"False parallel. Diana is the best of a race of mythical women. "
That is not an origin, Bluefall. It's a condition. There is a huge difference.
Wonder Woman's origin is not easily encapsulated, and her visual elements are (barring the lasso) complex to explain and not exactly thrilling to the novice reader. "She's from a race of warrior women" explains nothing about motivation, it's merely a starting point to a much longer explanation for why she does what she does. It's not a 'false parallel' at all. Batman and Superman can be explained in a compelling sentence...Wonder Woman, much less so, at least after Perez's revamp.
And your examples here prove my point, I'm afraid. Kal El wearing an "s" needed to be explained in the exact same way as what I'm describing, a simple, in-story answer that can be explained in a flash...It's his family crest, and the name "Superman" came from its similarity to our letter "s." That is simple, elegant, and a debate killer. If we had had a long flashback story about how Lois Lane's grandpa was an astronaut who met Jor El through a wormhole and left behind a scarf with the letter "S" on it, and that inspired the Kryptonians to...blah blah blah blah, well, you can perhaps see how ungainly that would have been.
Huge difference. One caters to the hardcore purist, one is designed to be a little less intrusive. In the Superman case, certainly, they found an answer that works. The Bat obsession is an even better example. If we had three issues on how that bat was a pet bat that belonged to Thomas Wayne's great uncle and had been trained to crash through windows, and...well, there's a small group that eats that stuff up. But it IS a small group, and I maintain that it's detrimental to the story.
Mark Waid added some odd stuff to the Flash origin, I believe, explaining the flash of lightning in a newly complicated way. Does anyone even refer to that any more?
The biggest element I added to Diana's origin is probably the Circle, and it can be easily removed from retelling Diana's origin without affecting the main story. It's when you build onto the house with scrap lumber and twine that you get an awkward construct.
You like that story, that's fine. But it's been a bone of contention for a very long time and a bit of a stumbling block. If you have to explain WW's costume by explaining that story, it really sounds uncomfortable AND it diminishes the impact of the Steve Trevor part of the story.
It's still there for people who like it. We're not 'retconning' it or disavowing it, in story. But even using that story, it doesn't fully explain Diana's costume AND it does tie her specifically to the American flag, which I think is a bit off-note for the character.
"But you've said it's the American flag anyway by saying that Betsy Ross was inspired by the Amazons. Reversing the order of inspiration doesn't change the equivalence."
Weird. You've got this wrong. If Diana's story is true, then the Amazons inspired the flag. They obviously didn't take all the elements. "Inspired" doesn't mean "identical." And if Diana's outfit inspired the flag, then it's America that borrowed from the Amazons, much as the Swastika means something completely different to Buddhists.
I don't read SuperFriends. This is something we've had in mind for a long time. But to be fair, it could just be a bit of cultural mythology. (cont)