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In the latest Comic Book Questions Answered, learn who did the iconic crossed arms salute first – Wonder Woman or Black Panther?
Today, we look at who came up with the iconic crossed arm salute first, Wonder Woman or Black Panther?
In Comic Book Questions Answered, I answer whatever questions you folks might have about comic books (feel free to e-mail questions to me at brianc@cbr.com).
Reader Will S. wrote in to ask, “I thought of it on this sad anniversary but both Black Panther and Wonder Woman are well known for crossing their arms in front of themselves in a similar fashion. Which one of them started doing it first?”
I think that the crossed arm salute is certainly big enough for both heroes to use, but Wonder Woman had been using it for quite a bit longer than Black Panther.
BULLETS AND BRACELETS
Wonder Woman’s crossed arm salute owes it origins to a key part of Wonder Woman’s iconography that was introduced early in her comic book career. All the way back in her first appearance in All Star Comics #8 (by William Moulton Marston and H.G. Peter), the Amazons had something called “Bullets and bracelets,” where Amazons would shoot at each other and try to deflect the bullets with their special bracelets. Notice, though, that early on, the pose for the blocking did not involve crossing the arms…
That was the case for most depictions of Wonder Woman blocking bullets with her bracelets. For some reason, Peter tended to draw them both extended out on the side (honestly, he drew them kind of oddly limply). That wasn’t universal, though. He would occasionally draw Wonder Woman with her arms crossed while blocking bullets. It was just rare.
THE WONDER WOMAN TV SHOW HAD ITS OWN SPIN ON BULLETS AND BRACELETS
That changed with the Wonder Woman TV series in the 1970s. Lynda Carter is shown using the classic crossed arms pose in her bullets and bracelets scene in the rather stunningly faithful adaptation of Wonder Woman’s original origin from the comics…
That slowly became a recurring pose for Carter on the series, even when she wasn’t blocking bullets…
It soon became to the point that Wonder Woman putting her arms in a crossed shape was just a regular part of Wonder Woman’s “brand,” as it were. Even her Super Powers toy involved her character crossing her arms together as she blocks imaginary bullets (what a cop out that Kenner didn’t include bullets in the toys for kids to shoot at their Wonder Woman figure to see if she could deflect).
PEREZ THEN MAKES THE POSE A REGULAR WONDER WOMAN POSE
After Crisis on Infinite Earths, George Perez rebooted Wonder Woman with a brand-new #1 comic (along with Greg Potter, Len Wein and Bruce Patterson) and Perez cleverly decided to not just work in the original myths (with a twist, as I’ve been discussing in a few recent columns, as the series was now no longer attached to World War II, so Perez needed to think of a way to connect the character to the American flag motif that is clear in her costume) but also work in stuff from the Wonder Woman TV series, which had become such a big part of people’s understanding of the character.
So George Perez then worked that pose into the comics as a major deal…
This time, it was not just a pose, but a specific salute in reference to the history of the Amazons having been bonded in the past and then broken out of their chains (but keeping the bracelets to remind them of their past)…
BLACK PANTHER’S SALUTE HAS DIFFERENT ORIGINS
The iconic “Wakanda Forever” pose in Black Panther (and his other MCU appearances)…
came from them needing to have a salute for the Dora Milaje to give Black Panther in the film. Ryan Coogler recalled on the commentary of the movie during the scene where T’Challa communes with the past spirits, “We bury him, we wanted him to experience death, and you see he gets buried kind of similar to a lot of poses that you’ll see from statues from the continent. We kinda got it from the pharaohs and the West African sculptures that you’ll see, with the arms folded over like that. It also means a ‘hug’ or ‘love’ in ASL, American Sign Language. That’s where we got the ‘Wakanda Forever’ salute from.”
It doesn’t have a comic book counterpart.
So yes, Wonder Woman’s pose came first.
Thanks for the question, Will! If anyone else has a comic book question, drop me a line at brianc@cbr.com!
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