By Charles Moulton (William Moulton Marston & Harry G. Peter) (DC Comics)
ISBN: 1-56389-402-5
Wonder Woman was famously created by polygraph pioneer William Moulton Marston – apparently at the behest of his formidable wife Elizabeth – and illustrated by Harry G. Peter in an attempt to offer girls a positive and forceful role model.
Her launch and preview came as an extra feature in All Star Comics #8 (December 1941 – and that’s the comic book heroine, not Mrs. Marston), home of the immortal Justice Society of America and one of the company’s most popular publications. The Perfect Princess gained her own series and the cover-spot in new anthology title Sensation Comics a month later.
The Amazing Amazon was a huge and instant hit, quickly gaining her own eponymous title in late Spring of that year (cover-dated Summer 1942).
Using the nom de plume Charles Moulton, Marston scripted all the Amazing Amazon’s many and fabulous adventures until his death in 1947, whereupon Robert Kanigher took over the writer’s role. The venerable co-creator H.G. Peter illustrated almost every WW tale until his own death in 1958.
This superb full-colour deluxe hardback edition collects that seminal debut from All Star Comics #8, and her every iconic adventure from Sensation Comics #1-12 plus Wonder Woman #1, after opening with a heartfelt and appreciative Foreword from performer, writer and social activist Judy Collins.
The comic milestones begin with ‘Introducing Wonder Woman’ as on a hidden island of immortal super-women an American aviator crashed to Earth. Near death Captain Steve Trevor of US Army Intelligence was nursed back to health by young Princess Diana. Fearing her growing obsession with the man, her mother Queen Hippolyte revealed the hidden history of the Amazons: how they were seduced and betrayed by men but rescued by the goddess Aphrodite on condition that they isolated themselves from the rest of the world and devote their eternal lives to becoming ideal, perfect creatures.
However when Trevor explained the perfidious spy plot which accidentally brought him to the Island enclave, Athena and Aphrodite appeared and ordered Hippolyte to assign an Amazon warrior to return with the American to fight for freedom and liberty.
Hippolyte declared an open contest to find the best candidate and, despite being forbidden to participate, young Diana won. Accepting the will of the gods, the worried mother outfits Diana in the guise of Wonder Woman and sends her out to Man’s World…
A month later the story continued where the introduction had left off in Sensation Comics #1 as ‘Wonder Woman Comes to America’ found the eager immigrant returning the recuperating Trevor to the modern World before trouncing a gang of bank robbers and falling in with a show business swindler. The major innovation was her buying the identity of love-lorn Army nurse Diana Prince, elegantly allowing the Amazon to be close to Steve whilst enabling the heartsick medic to join her fiancé in South America.
Even with all that there was still room for Wonder Woman and Captain Trevor to bust up a spy ring attempting to use poison gas on a Draft induction centre before Steve broke his leg and ended up in hospital again, where “Nurse Prince†could look after him…
Sensation #2 introduced the deadly enemy agent ‘Dr. Poison’ in a cannily crafted tale which also debuted the most radical comedy sidekicks of the era…
The plucky fun-loving gals of the Holliday College for Women and their chubby, chocolate-gorging Beeta Lamda sorority chief Etta Candy would get into trouble and save the day in equal proportions for years to come, constantly demonstrating Diana’s – and Marston’s – philosophical contention that girls, with the correct encouragement, could accomplish anything that men could …
With the War raging and a military setting espionage and sabotage were inescapable plot devices. ‘A Spy in the Office’ saw Diana transfer to the office of General Darnell as his secretary so that she could keep an eye on the finally fit Steve. She wasn’t there five minutes before she’d uncovered a ring of undercover infiltrators amongst the typing pool and saved her man from assassination.
Unlike most comics of the period Wonder Woman followed a tight continuity. ‘School for Spies’ in #4 saw some of those fallen girls murdered and introduced inventor genius and Nazi master manipulator Baroness Paula Von Gunther who used psychological tricks to enslave girls to her will and set otherwise decent Americans against their homeland. Even Diana succumbed to her deadly machinations until Steve and the Holliday Girls crashed in…
America’s newest submarine was saved from destruction and a brilliant gang of terrorists brought to justice in ‘Wonder Woman versus the Saboteurs’ before issue #6 found the Amazing Amazon accepting a ‘Summons to Paradise’ to battle her immortal sisters in Kanga-riding duels before receiving her greatest weapon: an unbreakable Lasso of Truth which could compel and control anybody who fell within its golden coils.
It proved very handy when Paula escaped prison and used her invisibility formula to wreak havoc on American coastal defences.
‘The Milk Swindle’ is a pure piece of 1940s social advocacy magic as racketeers and Nazi Von Gunther joined forces to seize control of America’s milk supply with the incredibly long-sighted intention of weakening the bones of the country’s next generation of soldiers, followed in Sensation #8 by ‘Department Store Perfidy’ wherein the Amazon went undercover in the monolithic Bullfinch emporium to win better working conditions and fair pay for the girls employed there.
There was a plethora of surprises in #9 with ‘The Return of Diana Prince’ from South America. Now Mrs Diana White, the young mother needed her job and identity back until her inventor husband could sell his invention to US army. Luckily, Wonder Woman and an obliging gang of saboteurs helped expedite matters…
The next landmark was the launch of her own solo quarterly title. The first issue began with the photo-feature ‘Introducing Wonder Woman’s New Editor’ before offering a text feature on the Amazon’s pantheon of godly patrons in ‘Who is Wonder Woman?’
The comic action then commenced with an greatly expanded revision of her first appearance in ‘A History of the Amazons: the Origin of Wonder Woman’, swiftly followed by the beguiling mystery tale ‘Wonder Woman Goes to the Circus’ wherein Diana had to solve the bizarre serial murders of the show’s elephants.
Paula Von Gunther again reared her shapely head in ‘Wonder Woman versus the Spy Ring’ wherein the loss of the Golden Lasso almost caused the heroine’s demise and the ultimate defeat of the American Army before the issued ended with ‘The Greatest Feat of Daring in Human History’ as Diana and Etta headed for Texas, only to become embroiled in a sinister scheme involving Latin Lotharios, lady bullfighters, lethal spies and a Nazi attempt to conquer Mexico…
Back in Sensation Comics #10 ‘The Railroad Plot’ celebrated Steve and Wonder Woman’s first anniversary by exposing a sinister plan by Japanese and German agents to blow up New York using the labyrinth of subway tunnels under the city, whilst ‘Mission to Planet Eros’ began the series’ long line of cosmic fantasies when the Queen of Venus requested the Amazon’s aid in saving an entire planetary civilisation from sexual inequality and total breakdown…
This first sterling compendium concludes with ‘America’s Guardian Angel’ from Sensation #12 with the Warrior Princess accepting an offer to play herself in a patriotic Hollywood movie, only to find the production had been infiltrated by Nazi Paula and her gang of slave-girls…
Too much has been posited about the subtexts of bondage and subjugation in Marston’s tales – and frankly there really are a lot of scenes with girls tied up, chained or about to be whipped – but I just don’t care what his intentions might have been: I’m more impressed with the skilful drama and incredible fantasy elements that are always wonderfully, intriguingly present: I mean, just where does the concept of giant battle kangaroos come from?
Exotic, baroque, beguiling and uniquely exciting these Golden Age adventures of the World’s Most Famous female superhero are timeless and pivotal classics in the development of comics books and still provide lashings of fun and thrills for anyone looking for a great nostalgic read.
© 1941, 1942, 1998 DC Comics, Inc. All Rights Reserved.