I am a member of an online Wonder Woman fan club (may the geek comments proceed) and a new member actually commented on my page asking me why I loved Wonder Woman so much, here is my answer:

It's not about her being great, it's about her simply being the best. That's just part of DCU canon, she's the strongest female heroine in the DCU. She's typical said to be second only to superman in terms of strength. She's fast enough that the Flash comes to her when he wants someone challenging to race with. She's strategic enough and trained well enough that when Batman wants a good chess match or a strong sparring parnter she's who he calls. She's kind and compassionate enough that when the weight of the entire world counting on him pushes Superman to his wits end he calls Diana for a sympathetic ear and some advice.

She's a purposefully created Mary Sue, the strongest, fastest, smartest, most beautiful woman on the planet. She was blessed by the gods themselves, she's immortal, she's human and yet at times she's a complete outsider who feels completely out of touch with modern man. For some people this is a great character, for other's its a dull boring character. Some people like Superman, some think he's dull and repetitive. It's the same thing with Wonder Woman. I've always felt that for characters with as high a power level as they've got it's just purely a situation of "You either like them or you don't."It needn't get anymore complicated than that. As for me, personally? I love Wonder Woman because of her message. She's a warrior who seeks peace. She's the living embodiment of self sacrifice.

She gouged out her own eyes in order to fight Medusa and stop her from harming anyone else. She cast her own reputation and respect down into the gutter by being willing to kill the man who'd driven Superman into a psychotic rage. She constantly seeks the betterment of humanity, even if they do nothing but hate her for her efforts. She's the ultimate self-sacrifice. She's willing to do anything to save lives, to protect perfect strangers, to try and foster good will and peace between nations. I suppose the short way of saying it is that I like her because she tries to spread a message that I never believe we'll accomplish in the real world. She seeks peace on earth and I do not believe it's something we'll ever see anywhere except in our dreams; yet she keeps struggling to obtain it, she'll fight for it, she'll preach for it, she'll even let her own mother kill her if it means possibly putting an end to blood shed.

Basically, I respect her because she fights for something that I think even she knows is unobtainable, but even though it's so far out of reach, even though the hope of achieving it is slim to none, she still tries. She's the only hero in comics anymore that I still hold in the highest regard, the only one I have left who I can think of as a good role model. If I wanted my kids to have a fictional role model she's who I'd want it to be.