Everybody recognizes Superman and his “S-shield”, or the Bat symbol, or the GLC logo, or Flash's lightning bolt… or Wonder Woman's Ws, eagles and stars.

The new costume downplays this, shrinking her “W”, and losing nearly all of the iconic elements that made her unique. I mean, does Diana really need to wear a leather jacket again? Even when she lost the WW role in the 90s to Artemis (back when all of the DC icons were dying or being replaced or going crazy), her leather jacket costume still LOOKED like Wonder Woman, sort of.

It seems like we've thrown out the things that make her immediately recognizable and made her look like a Matrix character.

(Not that I mind the Matrix or a title trying new things, but Gail Simone's run was excellent and a great deal of my issues with JMS' stuff is of a “if it ain't broke” nature. She understood and clearly loved the character and was bringing Diana back to her mythic roots, so I'm pissed to have a series I really liked taken away and replaced with one I'm apathetic about. Guh.)

I think any Wonder Woman costume should keep two things in mind in order to work:

ICONOGRAPHY: Diana is a DCU big name. Like all of the others in this category (Superman, Flash, Batman, GL), she needs to play up the symbolism of her costume, without being afraid of bright colors or big symbols. People need to see her and immediately know that they're looking at Wonder Woman.

MYTHOLOGY: Gail Simone capitalized on the element of Wonder Woman that makes her unique in the DCU. She's the mythological hero. Marvel has Thor and Hercules, but for some reason DC has never capitalized on its mythological pantheons. This should be Wonder Woman's bread and butter. Her archenemies include Circe and Ares for Zeus' sake! No one else can seemlessly move between traditional superheroics and leaping onto a flying dragon and doing battles with a minotaur. Gail got this, which is why she had Diana fighting Aztec gods and teaming up with Beowulf. Her costume needs to reflect this. She's an Amazon warrior. THE Amazon warrior. So she shouldn't be wearing heels and her costume should draw from the sort of getup that Greek heroes wore. Sandals. Leather armored skirts rather than bathing suit briefs, Armored breastplates.

Her costume in DC: NEW FRONTIER is a great example of the marrying of these two prereqs.