Artemis's Injury in 'Wonder Woman' Trailer Sends Diana to War
Princess Diana’s tribe of Themyscira Amazons isn’t the only tribe of militant women in the DC universe. Three millennia ago, the two queens of the Amazon split their people in half. One half stayed on Paradise Island while the others moved to Egypt and built the Bana-Mighdall, “The Temple of Women.” The new Wonder Woman trailer might portray some of these Egyptian Amazons, and when one of them — perhaps the archer Artemis — is wounded before Diana’s (Gal Gadot) eyes, Wonder Woman goes to war.
The Wonder Woman trailer is packed with action — the Amazon warriors look like extras from the 300, riding into battle on enormous horses as they kick ass on a white-cliffed beach that heavily resembles the Cliffs of Dover but is most certainly Themyscira. An archer dives from the cliffs toward the beach, taking aim at the enemy only to get shot in Diana’s place. The trailer gives us the impression that this single act of violence, along with Steve Trevor’s (Chris Pine) pleading is what prompts Diana into action during World War I. It’s safe to say the Amazons hadn’t yet seen the kind of technology humans used in World War I; Diana is horrified by the bullet that hits her “sister.”
The sister — who could be Artemis if we’re going off of existing Wonder Woman characters and heavy-handed archery metaphors — is of the Bana-Mighdall tribe and was first introduced into Wonder Woman’s comics in 1994. At one point in the comics, Artemis takes over as Wonder Woman for Diana, and even sat in on the Justice League at one point.
Artemis got a new storyline handed to her when DC launched its New 52 campaign, and presently stars in Red Hood and the Outlaws alongside Red Hood and the Superman clone Bizarro. The three make up the “Dark Trinity” and act as mirror images to Wonder Woman, Batman, and Superman.
So, yeah, Artemis goes a little dark later on in her life, but that dark side clearly only adds to her willingness to jump off cliffs in the meantime.
Wonder Woman is in theaters June 2017.
