All 4 Times Wonder Woman & Superman Have Been in a Relationship, Explained

Superhero couples in comics are quite common, especially in DC, where we saw iconic couples like Batman and Catwoman and Green Arrow and Black Canary. Of course, these relationships don’t always work out because of the dangers and insecurities of living as a superhero. However, when DC decided to reboot most of their major characters and revise some of the lore behind their most notable superheroes, they separated the most notable couple in DC history and put the two most iconic DC superheroes together, Superman and Wonder Woman. This article will focus on all times Wonder Woman and Superman have been in a relationship and explain what happened to them in DC Comics.

Wonder Woman & Superman were together and in a relationship only once in the mainstream DC continuity, following the ‘New 52’ reboot of the mainline universe. As for the alternative continuities, Wonder Woman & Superman were romantically involved three times, during ‘Injustice: Gods Among Us,’ ‘Kingdom Come,’ and ‘The Dark Knight Strikes Again.’

Wonder Woman and Superman had a whole comic book story dedicated to their relationship during New 52, which we will explain further, and the infamous Elseworlds story that sees Superman and Wonder Woman being driven by their insecurities and grief over their “love” for each other.

Wonder Woman and Superman first became a couple during New 52

In 2011, DC Comics relaunched its entire line of then-ongoing monthly superhero comic books, including Batman, Superman, Wonder Woman, and more, called New 52. DC felt that newer fans would have difficulty catching up to decades-long stories like ‘Detective Comics,’ and ‘Action Comics,’ which meant revising some of the origins stories and maybe introducing some “forgotten” characters.

Moreover, the inclusion and reintroduction of new storylines meant more modern and accessible characters, and it was a good idea at the start. However, over the next few years, we saw some questionable creative decisions of some of the most loved characters in the DC Universe. Red Hood and Outlaws first come to mind as one of the worst comics of the New 52 era, which saw the fan-favorite Starfire being degraded to a shallow character that wants to “get into someone’s pants” and Red Hood being reduced to being “an edgy, tragic boy.”

Despite the criticism and some bad writing, New 52 did wonders for Wonder Woman’s character (pun absolutely intended) and introduced her origins as more connected to Greek Mythology – all in all, she had some great stories during that era. However, what fans (me included) absolutely disliked was the new romantic relationship she developed with no other than Superman.

Superman has been with Lois Lane for decades, and they were essentially the most popular couple in DC Universe, but DC executives felt that his relationship with the fiery journalist was “getting old” and decided to give Lois a new man, while Superman would discover his feelings for his Justice League colleague, Wonder Woman.

On the other side, Wonder Woman and Steve Trevor were reduced to one-sided and unrequited love, which meant that WWII soldiers wouldn’t have a chance with Princess Diana of Themyscira.

At the end of ‘Justice League #12, written by Geoff Johns, we see Superman and Wonder Woman sharing a passionate kiss, which led to their independent comic book ‘Superman/Wonder Woman’ which focused on their new romantic relationship.

Some fans were open to that concept, but others felt that Wonder Woman and Superman were better off with their previous love interests. Personally, Superman and Wonder Woman didn’t make sense because they were too similar – Lois was good for Kal-El because she helped him be more “human” and always challenged him.

On the other hand, Steve Trevor was always “a weak” partner for Wonder Woman, and she always had better partners in Elseworlds stories. Anyway, the ‘Superman/Wonder Woman’ comic book saw the couple being together and facing some difficulties in their relationship.

In the story, Lois Lane leaks Superman’s civil identity to the world, and Wonder Woman feels like she needs to intervene and confront Kal-El’s ex. After she threatens Lois and forcefully interrogates the journalist with her Lasso of Truth, Superman is livid at Diana, ultimately leading to their fighting – Wonder Woman questions Superman’s remaining feelings for Lois.

At the same time, fans aren’t happy about DC’s biggest superheroes being together because it didn’t make sense, and frankly, they weren’t good for each other. Wonder Woman and Superman eventually break up; specifically, Kal-El says to Diana that he doesn’t actually love her and that they need to focus on more important things.

Writers and DC put “the nail in the coffin” of the relationship with DC Rebirth by bringing Superman’s family back – Lois Lane as his wife and Jonathan Kent as his son. It was short-lived yet controversial and impactful, proving that Superman and Wonder Woman are better as partners and friends.

‘Injustice’ sees a very problematic relationship between Wonder Woman and Superman

‘Injustice: Gods Among Us’ was originally a video game that was released in 2013 by Warner Bros. and created by NetheRealm Studios, which depicted the alternate version of DC characters, where Superman succumbs to villainy after killing the love of his life, Lois Lane.

DC Comics followed with various comic books that eventually became a success among the fans. Nevertheless, the story is set on Earth-22, where Joker tricks Superman into killing his pregnant wife, Lois Lane, and consequently destroys the whole Metropolis. Grief-stricken Superman kills Joker in cold blood and decides to take the manner into his hands – he will stop all crime on Earth and bring all criminals “to justice,” which leads to his tyranny and establishment of a new world order.

Superman and Wonder Woman’s relationship was established in the video game ‘Injustice: Gods Among Us’ and the comic book of the same name. Superman is grief-stricken and decides to “police” the whole world by imprisoning criminals before they do something drastic. Wonder Woman heavily supports Superman, and until that point, she is established as a cold individual – in WWII, she was betrayed by Steve Trevor, whom she killed in cold blood.

Nevertheless, more superheroes join the tyranny of Superman, like Hawkgirl, The Flash, Hal Jordan as Yellow Lantern, Hawkgirl, Cyborg, and more. After years of tyranny, death, and fights with Batman, which leads to Alfred epically beating Superman to a pulp in the ‘Year One’ part of the ‘Injustice’ story, Superman and Wonder Woman get romantically involved, and it is quite toxic.

Diana supports Kal-El, but in the fifth year of his tyranny over the world, Diana is seemingly reluctant to be with him – she sees that Superman has become too “hardcore” even for her. Superman is so focused on defeating Batman and rebellious superheroes that he ignores Diana’s affection.

At the end of ‘Injustice: Gods Among Us,’ we see an alternate version of Superman defeating Clark and helping Batman capture him. The rest of Superman’s allies are also captured, with Wonder Woman being imprisoned on Paradise Island. However, their relationship continues in ‘Injustice 2’ where we see Wonder Woman and Superman having to join forces against Brainiac and his forces who attack the world.

One of the most interesting fights in the ‘Injustice 2’ game was the one between Wonder Woman and Scarecrow. Crane releases his fear gas which shows Diana’s greatest fear – her corrupting Superman leads to her lover eventually killing her. It’s an intense scene where we see more layers to Wonder Woman’s character and her weakness.

‘Kingdom Come’ is considered the first comic book that had Wonder Woman and Superman being together

In the 1990s, Alex Ross was working on ‘Marvels,’ a comic book story that features an Everyman character narrating a story of living as a normal man in a world full of superheroes. The creator decided that DC needed their own version of this story with some more original ideas.

‘Kingdom Come‘ follows Superman and the rest of the Justice League members abandoning their superhero duties and retiring to a domestic lifestyle. The reason behind their retirement is that new superheroes, among them Magog, have become more popular in the eyes of the public, with his quite violent method of vigilantism.

Magog even murders the serial killer Joker, who slaughters the whole Daily Planet staff, including Lois Lane, his wife. When it comes to Superman and Wonder Woman, they actually get together at the end of the novel.

Disgraced from Paradise Island, Diana tells Kal-El of the disaster Magog bestowed on American Midwest, including his home Kansas, and during their fights against threats and “dirty” superheroes, they eventually end up together, get married, and have five children.

‘Kingdom Come’ is an interesting story of metahumans living among normal humans and superheroes using their abilities for the wrong reasons. The novel sees a lot of metahumans dying, like Sandman and Captain Marvel, but in the end, Superman and Wonder Woman end up together.

One of the most controversial moments in comics is during ‘The Dark Knight Strikes Again,’ the sequel of the notable ‘The Dark Knight Returns’ comic once again written by Frank Miller. In the sequel, Wonder Woman and Superman get married and have a daughter Lara, but their relationship starts with the Man of Tomorrow and Princess Diana having “earth-shattering sexual intercourse” that destroys everything around them. Retrospectively, that moment is also weird since Superman and Wonder Woman are actually physically fighting but suddenly start having sex in the middle of the air.

Besides distracting comic art, the story was also quite disappointing compared to ‘The Dark Knight Rises.’ The main continuity made Superman and Wonder Woman forget their relationship, thinking they were always platonic great friends that worked together; frankly, it was for the best.

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