He took that secret to his grave when he died in 1947. Most superheroes didn’t survive peacetime and those that did were changed forever in 1954, when a psychiatrist named Fredric Wertham published a book called Seduction of the Innocent and testified before a Senate subcommittee investigating the comics. Wertham believed that comics were corrupting American kids, and turning them into juvenile delinquents. He especially disliked Wonder Woman. Bender had written that Wonder Woman comics display “a strikingly advanced concept of femininity and masculinity” and that “women in these stories are placed on an equal footing with men and indulge in the same type of activities.” Wertham found the feminism in Wonder Woman repulsive.
The story behind the writing and editing of Wonder Woman can be pieced together from Bender’s papers, at Brooklyn College; Frank’s papers, at the University of Minnesota; and Marston’s editorial correspondence, along with a set of original scripts, housed at the Dibner Library at the Smithsonian Institution Libraries. In his original scripts, Marston described scenes of bondage in careful, intimate detail with utmost precision. For a story about Mars, the God of War, Marston gave Peter elaborate instructions for the panel in which Wonder Woman is taken prisoner:
It introduces us to the character of Diana in a new and important way, tying her origin to a larger overall story and presenting her as a character that both shares our weaknesses and possesses strengths we can't have. This book is a nearly perfect DC Comics story. You'll find the only thing that's disappointing about it is that it got canceled too soon.
Diana meets Barbara Ann Minerva for the first time. Minerva wants Diana's lasso and tricks Diana into believing that she has Antiope's Girdle of Gaea. Diana discovers the ruse and storms out of the house. Barbara transforms into the Cheetah and attacks Diana. Julia Kapatelis shoots Cheetah and fends her off. Diana returns to Themyscira. Zeus is infatuated with Diana and asks her for a physical communion to which Diana refuses. Angered, Zeus sends her on a mission, a "Challenge
When she has matured into an adult, Menalippe, the Oracle of the Amazons sees a vision in which the Gods and humanity is in danger from Ares. Soon they are approached by the Gods and tasked with organizing a tournament in order to chose a champion, who will save them from impending Doom. Diana competes against her mother's wish and win. Athena then sends her a weapon, the Lasso of Truth forged by Hephaestus from the girdle of Gaea.
After preventing a terrorist attack at a refugee camp in Greece, Wonder Woman returned to a government facility in the United States and was examined by a sickly doctor, Dr. Shannon Crawford. That evening, Diana attended the wedding of Etta Candy's brother, where she discovered a bomb seconds away from detonation hidden underneath one of the tables.[84] She was able to contain the blast, but Etta was injured by a piece of shrapnel. She returned Etta to Dr. Crawford who removed the shrapnel, before touching Wonder Woman with an Amazon-strength sedative she had developed, leaving Diana too weak to fight back. Dr. Crawford told Diana that she had a rare genetic illness, and that she intended to use Diana's Amazon blood to develop a cure, saving her life as well as providing life-saving treatment for others afflicted with the same disease. Diana awoke to discover Crawford had developed Amazonian strength as a result of the blood transfusion. She was able to bind Dr. Crawford in the Lasso of Truth, which rejected the lie and restored Crawford to her previous state. Having lost hope for a cure, Crawford injected herself with the sedative, killing her. Wonder Woman was too late to stop her, but she understood Crawford's decision to end her pain and held her as she died.[85]
At the end of the 1960s, 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.[35][36] This phase of her story was directly influenced by the British spy thriller The Avengers and Diana Rigg's portrayal of Emma Peel.[37]
In 1954, Dr. Fredric Wertham alleged that there were lesbian subtexts to Wonder Woman and claimed comics contributed to juvenile delinquency in his book Seduction of the Innocent where despite a very obvious heterosexual relationship with Steve Trevor, Wertham asserted that Wonder Woman’s association with the Holliday Girls could be interpreted as a lesbian relationship. The Comics Code Authority was then introduced in reaction to Wertham 's claims against the entire industry.
At the end of Infinite Crisis, Wonder Woman temporarily retires from her costumed identity. Diana, once again using the alias Diana Prince, joins the Department of Metahuman Affairs. Donna Troy becomes the new Wonder Woman and is captured by Diana's enemies. Diana then goes on a mission to rescue her sister, battling Circe and Hercules. Diana defeats the villains, freeing Donna and takes up the role of Wonder Woman again. Circe places a spell on Diana, which renders Diana into a normal, powerless human being when in the role of Diana Prince; her powers come to her only when she is in the role of Wonder Woman.[116][117][118][119][120]
The Gods, led by Athena, create the Amazons in Greece to realize their ideals and bring humans into following them. The leader of the Amazons, Hippolyta feels a yearning for a child). She makes a clay form of a child and prays to the Gods. Hearing this the Gods give the clay form, transforming it into a live child blessed with Gaea's gift, life. The Gods grant her various abilities and she grows up as Diana of Themyscira.
Deimos Wonder Woman #183 (July–August 1969) Deimos is the God of Terror who is based on the god of the same name. In the post-crisis universe, Deimos used manipulation to incite a third World War. Wonder Woman and her allies put an end to Deimos's plot, which resulted in his death. He was later resurrected by his brother Phobos, though he possessed the Joker's body. Post-Rebirth, Deimos appeared as a pompous pretty boy alongside his twin brother Phobos, and attempted to find the location of Themyscira to free his father Ares.
She asked him who he was, but before he could answer, the two noticed several boats coming through the island's forcefield. Steve noted that he was one of the good guys and the people on the boats—Germans—were bad guys. Having noticed the invading ships, the Amazons quickly gathered on the cliffs above the beach. Hippolyta ordered Trevor to move away from Diana, but forgot about him as the German soldiers began to come closer to shore. She took command of her army, ordering the archers to fire on the boats. Diana and Trevor took cover behind boulders on the beach.
Voiced by Vanessa Marshall. This movie is based on the Flashpoint event which was meant to be the reboot of the DC Universe. After the Barry Allen travels back in time to save his mother, he changes the whole timestream making everything different. Her role in this movie is that she has a war against Aquaman because she killed Mera and it made Aquaman angry, Amazons against Atlanteans. The Amazons has made London ''New Themyscira''. She defeats Aquaman at the end of the movie, but the rest of the world gets destroyed by Captain Atom's energy, Captain Atom was held as a last resort by Aquaman, and Flash manages to revert everything as it was right before the world got consumed.
Following the Rebirth retcon, the "Year One" storyline explains that while put in a cell after coming to Man's World, Diana was visited by the Greek gods in animal form. Each gave her powers that would reveal themselves when she needed them to. She first displays strength when she accidentally rips the bars off her cell door when visited by Steve Trevor, Etta Candy, and Barbara Ann Minerva. Later on a trip to the mall, she discovers super speed, great durability, and the power of flight while fighting off a terrorist attack.
A stand-alone #0 issue was released in September which explored Diana's childhood and her tutelage under Ares, the God of War, now known most often as simply 'War'.[148] The issue was narrated in the style of a typical Silver Age comic book and saw Diana in her childhood years.[149] The main plot of the issue was Diana training under War as he thought of her being an extraordinary girl with immense potential. The issue ultimately concluded with Diana learning and experiencing the importance of mercy, which she first learned when War showed it to her during their sparring. This later translated into her refusal to kill the Minotaur – a task given to her by War; however, this show of mercy makes her a failure in War's eyes, which was actually his fault since he inadvertently "taught" her mercy and affection as his protege.[148][149][150] Later in the series, Wonder Woman is forced to kill War during a conflict with her evil half-brother, Zeus' son First Born, and herself becomes the God of War. After the Amazons are restored, she rules over them both as a warrior queen and God of War, as the ongoing conflict with First Born escalates. At the end of Azzarello's run, as part of a final conflict, Wonder Woman kills First Born, while Zeke is revealed to have been Zeus' plan for resurrection, with Zola revealed to have been a mortal shell for the goddess Athena, who gave birth to Zeus just as he once did to her. Wonder Woman pleads with Athena not to allow the Zola personality, whom she has grown to love as a friend, die with Athena's awakening. Athena leaves the site in animal form, leaving a stunned and confused Zola behind with Wonder Woman.[151]
Would DC Comics introduce Diana's twin brother only to dispatch him so soon? And would he be defeated by Diana, after being manipulated by the Dark Gods? We would wager that Jason sees reason at some point - Diana's greatest superpower is love, compassion, and truth, after all - but anything is possible. Especially with the final splash page promising a war between gods that lives up to the name.