Gal Gadot's WONDER WOMAN costume - Finally Legit or Time Quit? by Brian J. Patterson

This week the inter-web has been all aflutter from the "leaked" photos of Gal Gadot in what is allegedly her proposed Wonder Woman costume. I put leaked in quotes because we have all seen this type of audience testing before. You know. The kind where a certain director (David E. Kelly) takes photos of his or her star (Adrienne Palicki) in a comic book superhero costume that a designer (Donna Casey) has attempted in yet ANOTHER new design of said hero, and allows said photos to be posted on-line in an effort to garner audience feedback and test to see if said costume will do well. Nooooooo....we've NEVER seen this done before! ;) Regardless of what can obviously be seen as a social media audience test, we have seen this Wonder Woman costume test at least three times from DC Comics before and it almost always ends the same way. 

In 1974, director Vincent McEveety created a Wonder Woman TV movie where Diana Prince was the equivalent of a female James Bond, and featured her as a blond in an updated costume. One that can only be described as a star spangled leisure suit. Although the project did well, the suit and the re-imagining of our hero definitely didn't stick. Because in 1975, when Lynda Carter debuted as Wonder Woman in another TV movie pilot, people fell crazy in love with the character. This show featured an actress, although brand new to the scene, who looked EXACTLY like the amazing amazon. Combined with physical appearance and a costume that was a DIRECT copy of the original design, she was the comic book superhero come to life.

In 2011, director David E. Kelly left the courtrooms (of Ally McBeal, The Practice, Boston Legal, etc.) and decided to take a stab at writing a superhero (I think we all can imagine how THAT turned out!), by creating the Wonder Woman television pilot for NBC which featured naturally blond Friday Night Lights co-star Adrienne Palicki in an 'updated' costume. This time, the costume can only be described as something that you purchase on Hollywood Boulevard and use for a porno (not that I would EVER watch porn! *giggle*). Without a modern day Lynda Carter to save them, NBC passed on the project.

In November of 2011 (the same year as David E. Kelly's project), DC Comics released their 'New 52' version of Wonder Woman. This featured yet ANOTHER pants version of the Amazing Amazon. This time, it was like watching history repeat itself again, because every single artists' version of this 'new 52' Wonder Woman has been slowly reverting to the old costume design.

However, I could be wrong. History could not repeat itself this time. Vincent McEveety, David E. Kelly, and the new 52 comic book team (Eddie Berganza, Brian Azzarello, & Cliff Chang) could have been onto something, and maybe the fans and public across all generations who have time and time again said that they want the classic Wonder Woman body type and costume design could actually disassociate from the original intention of the character and go for something re-imagined (again). Perhaps this Superman V Batman could actually be the one to stick with a new design. My question to you, is this: Is it finally legit or time to just quit and go with what we asked for originally?  

Check out the link to one of the many articles posted online here:  http://www.kpopstarz.com/articles/92859/20140526/wonder-woman-actress-gal-gadot.htm

Brian J Patterson is an actor, producer, and lifelong comics and Wonder Woman fan who splits his time between San Francisco and Los Angeles. 


  Did you enjoy this article? Follow us on Facebook to get more great content! We have a weekly podcast you can find on our main site. Also follow us on Twitter and Tumblr!