Justice League Variant Covers Show Us Wonder Woman and The Flash in Action, but Did They Have to Draw Diana Like That?

In November, DC Comics will begin publishing cinematic variant covers attached to existing titles, in the hopes that fans will want to collect ’em all. Now they’ve released two featuring battle-ready Diana Prince and Barry Allen. We have some compliments and some concerns.

The Hollywood Reporter has the scoop on the covers and their availability:

The covers will be published as variant editions for Wonder Woman No. 34 (on sale Nov. 22) and The Flash No. 34 (on sale Nov. 8), and feature Terry Dodson and Mike McKone’s portrayals of the cinematic versions of each title character, backed by the other members of the team. (Sadly, Aquaman is missing from the Dodson Wonder Woman cover, but he’s probably somewhere in the background, fighting an errant fish.)

The other members of the League will receive their own covers—and likely some more that showcase the united team—available as variants for November issues of “Justice League, Aquaman, Batman, Cyborg, Detective Comics, Superman and Trinity.” That’s a lot of covers, but it seems that there will be ample opportunity to grab one featuring your particular fave.

Let’s start with this Flash cover, which I am all about. According to reports, DC Films head Geoff Johns recently revealed that the Flash is “the collective favorite coming out of Justice League” screenings, with the crowd loving Ezra Miller’s depiction of our beloved Scarlet Speedster.

This is great news, though not entirely unexpected—Ezra Miller is charming and generally a delight to watch on-screen, and from the moments we’ve seen of his Flash in trailers, he seems to be injecting comedy and levity into the part. I love the dynamic motion of all of the League in this cover, with a clear view of the major players and their attributes as they rush to confront evil.

As we move on to our lady Diana, I have some gripes: these are “portrayals of the cinematic versions of each title character,” which means they should resemble the cinematic versions of the character. I’m not asking for photorealistic Gal Gadot here—it’s clearly intended to be inspired.

But the angle and the pose is bothering me, as Wonder Woman assumes what looks to be like really crappy fighting form that just so happens to twist her body to prominently display her chest and legs. Teresa and I have been talking about it, and Teresa points out, “Who is she blocking with that shield while she’s looking the other way?” Contrast her solo pose to the Flash’s. Better yet, I wish someone would draw one of the male heroes in that exact same pose so that we can see how ridiculous it is.

It’s exciting that Warner Bros/DC are acknowledging Wonder Woman’s new mainstream visibility and that there will be a lot of fan excitement to collect her cover. That’s great! But she deserves a different kind of stance here. Teresa adds, “It’s not as if there aren’t so many reference photos of Gadot’s Wonder Woman standing dead-on, walking forward, shoulders square, looking strong.”

What do you think?

(via THR, images: DC Comics)

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Kaila Hale-Stern

Kaila Hale-Stern (she/her) is a content director, editor, and writer who has been working in digital media for more than fifteen years. She started at TMS in 2016. She loves to write about TV—especially science fiction, fantasy, and mystery shows—and movies, with an emphasis on Marvel. Talk to her about fandom, queer representation, and Captain Kirk. Kaila has written for io9, Gizmodo, New York Magazine, The Awl, Wired, Cosmopolitan, and once published a Harlequin novel you'll never find.

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