11 Wondrous Easter Eggs You Might Have Missed In Wonder Woman

At last, the DC Extended Universe finally has an unqualified critical and financial success on its hands with Wonder Woman. Regardless of your personal feelings towards them, the likes of Batman V Superman: Dawn of Justice and Suicide Squad rubbed some people the wrong way with their jumbled storytelling and uneasy tonal shifts. Wonder Woman, on the other hand, has a masterful control on its plot and tone. One of the ways it does this is to cast out the many nods and connections to the wider universe that were foisted upon the previous films. This movie is 100% the story of Diana of Themyscira and how she becomes Wonder Woman. As one would expect then, the film is far lighter on easter eggs and nods to the comics than most superhero movies we see these days. However, that doesn't mean there aren't any at all. Here, we've compiled the most interesting ones while explaining their significance. There will be spoilers, of course, but if you've already seen Wonder Woman, which we hope you have, then feel free to dive right in and discover which easter eggs you might have missed. 11) Diana At The Louvre As teased in the trailers, the beginning of the movie sees Diana examining her past at the Louvre museum in Paris. What becomes clear in the film, though, is that she also works there. This recalls the Wonder Woman comics of the 1990s in which Diana took a job at Gateway City Museum of Antiquities. The curator of the museum was Helena Sandsmark, the mother of Cassie Sandsmark, who would later become Wonder Girl. You'll probably have noticed that the opening scene also sees an armoured van from Wayne Enterprises parked outside the Louvre to deliver some items to Diana. The licence plate of the van reads JL-828-VZM. As far as we can tell, the rest of it doesn't mean anything, but the use of 'JL' is surely a nod to the Justice League that Bruce and Diana are about to form together, right? 10) Secret Origins Diana is brought up to believe that she was sculpted from clay and given life by Zeus as a gift for her mother, Queen Hippolyta. It later transpires that she's in fact a demi-goddess and the true daughter of Zeus. This plot twist cleverly brings together both of Wonder Woman's origin stories. The "sculpted from clay" backstory has been in place for most of the character's long history but, when the DC universe was severely rebooted in 2011's The New 52, out it went. Instead, Diana was reimagined as, you've got it, the offspring of Zeus. It was a change that proved to be quite controversial with longterm readers, so the decision to replicate that origin story here - for the character's first ever live-action movie - could well vex some comic book fans. Likewise, there's a nod to the comics in the Amazons' origin story in the movie. Though the fact that Zeus created them is a new addition, Hippolyta's tale to Diana about their creation shows them rising out of a lake. In the comics, a group of women among the Greek gods made the Amazons out of clay found at the bottom of the lake. 9) Artemis Though she's never named in the movie, the Amazon played by boxer Ann Wolfe is an adaptation of Artemis, a prominent character from the comics. In the source material, Artemis hails from the second Amazon city of Bana-Mighdall, situated in Egypt. During the 1990s, she became the new Wonder Woman when Diana had eschewed her usual costume for a black biker outfit. This Artemis is not to be confused with the other Artemis rolling around DC comics though, Artemis Crock - who's been adapted for Young Justice and Arrow. Another character from Wonder Woman mythology might be easily missed in the movie, too. When Diana is trying to get into the German ball, we see her eyeing up a snooty lady's blue dress. In the next scene, she's wearing the dress herself. If you stick around to the credits, you'll see that actress Rachel Pickup is credited as playing Fausta Grables. A minor figure from the comics, Fausta appeared in the classic Wonder Woman TV series, as played by Lynda Day George, in the episode "Fausta, The Nazi Wonder Woman." 8) Paradise Island At one point in the movie, Steve asks Diana if they had dancing on Themyscira, except he jokingly refers to it as "Paradise Island." This is a nod to the name that Diana's homeland originally went by in the comics, from the character's creation in 1941 all the way until 1987. Paradise Island was also the name used in the classic Lynda Carter-starring Wonder Woman TV series. It was only after the DC universe was rebooted in the wake of Crisis on Infinite Earths that the island was rechristened Themyscira. Once she's preparing to leave Themyscira, Diana is told by her mother that she "may never return." Though the dialogue leaves it ambiguous quite what Hippolyta means, it looks like the film is taking a page out of The New 52 once again here. Those comics revealed that the island was impossible to find from the outside world. Therefore, Diana really can never come back to her homeland. 7) Edgar Rice Burroughs Steve Trevor mentions that he's brought some Edgar Rice Burroughs novels to read on their mission. While this could be a random reference - Burroughs was a popular novelist at the time - it's likely a deliberate nod to a writer whose work may have inspired the movie. Burroughs is most known for creating the character of Tarzan, as well as John Carter. Key to both heroes' stories is that they're fish-out-of-water types who explore a world unfamiliar to them, just as Diana does here. The human John Carter travels to Mars and the ape-man Tarzan journeys to civilization. Tarzan's story, in particular, is the most similar to Diana's arc as he's a wild man who struggles to fit in with stiff-shirted English life. 6) Diana Loves Ice Cream She might be a super-powerful demi-goddess, but that doesn't mean Diana isn't relatable - look, she loves ice cream just like the rest of us! In the movie, Diana tries some ice cream from a street vendor and instantly falls in love with it. "You should be very proud," she says to the cheerful vendor. It's a funny moment, but one that's even better if you know the character. The scene is basically lifted wholesale from 2011's Justice League #1 by Geoff Johns (Wonder Woman's exec producer, funnily enough). The moment was later adapted pretty perfectly for the animated movie Justice League: War and now finds its way to live-action, too. 5) War Is Truth During the big climax of the movie, Ares takes a page out of the supervillain handbook and tries to win his enemy over to his side. He attempts to convince Diana that humanity is corrupt and evil and that war is necessary to purify the Earth. "I am the God of Truth," he states. "Not War." Though it isn't a direct lift from the comics, this scene brings to mind a similar moment from 2009's Wonder Woman #37. As part of the 'Warkiller' story arc from Gail Simone and Bernard Chang, Ares claims that the Lasso of Truth should really be his. "War is truth, Princess. By all rights, this should belong to me." We should also mention that Diana herself has claimed the title of "the Goddess of Truth" in the comics on occasion. That's not the only element from Simone's work that makes it into the movie, though. Diana ultimately defeats Ares by unleashing his lightning attack back at him. This is a power Simone gave to Wonder Woman, though the lightning came from her own bracelets in the comics. The image of Diana floating in the air, with the lightning surrounding in her, is also lifted directly from the pages. 4) The God Killer As you might expect, the God Killer sword that Diana believes will destroy Ares is a part of DC comics mythology. However, it doesn't usually have anything to do with Wonder Woman. The weapon is actually wielded by Slade Wilson AKA Deathstroke. The sword was made for the assassin by the Greek god of metalwork Hephaestus, who had contracted Wilson to kill the titan Lapetus. In the comics, the God Killer was significantly more powerful than the one depicted in the movie. It could change its shape and weight, it could produce energy blasts, it could transfer the memories of the victim to the victor and it was even semi-sentient. Of course, one of Diana's most famous weapons also appears in the movie - her glowing, golden Lasso of Truth. In Wonder Woman, however, it's called the Lasso of Hestia. Hestia was the Greek goddess of family and the hearth and is said to have forged the lasso in the comics. 3) Doctor Poison One of the chief villains of the movie is Dr. Isabel Maru, known to her enemies as Doctor Poison on account of her hideous experiments to find new deadly gasses to use in the war. The character is actually one of Wonder Woman's oldest enemies, going all the way back to 1942. In the comics, however, Maru is an ally to the Nazis in World War II instead of the Kaiser's Germany in World War I. Furthermore, the character wears green hooded overalls when seen in her lab throughout the movie, a look that closely matches the dress sense of the character on the page. Poison's trademark goggles also appear in some scenes, though Elena Anaya doesn't wear them. In case you're wondering, General Ludendorff - Maru's associate in evil in the movie - is not a comic book creation but a real-life historical figure. Though the real Ludendorff was not the cartoonish villain seen here - for example, he was in fact a supporter of the Armistice - he did believe that peace was only a temporary state in between wars. 2) Superman Alleyway Scene Wonder Woman is definitely a conscious effort from DC to move away from the gloominess of recent movies and recapture the more optimistic spirit of the likes of Richard Donner's Superman. Due to the film's influence on it, they couldn't resist sneaking in some references to the granddaddy of all superhero movies. Steve and Diana are cornered by a gang of German spies when they step into an alleyway in London. Steve tries to protect Diana but she manages to save Steve instead by deflecting their bullets with her bracelets. The staging of the scene is hugely reminiscent of a classic moment from Superman - when Clark Kent surreptitiously protects Lois from the gun shot of a thug in an alleyway. Superman fans will also pick up on the fact that Diana wears a pair of glasses when pretending to be Steve's secretary. Though Diana Prince also dons glasses in the comics, their inclusion here does seem to be more of a Superman nod again. Etta Candy even makes a sarcastic comment that the glasses won't stop Diana from standing out in a crowd. 1) Zack Snyder's Cameo You have finer eyes than us if you managed to spot him, but Zack Snyder turned up for a cameo in Wonder Woman. Though the daddy of the DCEU didn't helm the movie, he's credited as co-writing the story and, of course, first directed the character in Batman V Superman. His important role in bringing Diana to the screen got him a brief role in the movie, as Snyder appears as one of the soldiers in the French village that Diana saves - and from where the black-and-white photo that Bruce sends to Diana comes from. Though he's difficult to see in the movie itself, we've got a snap of him in character above. Snyder previously cameod in his own film as well, in Batman V Superman, where he stood in for Ben Affleck as Bruce Wayne in a couple of scenes. Only his hands appear in the actual movie, though, so we don't blame you for not being able to spot him.