Wonder Woman

Princess Diana of Themyscira in Wonder Woman v5 #4.

Wonder Woman is a female comic superhero who features in DC Comics.

Biography

Golden Age

Diana

Unknown to her, she actually had a twin sister named Nubia who had also been crafted from clay by Hippolyta and given life by Aphrodite. However, after being given life, the infants awaited the pantheon to come and give gifts to Hippolyta. However, the god of war Mars appeared where he stole the young Nubia from her cradle and disappeared from the world. Even the efforts of Aphrodite was unable to find the missing child with Hippolyta suffering from intense grief over the loss of her daughter. (Wonder Woman v1 #206)

One day, an airplane piloted by Captain Steve Trevor crashed on Paradise Island where he was found alive but unconscious by Diana and fellow Amazon and friend Mala. Diana was responsible for nursing the man back to health where in the process she came to fall in love with him. A competition was later held amongst all the Amazons by Queen Hippolyta in order to determine who was the most worthy of all the women to hold the responsibility of returning Steve Trevor back to Man's World and to fight for justice whilst there. Hippolyta though forbade her daughter Diana from entering the competition but the Amazon Princes took part nonetheless in secret. Wearing a mask to conceal her identity, Diana came to win the competition and revealed herself to everyone. This came to surprise Hippolyta who ultimately accepted her daughter's decision and gave in to her wish to go to Man's World. She then was awarded a special uniform made by her mother for her new role as Wonder Woman and safely returned Steve Trevor to his home country. (All-Star Comics v1 #8)

She and the Amazons came to receive a distress call from King Crystallar of the White Star planet who claimed that they were being terrorised by the Golden Women of the Red Planet. This led to Wonder Woman and a number of Amazons travelling into space to aid the beleaguered people but were captured by the Golden Policewomen. They mistakenly believed the Amazons to be from the White Star planet and had broken the ban from leaving their world leading to their arrest. It was then discovered that Crystallar of the Green Genii people had deliberately created a misunderstanding between the Amazons an the Golden Women in the hope that the two sides would fight one another. Upon learning, Queen Supreema of the Golden Women went to free the Amazons but Wonder Woman and her kin had escaped. The Amazons ended up being captured by the Green Genii who revealed their true nature and after Diana destroyed the Inhilerator it allowed them to rise up against the Golden Policewomen where they laid siege to the Gold Castle. Wonder Woman intervened where she helped stop the fighting by capturing the Green Genii's leader with her lasso and forced him to surrender. With the threat defeated, Diana parted in friendship with Queen Supreema and returned back to Earth. (Wonder Woman v1 #210)

Silver Age

Wonder Woman and the Justice League of America nominated Green Arrow as their new member when they received a message from the alien Carthan, who had kidnapped the Arrow. he told the team he had placed three engines of destruction around the world, and that it was up to them to disable them and free Arrow. Carthan was only posing as a villain, he had been exiled from his planet Dryanna by tyrant Xandor, and the engines prevented him from leaving Earth. Wonder Woman and Martian Manhunter disabled the engine in Keystone City that was causing insects and animals to grow to giant size. The rest of the Justice League of America disabled the other two engines and freed Arrow, but Carthan imprisoned the team in a hollow diamond so he could explain that he was not a villain. Batman, who was not trapped, knocked him into the control panel of his ship, and Carthan could not dissipate the diamond. he showed Green Arrow the stress point of the diamond, and the archer used his skills to shatter the prison with a diamond-tipped arrow. (Justice League of America v1 #4) A gang of criminals later came to escape imprisonment with the Justice League of America being challenged by them. Wonder Woman, Flash and Green Arrow confronted King Clock, Professor Menace and Captain Cold in an ice palace. After avoiding Clock's quicksand clock trap they forced the villains to flee. On the verge of capturing them Green Arrow shot arrows that caused an explosion, and his teammates thought he purposely sabotaged their capture. Aquaman, Martian Manhunter and Green Lantern dealt with the Getaway Mastermind, Electric Man and the Puppet Master, who caused deadly weather to slow down the heroes. As they pursued the villains plane, Green Arrow arrived, show more arrows that caused an explosion and knocked out the Leaguers. At headquarters, the League accused him of being a traitor. He told them that he observed that Captain Cold, King Clock and Menace were robots rigged to explode, so he destroyed them before his teammates got in range. The Getaway Mastermind's ship had an explosive forcefield, so he activated it before the Justice League could reach it and be killed. The exonerated Arrow had already captured all the villains, but told the League he knew there was a real traitor among them. Green Lantern had been captured by Dr. Destiny and replaced by him, so they subdued 'Green Lantern' and took him to the police. They walked into Destiny's trap, as he had a ship nearby that hit the League with an anti-gravity and will-deadener ray. He prepared to put them aboard a rocket ship, and with their wills gone they'd be helplessly floating in space forever. His prisoner Green Lantern escaped, because using the will-deadener on the League sapped power from the ray aimed at him. The League apprehended Destiny and closed the case. (Justice League of America v1 #5)

Wonder Woman and the other members of the Justice League had an incident of bad luck on standard cases, but did not realize their difficulties were caused by Prof. Amos Fortune, who was testing his Stimoluck that caused either good or bad luck in anyone it was aimed at. Letters to the Justice League came in requesting the League's help, and they found two worthy causes. Flash, Green Arrow and Martian Manhunter handled one case in which Hazel Deeping sought the fortune on her farm hidden by her grandfather because she needed the money to aid her grandparents. The grandfather left a clue in the form of a poem, but by the time they realized the treasure was in the farm's antique gateposts Fortune, with his luck boosted by the Stimoluck, had purchased them from Deeping. Fortunately the League had also found a valuable painting by Gilbert Stuart and a reservoir of oil on the farm. Aquaman, Green Lantern and Wonder Woman went to Sea Dunes to solve a series of robberies to a museum. The museum was built from an old castle and impenetrable, but the custodian Charles Hobart was using a fishing reel to steal pieces from the barred window. The put him in custody, but spotted Fortune taking off with other pieces Hobart had stolen and hidden in a cliff face. They pursued him, but Fortune managed to capture all the members of the Justice League through sheer luck, and he tied them to a Wheel of Misfortune that would destroy the human glands that gave people good luck and would cause the League to forever after have bad luck. The Wheel only affected human physiology, so Martian Manhunter was able to escape, disable the machine and defeated Amos Fortune. (Justice League of America v1 #6)

Post-Crisis

Following the Crisis on Infinite Earths, a new version of reality was created with a different history of events. Diana was the daughter of Queen Hippolyta and the first child born on Paradise Island in the three thousand year history that the immortal Amazons lived there. The Amazons had been created around 1200 B.C. when the Greek goddesses drew forth the souls of all women who had been murdered by men and placed them on the island. One soul was held back from creation, the one that would be born as Diana. That soul originally belonged to the unborn daughter of the first woman murdered by a man (whom Hippolyta was the reincarnation of). In the late 20th Century, Hippolyta was instructed to mold some clay from the shores of Paradise Island into the form of a baby girl. Six members of the Greek Pantheon then bonded the soul to the clay, giving it life. Each of the six also granted Diana a gift: Demeter, great strength; Athena, wisdom and courage; Artemis, a hunter's heart and a communion with animals; Aphrodite, beauty and a loving heart; Hestia, sisterhood with fire; Hermes, speed and the power of flight. Diana grew up surrounded by a legion of sisters and mothers. When she was a young woman, the gods decreed that the Amazons must send an emissary into Man's World, Diana who was bored of her surroundings and seeked adventure jumped at the opportunity to leave while following the mission to bring peace upon the world. Queen Hippolyta ordered a contest to be held, but forbade Diana from participating. Diana disobeyed and did so anyway in disguise, easily winning the contest and being named the Amazons' champion. She was given a uniform fashioned from the standard of someone who had visited the island a few decades earlier. (Wonder Woman v2 #1)

Wonder Woman gathered the attention of Barbara Minerva, the Cheetah, who secretly desired to steal the Lasso of Truth from Diana. She lied to Wonder Woman about having found the lost Girdle of Antiope to get close to her, but after touching the Lasso her truth was made clear. Diana was frustrated and enraged over her naïve trust of Minerva. That same night, Barbara decided to take the Lasso by force and attacked Wonder Woman as the Cheetah. Diana managed to fight her off, and decided it was time to return home to Paradise Island again. (Wonder Woman v2 #9)

When Diana returned to Boston, she learned of the death of Myndi Mayer—someone had apparently shot her in the face with a shotgun in her own home. A man named Steve London was framed for the death, but Diana learned that the man responsible for killing her was a man named Skeeter Boyd. Skeeter died trying to escape from Wonder Woman, grabbing hold of an electrified fence and frying himself. He had not, in fact, actually killed Myndi—an overdose of alcohol and cocaine had killed her before he delivered the blast. Diana was left to question how something like this could happen, ignorant of the effects of addiction and drug overdose. (Wonder Woman v2 #20)

At home, many of her Amazon sisters were crying out for vengeance, believing their queen to have been murdered. Diana asserted herself as the rightful leader of the Amazons, no matter what they decided to do. As they were debating, an oracle announced that the gods had returned. No sooner did she do so when Diana was summoned to Mount Olympus. The gods announced that something was terribly wrong with the order of things. They too had seen Pariah and did not understand his importance. Zeus had expended much of his power just summoning Hermes from the Earth, and it had taken the combined energy of the rest of the pantheon to summon Diana there. They told her that Donna Troy had also turned up. Just then, a new set of gods emerged—it was the Roman pantheon, led by Jupiter himself. The Roman gods announced that they had a human champion that would battle against the Greeks' Wonder Woman—that champion was none other than Captain Marvel. Diana was forced to defend herself against a possessed Captain Marvel while Hermes and Mercury engaged in round two. Wonder Woman defeated Captain Marvel, while Circe began to unveil her master plan, unleashing chaos across the globe. (War of the Gods v1 #1)

On her return home, Diana was elated at being reunited with her sisters with her mother Hippolyta explaining recent events to her. Circe had led the renegade Amazons of Bana-Mighdall to Paradise Island, stirring them up with dreams of conquest. They caught Hippolyta's Amazons completely off guard, and for two days there was nothing but bloody battle in the city. After it was too late, Circe's schemes became apparent. She used her magic to transport the entire island to another dimension, where the Amazons were set upon by demons. Both tribes of Amazons had to band together or die, and for ten years in that realm they fought against the demons. As a reward, Hippolyta bequeathed a section of the undeveloped part of the island to her sister's tribe. Now they were back, and the nightmare was over. Diana recounted everything she had done in the months since their absence—Hippolyta was not pleased. She felt Diana had wasted many opportunities to affect man's world as a whole. Hippolyta announced that she was not sure if she could trust Diana to represent the island anymore. Upset, Diana wandered away from the city with some friends, where she met Artemis for the first time. Diana was intrigued, if not particularly impressed, with the brash, arrogant young Amazon from the tribe of Antiope. As they were talking, word came that Hippolyta had made a decision—there would be a new contest, and perhaps a new Wonder Woman. (Wonder Woman v2 #90)

Artemis was given the Wonder Woman outfit to wear. She was also given the Sandals of Hermes, which let her fly, and the Gauntlet of Atlas, which increased the strength of the wearer by a factor of ten. She also had her bow. Diana created a new black suit and headed back to Boston, too angry with her mother to listen to anything she had to say. Diana helped Artemis battle some minions of the White Magician before visiting her friends in the hospital. Donna Milton was fully recovered, but Julia Kapatelis was paralyzed. Artemis went to New York City where a public relations firm picked her up, offering to make her a well-known presence. Artemis promised to succeed where Diana had failed. Diana had to help her friend Micah, who was in trouble again, before going off to help Hawkman. (Wonder Woman v2 #93)

Artemis, frustrated and angry that the world had seemed to reject her, believed Diana was purposefully trying to disrupt her efforts as Wonder Woman. She tried to bring in Sazia, but the mob mistress evaded her. Diana, meanwhile, tracked down the Chauvinist and other thugs that Artemis had battled in her time as Wonder Woman. She discovered that they had all been hired by Artemis's agency, all for the sake of publicity, and managed to convince Artemis of this after a brief skirmish between the two. Diana decided she needed to go back home to get some answers from her mother. (Wonder Woman v2 #98) Diana found her mother in the woods, disciplining herself for what had happened between her and Diana. She confessed that when they were in the other realm, she had visions of the future—a future where Wonder Woman would die. This was the real reason she called for a new contest—a contest that she rigged, so that Artemis would win, become Wonder Woman and die while Diana would live. When Hippolyta said she expected Diana to remain with her while Artemis faced certain death back in Boston, an angry Diana responded, 'then you lost me a long time ago'. (Wonder Woman v2 #99)

Post-Flashpoint

Following the Flashpoint, a new version of reality was created with a different history of events. Diana

According to legend, Diana of Themiscyra was born from her mother's strong desire for a child and came from a lump of clay brought to life in the form of a girl to be the perfect Amazon as she was born of no man. (Wonder Woman v4 #2) However, it was revealed that Queen Hippolyta had had an affair with Zeus with Diana's real parentage being kept hidden in order to protect them from the wrath of god's notoriously jealous wife Hera. (Wonder Woman v4 #3) Unknown to anyone, Diana had a twin brother who was given the name Jason but as he was a boy he was taken away from the island with his existence a closely guarded secret. (Justice League v2 #50)

Later on, the world came under attack from Parademons which began to storm the city of Metropolis. In that time, Wonder Woman was resolved to defend the city leading to her meeting the other heroes including Superman, Batman, Flash, Green Lantern and Aquaman. (Justice League v2 #3)

Ares told Diana that he had been imprisoned by the other Gods of Olympus and bound in chains that were secured by Aphrodite through the power of her love. He also told her that years ago, Phobos and Deimos had implanted false memories of Themyscira into her mind, and these had caused her to imagine aspects of her past that had never happened in reality. Meanwhile, Phobos and Deimos entered Themyscira and battled with the Amazons. Diana knew what she had to do, and called Ares to unite her with Phobos and Deimos. He teleported them to her, and using her Lasso of Truth, Wonder Woman bound them through the power of her unconditional love for them, as Aphrodite had done to Ares. With the twin gods defeated, Diana attempted to leave Ares' prison along with Veronica and Izzy, however Izzy's essence had been attached to the realm and could not return to Earth. Izzy was forced to either live out the rest of her days in the prison or live in Themyscira as an Amazon for eternity. She chose the latter and Veronica said goodbye to her daughter. Diana was briefly reunited with her mother, for the first time since she left the island. (Wonder Woman v5 #23)

Overview

Personality and attributes

It was said that she was named Diana after the Olympian goddess of the Moon who was her godmother. (All-Star Comics v1 #8)

as Wonder Woman, she served as a symbol of integrity and humanity so that the world of men would know what it meant to be an Amazon. (All-Star Comics v1 #8)

In this role, she was said to avenge injustice or right a wrong. (All-Star Comics v1 #8)

Diana was said to be as lovely as the goddess Aphrodite and as wise as the goddess Athena. (All-Star Comics v1 #8)

She was said to had adhered to an Amazon code of helping any in need, even misogynistic people, and never accepting a reward for saving someone. (Wonder Woman v1 #38)

According to one account, she was the daughter of her mother Hippolyta's affair with he Olympian god Zeus. (Wonder Woman v4 #3)

One account revealed that she had a twin brother named Jason. (Justice League v2 #50)

Powers and abilities

Diana was born a member of the Amazon tribe who were a hidden race of entirely female warriors. She had the speed of Mercury and the strength of Hercules with these traits giving her superhuman abilities. It was said she possessed hundred times the agility and strength of the best human male athletes and strongest wrestlers. (All-Star Comics v1 #8) According to one account, she was actually a demigod due to her father being Zeus. (Wonder Woman v4 #3)

According to Batman, her reflexes were superior to that of Superman. (Justice League of America v2 #27)

Batman would comment that she best melee fighter in the world. (Justice League of America v2 #13)

They were in fact composed of the godly Eighth Metal that was one of the strongest elements in the Multiverse. (Dark Nights: Metal v1 #5) Some accounts showed that she entered into an uncontrollable frenzy if she was separated from her bracelets. (Comic Cavalcade v1 #18)

According to one account, the lasso was created from Aphrodite's Magic Girdle by the Amazons craftswoman Metala at the behest of Queen Hippolyte, and its magical properties were granted by the Goddess herself and by Athena: the lasso forced whoever was bound within it to obey the commands of the user. (Sensation Comics v1 #6)

Unknown to her, she came to be marked as a child by the goddess Hecate and given a fraction of her magical ability. (Wonder Woman and Justice League Dark: The Witching Hour v1 #1)

Her strong feelings of love made her a candidate for a violet Power Ring and induct her briefly into the ranks of the Star Sapphires. (Blackest Night v1 #6)

Notes

• Wonder Woman was created by William Moulton Marston and H. G. Peter where she made her first appearance in All Star Comics v1 #8 (October, 1941).

In other media

Television

• In Wonder Woman, Wonder Woman featured in the setting of the 1970s live-action television series where she was portrayed by actress Lynda Carter.
• In Justice League, Wonder Woman appeared in the setting of the animated television series set in the DC Animated Universe where she was voiced by actress Susan Eisenberg.

Films

• In Wonder Woman, Wonder Woman featured in the setting of the 2009 animated film where she was voiced by actress Keri Russell.
• In Wonder Woman, Wonder Man featured in the setting of the live-action film where she was portrayed by actress Gal Gadot.

Video games

• In DC Universe Online, Wonder Woman appeared in the setting of the MMORPG video game where she was originally voiced by actress Gina Torres before being voiced by actress Susan Eisenberg.
• In Infinite Crisis, Wonder Woman appeared as a playable champion in the setting of the MOBA video game where she was voiced by actress Vanessa Marshall.

Appearances

• All Star Comics v1: (1941)
• Wonder Woman v1:
• JLA v1:
• Blackest Night v1:
• Wonder Woman v5:

External Links

• DC Database Entry
• Wikipedia Entry

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