Alas poor Wonder Woman, such potential and yet often so lacklustre. She was created by William Moulton Marston, who also invented the lie detector - hence Wondie's lasso of truth. Marston who lived with two women and had children by both of them created Wondie as a strong role model for growing girls. This despite the fact Sensation Comics, where she first appeared, was aimed squarely at a male readership (the adverts are all pitched at boys) and that boys. old and young, have mostly always been her audience. 

Whatever, Marston's idea of a strong woman appeared to be one who spent every other page being tied up, a theme that was pursued with vigour by later artists. She was aided by Steve Trevor - who crashed on Paradise Island in the very first Wonder Woman story - and the chubby Etta Candy and her spanking sorority girls.  The original Marston stories are fun and are illustrated by Harry Peters in a wonderful pulp style. There is even a nude drawing attributed to him.

After Marston died the series declined. Censorship cut out the bondage and by the early sixties it was aimed squarely at little girls. The chief writer was Robert Kanigher, who was more famous for scripting war stories (Sergeant Rock). He took a refreshing approach to comic book continuity - he ignored it altogether. He wrote harmless stories which explained how WW got her shoes and her tiara and robot plane (he wrote two different versions of how this came about) and other "fun" stuff. He created an invention that allowed Wondie to be in a story with her self as a girl (wonder girl) and as a toddler (wonder tot). Then when he grew tired of this he called them all into his office in one issue and fired them. It was a surreal moment but that couldn't disguise the fact that the comics were crap and poor sales were forcing the Wonder Woman comic into cancellation.

So she was given a makeover by Mike Sekowski. She lost her powers in issue 178 and re-emerged for a few years as Diana Prince, a feeble copy of Emma Peel from the Avengers. She acquired a new wardrobe, lost Steve Trevor, gained an old Chinese sidekick named I-Ching and found time to run a boutique when she wasn't jetting around the world thwarting a certain Dr Cyber's attempts at world domination (or starring in sword and sorcery "epics").

This approach worked for a while but the storylines became stale. Gloria Steinem complained, Sekowsky was removed and Kanigher returned in a breathless issue 204 to kill off I-Ching, restore Wondie to her former costumed glory and give her a long lost black sister called Nubia (don't ask).

The new Wonder Woman was initially an ambassador then later worked with the military, alongside her choc stuffing roomie Etta Candy. Something of Sekowsky's Diana remained. Instead of the golden age gym girl we had a silver age beauty - at least she was on the comic covers if not always inside. It made no difference. Within a short time the stories returned to mediocrity, the continuity not helped by frequent changes of illustrators and writers.

Then along came perhaps the best and most famous incarnation of Wonder Woman and it wasn't in a comic book. After an earlier failed pilot Wonder Woman finally became a campy television series set in the second world war starring Linda Carter. DC comics, stuck with a limp title immediately set Wondie's adventures back into World War II. They even changed Steve Trevor (he kept dying and being brought back to life) from blonde to brunette to match the actor on television.

Then the TV series was cancelled only to be bought by another company, set in the present this time. So DC bought Wondie back into the present once more. The stories didn't improve on the whole. She reached her 300th issue but there was little cause to celebrate. After issue 327 she was killed her off after a hundred or so issues during the overrated "Crisis on Infinite Earths" adventure.

She returned, as do all superheroes and superheroines. George Perez, the artist on Crisis was the penciller and eventually writer on the new Wondie. She was given a slightly new (and no more convincing) origin. Steve Trevor once more crashed on Paradise Island, the home of the Amazons (this was an older Steve who was to marry Etta Candy). And Diana went with him to man's world as a sort of wide eyed touchy feely cultural ambassador, who could now fly. This approach worked well even if it was a little earnest at times.

The first 20 issues were strong. Then Perez steadily relinquished the drawing duties but concentrated on the storyline. The next 20 issues weren't too bad either, though they didn't look as good.  

Other artists came and went. John Byrne created a muscular cartoony Wondie and wiped out most of Perez's carefully constructed back story. Then Phil Jiminez tried to restore it. She also took another of her visits back to the Second World War. Then in another attention grabbing attempt she cut her hair. All to no avail. The comic limped on but then was cancelled (revamped) so that now we have Wonder Woman series 3.

Despite her longevity (she's almost as old as Superman and Batman) Wonder Woman has always been problematic as a comic strip. Female superheroes just don't sell that well so you have to try harder with them. Most editors interpret this as making the character look as sexy as possible, especially on the cover page. In this they have often been successful. But, with the possible exception of Perez and William Moulton Marston (with a tip of the hat to Sekowsky for New Wonder and Messner Loebs for his "contest" story) the storylines have been poor and repetitive. The latest incarnation, though slickly illustrated doesn't seem likely to change how Wonder Woman is perceived by comic book fans.

But this is not to write the character off entirely. There has always been something iconic about Wonder Woman. Why else would Gloria Steinem kick up such a fuss when the character was redesigned. But generally what is best about her has emerged elsewhere. In recent years there has been good use made of the character in comic books that are outside the normal series run. In particular Alex Ross has used her to great affect in her own one off comic and in "Kingdom Come" and "Justice".

Wonder Woman has also been adopted as a symbol for charity campaigns and event involving women. Clearly she strikes a resonance somewhere - perhaps not in the comics themselves.

This page has been accessed times.

Back