For a comic book movie, Wonder Woman is pretty light on references to the comics. However, there are a few nods to Wonder Woman's very long comic book history if you know where to look. Let’s take a gander at all of the easter eggs in Wonder Woman you may have missed!
Orana the Amazon
There are a lot of background Amazons that come straight from the comics in Wonder Woman. It’s mostly a blink and you-miss-it-thing, as they’re only named in the credits. One of them is Orana, who in the comics is one of the few women besides Diana to ever hold the title of Wonder Woman.
Mayling Ng plays Orana in the movie. In 1978’s Wonder Woman #258, Orana challenges Diana to a series of contests for the title of Wonder Woman. Orana is portrayed as brutal, careless and immoral compared to Diana, as during the contests she tries to win by any means necessary. She even causes some meteors to hurtle toward the earth in the final contest. Diana abandons to contest to stop the meteors, so Orana wins. After the Gods declare her the new Wonder Woman, Orana travels to New York and finds out being a hero is a lot harder than she thought. She ends up dying when she’s unable to deflect some machine gun fire from a terrorist.
Artemis the Amazon
Ann Wolfe plays Artemis, who is pretty much a reimagined version of Orana. She first showed up in 1992’s Wonder Woman #90. She too challenges Diana for the mantle of Wonder Woman and wins. Like Orana, she eventually dies and gives the title of Wonder Woman back to Diana. Unlike Orana, she manages to bond with Diana a little before she kicks it and is resurrected shortly afterwards. She then became a prominent friend and ally for Diana and the other Amazons and often acts as a superhero in her own right.
In the comics, Artemis comes from a Middle-Eastern tribe of Amazons called the Bana-Mighdall rather than from Themyscira, but the movie version presumably was always part of the Themysciran Amazons.
Etta Candy's various incarnations
Etta Candy may play a small role in the movie, but she played a big role in the original comics. Etta was Wonder Woman’s trusted sidekick. She would jump into the fray and fight alongside her. Her line in the movie about being willing to engage in fisticuffs should the occasion arise is a definite nod to that.
Not only that, but comics Etta was part of a sorority at Holiday College and she would lead the other women of the organization into battle alongside Wonder Woman. This army of women was dubbed “the Holiday girls” and their first mission had them overwhelm Doctor Poison’s base. Etta helping Steve and Diana locate Doctor Poison in the movie may be a subtle nod to that.
Etta was reimagined in the 1980’s George Perez comics as a military intelligence officer. This version of Etta was both far less confident and less action-oriented than the 1940’s version (though much later in Gail Simone’s comics she became a little more like the bold and wise-cracking character she was before). She fell in love with Steve Trevor and they eventually married. Etta being fairly close to Steve and affiliated with the military as Steve’s secretary may be a nod to that incarnation.
The current comic book version of Etta is a capable commander in the military and a trusted confidante for both Diana and Steve. Etta and the Holiday girls are also featured in the miniseries The Legend of Wonder Woman, where they’re fairly close to their original incarnations.
The enslavement of the Amazons
While telling the origin of the Amazons, Hippolyta mentions that the Amazons tried to usher in peace but it did not last. Hippolyta was forced to lead a rebellion to break her fellow Amazons free from enslavement. But who were they enslaved by? In the comics, this is fully explained. It was Hercules/Heracles and his men who captured and enslaved the Amazons.
There are many different versions of this story but they all follow the same basic plot. Hippolyta bests Hercules in combat. Hercules pretends to be humbled and invites Hippolyta to talk peace with him. But he instead drugs Hippolyta’s drink, puts her and her fellow Amazons in chains and enslaves them (and, in some versions, he and his men do even nastier things to them). A goddess- Aphrodite or Athena depending on the version- then grant the Amazons the strength to break their chains and conquer their captors. The goddess then commands that Amazons all wear metal cuffs to remind themselves of what happened, hence the origin of Diana’s bracelets.
Philippus the Amazon
Ann Ogborno plays Philippus. While in the movie, Antiope is the general of the Amazons, Philippus is the one who has that role in the comics. She’s probably the most prominent comic book Amazon after Hippolyta, Artemis and Diana herself. She and Hippolyta are very close and it's heavily implied they are romantically involved. Writer Gail Simone even planned for them to get married at one point.
In TheLegend of Wonder Woman miniseries, Philippus is Diana’s main combat instructor. Much like Antiope in the movie, she teaches Diana how to fight behind Hippolyta’s back.
The Amazons Menalippe and Egeria
Lisa Loven Kongsli plays Menalippe. In the comics, Menalippe was an Amazon priestess who eventually sacrificed herself to save Hippolyta. She was also in a romantic relationship with another Amazon named Penelope. In the movie, Menalippe is constantly seen with Antiope and she cries out loudly and rushes Antiope’s side when she dies. This could imply that the movie version of Menalippe is involved with Antiope rather than Penelope.
Madeliene Vall plays Egeria. In the comics, she was the Captain of the Guard before Philippus. She sacrificed herself to seal Doom’s Doorway, a doorway on Themyscira that leads to Hades. Demons would try to escape from it and terrorize the island, including a many-armed demon named Cottus.
Even More Amazons
There are several more minor Amazons from the comics present in the Wonder Woman movie. Eleanor Matsuura plays Epione, the chief healer of the Amazons (seen above). The movie version shares her comic book counterpart’s job as she’s briefly seen looking over Diana’s wounds.
Doutzen Kroes plays Venelia, who is an Amazon from the Bana-Mighdall tribe, like Artemis. She competed alongside Artemis to be the new Wonder Woman, but lost out.
Haley Warnes plays Aella, a radical Amazon who was often the first to rebel. She gets manipulated by the witch Ariadne and later killed.
Danielle Lewis is Senator Timandra, who in the comics, is an architect responsible for many of the buildings in Themyscira.
Josette Simon is Mnemosyne, the chief historian of Themyscira.
Brooke Ence plays Penthiselea. In the main comics she is simply stated to be an captain who fought in the Trojan war and was killed by Achilles. In the alternate-universe comic Flashpoint, however, she’s Hippolyta’s sister and her general. She serves as a minor antagonist and orcherstrates a war between Themyscira and Atlantis. She’s also Hippolyta’s sister in The Legend of Wonder Woman miniseries.
Other Amazons straight from the comics include Trigona, Euboa, and Niobe.
Doctor Poison's debut
Doctor Poison doesn’t interact much with Wonder Woman in the movie, but she was the first supervillain Wonder Woman ever faced in the original comics, debuting in Sensation Comics #2 in 1941. At one point in the movie, she dons a green outfit with goggles that is very similar to her costume in her comics debut.
Like her movie version, Poison developed chemical weapons for the military and was named Maru. Unlike her movie counterpart, she worked for the Nazis during WWII and was Japanese royalty simply called “Princess Maru”. She was later given a first name, but it was “Marina” rather than the movie’s “Isabel”.
Wonder Woman's various Origins
In the movie, Wonder Woman is told that her mother molded her from clay and she was then given life by Zeus. This was the original comic book backstory given for Wonder Woman,except though Zeus wasn't involved. In the original comics by William Moulton Marston, it’s Aphrodite who gives Diana life and grants her superpowers. In George Perez’s reboot of Wonder Woman, it is a collection of the various Greek goddesses (and Hermes, who was the only guy deemed cool enough to hang out with them, I guess) who give her life. They each bless Diana with a specific power.
This origin worked fine for sixty years solid. Then in 2011, DC Comics revamped all its comics properties in an event called “The New 52”. Wonder Woman was given a new origin where she was the daughter of a mortal and Zeus. Ironically, this was a backstory previously given to her sidekick, Cassandra Sandsmark a.k.a Wonder Girl.
The movie reflects this confusing change of origin by having Diana initially believe she is a child made of clay, only to find out she is apparently the daughter of Hippolyta and Zeus during the climax.
Fausta Grables
The name of the snobbish German woman whose dress Diana steals to enter the gala is revealed as Fausta Grables in the movie credits. This is a reference to a character who first debuted in Wonder Woman comics in 1943, where she was a Swiss Nazi operative who tried to capture Wonder Woman. In an ironic reversal of what happened in the movie, Fausta stole Wonder Woman’s costume and wore it while battling her. However, Diana still defeats her.
Fausta also appears in the 1975 Wonder Woman TV show in the episode “Fausta: The Nazi Wonder Woman”. Fausta is presented as a woman who has great athletic skills and manages to rise in the ranks of the Nazi party. She and other Nazis want to capture Wonder Woman, so they kidnap Steve Trevor and use him as bait to lure Diana into a trap. Diana manages to convince Fausta to switch sides and join the Allies. She later even lives on Paradise Island and can be seen there in the Wonder Woman ’77 comic.
The Fausta we see in the movie has yet to experience World War II, but it’s easy to imagine her ending up as a Nazi operative when that war rolls around, just like her original counterpart.
Wonder Woman and Ice Cream
One of the most adorable scenes in the movie is a scene where Diana tries ice cream for the first time. She enthusiastically declares it “wonderful” and tells the vendor he should be very proud of this achievement. This is actually the third time this scene has happened across different Wonder Woman-related media. In the comic Justice League: Origins, a little girl introduces Diana to ice cream. The scene was then recreated in the animated movie Justice League: War. In all versions, Diana pretty much declares the same thing- ice cream is wonderful and whoever created it should be proud.
Ares as Truth
In the movie, Ares is able to control the lasso of truth to a degree and tells Wonder Woman that he’s more like the God of Truth than the God of War, since he helps humanity show its true ugliness. In 2009’s Wonder Woman #37, Ares expresses a similar sentiment, grabbing the lasso and saying that it should belong to him, since “war is truth”. He also licks it, just to be gross.
Declaring himself the “God of Truth” is also a pretty deep dig when you consider Diana died and became the Goddess of Truth at one point in the comics. He’s not only taking over her lasso, but also her rightful place in the pantheon.
Wonder Woman's Lightning Attack
At the climax of the movie, Wonder Woman is able to control lightning with her bracelets and uses this power to finish Ares off. Wonder Woman first gained this power in Gail Simone's Wonder Woman #39. Zeus gave her some bracelets that allowed her to shoot lightning if she joined them together.
The power is also reminiscent of Brian Azarello’s Wonder Woman comics and other comics from the new 52. In these comics, she's the daughter of Zeus, so she can be seen summoning lightning before battle. In the New 52's Justice League #1, she charges into battle holding a lightning bolt as her introduction.
Paradise Island
The official name for Wonder Woman’s island is Themyscira in both this movie and modern comics, matching the name of the Amazon homeland in Greek mythology. However, in early Wonder Woman comics, it was simply called “Paradise Island”. This is referenced several times in the movie, first with Hippolyta calling the island a “paradise” and later with Steve officially nicknaming it “Paradise Island” to Diana’s amusement.
The Godkiller Sword
Diana’s sword in the movie, the Godkiller, can be found in the comics, but it’s not a weapon wielded by Wonder Woman. Instead, it’s wielded by the assassin Deathstroke the Terminator. The sword is given to Deathstroke by the Greek God Hephaestus. He was contracted to use it to assassinate Lapetus, a Greek Titan.
Of course, in the movie it turns out there's nothing special about the Godkiller sword- Diana herself is the Godkiller.