Wonder Woman is bisexual, and it's NBD

LOS ANGELES -- If you've been reading Greg Rucka's current run on DC Comics' Wonder Woman, this is old news, but for everyone whose familiarity with the 75-year-old heroine is limited to Gal Gadot or Lynda Carter, the comic book writer has confirmed what many have suspected for a while: Wonder Woman, aka Princess Diana of Themyscira, also aka Diana Prince, is bisexual -- and it's kind of a no-brainer.

Rucka confirmed Diana's sexuality during a frank interview with Comicosity, revealing that he's put a lot of thought into how the heroine's homeland, Themyscira (populated entirely by women), informs her characterization.

"This is inherently the problem with Diana: we’ve had a long history of people — for a variety of reasons, including sometimes pure titillation, which I think is the worst reason — say, 'Ooo. Look. It’s the Amazons. They’re gay!'" Rucka notes. "And when you start to think about giving the concept of Themyscira its due, the answer is, 'How can they not all be in same-sex relationships?' Right? It makes no logical sense otherwise. It’s supposed to be paradise. You’re supposed to be able to live happily. You’re supposed to be able — in a context where one can live happily, and part of what an individual needs for that happiness is to have a partner — to have a fulfilling, romantic and sexual relationship. And the only options are women. But an Amazon doesn’t look at another Amazon and say, 'You’re gay.' They don’t. The concept doesn’t exist."

Aside from the logic, Rucka says the main reason that Diana's queerness is a factor in the story is to give her agency outside of a potential romantc relationship with Steve Trevor, the first human man she meets.

"It would hurt the character and take away her heroism," Rucka explains. "When we talk about agency of characters in 2016, Diana deciding to leave her home forever -- which is what she believes she’s doing -- if she does that because she’s fallen for a guy, I believe that diminishes her heroism. She doesn’t leave because of Steve. She leaves because she wants to see the world and somebody must go and do this thing."

Rucka also clarified publisher DC Comics' position on the matter: "Nobody at DC has ever said, 'She’s gotta be straight.' Nobody. Ever. They’ve never blinked at this. And when they’ve had questions about how we represent this, it’s always been about representing what the story needs. I think every publisher can be lit up for moments of negligence and mistakes they made, but it matters a great deal to me that DC be given their due here. They would, I think, like any business, prefer this not be an issue to anybody. But most of us human beings would also really rather this not be an issue for anybody anymore. It is what it is. This is how the Amazons live."

That probably doesn't mean that we can expect to see any overt reference to Diana's bisexuality in next year's Wonder Woman movie, but DC has been making efforts to increase representation in its comics of late. Last year, the company confirmed that another iconic female character, Catwoman, was bisexual, and that Harley Quinn was in an open relationship with another Batman villainness, Poison Ivy.

And after fronting his own solo series, openly gay vigilante Midnighter is reuniting with his long-term partner Apollo for a six-issue miniseries, aptly named Midnighter and Apollo, on Oct. 5. Progress!

Now, if only someone would comment on those Batman and Robin rumors ...