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See, it's her insistance on performing superdeeds in underwear that throws me off.

Remember she's from a tropical island, though--it gets hot there!

And I thought the headband was really dumb-looking.

I like her tiara! :) Plus it's made of an Amazonium metal which is the strongest on earth and is very handy in a fight:

"Ravaged by poisons unknown to American medicine, Steve's body has altered its shape and size. He has evolved into a creature whose mind is a corrupted as his body. As security guards try to stop his rampage, he throws them aside as if they were toys. Diana quickly gets to her feet and ducking around the corner, transforms into Wonder Woman. As she runs back into the corridor she sees to her horror that he is crashing into the war room. As the chiefs of staff dive for cover, he runs amok and heads for the president. The guards open fire but their bullets simply bounce of his skin which has become dense like armour plating. Wonder Woman swiftly removes her tiara and leaping up at the monster, uses the Amazonium metal which is the hardest element on earth, to dig the tiara into its flesh."

Er, and what exactly does she do?

Stop a bullet cold

Make the Axis fold

Make a liar tell the truth. . .

In the TV version :) In the comic-book, she approaches Superman's strength level.

To me, she's just Another Generic Superhero.

But remember that when she was created, there was no such thing as a generic superheroine:

"William Moulton Marston was an educational consultant in 1940 for Detective Comics, Inc.(now better known as DC Comics). Marston saw that the DC line, seeing it filled with images of super men such as Green Lantern, Batman, and their flagship character, Superman. Seeing all these male heroes, Marston was left wondering why there was not a female hero."

[SNIP]

"In a 1943 issue of The American Scholar, Marston said: 'Not even girls want to be girls so long as our feminine archetype lacks force, strength, and power, Not wanting to be girls, they don't want to be tender, submissive, peace-loving as good women are. Women's strong qualities have become despised because of their weakness. The obvious remedy is to create a feminine character with all the strength of Superman plus all the allure of a good and beautiful woman.'"

Possibly that's why I usually like single-superheros better, like Spiderman. People who don't have whole gangs of superfriends.

Well, Spiderman's too cool to be in a group, so I can't argue with that part :)

Performing super deeds in underwear, did you say?

The late Florence Griffin-Joyner, aka "Flo-Jo", taken during her gold-medal, world-record 100-meter dash in Seoul, 1988.

Jackie Joyner-Kersee, after winning gold in the heptathlon at the Barcelona Olympics in 1992.

Naccole Guinn won the ACC title in the triple jump and in the process set a Virginia record, becoming the first Cavalier to leap over 43 feet indoors, going 43' 1.5" (13.14m).

Currently the fifth-ranked female high jumper in the world, Acuff is not only a top competitor but also a show-stopper. Acuff rides into this year's Nationals on a wave of media attention that started swelling last March at New York's Millrose Games when she literally sent fur flying. Opting not to wear a traditional spandex outfit, Acuff wore instead a gray, fur tube top and black briefs trimmed with fur. The fur was fake but the attention that the 6' 2" Acuff drew was very real.

And I thought the headband was really dumb-looking.

It's not a headband ... it's a tiara, a symbol of her status on Themyscira as Queen Hippolyta's only daughter.

Er, and what exactly does she do? To me, she's just Another Generic Superhero.

Diana, in her current incarnation, is Themyscira's Ambassador to the rest of the world, charged with bringing understanding and peace to Man's world. To become said Ambassador, she had to prove herself the best Themyscira had to offer --- best warrior, best representative of the Amazonian spirit, best all around. She's trying to improve Man's World ... and that includes defending it from its enemies, hence her membership in the JLA. By definition, she has been gifted with power and weapons from the Grecian gods and goddesses:
· The power of the Earth by Demeter
· Power of flight and speed (Mach 2-3) by Hermes
· Beauty and a loving heart by Aphrodite
· Wisdom by Athena
· Eye of the hunter and unity with the beasts by Artemis
· Sisterhood with fire by Hestia
· The golden lasso of truth spun from the girdle of Gaea
· Nigh-unbreakable bracelets from Zeus' shield - the Aegis
· Body armor (includes a sword and a shield)
· The Sandals of Hermes and the Gauntlet of Atlas
· Morphing "nearly-invisible" vehicle

There have been times when Diana wasn't the Ambassador. Due to Hippolyta's fears, a second competition was called, one Diana was set up to fail. Artemis, a red-haired warrior from a tribe of Amazons banished from Themyscira, became the Ambassador:

This Wonder Woman, who was not raised in the high-minded halls of Themyscira, was hot-tempered and more than capable of killing. Eventually, Artemis was killed.

For a while, Diana was the Greek goddess of Truth, and lived with the Gods on Olympus; during that period, Hippolyta acted as Ambassador, and Wonder Woman:

Her friends know her as "Polly."

She's the first woman superhero. Ever. Every other heroic woman character you see in a comic book owes her existence to Wonder Woman. And she's managed to hold her own in Man's World, against alpha males like Superman and Batman and Green Lantern without losing her femininity. You were discussing female and male behaviors earlier in the week: Wonder Woman is a good case study of the differences.