It looks great on paper: Put Superman, the Last Son of Krypton, together with Wonder Woman, an Amazon Princess, and create DC Comics’ ultimate power couple. Unfortunately, when DC actually tried this pairing in The New 52, fans reacted negatively and Superman would eventually go back to Lois Lane.
The problem was that, despite his immense power, Superman was always a god-like being who wanted to be a man. Thus, his most fulfilling relationships were always with women like Lois Lane who provided him with a touchstone to humanity. Pairing him with a woman who (in certain continuities) is a literal goddess actually denied Clark the sort of connection he strives for. But, while their relationship may have fizzled out in DC Comics, a very similar one worked beautifully in a different comic book universe.
In Kurt Busiek’s fan-favorite independent superhero comic book Astro City, many of his most prominent characters are based on classic DC and Marvel heroes. These include Samaritan, a god-like being with more than a passing resemblance to Superman, and Winged Victory, a feminist hero who owes a lot to Wonder Woman. Early in the comic book series the two started dating – and remarkably, they’re both still together today!
To fully understand why this relationship worked in Astro City when it failed in DC Comics, one needs to take a closer look at the two characters. While it’s tempting to consider them mere parodies or knockoffs of their better-known comic book counterparts, Busiek put a lot of work into developing unique backstories for these figures that made them intriguing characters in their own right.
In the case of Samaritan, Busiek established him as a time traveler from a dystopian future who acquired great power in his trip through time (similar to a rejected origin Siegel and Shuster had for Superman). Dedicated to making sure his terrible future never happens, Samaritan becomes a dedicated icon of the superhero community who completely lives his life for others. In the very first issue of Astro City, readers discover that although Samaritan can fly, the only time he can actually enjoy flying is in his dreams. When he’s awake, he’s constantly flying from disaster to disaster so quickly that he doesn’t have time for anything except counting the seconds it takes to get from one location to another.
Samaritan’s entire existence is essentially a blur of epic battles, disaster prevention, and superhero meetings. Although he does have a secret identity as fact-checker Asa Martin, he never gets a chance to socialize or form any meaningful relationships in that life. Things get so bad that his superhero team, Honor Guard, decides to mobilize every superhuman in Astro City to take care of all the disasters for one night, just so Samaritan can enjoy a night off and go out with the city’s most eligible bachelorette, Winged Victory.
Despite her resemblance to iconic female superheroes like Wonder Woman and Hawkgirl, Winged Victory also has a unique backstory. An ordinary woman, Lauren Freed, empowered by female “The Council of Nike” to be a feminist icon for women everywhere, Winged Victory not only fights crime, but she also establishes shelters for women and teaches female victims of domestic abuse how to defend themselves. These activities made the media brand her as a cult leader, but she still enjoys a high profile in the superhero community and is seen as a celebrity on par with Samaritan.
Thus, when the two go out (in their superhero identities) the public reaction is akin to seeing the latest “It” couple on the town. Mobbed for autographs and photographs, the two eventually switch to their civilian identities to enjoy a quiet night out at a local burger joint. Here, the differences between them and Superman and Wonder Woman become more pronounced. Where Princess Diana is an Amazon warrior who relates to the world as a goddess, Winged Victory is an average woman striving to live up to the expectations of being a god-like figure. Her fears of being “too human” are so bad that she almost never switches back to her original mortal form, preferring her beautiful goddess-type physique.
This motivates Samaritan – a man who became a god struggling to hold onto his humanity – to lecture Winged Victory on the importance of not divorcing yourself too far from the humans you’re protecting. Initially, Winged Victory doesn’t take too well to this, feeling such advice would cage her in the dependence she’s trying to avoid. However, she comes to admit that while Samaritan is a god trying to be a man, she’s a woman trying to be a goddess. Acknowledging that they both have relatable fears, the two begin a relationship.
And while Astro City bounced around several other storylines for the next several years, a later tale revealed that Samaritan and Winged Victory’s romance proved successful – and that the two built a stable, mutually respectful long-term relationship over the years. The story showed Samaritan offering support to Winged Victory, who found herself motivated to reconnect with her mortal identity. Tellingly, he reveals that while he still dreams about flying, he no longer flies alone in his dreams as Winged Victory accompanies him there as well.
So, why did the Samaritan/Winged Victory romance work so well when the similar Superman/Wonder Woman pairing failed to win over readers? Ultimately, like all successful relationships, the two managed to give each other something the other desperately needed. In Samaritan’s case, the former isolated hero gained a partner he could confide in and one who could accompany him on his missions – reminding him there was more to enjoy in life than simply counting the seconds to the next disaster. Superman may have been able to establish strong human relationships with Lois Lane and Jimmy, but thanks to his much busier schedule, Samaritan could only find such a relationship in a fellow hero.
Meanwhile, Samaritan offered an effective counterbalance to Winged Victory as well. While she cared about all people, the very nature of Winged Victory’s powers drove her to favor women over men (as the ones who empowered her sought to make her a female champion). By sharing her life with a man that she recognized as a decent, equal partner, Winged Victory was forced to question her mission – even standing up to the women who empowered her when she decided to let abused men into her shelters also. Being with someone who valued her beyond her role as a feminist icon also gave her the strength to focus on her human identity and re-establish ties with her estranged family as well.
Ultimately, while a Superman/Wonder Woman romance might be the stuff of fan fiction, the relationship between Samaritan and Winged Victory shows that a pairing between two powerful icons can work. In the end, though, power mattered far less in this relationship than the compatibility between the characters. They might not have as much face time as their better-known counterparts, but Samaritan and Winged Victory shows that a relationship based on mutual need is far better than one based on celebrity status.
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