What's an angel? I think I'd rather be a woman. 
- — Wonder Woman src
Diana, Princess of the Amazons was born on the mystical Paradise Island several hundred years before she became known to the outside as Wonder Woman.
History
Origin
Isolated from the cruelty and corruption of men and their ways, the Amazons lived in peace and advancement openly working with and obeying the will of the Olympian god Aphrodite. Longing for a child of her own, Hippolyta the Queen of the Amazons, begged for the gods to grant her request and turn her perfect clay statue into a real girl. Sympathetic to Hippolyta's request, Aphrodite animated the statue with true life and the girl immediately leaped off the pedestal and into her mother's arms.
Pleased with the child, Hippolyta began to raise "her" daughter as an Amazon with all the station and privilege of her mother's royalty. As a child she was incredibly competitive and quickly outstripped her age-mates in tests of speed and strength. Diana aged slowly and stopped aging altogether upon reaching her adulthood as with all of the Amazons. Diana excelled, surpassing most of her Amazon sisters in her skills and intelligence.
Diana continued to perform as a contented Amazon until the fated day when Captain Steve Trevor crash landed on Paradise Island. Never having seen a true man before Diana was immediately attracted to the handsome man despite his extensive injuries. Violating the Island rules about taking in outsiders, Diana took the unconscious Trevor back to the Amazons in an attempt to save his life.[3] Pleading with her mother to save the man, Hippolyta relented and used the life healing Purple Ray on Trevor saving his life.[4]
Wonder Woman in her original costume
Learning that the outside world was engaged in full world wide war, Diana wanted to participate and help stop the Second World War, but her ulterior motive was to leave Paradise Island with Steve Trevor. Hippolyta refused stating that she and the others should not get involved in the ways of the outsiders. But when the goddess Aphrodite declared that it was time for an Amazon to travel to "Man's World" and fight the evil of the Nazis, a tournament was held to determine who would be the Amazon champion. Although forbidden by Hippolyta to participate in the tournament, Princess Diana did so nevertheless, concealing her identity with a mask. Upon winning Diana revealed her identity to her heartbroken mother who feared that she would never see her daughter again. After winning the tournament and revealing her true identity, Queen Hippolyta relented and allowed her daughter to wear the costume of Wonder Woman and travel to the outside world.[3] Diana returned Steve Trevor to the United States and adopted the identity of an Army nurse named Diana Prince so she could be close to Trevor as he recovered from his injuries.[5] Now known as glasses wearing Diana Prince, Princess Diana began to operate as Wonder Woman publicly and forged papers that allowed her to become the recently promoted Major Trevor's and Col. Phillip Darnell's confidential assistant.[6]
World War II
Di stayed in this position fighting Axis agents both as Wonder Woman and Diana Prince, though tried to keep her fighting as Diana limited to paperwork and spycraft. She worked in both guises alongside Steve Trevor and the newly formed Holliday Girls, a pseudo sorority that did espionage for military intelligence and went on other adventures.
During the war she joined the Justice Society of America (on Earth-Two) as their first female member though she was usually relegated to secretarial duties for the Justice Society despite her beyond superhuman strength and abilities. Diana rejoined the team when it reformed as the All Star Squadron and expanded. In June, 1942, she briefly fought with Superman when she discovered that the United States was planning to create the atomic bomb and attempted to eliminate all nuclear weapons.[7]
Diana continued to perform as an open crime fighter after World War Two and resisted being recalled home to Paradise Island after the war,[8] preferring to give up her immortality than leave her life of independence and personal identity.
Post-War
Wonder Woman in her protective suit.
As the war drew to a close Diana became aware of an extraterrestrial threat, the Saturnians were abducting and enslaving humans in preparation for a large scale invasion. She fought agents of the Saturnian Emperor on many occasions, even making her way into space to combat them. She eventually forced him to sign a treaty with the United States that brought a close to the enslavement of humans by the Empire, and a return of those humans who had been abducted to Saturn's moons. Even after his defeat he kept sending Eviless against the Amazon, with her posing as a rogue agent while the Emperor tried to get earth based forces to break their treaty and give him an excuse to invade. The Saturnian Ambassador to the U.S., Count Dendum, did not approve of his Emperor's tactics and swore to Wonder Woman that he would aid her even at the expense of his position.[9][10][11][12]
Her final major confrontation with the Empire's forces came when Eviless begged for mercy upon defeat, claiming to want a chance to reform and to avoid enslavement as punishment for herself and the women under her command as would occur if returned to her Emperor in defeat. Wonder Woman agreed to imprison the Saturnian women in Reformation Island, but this was a ruse. Eviless and her ladies started a prison revolt and she was able to recruit seven like-minded villains to form Villainy, Inc., including her former ally Hypnota. The new alliance was able to capture the Queen and take over Paradise Island, but their victory was short lived and they were defeated by Wonder Woman.[13]
In 1947 Diana fought the scientist queen Atomia, who sought to steal and use all the uranium on earth. The strange queen ended up locked into a mind controlling Venus Girdle by Aphrotdite herself, as she was deemed nonredeemable for her cruel experiments in turning humans into her cybernetic mind controlled slaves.[14]
1950s
Diana Prince, Private Detective.
In 1950 Diana opened up a Private Detective office as part of a government sting operation. Once the criminals her apparent resignation from military intelligence were meant to trap were caught she kept the office and continued doing PI work when she had the time in her busy schedule, helping find missing persons and pets.[2]
Through the 1950s, Diana was able to continue operating as a super-powered crime fighter as she had admitted to having no secret identity and stated herself to be a legendary Amazon, unlike many of the other masked heroes who were forced to either reveal their secret private identity or stop operating by the Federal government's Committee on Un-American Activities. This of course was not truly accurate on Diana's part as she continued to use her alias of Diana Prince.
It was during those years that Diana began to explore fully her romantic interests in her long-time crime fighting partner, Col. Steve Trevor. After a period of courtship, Diana revealed her alias of Diana Prince to Trevor. Initially taken back by the revelation, Trevor and Diana married. Diana later retired from active duty of the US Navy and decide to become a housewife where she raised their daughter, Hippolyta "Lyta" Trevor named after Diana's mother.[15]
Later Life
Diana rejoined the reformed Justice Society of America in the 1960s, though she mostly preferred to spend her time raising her daughter as a stay at home mother. During this time, Diana met her younger Earth-One counterpart. The two became good friends, occasionally inviting the younger Amazon to Earth-Two to enjoy a home cooked meal prepared by retired General Trevor.
Crisis on Infinite Earths
Diana was an elder stateswoman among the superhero community until the "Crisis on Infinite Earths" came to Earth-Two and erased all of its existence from reality. Diana fought well and was protected from erasure at the end of the Crisis by ascending to Mount Olympus along with her husband as both were erased and forgotten by the history of a new Primary Earth other than by their daughter who was reformatted into the new universe to be the daughter of Helena Kosmatos (Fury).
Infinite Crisis
Helping the latest Wonder Woman regain herself as a true successor to the title, Princess Diana Trevor and her husband supposedly left the current reality for all time. Whether this happens to be truth or not remains to be seen as she has appeared on several occasions, mostly as an apparition.[16]
Powers and Abilities
Powers
- Amazonian Physiology
- Enhanced Vision: Diana can see invisible beings[17].
- Immortality (Formerly): By drinking from the Fountain of Eternal Youth in Paradise Island she could be eternally young. However, she relinquished the gift when she left Paradise Island as Wonder Woman.[4]
- Gravity Manipulation: Diana can control the effects of gravity on her own body.[17]
- Telepathy: Di can see those using telepathy to be unnoticed or functionally invisible and overhear secret telepathic communications.[18][9][12]
- Astral Projection: Diana is able to project an image of herself outside her body to interact with beings galaxies away from her physical location. She is also able to find ways to interact with the physical world in a limited sense when her mental self is forced out of her body through nefarious means.[19][20]
Abilities
- Acrobatics: She can perform superhuman acrobatic feats, like stunting on a ball in the wing of an airplane at the speed of sound [21]
- Aviation[4]
- Eidetic Memory: Amazons are trained to have perfect memories.[6]
- Escapology[22]
- Gadgetry[4]
- Hand-to-Hand Combat (Advanced)[4]
- Genius Level Intellect: Wonder Woman has been called one of the world's two cleverest women, the other being her partner Paula von Gunther.[24]
- Medicine: Diana is a qualified nurse.[4]
- Medical Science: Diana is capable of creating advanced medical equipment as well as preforming optic surgery in near pitch black darkness.[4][24]
- Multilingualism: Being raised among the Amazons, Diana's native language is Ancient Greek. She knows many other languages, including Macedonian.[25].
- Coding: She can decipher written codes just by reading them.[26]
- Political Science[27]
- Throwing: Wonder Woman can hit a flying airplane with a thrown ambulance at 300 yards.[28]
- Tracking[22]
- Weaponry[4]
- Ventriloquism[22][31]
- Equestrianism: Every Amazon is trained in kanga riding.[4]
Weaknesses
- Power Loss: Wonder Woman loses all powers if her Bracelets of Submission are welded together by a man, but regains them once she is freed (no effect if bound by a woman).
- Amazon Rage: If Wonder Woman is separated from her bracelets, she must enter into an uncontrollable frenzy.[32]
Paraphernalia
Equipment
- Bracelets of Submission
- Lasso of Truth
- Magic Sphere
- Mental Radio (simulates Telepathy)
- Magnetic Hearing Earrings: Using these, Wonder Woman is able to communicate with the ruler of the planet Venus.[33] Also called Amazon Earrings, they provide those who use them with enough oxygen to exist anywhere in the universe.[34]
- Wonder Woman's Sandals: Originally a doll-sized pair of sandals, they would grow according to Diana's deeds. They were the last object to be won by the princess for her to be called Wonder Woman.[35]
- Wonder Woman's Tiara
- Multilingualism: Thanks to this tiara Diana was able to understand and talk any language of the past, present and future (including alien languages) and would be used as another instrument to achieve peace through dialogue.[34]
Transportation
Weapons
Notes
- The Earth-Two Wonder Woman survived the Crisis on Infinite Earths, and went to live among the Pre-Crisis Gods of Mount Olympus along with husband, General Steve Trevor. Since the Crisis, she has been seen mostly as a non-corporeal being.
- Although Wonder Woman maintained a secret identity throughout most of her career, she later publicly revealed her identity as "Diana Prince" after marrying Steve Trevor.[15]
- In the Pre-Crisis continuity, Wonder Woman and Steve Trevor gave birth to a daughter named Hippolyta Trevor, and raised her with both humans, Amazons. Hippolyta (Lyta for short) became a member of the Earth-Two super-hero team, Infinity, Inc. In the Post-Crisis continuity, the war-time Wonder Woman and Steve Trevor were rendered apocryphal and Lyta's parentage was retconned to include Helena Kosmatos, the Golden Age Fury as her biological mother and Joan Dale, the superheroine known as Miss America, as her foster mother.
- The series of "Golden Age Wonder Woman" stories that ran from Wonder Woman #159 through issue 165 (with a final story in issue 168) are hard to place in continuity. While done in a style consistent with Earth-Two, they don't fit into Earth-Two continuity well. Crisis on Infinite Earths: The Compendium (2005) places these stories on Earth-Forty (with the Earth-Two Wonder Woman having similar adventures), whilst Essential Wonder Woman Encyclopedia (2010) places them on Earth-One (early in the Earth-One Wonder Woman's career). This means that these stories with slight variations occurred on all three Earths.
Trivia
- Marston created Wonder woman after his wife told him to create a strong female character, as heroes like Batman and Superman were already really popular.
- Like most superheroes at her time, Wonder Woman was made to increase American morale during World War 2, initially fighting axis powers
- Wonder Woman's original Golden Age look was modeled after the pin-up girls on WW2 propaganda pictures at the time, but was modified in more later appearances to look like Lynda Carter, who played her in a TV show. More recent renditions depict her as more Mediterranean/Greek looking.
Recommended Reading
- All-Star Comics
- All-Star Comics #8 (First appearance)
- All-Star Squadron
- Sensation Comics
- Wonder Woman (Volume 1)
- Who's Who: The Definitive Directory of the DC Universe XXVI (Wonder Woman biography page)
Related
- 490 Appearances of Diana of Paradise Island (Earth-Two)
- 132 Images featuring Diana of Paradise Island (Earth-Two)
- 31 Quotations by or about Diana of Paradise Island (Earth-Two)
- Character Gallery: Diana of Paradise Island (Earth-Two)
Footnotes
- ↑ Wonder Woman #51
- ↑ 2.0 2.1 2.2 2.3 Wonder Woman #41
- ↑ 3.0 3.1 All-Star Comics #8
- ↑ 4.0 4.1 4.2 4.3 4.4 4.5 4.6 4.7 4.8 Wonder Woman #1
- ↑ Sensation Comics #1
- ↑ 6.0 6.1 Sensation Comics #3
- ↑ All-New Collectors' Edition #C-54
- ↑ Wonder Woman #242
- ↑ 9.0 9.1 Wonder Woman #10
- ↑ Wonder Woman #11
- ↑ Comic Cavalcade #22
- ↑ 12.0 12.1 Wonder Woman #22
- ↑ Wonder Woman #28
- ↑ Wonder Woman #21
- ↑ 15.0 15.1 Wonder Woman #300
- ↑ Infinite Crisis #5
- ↑ 17.0 17.1 Wonder Woman #20
- ↑ Sensation Comics #4
- ↑ Sensation Comics #11
- ↑ Wonder Woman #2
- ↑ Wonder Woman #35
- ↑ 22.0 22.1 22.2 Wonder Woman #6
- ↑ Comic Cavalcade #12
- ↑ 24.0 24.1 Wonder Woman #4
- ↑ All-Star Comics #35
- ↑ Wonder Woman #8
- ↑ Wonder Woman #7
- ↑ Sensation Comics #20
- ↑ Wonder Woman #3
- ↑ Wonder Woman #9
- ↑ Sensation Comics #17
- ↑ Comic Cavalcade #18
- ↑ Wonder Woman #12
- ↑ 34.0 34.1 Wonder Woman #66
- ↑ Wonder Woman #72
  This character is or was a member of the All-Star Squadron in any of its various incarnations. This template will categorize articles that include it into the "All-Star Squadron members" category. |
 Justice Society of America member |