I really can’t help it! It’s a human tendency to find it difficult to get over, be it any damn thing. It’s like you are in your early teens and everything is rosy and bright and suddenly you come to know, you are an adopted child. 69th birthday of my favorite Wonder Woman gave me the same shock.

When ‘Oracle’ was changed in the third part of ‘Matrix’ they had a valid reason that the actress had passed away. And they even justified the new face of Oracle in the course of the movie. If the change in a mere supporting character needed to be handled so carefully then this, ‘The Wonder Woman’ was the Super Heroine.

In the 600th anniversary issue of Wonder Woman Comics, she is seen wearing a tight fitting red top with a thick shiny black – blue leather jacket and a matching pair of leggings. The new costume of Wonder Woman is good for sure, but I couldn’t identify it with the concept; ‘Wonder Woman’ that has been registered in my mind from my childhood. This is not ‘My’ Wonder Woman. Though the artist and the publishers have tried their best to justify this makeover, this has divided the Wonder Woman fan group into two. A small group of those fans who support the new outfit and another bigger group (a poll result shows that 65% of people hate the new costume) of those fans (can we call them fans anymore?) who believe that they have ruined Wonder Woman. Wonder Woman is lost. May be we will have to go check Ares’ abode if our Wonder Woman is imprisoned there.

In the case of such superhero comic characters, the face doesn’t matter as much as the costume does. The costume becomes their identity. If some one wears Wonder Woman costume, everybody will call her Wonder Woman. To give an example, if a person wears a Superman costume today and a Batman costume tomorrow, he will be indentified by the costume that he is wearing. I won’t say the new costume of Wonder Woman is not designed well. But, the question arises, ‘why this particular costume?’ There are many designers in the whole world and they can provide with many options.

Granted that the new costume is less revealing and Wonder Woman can move more freely without any fear of her dress falling out. She is given pockets which she can use to carry things and the new Wonder Woman meets the needs of 21st century fashion. But to me, this is like introducing a new character using the popularity of the old one. Instead of two Wonder Women, one old and one new, we could as well use a completely new character.

Before this revolutionary makeover, DC Comics had tried to change the costume three times in past and every time they went back to the old one. Even this time they could have first taken a poll before they decided to change it. It is good that at least the signature elements of Wonder Woman; Lasso of truth, bracelets of victory etc have been retained. There was a very large group of fans that bought Wonder Woman costume. This step is going to affect that industry as well. While I am putting my views on this page, a thought came to my mind, does it actually matter if I like or dislike the new Wonder Woman? Or, is anybody bothered about what William Marston would have said on seeing this top to toe makeover of his creation?