Overview
Wonder Woman entered the early 1980s as one of DC Comics’ most recognizable and enduring heroes. Created by William Moulton Marston and Harry G. Peter in 1941, Diana of Themyscira remained a powerful symbol of strength, justice, compassion, and equality. During this period, she continued to balance her mythological origins with her role as a modern superhero, wielding the Lasso of Truth, indestructible bracelets, and exceptional Amazon abilities.
The early ’80s also marked an important period for Wonder Woman in popular culture. The success of the television series starring Lynda Carter had cemented her image with a broader audience, while the character remained a major presence in DC's comic-book line. Her classic red, blue, and gold costume and distinctive Amazon weaponry made Wonder Woman particularly recognizable to a generation of fans—and helped establish her as one of DC’s core Super Powers characters.
About Wonder Woman
Some time after the Amazons, under Aphrodite's direction (see Olympian Gods), settled on Paradise Island (see Paradise Island, the goddess Athena instructed Queen Hippolyta (see Hippolyta) in the art of molding a human form out of clay. The queen made two life-sized figures of a little girl, and her wish that both children would be given life was granted by Aphrodite.
As Aphrodite returned to Mount Olympus to summon other gods to bestow gifts on the Amazon babies, Mars (see Mars) stole one of the infants from her cradle. Naming her Nubia (see Nubia), Mars planned to raise her as a warrior to eventually destroy the Amazons. Meanwhile, Aphrodite returned with Athena, Mercury, and Hercules to imbue the remaining child, named Diana, with their respective attributes of beauty, wisdom, speed, and strength.
Years after she had reached womanhood, Diana encountered the first man she had ever seen, Captain Steve Trevor of the United States Military Intelligence. While on a secret government mission, Trevor's plane was sabotaged and crashed in the ocean near the shores of Paradise Island. Seeing Trevor's body drifting on a piece of wreckage, Diana rescued him and used the Purple Healing Ray she had developed to restore the clinically dead Trevor back to life.
Aphrodite told Hippolyta that the arrival of Trevor was sign of impending danger from his home country, and instructed her to send the strongest Amazon maiden to return Trevor to the United States, and remain there to fight evil. Hippolyta declared a tournament to be held to select this Amazon champion, and forbade Diana to enter, knowing that the princess could easily win the competition. However, having fallen in love with Trevor, Diana entered the tournament in disguise. Diana won the tournament, and Hippolyta was forced to allow her to leave Paradise Island. She returned Trevor to America, armed with a special uniform, magic lasso, and invisible robot plane that she used in her fight for justice in "Man's World" as Wonder Woman. Princess Diana quickly adopted the civilian identity of Diana Prince, and worked as a nurse at the hospital that treated Trevor, and later became Trevor's colleague in military intelligence. For several years Trevor had a running romance with Wonder Woman, unaware that she and Diana Prince were the same person.
Years later, the Amazons were required to relocate to another dimension for a time in order to renew their taxed powers. Wonder Woman chose to remain in Man's World to assist Steve Trevor, and thus surrendered both her Amazonian powers and Wonder Woman identity. Now Diana Prince, she became an independent intelligence agent under the direction of a Chinese mentor known as I-Ching, who trained her in various forms of martial arts and weapons skills. Unfortunately, her first mission against the criminal organization headed by Doctor Cyber (see Doctor Cyber) resulted in Steve Trevor's death.
The eventual return of the Amazons and the death of I-Ching from a rooftop sniper bullet led to Diana becoming the super-powered Wonder Woman once more. Steve Trevor had also returned into Wonder Woman's life twice through the will of Aphrodite. First, she reanimated Trevor's lifeless body by melding Trevor's spirit with the life force of her son, Eros. Declared officially dead, the resurrected Trevor adopted a new identity of Steve Howard, who was later killed by the demonic Dark Commander. Later, Aphrodite implanted Trevor's essence into the body of a Steve Trevor from a parallel universe (whose experimental aircraft accidentally transported him to Earth One and crashed near Paradise Island), and used the Mists of Nepenthe to erase the memory of the earlier Trevor's death from everyone on Earth (save Hippolyta) so the new Steve Trevor can easily resume the previous Trevor's life in military intelligence alongside Diana Prince.
Wonder Woman also resumed her platonic romance with Trevor. She kept her civilian identity a secret until Mercury revealed it during the so-called crisis on infinite earths, as he enlisted Diana's aid against the Anti- Monitor (see Monitor Il), who had briefly allied himself with Hades and Mars in their attempt to destroy the Amazons and overthrow the gods of Mount Olympus. Trevor was instrumental in winning the final battle, and afterward Diana and Trevor were married on Olympus by Zeus himself. Their marriage was short-lived, as the multiverse was reformed into a single universe with a revised timeline in which this Steve Trevor no longer existed. In the Anti-Monitor's final attack against the heroes of Earth, Wonder Woman was hurled back in time where she regressed back into the clay form from which she had been created.
Powers & Weapons
Wonder Woman had superhuman strength and speed. While not invulnerable, with her Amazonium bracelets she could repel bullets and other small projectile weapons. Her unbreakable magic lasso was capable of extending to great lengths as needed, and could force anyone caught by it to speak only the truth, as well as do her will. She could also glide on air currents for limited periods of time, which simulate flight. For actual flight she relied on her invisible robot plane, which could fly vast distances without refueling, remain hovering for long periods, and be operated by Wonder Woman remotely via telepathic commands. Wonder Woman's Amazon education granted her profound scientific knowledge and the ability to speak every language known to man and beyond (it had been documented than she was even fluent in Caveman and Martian). Under Aphrodite's law, Wonder Woman would lose her Amazon strength if her bracelets were chained together by a man for as long as they remained chained. However, her training in both Amazon battle techniques and martial arts under I-Ching had made her a master fighter with or without her powers.
Transcribed verbatim from Who's Who: The Definitive Directory of the DC Universe #25, published in March 1987 by DC Comics. The entry was written by Len Wein, Marv Wolfman, and E. Nelson Bridwell, with all rights and text belonging to DC Comics.
