Wonder Woman
Wonder Woman Movie Trailer
Wonder Woman Movie Trailer, Cast: Adrianne Palicki as Wonder Woman, Josh Lucas as Steve Trevor, Angelina Jolie as Hippolyta and Dominic West as Ares.
Wonder Woman. Art by Terry Dodson.
Wonder Woman is a fictional DC Comics superheroine created by American psychologist and writer William Moulton Marston. She first appeared in All Star Comics #8 (December–January 1941). The Wonder Woman title has been published by DC Comics almost continuously except for a brief hiatus in 1986. Her depiction as a heroine fighting for justice, love, peace, and sexual equality has also led to Wonder Woman being widely considered a feminist icon. Wonder Woman is a warrior princess of the Amazons (based on the Amazons of Greek mythology) and is known in her homeland as Diana of Themyscira. She is gifted with a wide range of superhuman powers and superior combat and battle skills. She also possesses an arsenal of weapons, including the Lasso of Truth, a pair of indestructible bracelets, a tiara which serves as a projectile, and, in some stories, an invisible airplane.
Created during World War II, the character was initially depicted fighting the Axis military forces, as well as an assortment of supervillains. Since then, Wonder Woman has gained a formidable cast of enemies bent on eliminating the Amazon, including classic villains such as Cheetah, Ares and Circe and newer ones like Genocide and The Circle, as well as many gods and monsters from Greek mythology. Wonder Woman has also regularly appeared in comic books featuring the superhero teams Justice Society (from 1941) and Justice League (from 1960).
In addition to the comics, the character has appeared in other media; most notably, the 1975–1979 Wonder Woman TV series starring Lynda Carter, as well as animated series such as the Super Friends and Justice League. Although a number of attempts have been made to adapt the character to live-action film, none have yet emerged. An animated film was released in 2009, with Keri Russell voicing the title role. Attempts to return Wonder Woman to television have also faced problems, with a failed NBC Wonder Woman pilot in 2011 counting among more recent attempts. In September 2012, it was revealed that The CW, home of the long-running Superman TV series Smallville, was developing a potential Wonder Woman origin TV series titledAmazon. Wonder Woman has also appeared in the form of a variety of toys, merchandise and pin-ups.
Publication history of Wonder Woman
Creation
In an October 25, 1940 interview with the Family Circle magazine, William Moulton Marston discussed the unfulfilled potential of the medium. This article caught the attention of comics publisher Max Gaines, who hired Marston as an educational consultant for National Periodicals and All-American Publications, two of the companies that would merge to form DC Comics. At that time, Marston decided to develop a new superhero. Family Circle published a follow-up article two years later from issue of the Boston University alumni magazine, it was Marston’s wife Elizabeth‘s idea to create a female superheroine:
“William Moulton Marston, a psychologist already famous for inventing the polygraph (forerunner to the magic lasso), struck upon an idea for a new kind of superhero, one who would triumph not with fists or firepower, but with love. “Fine,” said Elizabeth. “But make her a woman.”
Marston introduced the idea to Gaines, co-founder of All-American Publications. Given the go-ahead, Marston developed Wonder Woman with Elizabeth, whom Marston believed to be a model of that era’s unconventional, liberated woman. Marston was also inspired by Olive Byrne, who lived with the couple in a polygamous/polyamorous relationship. Both women served as exemplars for the character and greatly influenced the character’s creation. Wonder Woman debuted in All Star Comics #8 (December 1941), scripted by Marston and with art by Harry G. Peter. Wonder Woman was initially named “Suprema” in Marston’s first script, but this name was dropped.
Sensation Comics #1 (January 1942) was Wonder Woman’s first cover appearance.
Marston was the creator of a systolic-blood-pressure-measuring apparatus, which was crucial to the development of the polygraph (lie detector). Marston’s experience with polygraphs convinced him that women were more honest and reliable than men and could work more efficiently.
“Wonder Woman is psychological propaganda for the new type of woman who should, I believe, rule the world”, Marston wrote.
In a 1943 issue of The American Scholar, Marston wrote:
“Not even girls want to be girls so long as our feminine archetype lacks force, strength, and power. Not wanting to be girls, they don’t want to be tender, submissive, peace-loving as good women are. Women’s strong qualities have become despised because of their weakness. The obvious remedy is to create a feminine character with all the strength of Superman plus all the allure of a good and beautiful woman.”
Initially, Wonder Woman was an Amazon champion who wins the right to return Steve Trevor – a United States intelligence officer whose plane had crashed on the Amazons’ isolated island homeland – to “Man’s World” and to fight crime and the evil of the Nazis.
During this period, Wonder Woman joined the Justice Society of America as the team’s secretary.
Silver and Bronze Age
During the Silver Age, under writer Robert Kanigher, Wonder Woman’s origin was revamped, along with other characters’. The new origin story increased the character’s Hellenic and mythological roots: receiving the blessing of each deity in her crib, Diana is destined to become “beautiful as Aphrodite, wise as Athena, as strong as Hercules, and as swift as Hermes.”
At the end of the 1960’s, under the guidance of Mike Sekowsky, Wonder Woman surrendered her powers in order to remain in Man’s World rather than accompany her fellow Amazons to another dimension. Wonder Woman begins using the alias Diana Prince and opens a mod boutique. She acquires a Chinese mentor named I Ching, who teaches Diana martial arts and weapons skills. Using her fighting skill instead of her powers, Diana engaged in adventures that encompassed a variety of genres, from espionage to mythology.
In the early 1970’s the character returned to her superhero roots in Justice League of America and to the World War II era in her own title.
Modern Age
Following the 1985 Crisis on Infinite Earths series, George Pérez, Len Wein and Greg Potter relaunched the character, writing Wonder Woman as an emissary and ambassador from Themyscira to Patriarch’s World, charged with the mission of bringing peace to the outside world. Pérez incorporated a variety of deities and concepts from Greek mythology in Wonder Woman’s stories and origin. His relaunch of the character acted as the foundation for the more modern Wonder Woman stories as he expanded upon the widely-accepted origin of Diana being birthed out of clay. The relaunch was a critical and commercial success.
In August 2010 (issue #600), J. Michael Straczynski took over the series’ writing duties and introduced Wonder Woman to an alternate timeline created by the Gods in which Paradise Island had been destroyed and the Amazons scattered around the world. In this timeline, Diana is an orphan raised in New York who is learning to cope with her powers. The entire world has forgotten Wonder Woman’s existence and the main story of this run was of Diana trying to restore reality even though she does not properly remember it herself. A trio of Death Goddesses called the Morrigan acted as the main enemy of Wonder Woman. In this run, Wonder Woman wore a new costume designed by Jim Lee. Straczynski determined the plot and continued writing duties till Wonder Woman #605; writer Phil Hester then continued his run, which ultimately concluded in Wonder Woman #614.
In 2011, DC Comics relaunched its entire line of publications to attract a new generation of readers. Brian Azzarello and Cliff Chiangwere assigned on writing and art duties respectively and revamped the character’s history considerably. In this new continuity, Wonder Woman wears a costume similar to her original costume, but has a completely new origin. No longer a clay figure brought to life by the magic of the gods, she is, instead, a demigoddess and the natural-born daughter of Hippolyta and Zeus. Azzarello and Chiang’s revamp of the character was critically acclaimed.
Fictional character biography – Golden Age
In her debut in All Star Comics #8, Diana was a member of a tribe of female women named the Amazons, native to Paradise Island – a secluded island set in the middle of a vast ocean. Captain Steve Trevor‘s plane crashes on the island and he is found alive but unconscious by Diana and a fellow Amazon. Diana has him nursed back to health and falls in love with him. A competition is held amongst all the Amazons by Diana’s mother, the Queen of the Amazons Hippolyte, in order to determine who is the most worthy of all the women; Hippolyte charges the winner with the responsibility of delivering Captain Steve Trevor back to man’s world and to fight for justice. Hippolyte forbids Diana from entering the competition, but she takes part nonetheless, wearing a mask to conceal her identity. She wins the competition and reveals herself, surprising Hippolyte, who ultimately gives in to Diana’s wish to go to Man’s World. She then safely returns Steve Trevor back to his home and is awarded a special dress made by her mother for her new role as Wonder Woman.
Coming to America for the first time, Wonder Woman comes upon a weeping army nurse named Diana Prince. Inquiring about her state, she finds that the nurse wanted to leave for South America with her fiancé but was unable to due to shortage of money. As both of them looked identical and Wonder Woman needed a job and a valid identity to look after Steve (who was admitted in the same army hospital), she gives her the money she had earned earlier to help her go to her fiancé in exchange for her credentials. The nurse reveals her name as Diana Prince, and thus, Wonder Woman’s secret identity was created, and she began working as a nurse in the army.
Wonder Woman then took part in a variety of adventures, mostly side by side with Trevor. Her most common foes during this period would be Nazi forces, and sometimes villains like Baroness Paula Von Gunther, The Cheetah, Doctor Psycho and Duke of Deception.
Silver Age
In the Silver Age, Wonder Woman’s history received several changes. Her earlier origin, which had significant ties to World War II, was changed and her powers were shown to be the product of the gods’ blessings – “beautiful as Aphrodite, wise as Athena, stronger than Hercules, and swifter than Mercury.” The concepts of Wonder Girl and Wonder Tot were also introduced during this period.
Wonder Woman Vol 1 Issue #179 (Nov. 1968) showed Wonder Woman giving up her powers and returning her costume and title to her mother in order to continue staying in Man’s World. The reason behind this was that all the Amazons were shifting to another dimension, but Diana was unable to accompany them as she needed to stay back to help a wrongly-convicted Steve. Thus, she no longer held the title of Wonder Woman and after meeting and training under a blind martial arts mentor I-Ching, Diana resumed fighting crime as the powerless Diana Prince. She also ran a mod-boutique as a business and dressed in a series of jumpsuits while fighting crime. During this period, Samuel R. Delany took over scripting duties with issue #202. Delany was initially supposed to write a six-issue story arc, which would culminate in a battle over an abortion clinic, but Delany was removed reportedly due to criticism from Gloria Steinem, who, not knowing the content of the issues Delany was writing, was merely upset that Wonder Woman was no longer wearing her traditional costume.
Bronze Age
In Wonder Woman Vol 1 #204, Diana’s powers and costume were returned to her and she is once again reinstated as Wonder Woman. I-Ching is killed by a mad sniper in the same issue. Later, Diana also meets her “sister” Nubia, who is Hippolyta’s daughter fashioned out of dark clay (hence Nubia’s dark complexion). Nubia was the Wonder Woman of “The Floating Island”, and she challenges Diana to a duel which ends in a draw. Returning to her home, Nubia would have further adventures involving Diana.
The last issue of Volume 1 showed Diana and Steve Trevor announce their love for each other and their subsequent marriage.
Modern Age
Cover to Wonder Woman Vol 2 #1 (Feb. 1987), showing the character’s look after the Crisis on Infinite Earths reboot. Art by George Pérez.
The events of Crisis on Infinite Earths greatly changed and altered the history of the DC Universe. Wonder Woman’s history and origin were considerably revamped by the event. Wonder Woman was now an emissary and ambassador from Themyscira (the new name for Paradise Island) to Patriarch’s World, charged with the mission of bringing peace to the outside world. Various deities and concepts from Greek mythology were blended and incorporated into Wonder Woman’s stories and origin. Diana was formed out of clay of the shores of Themyscira by Hippolyta, who wished for a child; the clay figure was then brought to life by the Greek deities. The Gods then blessed and granted her unique powers and abilities – beauty from Aphrodite, strength from Demeter, wisdom from Athena, speed and flight from Hermes, Eyes of the Hunter and unity with beasts from Artemis and sisterhood with fire and the ability to discern the truth from Hestia. Due to the reboot, her previous history and her marriage to Steve Trevor were erased. Trevor was introduced as a man much older than Diana who would later on marry Etta Candy.
War of the Gods (comics)
Starting in Wonder Woman Vol 2 #51, The Amazons, who had revealed their presence to the world in Wonder Woman Vol 2 #50, are blamed for a series of murders and for the theft of various artifacts. The Amazons are then taken into custody, Queen Hippolyta is nowhere to be found and Steve Trevor is forced by General Yedziniak to attack Themyscira. These events lead to the “War of the Gods” occurring. The culprit of the murders, thefts and the framing of the Amazons is revealed to be the witch Circe, who “kills” Diana by reverting her form back into the clay she was born from. Later, Wonder Woman is brought back to life and together with Donna Troy, battles Circe and ultimately defeats her. Circe would later return by unknown means.
When Hippolyta and the other Amazons were trapped in a demonic dimension, she started receiving visions about the death of Wonder Woman. Fearing her daughter’s death, Hippolyta created a false claim that Diana was not worthy of continuing her role as Wonder Woman, and arranged for a contest to determine who would be the new Wonder Woman, thus protecting Diana from her supposed fate. The participants of the final round were Diana and Artemis, and with the help of some mystic manipulation by Hippolyta, Artemis won the contest. Thus, Diana was forced to hand over her title and costume to Artemis, who became the new Wonder Woman and Diana started fighting crime in an alternate costume. Artemis later died in battle with the White Magician – thus, Hippolyta vision of a dying Wonder Woman did come true, albeit not of Diana as Wonder Woman. Diana once again became Wonder Woman, a request made by Artemis in her last seconds. Artemis would later return as Requiem. Prior to Artemis’ death, Hippolyta would admit to her daughter about her own part in Artemis’ death, which strained their relationship as Diana was unable to forgive her mother for sending another Amazon to her death knowingly for the sake of saving her own daughter.
The demon Neron engaged Diana in battle and managed to fatally kill her. The Olympian Gods granted Diana divinity and the role of the Goddess of Truth who started to reside in Olympus; her mother Hippolyta then assumed the role of Wonder Woman and wore her own different incarnation of the costume. In Wonder Woman Vol 2 #136, Diana was banished from Olympus due to interfering in earthly matters (as Diana was unable to simply watch over people’s misery on earth). She immediately returned to her duties as Wonder Woman, but ran into conflicts with her mother over her true place and role as Hippolyta seemed accustomed to her life in America. Their fight remained unsolved, as Hippolyta tragically died during an intergalactic war. Themyscira was destroyed during the war, but was restored and reformed as a collection of floating islands. Circe later resurrected Hippolyta in Wonder Woman Vol 3 #8.
