Wonder Woman vs. Sovereign
Wonder Woman vs. Sovereign
Tom King is a modern mastermind behind the DC Universe. In 2018, King received the Eisner Award for Best Writer due to his graphic novels about Mister Miracle and Batman. In 2023, DC Universe announced his comic book series Supergirl: Woman of Tomorrow was being adapted into a feature film as King joined the blockbuster crew to help in the development of it and additional DC Universe productions.
Among his many other projects, Tom King is working to develop a new series of Wonder Woman comic books, which is a part of the Dawn of DC line.
In the opening comic book, Wonder Woman No. 1: A New Era Begins, a rogue Amazonian named Emelie murders an entire pool hall of men after being inappropriately groped by one of them. Subsequently, the United States Congress passes the Amazon Safety Act, which bans all Amazonians from the United States, creates a task force to remove Amazonians by any means necessary and places Wonder Woman as an outlaw in the very country she swore to protect.
Throughout future comic books in the series, agents unsuccessfully attempt to capture Wonder Woman under the direction of Sarge Steel. Yet, they are no match for Princess Diana’s fighting prowess, who with a mere flick of her tiara successfully takes out several heavily armed soldiers. Then, in volume six of the series, Wonder Woman faces off against an assortment of villainous foes. Although victorious, she is weakened by the fight and eventually captured.
Meet the Sovereign
Lurking in the shadows is the autocratic ruler behind all Wonder Woman’s troubles — a new villain to the DC Universe, the Sovereign, also known as the King of America.
The overarching antagonist of Tom King’s series ironically is a king, who reveals he is the secret ruler of America, a responsibility passed down in his family for generations. The Sovereign is on a rampage to destroy Wonder Woman and all the virtues she stands for. What the Joker is to Batman, the Sovereign is to Wonder Woman — a perpendicularly mirrored reflection of vice to virtue.
Throughout the series, the Sovereign contrasts Diana in many ways, most notably in their weaponry. Wonder Woman uses her Lasso of Truth, which forces its captives to speak with honesty. In contrast, the Sovereign’s weapon is the Lasso of Lies, which is used to make people believe falsehood and cultivate even greater power for the Sovereign and his ancestors before him.
For example, in the third installment of the series, the Sovereign convinces a soldier to kill himself as a mere exercise of his power, further enraging Wonder Woman. Behind the scenes, the secret King of America is skewing public perception of Wonder Woman all across the country to taint and destroy her image among the people. He will not be satisfied until Diana submits to his authority.
The Sovereign stands for everything Wonder Woman opposes. He embodies hatred rather than love. He is a tyrant who despises autonomy. He seeks to control and manipulate rather than free and liberate. He creates hierarchical structures rather than cultivating a just and equitable society. By intention, Tom King portrays villainy as a frail man who is extremely powerful and privileged but whose reign is perpetuated by a false narrative.
The use of religion against Wonder Woman
In Wonder Woman No. 8, the real intensity of the Sovereign’s evil plot begins to unfold. The cover depicts Wonder Woman seated in a chair, her hands tied by the Lasso of Lies, and a blank stare in her pupilless eyes. Standing over her is the suited Sovereign with his face covered by a darkened shadow and his hand on the shoulder of his captive.
The comic book opens to what the reader later discovers is Wonder Woman’s altered mental state. She is a homemaker, dressed in a red sundress and high-heeled shoes. Dinner is not ready on time, and Diana’s opening dialogue to her lover, Steve Trevor, is apologetic for the delay. After a verbal reprimand, Steve reminds her he will soon be going out with the guys, leaving her to stay home and clean the house.
In a later scene, Steve scrutinizes the dinner Diana cooked, resulting in another apology and her commitment to do better. She refuses to eat because she is watching her figure, which Steve applauds as long as no one else is watching her figure. As Steve gets up from the table to leave, Diana asks when he will return. Condescendingly, Steve refers to her as “that (kind of) woman” and accuses her of incessant nagging as he heads out the door for the night.
The next morning, Diana asks Steve about his night out with the boys, but he ignores her and is again preoccupied with giving his complaint about the food Diana prepared for breakfast.
Throughout these alternative reality scenes, the reader becomes increasingly aware that Wonder Woman is fighting the falsehood spewed into her mind by the Sovereign and his Lasso of Lies.
What is the secret King of America’s most effective weapon to control Wonder Woman? Religion and more specifically, the Bible.
The Sovereign quotes Scripture. First, he uses Ephesians 5:22-24 to remind Diana that wives are to be submissive to their husbands, who are head over them just as Christ is head of the church. Wonder Woman is seen bound in the Lasso of Lies as the Sovereign parallels himself to Jesus, claiming his title as head of the nation.
Later, the Sovereign draws a comparison to a dog who must submit in order to be happy, suggesting if Wonder Woman will submit to his authority, she will find true and lasting happiness. As Wonder Woman fights against the lies she is being told, the Sovereign turns once again to Scripture. This time to 1 Timothy 2:9-15, where she is reminded women should be modestly dressed and learn in quiet for Adam was created before Eve.
The Sovereign continues with Titus 2:3-5, commanding Diana to be reverent and loving to her husband.
In a later scene, Diana pictures herself vacuuming the house. However, Wonder Woman will not give in to these lies. Smashing the handle of the vacuum cleaner, she throws the symbol of her submissiveness out the window.
The Sovereign, refusing to go down quietly, retorts with 1 Corinthians 14:34-35, concluding that women should keep silent and ask their husbands at home if they have questions at church. From the mind of the secret King of America come these penetrating words: “We manipulate the transcendent potential of religious truth and fervor. We pick the ancient words that suit our causes and ignore those that do not, fictionalize meanings where appropriate, adding our context to clarify moments that might induce doubt in our dominion … and through this method we teach our inferiors to know their place within not the kingdom of heaven but our kingdom, their Sovereign’s polity, here in the dirt and wind.”
The power of patriarchy
Wonder Woman begins to mount the strength to resist the Lasso of Lies, but the Sovereign moves for the persuasive jugular. Placing his crown atop his own head, he questions why God sent a son to save us rather than a daughter. Answering his own rhetorical question, he explains it is a divine message — only a good and noble “man” can rule. These are God’s words, works and will, the self-proclaimed king pompously adds. The Sovereign concludes that it is merely because of her gender that Wonder Woman is incapable of saving anyone, for she is but a daughter.
The word “daughter” triggers Wonder Woman to remember she is the daughter of Hippolyta, the great queen of the Amazon. Leaning on her feminine strength, Wonder Woman breaks free of the Lasso of Lies and denounces the falsehoods used against her. She looks up at the Sovereign and boldly declares: “I do not believe your words. I do not believe your God. I do not believe your lasso!”
The Sovereign is not done attempting to control Wonder Woman. When we turn to the next installment, Wonder Woman No. 9, (just released in late May 2024) we find the Sovereign has Wonder Woman confined once again, but this time she is locked up in isolation. She has been in solitary confinement for months, deprived of any contact with the outside world and left to fantasize about her beloved, Steve Trevor.
The storyline of reality
Wielding the powerful weapon of religion, the Sovereign twists biblical passages oftentimes used to suppress women and convince them to conform to a role of wife, mother and homemaker. Harrison Butker’s recent graduation speech is only one of the many examples of this rhetoric. Women are to stay in their place and do what they are told.
This is the message perpetuated by complementarian pastors, theologians, churches and denominations. Distorting the liberating power of Jesus, they denounce the dignity and calling of women to pursue careers both inside and outside of the clerical title of pastor. Avoiding the plethora of passages in the Bible that affirm women leading in business, politics and the church, these leaders seek, like the Sovereign, to further isolate their power and to perpetuate their rule by stamping their self-proclaimed approval by God and the Bible. Suggesting women are created equal in dignity but not in calling or leadership, churches and denominations (such as the Southern Baptist Convention) disqualify female pastors purely on the basis of gender, a rhetoric strikingly similar to the manipulative strategy of the Sovereign.
Tom King has created a realistic villain, one who embodies the face and voice of a common narrative against women echoed across the walls of many churches and homes but secretly disguised under the cloak of presumed love and Scripture.
Women should have the freedom to pursue their aspirations whatever they may be. Instead of giving in to the power of patriarchy where men seek to degrade and sovereignly rule over women, we must rise up in opposition to these false ideologies.
Whether to be a stay-at-home housewife and mother or to be a pastor or leader in society, men (not women) should remain silent on the matter and simply affirm the freedom of women to choose their preferred vocation and means of service. Women should not be forced into societal expectations or construed biblical norms to appease their male counterparts’ lust for power and position.
Like Wonder Woman, we need to break free of these lies. Breaking through the Lasso of Lies may appear impossible, but it is not. Freedom for all people lies on the other side of patriarchal misogyny.
Breaking free of the Sovereign mentality
Certainly, Tom King is denouncing the vile and treacherous aspects of Christian nationalism that are rampant among conservative, patriarchal Christians in America. As the United States draws toward the finish line of what is sure to remain a contentious presidential election, we find ourselves once again in the throes of the battle for sovereignty. Such contention is nothing new or exclusive to Scripture. For as is inscribed on the ring in J.R.R. Tolkien’s beloved trilogy, The Lord of the Rings:
One Ring to rule them all,
One ring to find them,
One Ring to bring them all
and in the darkness bind them.
There is power in the one who bears the ring or who harnesses the manipulative control of the Lasso of Lies. To bind a distorted view of cherry-picked Christian Scriptures with the quest for political power is as diabolical as the attempt of the Sovereign to rule America with the abusive language of noncontextualized Bible verses.
People can use the Bible to say anything they want it to say, but doing so does not make their interpretation accurate. Divine inspiration must include a facsimile of the ways and teaching of Jesus, who never chose the path of power and dramatically refuted the use of force to advance his kingdom.
In a society where political and religious leaders oftentimes wield the use of Bible passages to validate and escalate their positions of privilege and power, we must beware of the anti-Christ spirit of misogyny, bigotry, racism, transphobia, heterosexism and the like. We must be a part of a movement that counters all forms of concessional alignment between the state and the church that seek to cajole, manipulate and provide privilege to one person or group over another.
There is a secret king in the world today, and the Father of Lies does not need a lasso. The truth is what ultimately sets us free and that truth is that all people are created equal in standing, right and opportunity in the kingdom of God.
It is time to break free of the King of America and his Lasso of Lies.
Patrick Wilson has served as a pastor for 25 years in Dallas and Austin, Texas, and most recently in in Rolla, Mo., where he now leads a new community of faith, CrossRoads. He is a graduate of Baylor University, earned two master’s degrees at Southwestern Baptist Theological Seminary and a doctor of ministry degree from Logsdon Seminary.