Wonder Woman's Fighting Ability

[4PointOh]

How good of a hand-to-hand combatant is Diana? What is her style? Is she a martial artist? A brawler? Where does she rank in raw fighting ability (minus enhanced speed, strength, and agility) against champions like Lady Shiva, Cassandra Cain, The Batman, The Bronze Tiger, and Black Canary?

Discuss!

[MinaRho1]

How good of a hand-to-hand combatant is Diana? What is her style? Is she a martial artist? A brawler? Where does she rank in raw fighting ability (minus enhanced speed, strength, and agility) against champions like Lady Shiva, Cassandra Cain, The Batman, The Bronze Tiger, and Black Canary?

Discuss!

I tend to consider Black Canary, Lady Shiva, and Cassandra Cain as THE best female fighters in the DC universe. THE best period.

Diana is certainly a skilled fighter. I won't even guess how close she is to that top tier because it diminishes them somehow.

I would prefer if writers focused on her tactical skill and leadership, like her one-time patron Athena. Kind of like a pre-tech Oracle who is still in the fray. One of her strengths is that she knows her friends inside and out. Who better to direct them? (well, other than J'onn)

[froinlaven]

I tend to consider Black Canary, Lady Shiva, and Cassandra Cain as THE best female fighters in the DC universe. THE best period.

Diana is certainly a skilled fighter. I won't even guess how close she is to that top tier because it diminishes them somehow.

I would prefer if writers focused on her tactical skill and leadership, like her one-time patron Athena. Kind of like a pre-tech Oracle who is still in the fray. One of her strengths is that she knows her friends inside and out. Who better to direct them? (well, other than J'onn)

I'd put her in the Top Ten. Although her fighting style is kinda awkward and not really definitive.

[MinaRho1]

I'd put her in the Top Ten. Although her fighting style is kinda awkward and not really definitive.

I think thats worth exploring. Her culture is ancient. Ancient customs are steeped in meaning that may or may not have meaning today.

For example, in many asian cultures, you bow with hands in front of your chest before entering a room. One would assume its mere politeness but there's a meaning in that. When you bend to bow, you display the fact that a long sword hilt is not on your person. That your hands are bare and not holding weapons, and thus its acceptable to enter someone else's home.

There are lots of things in different cultures and fighting styles that are leftovers, like the vestige hind- limbs in whales. A writer might have fun sprinkling little things like that into fight scenes.

On the other hand I can just as easily see Diana getting rid of things that don't apply anymore.

[Constantine Drakon]

I don't think anyone has ever done a good job depicting Diana's training in a way that properly sets up just how good she's meant to be.

[Stanlos]

In terms of martial prowess she and her sisters, given their training, would be on a whole other level IMHO.

[ben c]

i think she should have (or at least be trained in) a fairly comprehensive and elegant fighting school, comparable to the asian martial arts. (for the WC WW story, i considered there being 13 schools, based on the -- blah blah who cares? i don't! anyway...
considering their heritage as scythian-related horsewoman, i imagine the main hallmarks of their combat style would be speed and unpredictable maneuverability (as herotodus describes so graphically). bursts of movement, acrobatic feints and a combination of punches AND kicks, sweeps etc, not just running straight up to someone and giving them a roundhouse.
also, in the WC WW, whenever WW is preparing to fight, she gets into a "battle-ready" pose, crouched down with her left (shield) arm in front of her face as guard, and her right arm and leg back, ready to strike.

there are a lot of mary sue things involving WW i am not crazy about, and obviously my story had a younger WW who is still translating practice and theory into battlefield experience, but it's hard to imagine her NOt being one of the toughest warriors in the DCU, at least in terms of actual martial skill (as opposed to superman or even batman).

[4PointOh]

i think she should have (or at least be trained in) a fairly comprehensive and elegant fighting school, comparable to the asian martial arts. (for the WC WW story, i considered there being 13 schools, based on the -- blah blah who cares? i don't! anyway...
considering their heritage as scythian-related horsewoman, i imagine the main hallmarks of their combat style would be speed and unpredictable maneuverability (as herotodus describes so graphically). bursts of movement, acrobatic feints and a combination of punches AND kicks, sweeps etc, not just running straight up to someone and giving them a roundhouse.
also, in the WC WW, whenever WW is preparing to fight, she gets into a "battle-ready" pose, crouched down with her left (shield) arm in front of her face as guard, and her right arm and leg back, ready to strike.

there are a lot of mary sue things involving WW i am not crazy about, and obviously my story had a younger WW who is still translating practice and theory into battlefield experience, but it's hard to imagine her NOt being one of the toughest warriors in the DCU, at least in terms of actual martial skill (as opposed to superman or even batman).

Ben! You joined us! Welcome!

[Mr Prince]

I agree that she has to be in the top ten of martial artists/combatants in the DCU. While not an Asian discipline, part of being the Amazon champion had to be from growing up on Themyscira and learning hand-to-hand combat techniques from her warrior sisters from birth.

My guess is she could hold her own against a majority of the martial artists in the DCU.

[troy2g1]

She has to have some form of asian martial arts training as she has been shown to spar with Batman, Black Canary, Lady Siva & she has fought alongside I-Ching (re-introduced into Post Crisis continuity by Heinberg).

[Deus ex Chris]

She's the best fighter among an immortal race of women who've spent thousands of years fighting and training to fight. She's certainly on par with Lady Shiva and Batman. She might even be better.

[Black Atom]

I think Wonder Woman should be a very accomplished hand-to-hand fighter, but not on the level of folks like Black Canary, Shiva, Batman and other street-levellers who rely on that everyday to survive. Practically speaking those guys should be better trained (access to a more diverse set of martial arts) and more experienced (again, using nothing but martial arts day and day out). But generally, I just like, thematically, that those guys are the best martial artists around, with WW on the very next tier perhaps.

[galactica]

I wish they would actually choreograph her fights to show her using her martial arts training. As it is she looks no different from any high powered brawler when she's fighting. One of the things I really like about Iron Fist is that when he is fighting he actually looks like a trained martial artist. You see it in the way he throws a punch, kicks, dodge an attack, block or counter-attack or the way he stands before he does any of those things.


Question about Black Canary. I thought she was supposed to be only half as good as Shiva. That would still make her a great fighter but no on the level of Shiva, Cassandra, Batman. Am I wrong about that?

[Evil Eleanor]

I want writers to stop TELLING me that Amazonian training is amazing.

I want them to SHOW me.

[americanwonder]

i think she should have (or at least be trained in) a fairly comprehensive and elegant fighting school

Ben, that's a very elegant way of putting it - I like it.

She's the best fighter among an immortal race of women who've spent thousands of years fighting and training to fight. She's certainly on par with Lady Shiva and Batman. She might even be better.

This is how I see it as well, Christopher - well said. Unfortunatley, I doubt DC will go that route.

I think Wonder Woman should be a very accomplished hand-to-hand fighter, but not on the level of folks like Black Canary, Shiva, Batman and other street-levellers who rely on that everyday to survive. Practically speaking those guys should be better trained (access to a more diverse set of martial arts) and more experienced (again, using nothing but martial arts day and day out). But generally, I just like, thematically, that those guys are the best martial artists around, with WW on the very next tier perhaps.

Black Atom, I can understand and respect that point of view, even though it's not my preference. For starters, Bruce shouldn't be top-tier, imo. He didn't start training until much later in life, is spread very thin (studying forensics alone would take a lot of time, not to mention keeping up on his businesses, etc.), and he is fairly reliant on "toys" himself. Also, (forgive my ignorance) but aren't nearly all of Bruce's masters/teachers in martial arts mortal? In other words, they had only trained for 60-70 years tops.

Furthermore, now that Diana is in "man's world," I see no reason to believe that she wouldn't have studied up on various forms of hand-to-hand fighting techniques that exist here. Diana grew up as child under 3,000 masters that had trained for thousands of years themselves, she's driven, assertive, and strives to best herself - why would she have suddenly stopped training?