Wonder Woman created by William Moulton Marston
The Alpha Female
Wonder Woman is the most recognizable female comic book character in the industry ever, and has been since her introduction into the lore in 1941. However, she has also been very schizophrenically-written since her debut in All Star Comics #8 – later becoming the Justice Society of America’s (JSA) first female team member in All Star Comics #11 – initially in the role of the team’s secretary.
However unlike her “Big Three” co-icons, DC’s World’s Finest, Superman and Batman, she has not had similar success. These other two characters combined have about 25 comic books solicited for August 2003 in Previews vol. xiii, #6 which include ongoing and limited run books that they star, co-star or guest-star in. While Wonder Woman appears in significantly less and only appears in 2 ongoing series regularly – her own Wonder Woman title and her affiliated “super-team”, the JLA (Justice League of America) – to be fair, WW appears in a handful of limited series in August alongside her World’s Finest co-icons and JLA colleagues.
Wonderous Beginnings
In January of 1942 Sensation Comics #1 revealed Wonder Woman’s Amazonian origin for the first time, and in the summer of that same year the first ongoing Wonder Woman comic book series launched.
This Golden Age Wonder Woman was actually molded from clay by her mother Hippolyte (or Hippolyta depending on your source) the Queen of the Amazons – a female warrior race – and given life by the Aphrodite, the Greek Goddess of Love and Beauty. This clay-brought-to-life girl was named Diana – after the Roman goddess equivalent of Artemis, the Greek Goddess of the Hunt.
Some years later, United States military intelligence agent, Captain Steve Trevor, washed up on Paradise Island – the mythical Mediterranean island that the Amazons resided on – after his plane was shot down by the Axis Powers, some time prior to the attack of Pearl Harbour. He was found by Diana, who had never seen a “man” before as Paradise Island was quite literally a No Man’s Land – women only.
The Goddess Aphrodite ordered Queen Hippolyta to have a Contest of Champions to determine which Amazon would return Steve Trevor to the United States – Man’s World – and stay there to serve alongside America against the tyranny of the Axis Powers (Germany, Italy, and Japan) in a World War (II) that would soon involve the U.S. After being forbidden to enter the contest by her mother, who knew her daughter could win it, a disguised Diana won the competition and, to her mother’s dismay, became the Amazonian champion Wonder Woman….
Thus the Golden Age‘s Wonder Woman was born.
A Silver Sheen
In 1956, after a few year super-hero lull, the Golden Age super-speedster Flash (Jay Garrick) was reinterpreted. Within Showcase #4, a new Scarlet Speedster (Barry Allen) was recognizable as “the Flash” in name only. The reinvention of the Flash marked the beginning of comics’ Silver Age.
So popular was the new Flash, that DC reinterpreted many of its Golden Age heroes into more contemporary adventurers for the time.
1958’s Wonder Woman #98 saw a new origin for WW, and the early 100’s of the WW series revealed further continuity changes – including WW #105, an issue within which WW also appeared as a young girl, and in DC Super Stars #1 was revealed to have been a Wonder Girl prior to becoming WW.
In any event, the dawn of the Silver Age relegated the preceding Golden Age mystery-men (and women) to fictitious comic book inspirations for DC’s new heroic pantheon… until 1961.
Mirror Images, sorta…
The Silver Age and Golden Age Flashes met in the classic Flash of Two Worlds tale within 1961’s Flash #123. The Silver Age Flash, Barry Allen, would accidentally bridge the “vibrational barrier” of his Earth and a similar Earth – where the JSA had operated for the past 2 decades – and met his heroic inspiration, Jay Garrick, the Golden Age’s Flash. The world that Barry Allen had thought to be part of his favorite boyhood comic book was really an alternate Earth.
The sucess of this meeting spawned further meetings between the Golden Age Flash of “Earth 2”, and the “Earth 1” Silver Age Flash – as well as annual meetings between Earth 1’s Justice League of America, and Earth 2’s Justice Society of America.
Gold, Silver, and some Confusion
Yet another “new origin” of WW was revealed in 1966’s Wonder Woman #159 and there is much comic book speculation was to whether 1958’s WW #98 or 1966’s WW #159 constitutes the first appearance of the Silver Age (Earth 1’s) Wonder Woman.
In any event, the Golden Age WW became a part of Earth 2 in the Silver Age of comics.
The Golden Age WW would eventually marry her love Steve Trevor and sire a child Lyta who adopted the nom de guerre of Fury and would become a member of Infinity Inc., a team of second-generation Earth 2 heroes and heroines. This team, and its Golden Age lineage and their respective influences on today’s JSA was explored in our inaugural Near Mint Memories called Through the Ages Towards Infinity…
Also in the Silver Age, 1965’s Brave and the Bold #60 saw the debut of a new Wonder Girl, Donna Troy, and her membership in the Teen Titans, who themselves debuted as a team in 1964’s Brave and the Bold #54 (Robin, Kid Flash, and Aqualad).
A Crisis like No Other
(Excerpt from our inaugural NMM column)
As we’ve established, for a good portion of its publication history, DC titles took place in a multiverse. The JSA occupied Earth 2, while the JLA resided on Earth 1. The infamous 1985 Crisis on Infinite Earths changed all that. The multiple universes were destroyed by the Anti-Monitor leaving one amalgamated universe with one Earth with more super-heroes under one single sun than ever before. Many of the Golden Age adventures of the JSA were now part of this new Earth’s past – its history.
However, it was clear that this new cornucopia of super-heroes on one Earth posed some problems for DC.
While a Golden Age Flash and a Silver Age Flash were two different characters, and posed no significant continuity problems, the Golden Age Batman and Silver Age Batman were essentially the same character – as was the case for two Supermen and two Wonder Women.
So, after the Crisis, the JSA had existed, but had never included a Superman, a Batman, or a Wonder Woman. They were written out of history, only to exist in DC’s “Modern Age” – or so it would seem.
Superman was relaunched and reimagined in 1986 within comics’ great John Byrne’s much-loved and much-maligned Man of Steel mini-series – Superman was now the sole survivor of the doomed Planet Krypton.
Wonder Woman, in turn, was reinvented in a new ongoing series in 1987, launched by comics’ legend George Pérez. In addition, a character called Miss America retroactively assumed the role of a now non-existent Golden Age Wonder Woman with the JSA. However, in 1998, “a” Wonder Woman was retroactively reinserted into JSA Golden Age lore in the form of a time-displaced Queen Hippolyta – who assumed her daughter’s Wonder Woman mantle even before her daughter had, in fact, been “born”! This bit of revisionist history occurred during John Byrne’s run on the Wonder Woman title and left many questions lingering about the original Miss America character / continuity “fix”.
Batman did not undergo any substantial retread, outside of having his Golden Age roots upturned – which meant that the Golden Age Robin was erased from JSA continuity as well. The Dark Knight’s two ongoing titles, Batman and Detective Comics respectively continued to chronicle his Gotham City adventures, but now in DC’s brave new “modern” world.
Wonder Daughter… no more
As a result of the Crisis, as stated in the initial NMM column, “Fury (Lyta Trevor) became the biological daughter of a retroactively contrived Golden Age Fury (Helena Kosmatos), who in turn was a founding member of a “new” Golden Age offshoot of the All-Star Squadron, called the Young All-Stars. In addition, as part of the new continuity, Lyta Trevor would be raised by adoptive parents – an Admiral Derek Trevor, and his wife Joan Dale Trevor, the super-heroine… Miss America.”
A Modern Rebirth
As indicated, 1987 saw the relaunch of the Wonder Woman franchise co-plotted and pencilled by George Pérez.
This Modern Age Wonder Woman was actually molded from clay by her mother Queen Hippolyte (or Hippolyta, again, still depending on your source) and imbued it with the soul of the Queen’s dead unborn child – whose soul resided in the Cavern of Souls – by Artemis the Greek Goddess of the Hunt. In addition, the patron Greek Goddesses of the Amazons – Athena the Goddess of Wisdom, Aphrodite the Goddess of Love, Demeter the Goddess of Fertility, Hestia the Goddess of the Hearth, and the aforementioned Artemis – with Hermes the messenger of the Gods imbued this clay-turned-baby with remarkable super-powers as well, including super-strength, the ability to fly, and super-speed. This baby, Princess of the Amazons, was named “Diana” after a fallen Amazon Warrior.
In Diana’s adulthood, the Greek Gods revealed that Ares, the God of War, had gone insane and intended to destroy the Earth. The Amazon’s were decreed to have a tournament to determine which Amazon Warrior would leave Paradise Island and confront Ares. Diana was forbidden by her mother to enter the tournament, but a disguised-Diana participated and won, defying and saddening Queen Hippolyte. Diana became Wonder Woman, was armed and costumed by the Amazons, and went off to confront Ares and become an active defender of – and Ambassador to – Man’s Worlds.
Who’s is Donna Troy, Wonder Girl, Troia, etc…
This deserves a column of its own. However, my good friend Mathan Erhardt tackled the post-Crisis Donna Troy in his Who’s Who in the DCU 5.15.03. column .
“Donna Troy/Troia is Wonder Woman’s magical twin. She was created so that Diana would have a friend her own age on Paradise Island. But then Dark Angel… kidnapped her and made her experience different lives. To hear Troia tell it, the Titans of Myth raised her. When she got back to Earth she hooked up with the Teen Titans and became Wonder Girl. She got married (to suave looking Terry Long, with the cool red beard) and had a kid. But then she lost her powers and got dumped by her husband…. But did Donna let that get her down? No she joined the Darkstars, a space police force, and really hooked up with Green Lantern Kyle Rayner… But then her (ex-)husband and son were killed in a car accident. At that point Dark Angel decided that that was enough suffering and wanted to start Donna’s life over again. But Wonder Woman and the Flash foiled Dark Angel’s plan…”
In any event, that’s the shorthand on Donna Troy. A “Who is Donna Troy” piece could actually be the stuff of a future column – a long one.
A Ruckas about Wonder Woman
I had the pleasure of the reviewing last week’s Wonder Woman #195 which marked the debut of newly-exclusive DC scribe Greg Rucka and hot artist Drew Johnson. In that review I indicated that the book is well written and superbly drawn.
Much of WW #195 “focuses on how others view Wonder Woman. Using a tried-and-true, yet interesting, plot device, the Themyscira Embassy – where Princess Diana lives and works as the Amazonian Ambassador to ‘Man’s World’ – hires a new staffer who new readers can learn about Wonder Woman through.”
“To whet fans appetite’s for Rucka’s take on comics preeminent princess, DC released the softcover version of Rucka’s Wonder Woman: The Hiketeia. According to Rucka, The Hiketeia ‘…is a stand-alone graphic novel, with glorious art by JG Jones. A young woman named Danielle Wellys, fleeing Gotham and the Batman, turns to Diana for help. Through the ancient ritual of Hiketeia (hic-eh-tay-ah), Diana is bound to protect Danny, and Danny is bound to serve the Wonder Woman. But Batman isn’t known for taking ‘no’ as an answer, and Danny’s actions put him and Diana into direct conflict.’ “
“I encourage you to pick up the softcover. Readers get a glimpse of what it means to Wonder Woman to be an Amazon and all the responsibilities therein. It also has one of the most memorable Batman confrontations in a long time. I could not recommend this book more. Its a great prequel to Wonder Woman #195 and I imagine will be snapped quite quickly once the buzz on Rucka’s Wonder Woman reaches deafening levels.”
Wonder Woman is clearly on a path back to relevance in the DCU.
Its about time.
The Reading Rack
Some of the pre-Crisis Wonder Woman adventures have been remastered and compiled within a few DC Archive Edition hardcovers so far.
The groundbreaking Crisis on Infinite Earths maxi-series has been compiled in both hardcover and trade paperback forms.
Wonder Woman: The Hiketeia has been released in both hardcover and softcover form.
No hardcover or softcover has been produced that compiles George Pérez’s 1987 Wonder Woman relaunch.
Also, pick up this month’s Wizard #144 for an article / interview by Mike Cotton on Rucka’s debut on – and plans for – Wonder Woman.
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