Alan Kistler's History of Wonder Woman - Part 1

This essay is part of my Wonder Woman Files and covers Diana's history from her introduction in 1941 all the way to the 1970s. Part 2 covers the "I-Ching Era" all the way up to The Crisis. Part 3 covers Diana Post-Crisis. Part 4 covers Infinite Crisis and beyond.

Everyone's got an opinion on her. "She's an American ideal." "She's a symbol of Greek myth come to life." "She's a strong feminist  icon." "The lasso's silly she's wearing a swimsuit."

She's a star-spangled beauty of mythic elements and she's been all around the world in comics, television, video games and clothing. Even if you've never read a comic book in your life, you know who Wonder Woman is and have a take on her.

But how'd she start out? And what made her the person she is today?

SORORITIES, BONDAGE AND THE LIE-DETECTOR

"The picture-story fantasy cuts loose the hampering debris of art and artifice and touches the tender spots of universal human desires and aspirations. . . . Comics speak, without qualm of sophistication, to the innermost ears of the wishful self."

   - William Moulton Martson,
from The American Scholar, 1943

It began with a man named William Moulton Marston, a psychologist considered to be a mite unusual by some of his peers. While at Harvard, he pioneered research that led to the creation of the polygraph. During this research, Marston said he found women to be more honest in general. He then continued his interest in women by studying sorority sisters. He spent a lot of time and multiple sessions researching the activities of sorority sisters during hazing rights, such as when they would tie each other up at certain times. Using the polygraph, he studied how the heart rates would rise while the women were watching such rites.

Marston was a very outspoken feminist and was calling for women’s lib years before the phrase was coined. In fact, in 1937, he told The New York Times that the U.S. would become a matriarchal society within just 100 years if all went well. Being a publicity hound, he also often met with Hollywood producers to test how movie-goers responded to certain stimuli. He found that they had very strong reactions to primary colors (red, yellow, blue) and certain sound effects. And not only was he a big fan of horror films involving scantily-clad women, he also wrote a few very sexual novels involving Greek mythology. For instance, check out this passage from a meeting between Zeus and Venus:

“His soul was lost in beautiful, palpitating dreams of serving her glorious womanhood forever. . . . Those wonderful feet!"

Oh, yeah. Them sexy feet. Dig it.

Anyway, now that we’ve talked about him professionally, shall we take a few moments to mention his personal life?  Marston had a somewhat unusual family back at home. He lived with his wife and his two children and also shared the house with his research assistant/lover and their two children. Evidently, everyone got along pretty well, not just all the kids but also the wife and the mistress (who was said to often wear a pair of silver bracelets).

Very interested in pop culture, Marston soon became quite fascinated by comic books, particularly the new wave of super-heroes that appeared following Superman’s debut in 1938. He decided that there needed to be a woman hero to inspire young men (the majority of comic fans) to find and explore their feminine side and power, what Carl Jung called the “anima.”

So he combined all his beliefs and research to make a strong woman warrior who was armed with a lasso that would bind her enemies to her will (while simultaneously make them tell the truth). A woman who came from a completely female society that worshipped the Greek gods and weilded advanced science and technology. And on top of that, she was dressed up in a costume of primary colors and wore silver bracelets. Since there was a war going on and patriotic characters were becoming the rage in comics, Marston had his character given a very patriotic outfit. A golden eagle decorated her chest and her skirt was blue with white stars. She was ready to meet the world.

MEET DIANA!

Wonder Woman made her first appearance in an eight-page back-up story of All-Star Comics #8 (the same issue where Dr. Mid-Nite and Starman joined the Justice Society of America, the world's first super-hero team). It was the December issue of 1941, mere weeks before Pearl Harbor was attacked by Axis forces. Marston, like many comic book writers, used a pen name and was credited as "Charles Moulton."

Diana was said to be a young woman who possessed “one hundred times” the speed, strength and agility of an athletic man. She lived on Paradise Island, a mysterious place inhabited solely by women. One day, Diana and her pal Mala were hanging out when a plane crashed. Looking amidst the wreckage, they found the unconscious form of Steve Trevor, a handsome pilot and member of the U.S. military intelligence. The Amazons cared for him, but Queen Hyppolyte became concerned that her daughter Princess Diana had fallen in love with the man. She decided to explain to Diana why it was impossible to allow the man to remain by telling her the origin of Paradise Island.

Long ago, she said, the Amazon women were fierce warriors known all over Europe. Wishing to conquer them, Hercules brought a group of warriors to Amazonia. He was defeated at first but then he “tricked” (a nice way of saying “seduced”) Queen Hyppolyte. Hercules took the magical Girdle of Aphrodite from Hyppolyte and shackled all the Amazons. At first, Aphrodite was ticked off at the women for being defeated like that and wouldn’t help them (you know how gods are). But after enough time had passed and the imprisonment became unbearable, Hyppolyte asked for Aphrodite’s help again and this time she gave aid. Hyppolyte regained the magic girdle and led her sisters to defeat Hercules’ men. They then took the men’s ships and sailed off into the ocean to relocate to an island the gods led them too, hidden from the eyes of man.

Being a god, Aphrodite set down a condition in exchange for her help. From now on, the Amazons had to live apart from men and not participate in their world on their new island home. What’s more, they had to wear bracelets as a physical reminder that once they had been shackled and that they needed to stay clear of men (and as a symbol of the debt and deference they owed Aphrodite).

As she finished her story of how the Amazons came to what was now called Paradise Island, Hyppolyte spoke proudly of how the Amazons had been able to live peacefully ever since. Because they had not been distracted by the affairs of men and their wars, their technology was centuries more advanced than the rest of Earth’s. They suffered no illness thanks to their science (and the later-revealed "Purple Ray", a device which could heal). And as long as they remained on the island and the queen kept her girdle, they also had eternal youth.

HYPPOLYTE: “We are indeed a race of wonder women.”

 

Hyppolyte then introduced readers to the “Magic Sphere” that allowed her to view various places and times (including the future sometimes) and let her teach Diana about many things in the modern world, such as their languages, sciences and arts.

Using the Magic Sphere, Hyppolyte saw that Steve Trevor had been on the trail of a Nazi spy ring when he'd been forced to land. Suddenly, Aphrodite and Athena showed up and said that an Amazon needed to go back to America. The Nazi menace was threatening the world and the goddesses felt that "America, liberty and freedom must be preserved!" This Amazon would have to be the toughest and wisest, since she’d have to defend not only the U.S. (described as "the last citadel of democracy") but the rights of women everywhere.

Hyppolyte called for a contest and all the Amazon warriors participated. Strangely, one of them happened to be wearing a mask and she easily won all the competitions, including the final test of "Bullets and Bracelets" (which involved her having to deflect bullets with her bracelets). The masked winner then revealed she was Diana. Hyppolyte was concerned for her daughter’s welfare, but was also proud of her for proving herself the most worthy to go.

HYPPOLYTE: "In America, you’ll indeed be a 'Wonder Woman', for I have taught you well! And let yourself be known as Diana, after your godmother, the goddess of the moon! And here is a costume I have designed to be used by the winner, to wear in America."

To aid in her battle against the forces of evil, Diana was given a magical lasso forged by the god Hephaestus from several links he'd removed from Hyppolyte’s own magical girdle. The rope was unbreakable and infinitely stretchable, able to elongate as Diana threw it. Anyone ensnared in it was filled with a compulsion to obey Diana (there's your bondage theme) and to speak the truth. Diana also got a plane that was invisible to anyone who wasn’t an Amazon (originally equipped with propellers and becoming a sleek jet in later years). The plane was originally described as a “transparent plane” rather than “invisible” and was made of an indestructible material called “Amazsilikon.”

And so, Diana donned her costume and was ready to go. Originally, it had a skirt but after a while Diana changed this to more practical shorts. It should also be mentioned that the symbol on Diana’s shirt was clearly a gold eagle. It would not become a stylized "WW" until decades later and the belt was white rather than gold.

THE IDEAL WOMAN ... AND A GOOD SECRETARY TOO!

The story of Diana's journey into "Man's World" (and her first appearance on a comic book cover) happened in Sensation Comics #1. After taking the still-unconscious Steve Trevor to a hospital in Washing D.C., Princess Diana wandered around and wound up foiling a robbery. This was witnessed by a promoter named Kale who offered Diana a job where she could entertain people with her unique skills and physical prowess. Diana agreed, figuring she needed money if she was going to establish herself in the modern world. But as soon as Steve recovered from his injuries, Diana quit and took all her earnings (despite Kale’s failed attempt to steal them).

Diana decided she needed to establish a cover identity to stay close to Trevor, in case more Nazi agents came after him. While pondering this, she found an army nurse named Diana Prince who was weeping openly. Ms. Prince's fiancée had been transferred to the west coast. She didn’t have enough money to follow him and he didn’t have enough income to support them both until she found a new job out west. Noticing that Prince was (by sheer coincidence) nearly her exact double, Wonder Woman suggested that Ms. Prince take the money she’d earned with Kale and use it to travel out west and support herself. In exchange, Wonder Woman would take Diana Prince’s credentials and assume her identity.

Diana Prince took the money and ran, as I'm sure most people would when given a large sum of money from a stranger in a weirdc costume who looks just like you and wants to assume your identity as an employee of the American military during a time of war (!?!).  And thus, a secret identity that let her befriend Steve and stay close to him.

By the next issue, some time had passed. Steve was fully recovered and Diana had ditched the nursing gig to become a secretary in the army for Colonel Darnell (who fell for "Ms. Prince"). It was in Sensation Comics #2 that Wonder Woman faced her first super-villain, the insane chemist called Dr. Poison. As she and Steve fought Dr. Poison, they got help from a short, overweight, candy-addicted college girl named (wait for it ...) Etta Candy. Diana had met Etta earlier in the hospital when the girl was quite thin. But after an appendectomy, Etta had figured she could now eat anything she wanted and had been doing so with reckless abandon. Young Etta became a fast friend and sidekick to Diana and she created “The Holiday Girls”, a sorority of a hundred girls “brave enough to fight evil men” who would often help Wonder Woman in cases over the years. 

Along with new friends, Diana quickly started building a rogues gallery. There was the telepathic psychotherapist dwarf named Doctor Psycho who had developed an obsessive hatred of women after years of ridicule for his facial deformities and was determined make them all his slaves. There was Priscilla Rich, a woman whose mental illness led her to misguided crimes as the Cheetah. There was Giganta, a female gorilla who'd been transformed into a giant, super-strong woman due to the experimentation of Dr. Zool. There were otherwordly menaces such as Queen Clea of the sunken Atlantean nation Venturia and Eviless, slave-mistress from Saturn. And Nazis like the Red Panzer and Iron Claw.

Several of Diana's female enemies teamed up into a group called Villainy, Inc. and together they caused a lot of havoc. Although the members were all female, one of them Byrna Brilyant actually disguised herself as a male in her criminal career, using the alter ego of "the Blue Snowman."

 

One bloodthirsty enemy was Gestapo agent Baroness Paula von Gunther. When the Baroness showed up, you could usually rely on a large body count. She was a wily scientist and strategist who also kept a small group of women as personal slaves and tortured them on a regular basis (oh, Marston, how you love your themes of bondage). However, as time went on, some of her stories leaned towards the silly. There was one comic where she tried to screw with America’s milk supply so that its citizens would develop weak and fragile bones, making them easy prey. Exactly how quickly she expected this development to occur was never explained (maybe it was really fast-acting milk!).

Von Gunther was like Batman’s enemy the Joker in that not even death seemed to stop her. Once she was brought before trial for her crimes and executed, only to be later revived by one of her own creations. Later she was brought before trial again and Wonder Woman actually acted in her defense, believing that the villain could reform. Von Gunther was then brought to the rehabilitative “Transformation Island” and underwent intense Amazone psychotherapy techniques. It seemed to work at first and she even helped perfect the Purple Ray (the DK Guide to Wonder Woman inaccurately says that she created the device). But eventually, von Gunther went back to her old ways.

It wasn't all just fights with Nazis and villains though. Several adventures showed Diana promoting equal rights and liberties to women around the world or giving inspirational speeches to women college students. She talked about how women could stand up for themselves by being smarter and more assertive than people expected them to be. Together, they could show men (who were prone to violence and snap judgments) that there were better ways to live through understanding, diplomacy and showing respect even to those you disagreed with. One issue even had her consider running for president. Imagine that, folks. A woman in a star-spangled outfit was considering running for President of the United States in the 1940's and saw nothing wrong with that notion (granted the story itself involved time travel and stuff like that, but it's the very idea of it all that I want to emphasize here). Pretty cool, huh?

To keep up the mythology aspect, Diana was also seen to make regular visits back to Paradise Island where we learned that Amazons kept "kangas" as pets. These giant kangaroos were both transport and companions (there were even kanga rodeos). Diana's pet kanga was named Jumpa. Get it?!

So the character was a huge hit and it was inevitable she finally got her own personal title. She also became the first woman to ever join the Justice Society of America. But Marston didn't write the JSA stories and so, sadly, that title depicted her not as a fully honored member but rather as the team's secretary. This despite the fact that Wonder Woman sold more comics each month than any of the male members of the team (not to mention that she was definitely capable of easily beating some of them in hand-to-hand combat).

Fortunately, Wonder Woman's personal readers and fans still showed her the respect she deserved even if her teammates apparently didn't at first. She wasn't just fighting to save the common people every day, she was also proactively trying to improve society. How could you not love that?

THEMES AND MESSAGES

Wonder Woman wasn’t just a super-hero to Marston. He used the character as a vehicle to showcase his beliefs, such as that women were better at dealing with conflict than men. During his frequent team-ups with Wonder Woman, Steve’s solution was often to rush into danger with guns blazing, only to wind up captured or injured so that Diana had to rescue him and save the day with strategy. Diana also stressed that rehabilitation and understanding your enemies was far more sensible than simply fighting a criminal and beating them into submission (she was constantly trying to reach out to the Cheetah and even to von Gunther despite her murderous ways).

Marston's belief that bondage was scary and empowering at once came into play a lot. In just about every story, there were a few scenes of Wonder Woman getting tied up and drawn in a provocative position. The fact that she could compel men to obey her by tying them up wasn’t lost on folks either. It was also shown that Wonder Woman lost her strength if her hands were bound. And at times, Diana subjected certain misguided enemies to a “loving submission”, meaning that kindness would result from them voluntarily defferring to the heroine’s will and custody.

 

While among several students, Diana had them tie her up with several ropes and then broke free, showing them that no matter what bonds were placed on a woman (metaphorically or physically) they could be liberated and powerful if they wanted it badly enough.

The idea of submission was clearly expressed in a story where it was explained that there was a very serious reason why Diana and all Amazons wore bracelets. Because Aphrodite had saved them from their subjugation by Hercules, the goddess wanted to make sure the Amazons never forgot what they owed her. So she had made it that any Amazon whose bracelets were removed would go into a berserker fury, willing to destroy everything in their paths and unable to become rational again until the bracelets were returned and thus the symbol of their subjugation to Hercules and their deference to Aphrodite was restored. We saw this happen when Wonder Woman’s bracelets were removed and she went nuts in the street, endangering many as she tore the place apart.

THE MEDIOCRE TIMES

Alas, William Moulton Martson died in 1947. Robert Kanigher picked up writing chores. In the stories that followed, readers felt there was something missing now (for one thing, there were significantly fewer bondage scenes and covers). H.G. Peter, who’s unique drawing style had been with Wonder Woman since the beginning, was fired after issue #97 and died soon afterwards.

Diana seemed to enter a phase of mediocre stories and sales lowered. She was no longer an outspoken feminist but now spent story after story trying to win over Steve Trevor. In retellings of her origin, it was now said that she'd only assumed her "Diana Prince" identity to ensure that'd she would never be far from the man she loved (which makes her a bit of a stalker really).

During Kanigher’s run, Diana was tweaked a bit to become more technological and less magical. Her earrings were now said to provide her with an air-supply whenever she was in outer space. Her tiara could be removed and used as an unbreakable boomerang. Her bracelets were outfitted with a two-way radio so she could contact allies and Paradise Island. The invisible plane went from having propellers to being a sleek supersonic jet that could travel through space and be controlled telepathically through Diana’s tiara. The plane was also given an origin during the Golden Age, as readers found out that Diana had assembled it from three parts she recovered during three trials she’d had to perform.

But the kooky gadgets did nothing. Interest in Wonder Woman kept dropping. And then she, like all of comics, came under attack by Dr. Frederic Wertham.

If you’re an old school comic fan, you know and hate that name. If not, let me quickly explain. Wertham was a child psychologist who caused a huge scare in the U.S. over comic books, portraying them as a base form of literature that inspired juvenile violence, teenage crime, homosexuality and murderous impulses in children, as well as promoting a degradation of morals in general. His book Seduction of the Innocent riled up a lot of parents and teachers, so much so that there were people burning piles of comic books in the streets of some cities and congress was discussing the possibility of banning the publication of comics.

Wonder Woman was targeted by Wertham who said that she was an obvious symbol for the advocation of lesbian activities, as she was always seen hanging out with young college girls and refusing to settle down and marry her army boyfriend.

To protect themselves, the Comics Code Authority was established as a self-censorship by comic publishers. Most super-hero comics were dropped. Those that remained (such as Batman, Superman and Wonder Woman) now had to be written with such strict guidelines that the stories became very childish and mundane, a stigma that’s stayed in the general public’s perception of comics ever since. Stories seemed to revolve around fighting silly looking aliens and ducking marriage proposals from suitors such as Steve Trevor, Mer-Man and Amoeba-Man. Yeah … Amoeba-Man.

Also, Diana left the army and became Romance Editor of the Daily Globe newspaper. At the same time, she consulted Aphrodite's Law about why she couldn't just marry Steve and learned that if she did go through with such an action, she'd have to give up her weapons and her Amazon status.

THE SILVER AGE BEGINS

In the late fifties, super-hero comics slowly began coming back. DC decided to revive a few titles, keeping the character’s name but changing everything else. Years ago, the character Flash had been a college student named Jay Garrick who gained super-speed during a mishap while experimenting in the lab. In the new Flash comic, the character was an adult police scientist named Barry Allen who gained the exact same powers via a freak accident. This wasn’t written as if Jay and Barry lived in the same universe and one had succeeded the other. DC considered this a complete reboot/re-imagining. The original Flash was not mentioned and considered out of continuity (as were pretty much most stories published before 1956 or thereabouts).

So, DC brought in more new heroes with familiar names. There was a new Green Lantern, a new Hawkman, a new Atom. And the old icons who had never actually gone away were treated as if they were young and vital and most of their previous history was simply set aside. Wonder Woman, Superman and Batman were no longer heroes who’d fought during the days of World War II. Since the Justice Society was no longer treated as canon (so few of the newer readers knew about that team anyhow), Diana was never a part of it nor had she ever fought Nazis because she wasn't old enough to have done so. She, Superman and Batman were all young and vital and had their origins and comics tweaked a bit to reflect the new era of the Silver Age of comics.

It was decided that Diana needed a power-boost if she was going to stand toe-to-toe with the new pantheon of heroes. In a retelling of her origin, she was no longer just the best warrior among the Amazons. It was said that the Greek gods who gave her life also gave her certain gifts. "Beautiful as Aphrodite, wise as Athena, strong as Hercules and swifter than Mercury." She was stronger, faster and tougher than any of her Amazon sisters (each of whom was still said to be several times a better physical specimen than normal humans, so now Diana was definitely in the realm of superhuman abilities). Diana could also now glide on air currents. She wasn’t strong enough to give Superman a tussle and she couldn’t outrun the Flash or outfly the Green Lantern, but she was definitely a lot tougher, stronger and faster now than she’d ever been before. The retelling of her origin also removed any mention of Nazis. When Steve Trevor had crashed, it was just a wake-up call to the Amazons that it was time one of their own explored how Man’s World had progressed in their absence and act as a warrior for peace and a protector of the women of Earth. And rather than join the Army as a secretary, she joined Steve in the field of military intelligence, acting as his assistant.

Of course, it would seem unfair that Diana had won the contest to become Wonder Woman based on the fact that she now real super-powers, so it was noted that her abilities only worked when she was off Paradise Island. What’s more, it was now said that if a man ever stepped foot on the island, it would be destroyed.

Other alterations were that Hyppolyte's was now spelled as Hyppolyta (which is another version historically anyway) and her hair color was changed from brunette to blonde. Continuity also now said that Diana’s invisible plane was had originally been her horse Pegasus who was later transformed. Because, you know, a lot of horses get turned into planes.

Where she’d once been the first female to join the JSA as a secretary, the Silver Age Wonder Woman became a founding member of the Silver Age’s first team of heroes: the Justice League of America. Along with Flash, Green Lantern, Aquaman and the Martian Manhunter, she was considered an equal and fought powerful enemies such as Despero, Kanjar Ro, Starro the Conqueror and many others who threatened the Earth. She may have gotten captured more often than other members of the JLA at first, but at least she wasn't a secretary. And of DC’s "big three", she was the only one who was a fully active member of the team for several years (Batman and Superman were said to basically be part-time members at first, as their own agendas kept them quite busy).

But despite the new powers, slightly more mythic origin and a cool posse of fellow costumed heroes, Diana just wasn’t striking the same chord she had when she first came out. Depending on the writer, she was either a very able and confident woman who used her cover identity only as a respite from being a super-hero or she was an occasionally self-pitying woman constantly distracted by her love for Steve Trevor and the fact that she couldn’t marry him as a “real woman” could because of her super-hero career.

There was nothing striking about Diana's foes, such as the Duke of Deception, who'd been around since the Golden Age but would finally fall into obscurity after the 70s. Her 1950s villains the Angle Man had originally been a schemer with a funny name, nothing more. In the 70s, he gained tech that let him fold himself between the dimensional planes of space, but this still didn't make him seem as cool as criminals that some other heroes had to fight. And some enemies were just silly, such as the Crimson Centipede or the sinister alien Glop (a giant living glop of goo) or Egg Fu, a communist Chinese egg-creature who wanted to devestate the Earth.

Egg Fu, incidentally, had two successors. There was Egg Fu the Fifth and later Doctor Yes. Following DC's major rehauling of their universe and continuity in 1986, Egg Fu was reintroduced as a super-computer created by the alien tyrant Darkseid the Destroyer. This story was dropped from canon and Egg Fu was later introduced in the comic series 52. He was said to be Chang Tzu, a creature known by many names (of whigh "Egg Fu" is only one). For whatever reason, people just won't let this character be forgotten.

Superman had gotten some success with stories featuring adventures “when he was a boy.” Inspired by these tales of Superboy, Robert Kanigher tried to invent the “untold career” of Diana’s adventures when she was a teenager on Paradise Island and hanging out with such folks as Mer-Boy and Bird-Boy, both of whom wanted to date her. A bunch of these were considered “impossible tales” (meaning out of continuity) since the young Diana seemed to have knowledge that she would one day become Wonder Woman. Later, there were also stories of her as a “Wonder Tot.” Finally, one impossible tale featured Wonder Woman teaming up with her Wonder Girl self and her Wonder Tot self, and being aided further by Queen Hyppolyta, who was referred to as the Wonder Queen.

 

These stories were cute fluff pieces, nothing more. But at one point, a typo left Wonder Girl being referred to as “Donna” rather than “Diana.” This simple error wound up having a long-lasting side-effect. When DC was creating the new team called the Teen Titans, the original roster was Kid Flash, Robin and Aqualad. DC decided they needed another member, perhaps female, to round the team out. Reading the story that referred to Wonder Girl as "Donna", the writer believed she was a sidekick to Wonder Woman. No one told him it was a typo and that “Wonder Girl” wasn't a seperate character from Diana. Oops! But the damage was done. Donna became real when she was introduced as Wonder Girl in the pages of Teen Titans.

In time, Wonder Girl was finally given an origin story when the other Titans learned to their shock that she wasn't an actual Amazon like her “sister” Wonder Woman. She was Donna Troy, an orphan Diana had saved from a fire and brought back to be raised on Paradise Island. The healing beam of the Purple Ray had given her the abilities of any other Amazon, meaning she was tougher, faster and more agile than a girl her height and weight should’ve been (eventually her own origin would be revised repeatedly, but you can read her personal profile for the info on that).

Eventually, DC introduced the concept that their stories took place not in a single universe but in a multiverse. Rather than say that all the Golden Age stories were outside continuity, the policy was now that those adventures had indeed happened but on a parallel world called Earth-2. This meant there did still exist a version of Diana who fought Nazis and worked with the JSA and had been around during the 1940's. It was also shown that since we'd last seen her, Earth-2 Diana was had married her Steve Trevor and eventually they had a daughter, Hypollyta Trevor. Meanwhile, Earth-1 was still the home of our current modern-day Wonder Woman, who never fought Nazis, had a protege named Wonder Girl, and worked with the JLA. Earth-2 Diana only showed up on rare occasion when the writers felt it would be fun to do a story about an older, settled down version of their female hero or when a crisis occurred that required the aid of heroes from both Earths to combine their forces.

Wonder Woman continued on her way. But the battles and villains still weren't all that impressive and readers still weren't really flocking to the title.

And that's when Wonder Woman decided to quit the army, ditch her powers and costume for a closet full of white outfits, and pick up some martial arts skills.

But before we talk about that, I suggest we side-step and discuss Wonder Woman in Media.

To continue the history of Wonder Woman within the comics, you may go to Part 2 which covers the "I-Ching Era" all the way up to The Crisis.Part 3 covers Diana Post-Crisis. Part 4 covers Infinite Crisis and beyond.