Wonder Woman can do a lot of amazing things in her new film — here’s a rundown of exactly what comic books’ most famous heroine is capable of.
Throughout the course of “Wonder Woman,” the audience goes on a journey with Diana — that’s Wonder Woman’s real name — as she more or less discovers that she is, in fact, a superhero. For most of her life as we see it in the film, Diana knows she’s an Amazon warrior. But as we saw from her appearance in “Batman v. Superman: Dawn of Justice,” she’s obviously more than even her Amazonian comrades.
But in “Wonder Woman,” Diana’s exact powers aren’t clear, even to her. And through years of comics, Wonder Woman’s abilities have changed drastically quite a few times. So what can the movie version of Wonder Woman do, and how does it compare to the comics?
First up, as seen in “Batman v. Superman: Dawn of Justice,” Wonder Woman possesses super strength, super speed and extreme durability. Diana figures this out slowly and basically through the heat of battle. Her reflexes are so fast, she can block bullets with her gauntlets, and she repeatedly rips through large groups of bad dudes at extreme paces. In “Wonder Woman,” we also see her pick up a truck with one hand and lift a tank over her head.
There’s also some indication that while Wonder Woman can be hurt, she also has a Wolverine-like healing factor. She suffers a cut during one battle, but it’s healed up within hours. When she fought Doomsday in “Batman v. Superman,” she got chucked around pretty hard in a massive superhero battle, as well. In other words, Wonder Woman is exceedingly tough to kill. She can move fast enough to deflect bullets, but it’s not entirely clear she really needs to — or at least, she might not need to block all of them.
And she seems to have some ability to release gigantic blasts of energy under extreme circumstances, but the movie doesn’t really explain that part.
Many of Wonder Woman’s other abilities arise from her Amazonian training. She can speak lots of languages — maybe all human languages, in fact — and is an incredible fighter like the rest of the Amazons. Her equipment comes from her Amazonian heritage as well, adding to her abilities. There’s the Lasso of Hestia, which compels anyone tied by it to tell the truth, and is also a formidable (and apparently indestructible) weapon in its own right. Diana also wears the Bracelets of Submission, a pair of indestructible gauntlets that, in the comics, are given to each Amazonian when she comes of age.
Notably missing from her gear is the famed invisible jet, but then again, jets hadn’t been invented yet during World War I.
Various versions of Wonder Woman have had the ability of flight, much like Superman, but it seems the film version lacks that power. In “Wonder Woman,” Diana can jump to ridiculous heights, though. She’s also previously had a variety of mental and telepathic abilities in the past, and additions like super breath. Those older capabilities haven’t made it into the new movie though — instead, most of Wonder Woman’s abilities have to do with what an awesome fighter she is.
We still don’t know a ton about what Wonder Woman is capable of, though, since so much of “Wonder Woman” has to do with Diana discovering who she is and what she’s capable of accomplishing. It seems fully possible more powers — and one invisible jet — could pop up in future movies.