, reduced to near tears at some guy holding a gun to her head.

That isn't drama; it's shocking.

[Free-Man]

There's no drama in this cover, either - after all, you know beyond a shadow of a doubt that she would survive the issue. Thus, rather than making a cover show an interesting character moment or trait, or at least one that suggests that she's a heroine for a reason, it went for shock value. Even if you know she'll survive, it's an image of the strongest superheroine, reduced to near tears at some guy holding a gun to her head.

That isn't drama; it's shocking.

I didn't think people hated that cover all that much. I always thought the actual full page shot of her chained up and agged in that storyline was more controversial.

[Black Atom]

There's no drama in this cover, either - after all, you know beyond a shadow of a doubt that she would survive the issue. Thus, rather than making a cover show an interesting character moment or trait, or at least one that suggests that she's a heroine for a reason, it went for shock value. Even if you know she'll survive, it's an image of the strongest superheroine, reduced to near tears at some guy holding a gun to her head.

That isn't drama; it's shocking.

You say that like it's a negative. Covers are supposed to be shocking and dramatic. Whether the character dies in the story doesn't really matter. The image, outside of the context of knowing what happens in the story, is very dramatic.

And vulnerability IS an interesting character trait. I know Wonder Woman is a strong, capable hero--I don't need it reinforced 100 times over on
every cover (or story, for that matter).

[AndyMangels]

You say that like it's a negative. Covers are supposed to be shocking and dramatic. Whether the character dies in the story doesn't really matter. The image, outside of the context of knowing what happens in the story, is very dramatic.
And vulnerability IS an interesting character trait. I know Wonder Woman is a strong, capable hero--I don't need it reinforced 100 times over on
every cover (or story, for that matter).

Apply that same logic in the example I gave above.

Put your mother or your sister or best female friend in that exact same image (somebody who you know is alive), and then tell me you'd think it "looks good."

Whether you know they're alive, whether you know they'll survive, whether you know "it's just a story," it's pure shock. It's the equivalent of a "woman in refrigerator" moment. It's the Lady Bathory sequence in Hostel II. This cover exists to sell the book solely based on "look how much we debased and degraded Wonder Woman!"