An incredible new work of art allows Wonder Woman to shine like a true ’80s icon with a poster-style variant cover for an old-school power fantasy. Diana has had many incredible adaptations over the years, but this cover is nostalgic for a bygone cinematic era.
As 2024 ends, fans are getting a look at what’s coming in the new year thanks to DC Comics’ batch of solicitations for February 2024. The month is full of exciting new offerings, including the revival of the Green Lantern Corps . But Wonder Woman fans will want to check out this month’s variants, including one from David Talaski.
Talaski’s cover shows Wonder Woman standing confidently against a black background. She is lit up and glowing as her Bracelets of Submission glow and her Lasso of Truth glows in the darkness, a tableau not unlike 80s action movie posters.
Wonder Woman’s new variant makes her look like an ’80s action star
This is the kind of variant cover I like to see
The heyday of superhero movies may not have truly begun until the 2000s, but long before fans were dazzled by Spider-Man, The Dark Knightor the litany of films in the Marvel Cinematic Universe, the 1980s had many epic films based on comic books. By Christopher Reeve Superman franchise, for Swamp Thing, The Punisherand even films like Howard the Duck, the eighties were practically terrible with adaptations of fan-favorite comic book characters. Not all were masterpieces, but many still have die-hard fans to this day.
Unfortunately, although Diana had a popular television series during the ’70s, Wonder Woman never made it to movie screens during the ’80s (although her Trinity sidekicks, Batman and Superman, did have films). In fact, the Amazonian hero wouldn’t get a film adaptation until 2017’s DC Extended Universe film. Wonder Woman. To be fair, Diana’s first cinematic performance was followed by Wonder Woman 1984which reimagined the hero’s mid-’80s struggle, but lacked the authenticity of the actual ’80s comic book adaptations.
This Wonder Woman variant gives off the right kind of ’80s vibe
Wonder Woman nails the epic 80s look
The 80s may be over, but the appreciation for aesthetics will never die. I took one look at this variant cover and instantly fell in love with the energy Talaski put into making it look like a genuine poster that would hang alongside Robocop or Maze. It’s a shame we can’t revisit that period and make this a real-life movie, because honestly, who doesn’t want to see a peak of the 80s Wonder Woman film starring Bridgitte Nielson with Dolph Lundgren as Ares?.
Although we cannot turn back time, older eras survive through works like David Talaksi’s Variant. Talaski’s cover is not only an incredible work of Wonder Woman art, it’s a beautiful tribute to an era that helped shape today’s comic book adaptations. And although we’ll never make it to the 80s Wonder Woman film that it could has been, we have artists who can help us imagine how incredible such a thing would have been.