Wonder Woman began her existence as a special addition to the December-January, 1941 issue of All Star Comics. In the nine page center spread, the origin of Wonder Woman was told, which luckily was recieved well, leading the way for a comic book that would feature the Amazon Princess.

January 1942 saw Wonder Woman in Sensation Comics number one, with a FULL version of her origin and her first adventure. By Summer 1942, Wonder Woman was a comic book unto itself, and is the only comic book featuring a woman to have been published without fail for fifty-five years.

Wonder Woman was aided by the Holliday Girls, lead by the sweet addicted Etta Candy, who were a sorority that would help Wonder Woman in a time of emergency, or vice versa. Etta was the only member of the Holliday Girls who stood out, with her less than svelte body and propensity of saying 'Woo-woo' all the time. Amazingly enough, Etta was the only other character than Steve and Diana herself who has managed to exist for the full run of the title.

During this same early period, Wonder Woman joined the Justice Society as its first female member. The Justice Society was the first super-team, featured in All Star Comics, and times being what they were, Wonder Woman, who was the strongest among them, was the secretary of the JSA.

From her inception, Wonder Woman was not out to just stop criminals, but to reform them. On a small island off Paradise Island was Transformation Island, a rehabilitation complex created by the Amazons to house and reform criminals.

Armed with her bulletproof bracelets, magic lasso, and her amazonian training, Princess Diana was the archetype of the perfect woman from the mind of her creator, William Moulton Marston. She was beautiful, intelligent, strong, but still possessed a soft side. At that time, her powers came from 'Amazon Concentration,' not as a gift from the gods.

Wonder Woman's magic lasso was supposedly forged from the Magic Girdle of Aphrodite, which Queen Hippolyta(Wonder Woman's) mother was bequeathed by the Goddess. Hephastateus borrowed the belt, removed links from it, and that is where the magic lasso came from. It was unbreakeable, infinitely stretchable, and could make all who are encircled in it tell the truth.

In 1947, William Moulton Marston died, leaving Wonder Woman to be written by Robert Kanigher. While H.G. Peter still illustrated the stories, the book lost a bit of its former luster, with Wonder Woman becoming less of a feminist and more of an American heroine. H.G. Peter remained on the title until #97, from different reports either dying while completing it, or directly after. By myself and other Golden Age devotees, both Peter and Marston are missed and remembered for their unique and memorable work.

In later stories, Kanigher expanded her abilities. Her earrings gave her air to breathe in outer space, her Invisible Plane(Way BEFORE Jets) was given an origin, and her tiara was found to be an unbreakable boomerang. These were all inventions and modifications made after William Moulton Marston's death.

This is also when the repeating theme of Steve Trevor wanting to marry Wonder Woman began. He wanted to marry her and she said that she couldn't until all crime was wiped out(of course we later find out that Steve and the Earth-2 Wonder Woman did marry). But even these revisions to Wonder Woman didn't damage her as much as the accusation of one man.

In the late 1940's and the early 1950's, Dr. Frederic Wertham was touring the country blaming comic books for the 'moral decline' of that eras youth. He claimed that Batman and Robin were a 'homosexual fantasy,' that women were always victims with large breasts, and that horror comics lead children to commit murder. But wait... He said that women were always victims. What about Wonder Woman?

Well, he said that she had to be a lesbian. Her close affiliation with the Holliday Girls, her strident speeches for women to be strong and independant; nothing but a lesbian trying to convert. Wertham was a Freudian who probably saw a penis in every phallic object other than his own pants. If you wish to understand his mindset better, I've got excerpts from a symposium on the evils of comics books that he led.

In 1954, Dr. Wertham wrote his now infamous book: Seduction of the Innocent, which expounded on his anti-comic book views, and is seen by many comic book historians as the death of the Golden Age, and the beginning of the Comics Code Authority.
Wonder Woman was now fully neutered. She no longer spoke out as a feminist and was left to moon over Steve Trevor, and as time wore into the Silver Age, Merman and Birdman(you'll read about them in the Silver Age section). It was drivel, and didn't change until the 1970's. So, we can thank Dr. Wertham for nearly 20 years of Wonder Woman being drivel.

Click the camera to see a clip from Comic Book Superheroes Unmasked about Dr. Wertham.