Who Is Wonder Woman's Father In DC Comics?

Diana/Wonder Woman hails from Themyscira, an island paradise of all women, unspoiled by patriarchy. (Like Barbieland with less pink, and no Kens.) The natives of Themyscira are called the Amazons, and they're all immortal, so population maintenance takes care of itself. But on an island with no men, how did Diana come into being? Who is her father? Does she even have one?

One popular answer is that Wonder Woman is the daughter of Zeus, the ruler of the Greek gods. This binds her even closer to Greek mythology from which the Amazons first sprung. It's also the origin that the "Wonder Woman" films starring Gal Gadot used, so it's the most publicly well-known one now. But it's not the original answer.

The animated "Justice League" series from the 2000s suggested that Diana's father was Hades, brother of Zeus and god of the underworld. Nothing else has suggested this, but this reflects how the identity of Wonder Woman's father has been open for most of her history, not because it was a mystery, but because it was a question with no answer. As originally conceived, Wonder Woman had no father — and that detail is essential to her character.

Wonder Woman was created in 1941 by William Moulton Marston, a psychology professor and feminist, along with artist H.G. Peter. She debuted in "All-Star Comics" #8, but the full history of the Amazons was not told until the later "Wonder Woman" #1. The women are soldiers in a war between Ares, god of war, and Aphrodite, goddess of love — the violent world of men ruled by Ares drove the Amazons out, so Aphrodite led them to Themyscira to live in peaceful isolation.

Diana is "born" on Themyscira; her mother, the Amazon Hippolyta, sculpts the statue of a young girl from clay. Then, honoring her devotee's prayer, Aphrodite brought the statue to life. So Diana wasn't technically born, she was a piece of clay made flesh.

DC Comics

This origin was maintained during George Peréz's 1987 reboot of "Wonder Woman." In that retelling, it wasn't only Aphrodite who answered Hippolyta's prayer, but five other gods, too. Together, they give the future Wonder Woman life and special gifts (such as the power to fly, courtesy of Hermes).

DC Comics

DC Comics

Diana being made from clay evokes the Book of Genesis, where God sculpted Adam out of the earth. But it's more than just a homage.

The message animating Marston's comics is that the world would be better if it was a matriarchy — women would "lovingly" lead men, not harshly dominate them as the patriarchy often does to women. The one place where women do rule, Themyscira, is the one paradise on planet Earth. As Wonder Woman, Diana is an ambassador of peace, sent out into the world to spread the gospel of the Amazons. Eventually, Marston says, the world will adapt to that message.

Diana is the personification of the Amazon way, because a man had no part in her creation. She was not only raised entirely by women, it was two women (Hippolyta and Aphrodite) who gave her life. From her very birth, she has been untainted by the sins of man. As Ares attests: "All men worship is force, and I am force incarnate!" Only Diana can end that worship and make us all see the truth of our world.

Then in 2011, DC Comics semi-rebooted their shared setting with the publishing initiative "The New 52" (referring to how 52 new DC comic series began publishing from #1 onward). The reboot folded popular characters from the Vertigo and Wildstorm publishing imprints into mainstream DC, and reset the Justice League and ilk to be younger.

The New 52 "Wonder Woman" series, written by Brian Azzarello and drawn by Cliff Chiang, reimagined Wonder Woman's origin. Now, she was the daughter of Zeus. Notably the retcon was present in-universe; Hippolyta told Diana she was made from clay to hide her daughter's true nature from her, the way a parent tells their child a stork delivered them. (Plus, Hippolyta didn't want to invite the wrath of Zeus' vengeful wife Hera.) This didn't stop the other Amazons from mocking Diana with the nickname "Clay," though.

The twist on her origin dilutes the original themes of Wonder Woman, but it has thematic resonance in this particular run. Azzarello and Chiang's "Wonder Woman" is about Diana being confronted with ugly secrets her sisters kept from her.

For instance, she learns that her fellow Amazons reproduce by abducting, raping, and then killing male sailors. The baby girls born from this become new Amazons, while the boys are given to Hephaestus, Greek god of the forge, as slaves. (Though he instead treats them as his sons, reapplying Marston's theme of loving submission to parental love.) At the end of the run, Diana reforms Themyscira by welcoming men onto its shores, because anyone can be an Amazon.

Reading Azzarello's "Wonder Woman," you get the sense he doesn't just agree with the philosophies that are core to the book and character — to him, Themyscira isn't a haven for women, but a misandristic injustice, its very existence violence by exclusion (and more) towards men. He spends his time blowing up the tenets of "Wonder Woman," from remaking the Amazons from people of peace into literal Feminazis to turning Diana into a much more violent character. (This is the run where she started wielding a sword.)

So, is Azzarello changing Wonder Woman's origin to something less "silly" part of that larger attempt to change the tone of the character? See, I think it wasn't entirely his call. One has to remember that the New 52 was enacted in preparation for DC's coming cinematic universe; the new issue #1's were to attract and familiarize new readers, and the stories were tailored to be filmed.

Making Wonder Woman into the daughter of Zeus feels like a corporate decision to make her more "accessible," because comic book movies almost always sand off of the "silly" edges of the source material. As early as 2014, "Batman V Superman" producer Charles Roven was calling Wonder Woman the daughter of Zeus, i.e. the origin that had been canon for a few years at that point. It's almost like the comics adjusted to make way for the movies, not the other way around. 

It also fits with the modern Christianization of Greek mythology. (Think of how many works, from "Hercules" to "Percy Jackson," portray Hades as basically Satan.) Many Americans worship the Son of God, so the daughter of (a) god is a heroic figure they can grasp onto.

Yet this retcon rattled "Wonder Woman" fans. It removes queer subtext, makes Diana's strength come from her connection to a man, and turns a feminist symbol into the offspring of Zeus, "myth's #1 rapist and symbol of patriarchy."

In Greek Mythology, Zeus is the king of the gods, one who overthrew his father, the Titan Cronus, so he, his siblings, and their own progeny could rule as the new pantheon from Mount Olympus. Zeus is the god of lightning, thunder, and the sky, reflecting how he rules over all Earth. His domain even encompasses his brothers': the ocean (ruled over by Posiedon) and the underworld (ruled over by Hades).

Zeus's powers, since the original myths, mostly manifest as him literally throwing thunderbolts; i.e. the ancient Greeks would interpret cracks of lightning, and the loud thunder accompanying it, as Zeus literally hurling lightning at the Earth from his heavenly domain. The DC interpretation of Zeus, as the king and strongest of the gods, keeps his thunderous powers (even if Diana didn't inherit them). DC Zeus has all the other expected powers for a god, too: great strength, immortality, teleportation, shapeshifting, flight, and a whole other array of magical abilities.

In the DC Extended Universe films, Zeus is the one who made Themyscira invisible; in "Wonder Woman 1984," Diana taps into that ability to make her Invisible Jet. In "Justice League" (both cuts), a young Zeus (Sergi Constance) is shown going head-to-head with Darkseid, the God of Evil. That clash later played out in the comics, too, in "Wonder Woman" #37, where Zeus comes to his daughter's aid and exuberantly challenges his worthy foe. Initially Zeus is winning, but Darkseid triumphs and it falls to Diana to restore her father's soul. It seems even the deities of old fall when faced with the New Gods.

Zeus had plenty of other children, ranging from full-blooded to demigods. The most famous one is Heracles (better known these days by his Roman name, Hercules), one of Greek mythology's most famous heroes.

Like the rest of the public domain Greek pantheon, Hercules has shown up in both DC and Marvel Comics. The Marvel Hercules is a superhero, a friendly rival to Thor who has often served in the Avengers. The DC Hercules is more villainous; in antiquity, he battled the Amazons, viewing their refusal to bow to any man as a personal insult to his own strength. Though defeated by Hippolyta, Hercules stole her magic girdle and enslaved the Amazons, forcing the eventual intercession of Aphrodite, who placed the Amazons on Themyscira. 

If you go with Wonder Woman being the daughter of Zeus, then Hercules is by extension her half-brother. The family tree doesn't stop blossoming there. Cassie Sandmark, the second Wonder Girl, was initially written as the daughter of Zeus and archaeologist Helena Sandmark; since the retcon of Diana's own parents, Cassie has been reinterpreted as Zeus' granddaughter. This right here is yet another reason why tying Diana to Zeus was a bad call: That origin has already been explored with Cassie, and Wonder Woman cannibalized her sidekick's backstory.

The main villain of Azzarello and Chiang's "Wonder Woman" is the First Born of Zeus and Hera. Fearing his own son would kill him the way he had Cronus, Zeus abandoned him to be killed by hyenas. Instead, the First Born was raised by them and eventually rose to take vengeance. 

James Robinson's run on "Wonder Woman" gave Diana a twin brother. Jason (named for Jason of the Argonauts, of course) was the son of Hippolyta and Zeus, but was concealed from his sister for much of their lives.

Wonder Woman's mother is named Hippolyta after the mythical Queen of the Amazons. The method of Diana's birth, and Hippolyta's partner, have changed over the years, but Hippolyta has always been the mother of Wonder Woman.

Unlike her daughter, Hippolyta's physical appearance varies. Her original depiction, and most modern ones, make her strongly resemble her daughter. Take artist Nicola Scott's Hippolyta, who has curly black hair and a strong Greek nose. Other depictions of Hippolyta make her blonde, such as the live-action version played by Connie Nielsen in the "Wonder Woman" films (who is still holding out hope for a third one).

It's not just Hippolyta's appearance that varies. During his 1990s run on "Wonder Woman," John Byrne revealed that Diana was only the second Wonder Woman. Gesturing to the setting of Marston's classic comics, Byrne wrote that Hippolyta had left Themyscira during World War II and been a hero in man's world, fighting with the same name and costume that her daughter later would.

How did Hippolyta become Queen of the Amazons to begin with? In the original Greek myths, she is the daughter of Ares and the Amazons' first queen, Otrera. This has rarely been referenced in "Wonder Woman" comics, which generally features Ares as the Amazons' ideological enemy. (The New 52 made this extra-complicated: Ares is Zeus' son, so sticking to the myths here would mean that Zeus slept with his own granddaughter, Hippolyta, and Diana is the spawn of incest. Yuck.)

In Peréz's "Wonder Woman," the Amazons were reimagined as reincarnations of every woman abused or killed by man throughout history, given salvation and immortality as restitution for their suffering in life. The book opens in prehistory; a caveman comes home from a hunt empty-handed and wounded. When his pregnant mate moves to console him, her pity makes him see red and he fatally strikes her. That woman, implicitly the first one ever killed in domestic violence, is reincarnated as Hippolyta, while the soul of her unborn child is suggested to have become Diana.

DC Comics

DC Comics

The 2021 "Wonder Woman Historia: The Amazons" mini-series (written by Kelly Sue DeConnick, drawn by Phil Jimenez in the first issue, Gene Ha in the second, and Nicola Scott in the third) details the origins of the Amazons, written in the style of an epic myth and drawn to evoke ancient Greek tableaus. Hippolyta is the protagonist of "Historia," but she is not one of the original Amazons created by the gods. Instead, she's a mortal woman who joins the group and rises to become leader through her own ability. Something many "Wonder Woman" comics since the original run have forgotten is that any woman can become an Amazon; "Amazon" is a dogma, not a species, and you certainly don't need divine blood to join. With its revised Hippolyta origin, "Wonder Woman Historia" restored that principle.