Adam Hughes’ Wonder Woman: Playful, Spunky, Surprising

Adam Hughes

Many consider Adam Hughes the definitive modern Wonder Woman artiste. His Wonder Woman (Volume 2) covers were featured on issues #139-146, 150-161, 164-174, 176-178, and 184-197. Thus, the gallery below is limited for the most part to this single series.

Adam Hughes’ comics are sexy, beautiful, clever, fun, humorous and human, to list only a few characteristics one might say of his work. He sometimes contrasts the old with the new, as in Wonder Woman (Vol 2) #184; or introduces a modern physical trait to a character who, for the most part, may have been virtually unchanged for years, sometimes decades, as in Wonder Woman (Vol 2) # 190. These characteristics mark Hughes’ work on other titles as well, including Tomb Raider and Catwoman.

Eventually, Adam Hughes caught up with Adam Hughes. With Wonder Woman (Vol 2) #196, Hughes was forced to alter his cover due to an autograph seeker touching Wonder Woman’s thigh. In response, Hughes provided a similar layout but drastically altered cover which obscured as much of Wonder Woman’s skin and femininity as possible. He left the series after  #197, which cover features the Flash in a typically startled Hughes-esque pose and Wonder Woman back in her familiar one-piece uniform.

Despite DC’s touchy, perhaps over-reactive response, Hughes’ depiction of DC’s flagship heroine may have been more aligned with the character’s creator, William Marston, than we realize. Marson intended Wonder Woman to be the antithesis of comics’ “blood-curdling masculunity,” which he believed was the industry’s worst offense. By masculinity, Marston meant that comics lacked elements of the “tender, submissive, peace-loving” feminine ideal.

We present to you Adam Hughes’ best Wonder Woman comic book covers, selected for any of the reasons noted above.

Although other galleries display comics in reverse chronological order, this page displays them by the date they were posted to the site. It is the next best thing to being random.

We hope you enjoy the gallery!

Sources: Tim Hanley: Top 5 Wonder Woman Covers; Adam Hughes’ Tweet About Wonder Woman #196 change; DailyDot.com (“How Peace-Loving Wonder Woman Became a Goddess of War“