The
Spectre warns that "of all Superman's lieutenants...it is she who bears
watching most closely" (Waid Kingdom 76). That is because she eventually
takes the Justice League to war against the New
Breed and brings existence to the brink of destruction. The years have
affected her. Superman remains steadfast, trying to hold on to his "very
1950s idea of what's right and wrong" as it gets more and more slippery;
this can be read as either admirable dedication or ingrained blindness
(Waid "CBLDF"). For Wonder Woman, though, the grasp on those same morals
has begun to slip over time, regardless of how much more tightly she squeezes.
Her lack of control is symbolized in her innocent "rock-skipping" exchange
with Superman outside of Green Lantern's space
station. Whereas he tosses tiny space-rocks to ricochet harmlessly off
of nearby asteroids, her pitches shatter the larger stones.
The shift signified by all of these instances is the taint of the New Breed on Wonder Woman. Presumably, she continued fighting the good fight even after Superman's retirement, having to endure the savage ways of this next generation. However, her best attempts were likely met with the same public indifference for morality as Superman's protest over Magog's court dismissal; her ways were no longer appreciated. Yet, unlike Superman, she remained. She either had to stay her moral course and be seen as a preachy throw-back or it will modify herself to fit better in the marketplace arena. Wonder Woman wanted neither, but has ended up doing both. Outside the space station, she admits to Superman that she had been stripped of her title as Princess of the Amazons; a trial had been held, accusing her of failing in her mission as an ambassador of peace. "They decreed that I had, indeed, not changed the man's world. That it had changed me" (Waid Kingdom 124).
