Wonder Woman’s Smartest Contingency Plan Just Became the Oldest Superhero Cliché in the Book

Warning: Spoilers for Wonder Woman (2023) #15 ahead!

It’s arguably the world’s oldest superhero trope – and Wonder Woman you just trampled it into dust. Superheroes have been stopping bank robberies almost as long as the genre has existed, but now Wonder Woman and her friends have good reason to flip the script and commit bank robberies of their own.

Wonder Woman (2023) #15 – written by Tom King, with art by Daniel Sampere – begins shortly after Steve Trevor’s death at the hands of the Sovereign. While Wonder Woman watches over her and Steve’s newborn daughter, Trinity, she oversees the various Wonder Girls and Cheetah as they dismantle the Sovereign’s financial networks with brutal efficiency.

Yara Flor’s targeting is particularly brazen, as the Sovereign notes that “the woman Flor robbed seventeen banks in nine states” – and indeed, Yara seems particularly happy about the opportunity to rob banks in the name of justice.

Bank robberies have a long history in the superhero genre; DC just turned that upside down

Wonder Woman #15 – Written by Tom King; Art by Daniel Sampere; Tomeau Morey color; Clayton Cowles lyrics

For decades, the bank robbery has been the perfect plot device to introduce readers to superheroes and villains: it quickly establishes stakes, it is a blatant and obvious criminal act, it confronts the hero with what would normally be a considerable obstacle – armed bank robbers. – to anyone without powers, while also allowing them to display those powers. The same works to establish a villain: the robbery that comprises The Dark Knight (2008)The brilliant opening act showcases the Joker’s relentless planning, quickly establishing him as a worthy foe in comparison to Christian Bale’s gravelly-voiced Batman.

There are some factors that make theft a Wonder Woman #15 particularly delicious. The first is Yara Flor’s deliberately arrogant attitude towards her heists: she practically walks up to the table and the safe, all smiles, even as she knocks out the guards. The second is that, as the Sovereign points out, by trying to attack Wonder Woman by criminalizing the presence of the Amazons in America, he essentially gave the Amazons carte blanche to break whatever laws they wanted: Since their mere presence violates the law, they have the power to attack the Sovereign in a more blatant and extrajudicial way.

The Highbreed is a major new DC villain; Her long-term impact on Wonder Woman lore has yet to be determined

Wonder Woman Weaponizes a Gender Trope Against the Sovereign

All in all, this is a delightful twist that allows Wonder Woman #15 is its own miniature heist story – other targets include a battleship fortress and even Solomon Grundy – but the highlight of the issue is undoubtedly Yara Flor’s light-hearted series of bank robberies. They are not just the perfect inversion of the “superhero bank robbery” trope, but they’re also played completely straight: This is not a case of heroes going rogue, this is a deliberate series of bank jobs across the state for a just cause, robbing him of the Sovereign’s ill-gotten gains.

It’s refreshing to see new life breathing life into such an old trope – even more so when it helps take down such a detestable villain. Wonder Woman and her allies appear to be closing in on the Sovereign; Without his wealth, it remains to be seen how much of his influence he will be able to retain. Time will tell how much impact the Highbreed’s legacy will have on the DC Universe as a whole, but at least readers can remember him as the villain who made it possible Wonder Woman to save America by robbing banks.

Wonder Woman (2023) #15 is now available from DC Comics.