10 DC Heroes With Surprisingly Tragic Origins

2. Wonder Woman

Given no one does tragedy better than the Ancient Greeks, it might seem a little odd to place Wonder Woman on this list. After all, the character's darker elements are more prominently telegraphed these days, and there's an obvious tragic undercurrent to the idea of Diana being caught between two worlds - the Amazons', and Man's.

But again, not unlike Alan Scott, Diana's origin took on a decidedly more darker tinge during the New 52. In an incredibly controversial retcon, Brian Azzarello and Cliff Chiang made it so that, in order so that the Amazons could continue, they reproduced by raping sailors off the high seas, only to kill them and put any men born into slavery.

The series also retconned it so that Diana wasn't moulded out of clay, but was instead conceived by Zeus when he had an affair with her mother Hippolyta.

Needless to say, fans really didn't take to this origin, and it was thankfully retconned as a fabricated origin during the DC Rebirth.