Diana of Themyscira (New Earth)

{{DC Database:Character Template
 * Image                  = Wonder Woman 009.jpg


 * RealName               = Diana of Themyscira
 * CurrentAlias           = Diana Prince; The Amazing Amazon
 * Aliases                = Princess Di; Miss America; Princess Diana
 * Identity               = Public
 * Affiliation            = Justice League of America
 * Relatives              = Wonder Woman (Queen Hippolyta) (mother), Donna Troy (magically created clone), Antiope (Aunt)
 * Universe               = New Earth
 * BaseOfOperations       = The Hall & JLA Watchtower; Themyscira; formerly Gateway City; formerly Boston, Massachusetts


 * Gender                 = Female
 * Height                 = 5'11"
 * Weight                 = 140 lbs
 * Eyes                   = Blue
 * Hair                   = Black
 * UnusualFeatures        = None


 * Citizenship            = Themysciran
 * MaritalStatus          = Single
 * Occupation             = Adventurer, Emissary to the world of Man, Protector of Paradise Island; former Goddess of Truth; former government special agent
 * Education              = Traditional Amazon education, Warrior Training


 * Origin                 = Created on Themyscira, Princess Diana was given great powers by the Gods. She left her homeland and became an emissary to the world of Man.


 * PlaceOfBirth           = Themyscira
 * Creators               = William Moulton Marston, Elizabeth Holloway Marston
 * First                  = Wonder Woman #1 (February 1987)


 * HistoryText            = [[Image:Sec6.jpg|left|thumb|130px|Wonder Woman v. Ares]]

Origin
Diana was the daughter of Queen Hippolyta, the first child born on Paradise Island in the three thousand year history that the immortal Amazons lived there. The Amazons had been created around 1200 B.C. when the Greek goddesses drew forth the souls of all women who had been murdered by men. One soul was left behind, the one that would be born as Diana. That soul originally belonged to the unborn daughter of the first woman murdered by a man (whom Hippolyta was the reincarnation of). In the late 20th Century, Hippolyta was instructed to mold some clay from the shores of Paradise Island into the form of a baby girl. Six members of the Greek Pantheon then bonded the soul to the clay, giving it life. Each of the six also granted Diana a gift: Demeter, great strength; Athena, wisdom and courage; Artemis, a hunter's heart and a communion with animals; Aprhodite, beauty and a loving heart; Hesita, sisterhood with fire; Hermes, speed and the power of flight. Diana grew up surrounded by a legion of sisters and mothers. When she was a young woman, the gods decreed that the Amazons must send an emmissary into Man's World. Queen Hippolyta ordered a contest to be held, but forbade Diana from participating. Diana disobeyed and did so anyway in disguise, easily winning the contest and being named the Amazon's champion. She was given a uniform fashioned from the standard of someone who had visited the island a few decades earlier.

Wonder Woman did not keep her identity a secret, and she was not at first a "super-heroine". Indeed, her character was in many ways that of a babe in the woods, innocent and without guile. Diana spoke only Themyscirian, a combination of classical Greek and Turkish. She had to learn English when she arrived in America, rather than knowing the language intuitively. Nonetheless, Diana was trained as a warrior and had no compunction against using deadly force when called for. Diana often dealt with war, injustice, inequality, death, and conflicts involving the Olympian Gods.

Before embarking on her mission, Diana was given the Lasso of Truth, forged by Hephestus himself. She was also given the Sandals of Mercury, which allowed her to instantly traverse great distances in seconds. Diana's mission was one of peace, but part of it initially involved defeating a mad plot by Ares to destroy the world. Diana ventured into the world by starting at Boston. There she met a Harvard professor, Dr. Julia Kapatelis, and her daughter, Vanessa Kapatelis, as well as the Air Force Officers Steve Trevor and Etta Candy. Diana stayed with Julia and Vanessa and over the course of a month or two, Diana learned to speak English. She was attacked their home by Decay, one of Ares' minions, and after a battle that spilled out into the streets of Boston she first came to the public's eye and was given the name Wonder Woman. Upon discovering Ares' plan (one that involved creating a nuclear holocaust), Diana managed to foil it, battling through his sons Phobos and Deimos before finally convincing him the error of his ways with the Lasso. After defeating the God of War, Diana returned home for healing at the hands of Poseidon himself.

Mortal and Immortal Challenges


After returning to Boston, Wonder Woman agreed to hire Myndi Mayer to be her publicist, getting her image out to the world at large. She spent the next several months touring the world, conducting interview and learning a lot about the world. She also met most of the Justice League, and after meeting Superman she realized that she was instantly enamored with him.

She also gathered the attention of Barbara Minerva, the Cheetah, who desired to take the Lasso of Truth from Diana. She lied to Wonder Woman about having found the lost Girdle of Antiope to get close to her, but after touching the Lasso her truth was made clear. Diana was frustrated and angry over her naive trust of Minerva. That same night, Barbara decided to take it by force and attacked as the Cheetah. Diana managed to fight her off, and afterwards she decided it was time to return home again.

The gods were pleased with Diana's work--one was a little too pleased, however. Zeus offered to make Wonder Woman a goddess if she agreed to sleep with him. Diana refused, as Zeus decreed she must be punished. The other gods managed to deflect the full brunt of Zeus's wrath. He decided that Wonder Woman must pass the Challenge of the Gods. He ordered her to go into the pits beneath Paradise Island and retrieve his fondest treasure. Diana accepts the challenge. Hippolyta was not pleased, and though she could do nothing to stop Diana from descending into the depths, she did resolve to follow after her (fighting past Phillipus first). Wonder Woman battled all number of evil monsters in the pits, from the Hydra to the Echidna, but got some help from the spirit of Diana Trevor. Diana Trevor, the mother of Steve Trevor, revealed that she had been an Air Force Pilot who crashed landed on the island and then died helping the Amazons in battle. It was for her that Diana was named, and it was her standard that was used to fasion the Wonder Woman costume. Hippoylta catches up with her daughter, and together they fight even more mythological beasts until they discover Zeus's treasure: Heracles himself! The demi-god had been changed to stone and made to bear the weight of the island for thousands of years. Diana and Hippolyta freed him, and brought him back to the surface. Faced with his punishment of thousands of years, Heracles was repentant and begged forgiveness for what had happened between he and the Amazons. The Amazons forgave him at last, and after a celebration he returned to Olympus. The gods were well pleased with Diana. Hippolyta was pleased as well, and ordered her daughter to return to Man's World and continue her mission.

Once Wonder Woman was back, Myndi Mayer quickly arranged another publicity stunt, this time at a fair. Things got ugly, however, when the first Silver Swan arrived on the scene. Wonder Woman battled the Swan along the cost but could not capture her. Returning to Boston, Diana stayed with Vanessa while her mother was in Greece. She found herself distracted more and more with thoughts of Superman, eventually asking Myer to arrange a meeting between the two.. Diana and Superman had their "date," which included a battle to free Olympus from the grip of Darkseid after he had laid waste to it. Afterwards, Superman and Wonder Woman decided it would be best if they just remained friends, but Superman trusted Diana enough with the secret of his dual idendity. Wonder Woman is one of the few people who affectionately refers to him as "Kal."

The gods decided it was time to take a vacation (or "Cosmic Migration" as they called it) even as Diana decided to go with her friends to Greece, to see the ancient home of her people. She met Julia Kapetelis's parents, but felt a strange sensation in regards to one of the smaller islands that was long said to have a bad history. As it turns out, Circe made that island her home, and she sent her minions to capture Diana and drag her back in chains. Circe revealed her whole history--including the history where she murdered Antiope, Hippolyta's sister. Circe also revealed the prophesy she learned from Hecate, who was responsible for her power, and her belief that if either she or Diana kills the other than the spirit of Hecate will consume the other. Circe resolves to use a spell that will degenerate Diana back in the clay from which she was created. Even with the help of her friends, Wonder Woman only carried the day with the timely intervention of Hermes, who had not yet left Olympus.



When Diana returned to Boston, she learned of the death of Myndi Mayer--someone had apparently shot her in the face with a shotgun in her own home. A man named Steve London was framed for the death, but Diana learned that the man responsible for blasting her was a man named Skeeter Boyd. Skeeter died trying to escape from Wonder Woman, grabbing hold of an electrified fence and frying himself. He had not, in fact, actually killed Myndi--an overdose of alcohol and cocaine had killed her before he delivered the blast. Diana was left to question how something like this could happen..

Called back to Paradise Island, Diana was summoned by the gods to come to Olympus with Hippolyta and Menalippe. It was still in ruins from Darkseid's rampage. The gods announced their decision to depart from the Earth, possibly forever, possibly not. They needed Diana's help to shatter what was left of Olympus so they could move on and allow the healing to begin. Their destiny now in their own hands, Diana called for a vote among the people whether or not they should open the gates of the island and allow men to come there. The Amazons voted yes, and Wonder Woman returned to Boston to invite Julia and Vanessa to be the first guests.

Shadows of the Past
Diana is shocked when Hermes shows up in Boston. He explains that he feels the journey of the rest of the gods is folley and seeks to assert himself, as a god, in Boston. He wins a few converts through bribes and healing, despite Diana's protestations. Hermes is tricked, however, by Phobos and Eurayle into unleashing Ixion the Assassin from his prison beneath the Earth. Ixion went on a rampage across Boston, killing hundreds and damaging the old U.S.S. Constitution. Wonder Woman bound Phobos in her Lasso and Hermes decapitated Eurayle. Even together they could not stop Ixion, however, and he had to be struck down by jet fighters. Diana blamed himself for what happened, as she had not taken a stronger position against Hermes when he first arrived.

Wonder Woman stood along with the rest of the world's heroes to battle against the alien alliance that tried to conquer Earth during the Invasion! crossover.



Cheetah next decides to resurface. She uses a pair of Khunds, still on Earth after the INVASION, to create a diversion so she can steal Wonder Woman's magic lasso. Suspecting that Dr. Baraba Minerva stole the lariat (but not knowing yet that she and Cheetah are one and the same) Wonder Woman travels to Minvera's home in England (this coincides with a trip to the first meeting of Justice League Europe, but Diana decides not to remain part of the team at this time). Minerva's manservant, Mr. Chuma, poisons Diana and proceeds to tell her the whole story of how Minerva became Cheetah (see Cheetah entry for details). The poison has no effect on Diana, however, and she tracks Cheetah to Egypt where out in the hidden city of Bana-Mishdall she finds the lost colony of Amazons. Their leader, Queen Anahid incapacitated Diana with a poisonous dart and locked her up. The high priestess tries to kill Diana but inadvertantly poisons herself. Diana breaks free and realizes that Cheetah will be on the prowl that very night--but she is still groggy from the poison. The mercenary Amazons had been hired to pacify a nearby village. Armed for war, Wonder Woman fights them back and is attacked by Cheetah. After a very tough battle, Wonder Woman defeats her adversary and locks her up (Mr. Chuma dies in the all the fighting). Queen Anahid, mortally injured by Cheetah, dies after commanding that Diana be spared. The Amazons call off the raid and tell her their history. They are indeed the descendents of Antiope, Hippolyta's sister, though they are not immortal (see Antiope, Pythia). They have in their possession the other Golden Girdle of Gaea. They are a nation of mercenaries and have been since Antiope's death. Pythia, blaming Theseus and all men for her mother's death, was their first leader (see also Circe). The city is attacked by Hermes, who has learned of the rogue Amazons and is madder than hell. He has come for the Golden Girdle. Diana manages to convince him to cease his attack. One of the Amazons, Faruka, decides to use all the chaos to try and seaize power, using a (cyborg?) Amazon called Shim'tar. With Hermes weakened by Gaea's status, Diana fights Shim'tar alone, battling to a standstill. The Egyptian govenment, outraged at the massacre at one of their villages, orders an air strike on the hidden city. Not even Hermes is able to intervene. The entire city is destroyed, leaving Wonder Woman, Minerva, and Hermes alone in the desert. Wonder Woman has recovered both her lasso and the Golden Girdle. After a brief stop back in Boston, Diana returns the Girdle to her mother on Themyscira.



The time has come for Themyscara to welcome the world more openly. Twelve delegates are chosen: Asmund Lindel, the Norway delegate to the U.N.; Maritza Nitumbe, a South African botanist; Phyllis Haller, an American feminist bestselling author and sociologist; Vladimir Morakov, a Russian neurosurgeon; Robert Cantwell, Scottish history teacher and war veteran; Rabbi Benjamin Hecht and Unitarian minister Reverand Alan Withersppon, the only two religious leaders to respond to Diana's invitation (the Vatican was silent); Lin Koo Teng, a survivor of Tienamen Square; Rovo Quashi, a blind man from Ethiopia; Henri Tibet, a parapelegic architecht from Canada; Felix Zumac, a Haithian zoologist and anthropologist; and Lois Lane, everybody's favorite reporter from the Daily Planet. Hermes, shedding his immortality, grants Diana the ability to use her winged sandals to take the delegates to Themyscara. The delegates all arrive to a magnificent greeting by the Amazons. No one suspects that Eris, daugther of Ares, is plotting discord. She nearly succeeds in turning everyone against one another when her plans are discovered and thwarted. Afterwards, the delegates all deliver their favorable report to the U.N. while the Amazons comence the cleanup. Julia is on a dig overseas and Vanessa is at summer camp. Hermes, shorn of some of his divinity, has been staying with Steve Trevor.

Wonder Woman had her second run in with the Silver Swan, now more powerful than ever, when Valerie was attempting to escape from her "benefactors." Wonder Woman and Etta Candy were captured by Hank Armbruster's thugs, but working together they were able to break free. Usng her Lasso on Armbruster, Diana was able to unveil the depth of his lies to Valerie. The Swan walked away, no longer the villain.

With Themyscira known to the world and the gods departed from Earth, Queen Hippolyta decided it was indeed time to take a more active role. The Amazons removed their bracelets and decided to come to Man's World and see all that it had to offer.

Hippolyta, Menalippe, Phillipus, and other came to stay at a hotel in Gotham City. Diana encountered Hermes again, who had rebuilt a temple unto himself and proceeded to hit on Diana again--or did he? This Hermes turned out to be Mercury, and Wonder Woman had to help the true Hermes battle his "evil twin" at their temple. Mercury was able to win the battle, taunting the humbled Hermes as he departed the field. Hippolyta and the others decided they needed to present themselves as more than just an extension of Wonder Woman, and Steve Trevor told her that he needed some space as well, as Etta was growing jealous of the two of them. When Vanessa also got angry at Diana for being late to her birthday party and even Julia wanted some space, Diana decided to return home to recharge. While at home, Diana was contacted in her sleep by Hermonia as well as Pariah, both of whom offered warnings about an impending crisis. Waking from this nightmare Diana seemed to drift into another one, this one involving a badly beaten and injured Hermes. Diana suspected that Circe was behind her ill fortune lately.

Back in Boston, Wonder Woman encountered Hermes--who announced his intention to destroy Boston. Diana told him she would never let it be so--but from Hermes' point of view, it was the Amazon who was threatening the city, and so they began to battle one another, all because of the illusions of Dr. Psycho, who had been posing as a therapist for Vanessa. Diana and Hermes stopped short of killing one another when one of Vanessa's teachers interrupted the insane villain. Diana and Hermes, relieved of their delusions, join together to track down their tormentor. Realizing that he had been twisting the mind of Vanessa as well, Diana was able to share her thoughts with Vanessa and track him down in his lair. There she found Vanessa's teacher, whose unborn baby had been tortured by Dr. Psycho as well. Meanwhile, the Amazons are attacked in their hotel by masked assassins, who also murder the police officers at the building and frame it on the Amazons themselves. The word quickly spreads, and by the time she takes the injured teacher to the hospital, the police try to arrest her for murder. Diana protests their innocence while alerting the police to the location of Dr. Psycho, whom she left tied up with her Lasso. However, when the police arrive, he is no where to be found; the Lasso is tied to a chair but no one is there. Before the Boston P.D. take her in, she convinces them to allow her to help deliver the child, which she successfully does. A news report indicated that armed Amazons broke into the hotel in Gotham and slaughtered police and civilains alike.



Wonder Woman allowed herself to be taken into custody where she learned the horrible tally: Hippolyta was missing, Philippus was gravely injured, Menalippe and Epione had been arrested (the former with injuries), Mnemosyne and Timandra had been arrested in other cities, Pythia and Euboea were unaccounted for, and Hellene had been killed. There was also an unidentified Amazon who was killed at the hotel, prompting a scare that there could be dozens of murderous Amazons running about. Vanessa comes to the police station with news her mother is missing. Diana manages to convince the police to let her see the unidentified Amazon. The dead woman is unknown to her, but the tell-tale claw marks raking her body lead her to believe she was killed by the Cheetah. Comissioner Gordon reluctantly order Diana arrested, but Diana, fearful for the safety of her friends, breaks out of the jail. Recovering her Lasso, she frees Menalippe from her hospital before catching up with Pythia and Euboea and taking them all back to Paradise Island.

War of the Gods
At home, many of her Amazons sisters are crying out for vengeance, believing their queen to have been murdered. Diana asserts herself as the rightful leader of the Amazons, no matter what they decide to do. As they are debating, the Oracle announces that the gods have returned. No sooner does she do so when Diana is summoned to Mt. Olympus. The gods announced that something was terribly wrong with the order of things. They too had seen Pariah and did not understand his importance. Zeus had expended much of his power just summoning Hermes from the Earth, and it had taken the combined energy of the rest of the pantheon to summon Diana there. They told her that Donna Troy had also turned up. Just then, a new set of beings walked in like they owned the place--it was the Roman pantheon, led by Jupiter himself. The Roman gods announced that they had a human champion that would battle against the Greek's Wonder Woman--that champion was none other than Captain Marvel. Diana was forced to defend herself against a possessed Captain Marvel even while Hermes and Mercury engaged in round two. Circe began to unveil her master plan, unleashing chaos across the globe.

While Wonder Woman was on Olympus, Heracles traveled to Paradise Island. Once there, earthquakes began to rock the island. Traveling beneath it, Heracles found Atlas with the island on his shoulders. This was the Roman Atlas, and he mistook Heracles for Hercules. Once they got that straightened out, they were just as confused as anyone. Back in the U.S., Mnemosyne, Timandra, and Epione were being transported by a military escort that was attacked by Amazons--but no Amazons the three prisoners recognized! These Amazons left a few surivors in the escort to tell the tale, then gassed the three prisoners and took them with them. Diana, after the battle with Marvel, was transported back to Boston.

Diana ended up at the house of a police inspector, Edward Indelicato, whom she was friends with. She recounted her story and Edwards agreed to help her. Diana, sensing that Circe trully was to blame for all the madness going on, decided that she had to track down Doctor Fate for assistance, who gave her a spell that made her invisible so she could return to Boston. The spell wore off when she (literally) ran into the Silver Swan, which was dumb luck as Valerie had been looking for Diana to give her some guidance. Diana had little to give, however, as distracted as she was by everything else going on.

A call to Black Canary put Diana in contact with Batman, whom she asked to retrieve the missing Themysciran goblet that she believed would help exonerate her people for the massacre in Gotham. Diana then banded together with Zatanna, Phantom Stranger, Spectre, Dr. Fate, Flash (Wally West), Madam Xanadu, and Geo-Force to try and undo the spells Circe had woven. Circe had expected this, and planned on cultivating the energy from the spells the group was now casting--but her plan backfired and her spells were undone: yet the war continued.

Circe had been betrayed by her ally Kaslak. In addition to replacing the relics Circe needed for her spell, he also allowed Pythia into Circe's lair. Phytia managed to free her captured sisters as well as Julia Kapatelis. Wonder Woman met back up with Batman, who had recovered the Goblet, but told her that it was, in fact, a forgery that had been coated with some unknown material. Diana followed the trail back to Egypt, were she discovered the temple of Bana-Mighdall that she thought had been destroyed. There she found Lobo battling Shim'tar. When some more Rouge Amazons arrived, Diana had Lobo fight them while she tackled Shim'tar, demanding to know what had become of her mother. After a tough battle, Diana manages to strike Shim'tar to the ground--only to unmask her and find that it was none other than Hippolyta!

Now the truth finally came together. Cheetah had a confrontation with Edward Indelicato and explained the whole truth to him. While she had been in prison, Circe's minion Mikos came to her, transforming her permanately into the form of the Cheetah--although now, Minerva's mind remained fully in control. Circe was hardly benevolent, however, and insisted that Cheetah join her bestiamorph army. Cheetah was to help Kaslak steal the proper artifacts for Circe to cast her spell. This included the Goblet, which Circle resolved to switch with a fake that would suit her own ends. She engaged the remnants of the Rogue Amazons, all part of a plot to discredit Diana and Themyscara. She also hired Doctor Psycho to keep Diana distracted. When Hippolyta touched the fake goblet in Gotham, it transformed her into the new Shim'tar. Mikos removed Shim'tar from the building but failed to get the real goblet after Maxie Zeus's assassins showed up, hired by Cheetah to try and double cross Circe. Phillipus was attacked by one of the Rogue Amazons at the scene and witnessed Helene's death at the hands of the Cheetah.

Time was running out for Wonder Woman. She tracked down Hermes, but he was unable (or unwilling) to heal Hippolyta, so Diana resolved to take her mother back to Paradise Island. She was attacked en route by fighters, but with the help of Starman she managed to evade them. On the shores of the Island, she would face Circe at last. Circe had fought her way through Hermes to get to Diana, but she would not simply kill the Amazon and risk Hecate's curse. Cutting them off from other heroes gathered on the Island (Starman, Hawkwoman, Aquaman, and Dolphin), Circe used her magic to revert Diana back into the clay of the island, the very same clay from which she was born. Having destroyed Wonder Woman, Circe departed, ready to grasp final victory. As the Amazons mourned their fallen princess, Superman rallied Earth's heroes for the final battle.



Diana was not dead--not completely. Her soul was collected by Phantom Stranger, Spectre, and Deadman. They told her that Klarion the Witch Boy had been responsible for disrupting Circe's spells. Superman, meanwhile, lead the charge against Olympus itself, where the confused Greek and Roman pantheons were still committed to destroying each other. When Circe's deceptions were made clear, she was transported back to the limbo realm where she had slain Hermes. There she found Donna Troy and Wonder Woman--restored to life. Diana battled the evil witch, and this time her power was the greater, for Hecate's power left Circe. The witch was seemingly killed, but Hecate was denied Diana's soul. The gods decided to depart again, but the long war was finally over (see War of the Gods for more details about this arc as a whole).

The war had been costly. Much of the Island was in ruins and would need to be rebuilt, and Menalippe and other Amazons had lost their lives. The United Nations, thankfully, fully exonerated Themyscara from all charges, and Queen Hippolyta was alive and well. Diana returned to the U.S. just in time to attend Vanessa's Junior High graduation. This turning point also marked the departure of George Perez as the lead writer for the series.

Conflict at Home and Beyond the Stars


After Pérez left the series, other writers and artists tried to follow in his footsteps, with varying degrees of success. William Messner-Loebs (also credited as Bill Loebs) took over as the lead writer for #63-100.

Wonder Woman was called to action by Superman when Brainiac seized control of Warworld and started to head for Earth. Superman decided that Earth could not wait for this invasion, they had to launch a preemptive strike, and so recruited Diana and many of the world's other heroes. While Batman gathered a team to defend Earth from any advanced warriors, Diana traveled with Superman and other heroes to Warworld. She fought bravely there, but her role was a minor one and undistinguished.

Diana spent some time with Vanessa and Julia, until she learned from Edward Indelicato that the Cheetah had been captured in the Balkans, in a country called Pan Balgravia, by their new president, Baron Von Nastraed. Diana contacted the god Proteus prior to leaving, enlisting her help to create a false idenity, Diana Prince. Lacking knowledge of the region, she decided to enlist Deathstroke for help. Inspector Indelicato decided to come along as well. The first location that they were lead to turned out to be a trap and they had to fight their way through some royal guards. Capturing one, Wonder Woman used her Lasso to learn that the Baron had secret and dummy prisons set up all over--and he also had mass graves. Diana and Slade went undercover to the finest restaurant in the country, where they managed to meet the Baron and get him to agree to another meeting. On the way to the meeting, Deathstroke announced that he was parting ways, prompting a fight between he and Wonder Woman that she won. After tossing Deathstroke in the trunk of the car and having Indelicato stand guard, she broke into the Baron's castle. The Baron was no so naive as they would have hoped, however, and was waiting for her with several demonic thugs.

Deathstroke quickly recovered, however, and some of his "friends" showed up as backup. Wonder Woman was thrown in a magic cage but managed to force her way out. Barbara Minerva, reverted back to human form, was in the cell next to her, very weak from her long torment. She explained that the demon ruler needed a powerful female host for its mate. The Baron and his associate, Mr. Drax, began their demonic ritual as Deathstroke arrived on scene. As Wonder Woman fought the demon Drax, Deathstroke went after the Baron. Minerva, lapping up some spilled blood, reverts back into the Cheetah, and dives through the portal that Drax had opened, sealing it and destroying Drax in the process. The Baron vanishes into thin air after Deathstroke plunges a dagger into him--but at least the nation is now free again.

Wonder Woman was prepared to testify at Indelicato's hearing, but no charges were filed against him. Outside the police station, Diana met a distraught woman who claimed her daughter had been kidnapped by her husband. The man in question got on the wrong side of some drug dealers who were shot and killed during a meeting he had with them, prompting to grab a briefcase full of money (and his daughter) and run for it. The race was on to see if the police could catch up to him before mafiosos--but luckily, Diana made it there first, rescuing the little girl and preventing her from getting shot.

Doctor Psycho was still on the prowl, and he used his powers to continue to torment Vanessa in her dreams.



Wonder Woman was approached by a man named Asquith Randolph, the White Magician, for a mission that would take her into space, where she was needed to save the life of a female astronaut (Tasha) on an experimental Russian spacecraft. When she was onboard, Randolph detonated an explosive and the ship was catapulted through space. Diana managed to get it under control, but they were still rocketing into the unknown. After drifting for two weeks through space, their ship was salvaged--but their rescuers were only interested in making them slaves. The slavers stripped them of their clothing and equipment and dropped them on a prison world--a prison world populated entirely by females. Tasha and Diana were bruised and battered--but not broken. They were prisoners for months (on that planet) working in the quarries. A Khund prisoner frequently fought Diana. There was another prisoner, a Daximite, who was kept in chains as a warning to the rest. After finally learning some of the other aliens' language, Diana learned their tormentors were called the Sangtree and that they existed entirely as one gender for a century, than changed to the other. She finally managed to rally some of the other prisoners, destroying the Sangtree power station, capturing their starship, and freeing the imprisoned Daximite. Taking up the role of a kind of space pirate, Diana worked hard, recruiting more ships and allies as she carved her way across the Sangtree Empire. One of her new friends creates an artifical eye to replace one of the eyes the Daximite lost. The new Daximite is named Julia by Diana and she agrees to fight. Despite treachery from within, Diana is able to force a confrontation with the Sangtree emperor and get him (or her?) to admit the folley of his people's ways. With some help from Julia, Diana finally is able to make it back home. Randolph had weaseled his way into the position of "Hero of Boston" during her absence.



Diana returned either just before, or perhaps the day of, the Death of Superman. Either way, she was not there to help fight Doomsday. The monster tore through Justice League America before being put down by the Man of Steel--at the cost of Superman's own life. Diana gathered with past and present JLA members to mourn the death of their friend. She held a place of honor during his funeral procession, and was one of the ones who actually closed the lid on the sarcophogus. Diana gathered with the other heroes to pay a last respect--every year on Christmas Eve, Superman read some of the thousands of pieces of mail directed to him. Diana found one letter thanking Superman for help, even though her house was destroyed and her husband had left her. While the others rebuilt the woman's house, Diana tracked down the husband, who was unaware of what had happened. The Justice League was in need of being rebuilt after Doomsday's rampage, so Wonder Woman agreed to come aboard as the new field leader. See the Justice League entry under "Justice Leagues" for more information about Diana's time as leader of Justice League America.

On her Own in the World
Diana was shocked when she returned to Paradise Island to find it missing--the entire island simply was gone! Diana did not know what to make of it, so she went back to Boston and decided to get a job. Now, despite the fact that she was now working for the Justice League, and that she had apparently made a lot of money via merchandising thanks to Myndi Mayer, and the fact that she was Wonder Woman, Diana resolved to look for a job in the classified adds. No one seemed interested...in hiring WONDER WOMAN. So she got a job at TacoWhiz, presumably so she could better understand the common man (and woman). She also got her own apartment.



Diana then met a man named Micah Rains who offered her a job (Rains was, according to Indelicato, a total "whackjob") as a kind of P.I. The White Magician was careful to always be close by, stealing the limelight. Diana continued her work at the TacoWhiz while desperatly trying to make a difference in some people's lives. Doctor Fate, Inza, finally got ahold of Wonder Woman, offering her help at discovering what had happened to Themyscara. The two went back to the sight of the former island, where Fate was able to use a spell to let them see events of the last few moments of the island. It seems that a golden statue in Diana's likeness washed up on the shore. The Amazons brought it before Hippolyta, but then something happened--a bright flash of light and an explosion--and the island was no more. Convinced her mother was dead, Diana knew that Circe must be at fault. Dr. Fate was able to track her down, but when they arrived in Circe's lair, all they found were her remains--she was apparently killed in the same deadly spell she used to obliterate Paradise Island.



Wonder Woman began to believe there was a connection between all the recent crimes that involved hi-tech gadgets. Diana began investigating. She also went out shopping with Etta for a wedding dress and realized (after Etta passed out) that her friend was starving herself to look thinner. While talking with Etta about it, the Flash showed up, warning Diana about a hit on her and that Mayfly was the hitwoman. No sooner did he get out his warning when Mayfly showed up guns blazing. With Etta and Flash's help, Diana managed to defeat Mayfly--but was shot in the process! While Diana recooperated in the hospital, Mayfly was murdered in her cell by an attorney named Donna Milton, who was working for Ares Buchanan, the supplier of the hi-tech arms and the one who hired Mayfly. Donna was carrying his child as well.



Donna Milton then introduced herself to Diana, feeding her a story of her life that caused Diana to remark "nearly every terrible thing that can happen to a woman has happened to you." This, of course, was the idea. Diana was quickly taken in by the charming Donna. Ares Buchanan was, naturally, an avatar for the god Ares, who was not so prepared to completely abandon the Earth. He had easily corrupted the White Magician, making him one of his liuetenants alongside Donna Milton. After weeks of friendship, Donna betrayed her to Ares. When Donna refused to let Ares torture her, however, he shot her and then prepared to shoot Diana. Donna, using one Ares' weapons, created an explosion that left her and Diana plunging down hundreds of feet into a watery chamber beneath Ares' lair. The fall should have killed them (Donna at least) but they survived and Donna went into labor. While Diana delivered the child, the White Magician contacted Ares's mafia boss, Sazia, letting him know that Ares Buchanan had died in the explosion and they had to act quickly to hold his power together. Sazia was not interested, however, and attempted to shoot the Magician...so the magician killed him instead.



The White Magician, whose powers were increasing because of his connection to a demonic realm, began to transform some of his lackeys into supervillains. One of them, Dreadnaught, attacked Diana at the hospital--another attacked the Kapateles house, kidnapping Vanessa and seriously crippled Julia. Wonder Woman was able to save the day before more of his thugs could kill Etta and Steve. Her patience having run out, Diana contacted some of the mafia men connected to the Magician and warned them they had one hour to return Vanessa unharmed. When they failed to comply, Diana began to tear apart the gang, tracking down all of their outfits and demolishing them, leaving the words "No quarter, no sanctuary" as she went. Mrs. Sazia, the new head of the Sazia crime family, decided to betray the Magician to get Diana off their back. Diana found the Magician's lair and rescued Vanessa, but the Magician himself was not there.



Diana, plagued by nightmares, began to have doubt about her instability. She sought out Superman and asked him to stop her if she ever got too out of control. This was after the police nearly arrested her for her recent behavior. Luckily, Doctor Fate returned and told Diana that she had been having the same nightmares--dreams about the end of Themyscara. Replaying the spell that showed the end of the island, Diana guessed that maybe it hadn't really been destroyed--it was all a complex illusion created by the witch Circe. Diana unveiled Dr. Fate, who was really Circe in disguise (or at least, an illusion of her). Circe revealed that she had not destroyed Paradise Island, but rather she had found a way to relocate it to the realm of fire where the Amazons had been fighting for their lives every day since their imprisonment. Circe offered to return the island--if Diana sacrficed an innocent life. She gave her until midnight. Battling through Circe's illusions, Diana could not save the life of a young runaway named Cynthia who was struck and killed by a car. With her death, however, Paradise Island was restored.

A New Contest. A New Wonder Woman
Diana was elated--her home was back, her sisters were back, and her mother was back. Hippolyta told Diana the whole story of what had happened. Circe had led the renegade Amazons to Paradise Island, stirring them up with dreams of conquest. They caught Hippolyta's Amazons completely off guard, and for two days there was nothing but bloody battle in the city. Too late Circe's schemes became apparent. She used her magic to transport the entire island to another dimension, where for ten years in that place the Amazons were set upon by demons. Both tribes of Amazons had to band together or die, and for ten years they fought against the demons. As a reward, Hippolyta bequeathed a section of the undeveloped part of the island to her sister's tribe. Now they were back, and the nightmare was over. Diana recounted everything she had done in the months since their absence--Hippolyta was not pleased. She felt Diana had been wasting many opportunities to affect man's world as a whole. Hippolyta announced that she was not sure if she could trust Diana to represent the island anymore. Upset, Diana wandered away from the city with some friends, where she met Artemis for the first time. Diana was intrigued, if not particularly impressed, with his brash, arrogant young Amazon from the tribe of Antiope. As they were talking, word came that Hippolyta had made a decision--there would be a new contest, and perhaps a new Wonder Woman!



Zero Hour caused a timeout in the action, however, and Diana had to join her friends and help save the universe. Her part was rather small, however, although she did help Power Girl deliver her baby (although that baby seems to have disappeared and been dropped from canon anyway). Zero Hour caused subtle differences in the time stream. Now, instead of Diana having used a simple mask like all the other Amazons during the original contest, she used the Proteus Mask to literally change her appearance. Also, Diana's powers were said to not function while on the island. There were also some startling revelations about Hippolyta and her part in Heracles' madness (although these changes seem to also have been dropped in later canon).



Hippolyta meant to bar the Antiope Amazons from competing in the new contest, but she was overruled by a general vote among the Amazons. The Contest began, and Diana and Artemis quickly jump out ahead. Artemis has to discipline one of her followers who tries to assassinate Diana during the middle of the Contest--Artemis does not think that anyone but Diana can truly win, and that it is merely a means of Hippolyta getting at her daughter, but she is determined to keep her honor. Hippolyta discolosed to Phillipus that she had activated ancient magics, bringing to life monsters to battle the champions. The two were neck and neck during the last sprint--but seeing her mother ahead, Diana stumbled and fell. Artemis won the Contest--and the role of Wonder Woman.



Artemis was given the Wonder Woman outfit to wear. She was also given the Sandals of Hermes, which let her fly, and the Gauntlet of Atlas, which increases the strength of the wearer by a factor of ten. She also had her bow. Diana created a new suit of black (fairly skimpy, too) and headed back to Boston, too angry with her mother to listen to anything she had to say. Diana helped Artemis battle some minions of the White Magician before visiting her friends in the hospital. Donna Milton was fully recovered, but Julia was paralyzed. Artemis went to New York City where a public relations firm picked her up, offering to make her a well known presence. Artemis promised to succeed where Diana had failed. Diana had to help her friend Micah, in trouble again, before going off to help Hawkman.

Diana's teammates in the Justice League did not take kindly to the news that they was a new Wonder Woman. They refused to follow anyone other than Diana.



Boston was now caught in the middle of a gang war between the Sazia Family and the Paulie Longo family. Longo had the White Magician on his side, and all the beasts and creatures that came with him. Not to be out done, Mrs. Sazia hired Cheshire, Poison Ivy, and Cheetah. Diana was captured by the three villains. Cheetah, however, helped Diana escape, figuring she owed her one from their last encounter. Poison Ivy took out some of Longo's assassins that were coming for Sazia. The crime mistress was not safe, however, as the Joker himself decided to come to Boston (things in Gotham being a little too hectic lately). Longo was displeased with the Magician's work, as it had failed to overwhelm Sazia. The Magican decided he needed to draw more power. Diana managed to track down Sazia and the Joker--who had a vest of dynamite strapped to him. The timer was a ruse, however, and it sprayed Diana with a paralyzing gell. Descending into the realm of the gods, Diana became one with the god Pan, allowing her to shake off the paralysis and become (temporarily) almost as mad as the Joker and beat him at his own game. Meanwhile, Cheetah attacked the White Magician as he was preparing a spell to eliminate Sazia and Diana, causing him to miscast it and teleport them both away. Sazia managed to murder Longo before he got to her.



Artemis, frustrated and angry that the world had seemed to reject her, believed Diana was purposefully trying to disrupt her efforts as Wonder Woman. She tried to bring in Sazia, but the mob mistress evaded her. Diana, meanwhile, tracked down the Chauvenist and other thugs that Artemis had battled in her time as Wonder Woman. She discovered that they had all been hired by Artemis's agency, all for the sake of publicity. Diana managed to convince Artemis of this after a brief skirmish between the two. Afterwards, Diana decided she needed to go back home to get some answers from her mother.



Diana found her mother in the woods, disciplining herself for what had happened between her and Diana. She confessed that when they were in the other dimension, she had visions of the future--a future where Wonder Woman would die. That was the real reason she called for a new contest--a contest that she rigged, so that Artemis would die and Diana would live. When Hippolyta said she expected Diana to remain with her while Artemis faced certain death back in Boston, an angry Diana responded "then you lost me a long time ago."

Artemis was in trouble--the White Magician was back, but coming back from whatever realm he had gone to had changed him, transforming him into a powerful demon. He transformed Sazia and Cheetah into his minions and prepared for battle. As Artemis began a desperate struggle against the demon, Diana went first to the hospital. Her friends told her they thought she must have some kind of healing power--not only should Donna Milton and her baby have died in the explosion that killed Ares Buchanan, but Julia was almost completely recovered from her paralysis. Diana, however, realized the truth: Circe had been showing up, randomly attacking her before disappearing, with no rhyme or reason. Diana realized Circe had faked her death very well when she had gotten rid of Paradise Island--she had assumed another identity, and hid her own mind so well in that other mind that maybe she did not even remember. Diana fingered Donna Milton, who denied this truth, not willing to accept it. But when Diana pressed her, Donna got angry and a spell teleported Diana to Artemis's side. The two Amazons fought together in a desperate, impossible fight against the demon White Magician, the demon Cheetah, and the demon Sazia. When all seemed lost, Circe/Donna Milton turned up, and in a single burst of magic she disappeared, along with Cheetah and Sazia. Artemis, mortally wounded by the Magician, gave the Gauntlet of Atlas to Diana. With her strength thus amplified, Diana was able to put down the demon...and then hold Artemis as she died. The two found peace in that last moment.

Loebs wrote the character respectfully and the series sold well, but the artwork done by Mike Deodato (issues 89-100) portrayed the Amazon in skimpy outfits and sexualized poses, which drew criticism from feminists, and also portrayed all the Amazons as exclusively Caucasian,( with the exception of Phillipus),including the Amazon, Euboea, who was already established as being of Asian descent during Perez's run.

Back to Basics


Recently moved to Gateway City to get a new start, Diana begins investigating some otherworldly technology--which leads right to Darkseid, who captures Diana and brings her and a policeman named Mike Schorr to Apokolips. With the help of Metron, Diana and Schorr escaped back to Earth. Diana learned that Darkseid was after Themyscira. They got back after Darkseid had already invaded the Island. Wonder Woman rallied her sisters to make a stand against Darkseid. The dark god called the battle after a long hard fight. His parademons could be restored to life--the Amazons could not. Darkseid left the field, content with the damage done. Twelve hundred Amazons died, five hundred were injured. This meant that half the total population of the Island had perished. Diana learned that her mother had left the island before the battle, stepping down as queen. Diana is offered the crown, but declines and returns with Mike to Gateway.



In Gateway, Diana got a job at a museum, working for the curator Helena Sandsmark. She also met Helena's daughter Cassie Sandsmark. Cassie proved her penchant for getting into trouble early when she accidently reactivated a golem that had to be put down. Diana was then approached by the Phantom Stranger, who needed her help to stop a recent plot by Morgaine le Fay. Morgaine was working with Warly and had captured the Demon (Jason Blood). She used her power to sick Etrigan on Diana, but Phantom Stranger managed to lift the spell and the three of them went after Morgaine in her lair. Next she used Arion, enthralled by her spell, to attack them as they approached. Morgaine managed to capture them, and she had Vandal Savage and General Immortus as well. Morgaine had planned on using their immortality to extend her own life and power, but Diana--having given up immortality upon leaving Themyscira--disrupted the spell. She battled Morgaine, who disolved into dust.



Diana had thought Artemis was gone for good--but an unlikely adventure through Hell itself saw the return of her lost sister. See Wonder Woman (Artemis) for more details.

Diana joined up with the new Green Lantern (Kyle Rayner) to capture some renegade Khunds in Gateway.

A new hero calling himself Champion appears in Gateway. Before Diana can meet him, she faces a new threat. When a scientist's young son is fatally injured in his lab, the scientist transfers the boy's mind into a computer system. Unfortunately, the boy thinks he is actually playing a computer game, and uses his father's hard synthoid technology to create recreations of Flash (Barry Allen), Sinestro, and Doomsday who all run amok in Gateway. Champion joined the fray to help Diana, and then Cassie--making quick disguise and grabbing the Sandals of Hermes and Gauntlet of Atlas--decides to assist, calling herself Wonder Girl (although here she just gets in the way). The scientists manage to help Diana from the lab, even as Decay shows up and attacks them.

Cassie was eager to prove herself as Wonder Girl and Diana was eager to train her--but Helena emphatically rejected the idea. Cassie snuck out of the house, getting into a battle with Decay which almost ended in a stalemate. Diana, of course, showed up and defeated Decay. Meanwhile, back in Boston, Vanessa Kapatelis is still being plagued by nightmares because of Doctor Pscyho...but at long last she is able to turn the tables on him in her dreams.

Soon afterwards, Diana helped out in the Final Night, although aside from crowd control, her part was extremely minor. After that, she got involved with some of the Earth's greatest heroes to stop Know-Man. In the wake of that, a group of aliens called the Hyperclan arive, promising to help turn the Earth into paradise. Their cover is quickly broken, and they are discovered to be a group of renegade White Martians. After helping defeat the Martians, Diana joins with the others to become a charter member of the new Justice League. (See Justice League under "JLA" for more information about Diana's adventures with the team).

A series of minor earthquakes began to be felt worldwide. Three animal-men broke into the Gateway museum, then escaped in a transparent aircraft. They later broke into a second museum, only to escape again. Diana and Champion, using a private plane of his, tracked them to Antarctica, where they discovered the ancient city of Lansinar far beneath the ice and were captured by its inhabitants. The Challengers of the Unknown were there as well. The people there, living in darkness for 40,000 years, had no eyes, but their rulers--all who resembled ancient Egyptian deities--did. The rulers explained that long ago, theirs was an advanced city-state on a contient further north--but 400 centuries ago, the continent shifted to where it is now, burying them beneath the ice (this timeframe would seem to correspond with the fall of Atlantis as well). The four immortal rules took the form of beast men, and they traveled to Ancient Egypt and helped them build their grand civilization--but they were no match for the coming of Alexander the Great and the Greek Gods that came with him. Some of the rulers were then imprisoned for centuries. Now they desired to return their continent to its proper place. Diana pointed out to them that their loyal followers could not long survive away from the home they had always known. The leaders decided to stay where they were, and they gave Diana a Lansinar morphing disc--a transparent object that could transform into anything she wished (like an invisible jet). After they got back to Gateway, Mike Schorr expressed his attraction to Diana, but she told him she was not interested in him that way (she was also being hit on by Champion).



In the many weeks or months since Diana came to Gateway, Hippolyta had been wandering the city streets under the name "Polly," befriending a few people but refusing to explain her origins. She had to be hospitalized, however, when her body began to change into stone. One of her new friends, a psychic named Angelica, discovered who she really was. Diana, meanwhile, was searching for Mike Schorr, who had gone missing. She found him in the lair of a savage, feral Cheetah. Attempting to strike Cheetah, Diana missed and struck a wall--only to have her hand shatter as if made of clay! Cheetah had made a deal with Neron during Underworld Unleashed--she had sold her soul in exchange for her assistant, Mr Chuma being restored to life. Unfortunately, with no soul in place, the base, savage aspects of the Cheetah began to overwhelm Minerva. With Chuma's help, Diana managed to revert Cheetah back to human form. Jason Blood returned to help Diana figure out what had happened to her hand. As Diana went over her whole history with Jason, she had a sudden feeling--a sense that something had happened to her mother. With Champion's help, Diana was able to find her mother--who had now completely turned to stone. Diana was fast turning that way too. Champion and her friends decided to take her home. Arriving on Paradise Island, they found the entire population of the city turned to stone--all save Eudia, the Oracle, who had not yet fully turned. She said that what had happened occurred because the gods had left the earth--but she pointed to Champion, and revealed him to truly be Heracles in disguise. In anger, Diana lashed out at him--and crumbled into dust.

The Greek gods now reentered the scene. They called Heracles to their location and after he explained himself--saying that originally he became Champion out of a desire for revenge but later fell in love with Diana--the gods realize that their departure from earth is what triggered the Amazons reverting to the stone and clay from which they came (although presumably, the Antiope Amazons would not have converted). They restored Diana to life, and ordered a hearing: Julia and Vanessa, Steve and Etta, and Helena and Cassie were all summoned to Olympus. After the hearing, the gods decided to return to Earth, and with their return, the Amazons were restored to flesh. Before being sent home, Cassie managed to grab an audience with Zeus, who decided to grant her wish of becoming a superhero.

Diana was gathered with Helena and Cassie Sandsmark and Jason Blood when Artemis stormed in, trying to kill Blood. Diana was forced to battle Artemis. She was joined in battle when Blood transformed into Etrigan and Cassie exhibited the new powers given to her by Zeus. The fight spilled out on the streets of Gateway. Hippolyta, who had returned to visit the friends she made from her wandering days, saw the fight--and Artemis--on television. She suddenly became terrified--with Artemis alive again, would the cost be Diana's life? She and her entourage raced to the scene. Neron then showed upon the battlefield, and took all the parties present to Hell. Neron split Jason from Etrigan, tormenting the former and Helena, whom he cared for, while forcing Diana to battle Etrigan. Artemis managed to free herself and Cassie and in the process they found another of Neron's prisoners, Merlin. Artemis used the silver "ornaments" on her costume to injure Neron, but before withdrawing, the demon lord blasted Diana with a lethal bolt. Everyone was transported back to Gateway--with Diana lying an inch from death.



Diana was taken to the hospital. Donna Troy came, herself having just lost her son and ex-husband in a car accident. One by one, the other members of the Justice League showed up. They tried to heal Diana, but they could not, and she was all but dead. As her friends, both in and out of the League kept vigil, her recovery looked bleak. Being incapacitated, Diana was not able to participate in the Genesis Crossover, which involved not only the machinations of Darkseid to control the Source, but also involved the evil of the war god Ares--evil that nearly destroyed the gods of Olympus themselves. Ares and Darkseid were both imprisoned on the Source Wall at the end of the conflict. (see the Genesis article for more information).

Hippolyta, Donna Troy, and Cassandra had to rescue Diana from a rogue doctor who had hoped to transfer her consciousness into Diana's body. It only reconfirmed what they had dreaded, however--Diana seemed trully dead. The gods intervened, however, answering everyone's prayers--Diana was resurrected, not just as a mortal, but as the new Goddess of Truth. Queen Hera told Diana her days as Wonde Woman were over. Diana was uneasy in her new role, being told my her fellow goddesses that she can only aid those who call on her help. Meanwhile, on Themyscira, the Amazons decided that Hippolyta, having betrayed the trust of the island with her actions regarding Diana and Artemis, must be forced to do a pennance: she must become the new Wonder Woman. This was made all the more possible by Hippolyta's augmentation thanks to her contact with the Source during the Genesis crisis. See Wonder Woman (Hippolyta) for more information regarding Hippolyta's tenure as Wonder Woman. Diana, remained on Olympus, learning the true history of the dichotomy between the Roman/Greek pantheons.

It was during Hippolyta's time as Wonder Woman that the "true" history of Donna Troy was at last revealed. When Diana was a child, the Amazon sorceress Magdala used a spell to create a perfect duplicate of Diana to be her playmate. No one but the three of them knew. Six months later, Dark Angel, an enemy of Hippolyta's from when she traveled back in time, came to the island and kidnapped the duplicate, thinking she was the original Diana, and forced her to live a thousand different lives that all ended in tragedy. Thanks to Diana's intervention, Donna Troy was restored to life (with some help from the Flash), but Diana was "punished" for her interference by being made back into a mortal again. Her mother eagerly stepped aside to let her resume her role as Wonder Woman.

Devastation of the Gods
Circe reemerged, seeking revenge against Hippolyta and Diana. She used her magic to cause Hippolyta to forget who she was, resulting in Hippolyta thinking she was the wife of a man who had lost his (and he thought she was his wife), and the same went for the man's son. Diana eventually broke through Circe's spell and reclaimed Hippolyta's memory, who then went back to Themyscira.

The ancient god Chronus emerged from the depths of time, desiring to be the new supreme god of all. He created a new pantheon for himself, and with his pantheon created a twisted doppleganger of Diana, the child villain known as Devastation.

Infinite Crisis Era


While under the mind control of Maxwell Lord, Superman brutally beat Batman and engaged in a vicious fight with Wonder Woman, thinking she was his enemy, Doomsday. During the fight with Superman, she realized that even if she could somehow beat Superman the problem would not be solved, because he'd still be under the absolute mental control of Max Lord. She created a diversion that lasted long enough for her to race back to Max Lord and demand he tell her how to free Superman of his control. Bound in her lasso of truth Max replied, "Kill me," and Wonder Woman snapped his neck.

The ramifications of this action are expected to resonate in the future; her relationships with both Superman and Batman are seriously strained. The status of Wonder Woman amongst the other heroes and the public at large is uncertain; the Brother Eye satellite (the deranged Artificial Intelligence controlling the OMACs) broadcast the footage of Wonder Woman murdering Maxwell Lord, preceded by the word MURDER, to media outlets all over the world.

Wonder Woman defended herself from several OMACs who attacked her in her own home. Having repelled the assailants, she was delivering an injured boy to the hospital at the close of the issue and saw a broadcast of the damaging video on the waiting room's television. She witnessed first-hand how people viewing the footage reacted with fear and revulsion; Brother Eye had managed to kill the faith the world had in her. At the start of Infinite Crisis, Batman and Superman distrust her: the latter can only see her as a coldblooded murderer, the former sees in her an expression of the mentality that led several members of the League to decide to mindwipe their villains. (When he tried to stop the League from mindwiping Dr. Light after the villain brutally raped Sue Dibny, Batman's memory was also altered.)



To make matters worse, Brother Eye, acting out of vengeance for the murder of Lord, initiated the final protocol Truth and Justice which aims at the elimination of all Amazons. A full-scale invasion of Themyscira is set into motion, utilizing every remaining OMAC. Diana and her countrywomen, now isolated and alienated from the outside world, are fighting for their lives. The Amazons prepare to destroy the OMACs with a powerful new weapon. However, Wonder Woman realizes that Brother Eye is watching and transmitting, and that unleashing such destructive violence would only exacerbate the effects of her killing of Maxwell Lord. After the weapon (the Purple Ray of Death) is used once, Wonder Woman convinces the Amazons to shut it down. She then calls upon Athena, who transports Paradise Island and the Amazons remaining on it to another dimension. However, Wonder Woman chooses not to join them, and is left to face the OMACs alone.

One Year Later
One Year Later Donna Troy has taken up the mantle of Wonder Woman, after a year in which Diana was missing.

Diana re-appears in the familiar guise of Diana Prince, secret agent, complete with an updated version of the white jumpsuit she sported in the early 1970s (Batman has helped her create her new secret identity.) Diana joins the Department of Metahuman Affairs, and is partnered with Nemesis. During her introduction to the team, she is brought up to speed on the surveillance information available on Wonder Woman. Prior to dropping out of sight, Wonder Woman was last observed in the company of an eastern mystic named I Ching (a reference to the late 60s-early 70s version of the character). The World Court has dropped the charges against Diana for the killing of Maxwell Lord.

Her first mission to save Donna Troy from a team of supervillains is joined by Cassie Sandsmark, Robin, Nemesis and the gods' new champion, Hercules. After revealing herself, Circe steals their powers and Diana is betrayed by Hercules who reveals he and Circe were the only gods who defied Athena's edict to vacate the mortal plane. Circe then betrays Hercules and de-powers him as well. Eventually Diana's powers are restored and she twirls into Wonder Woman for the first time since handing over that title to her sister Donna.

Diana Prince's interaction with a women's movement that has established a series of "Athenian Women's Help Shelters," to which are brought women who have been abused and have taken action to defend themselves.

Diana is captured and imprisoned by the Department of Metahuman affairs, led by an imposter Sarge Steel. She is tortured and interrogated to garner information that will allow the United States government to build a Purple Death Ray like the one the Amazons revealed during Infinite Crisis. Moments prior to the Amazon assault on Washington, D.C., Diana is freed by Nemesis.

Circe travels to Themyscira and resurrects Queen Hippolyta. (Hippolyta's first words are: "Where is my daughter?") Under Circe's influence, the queen leads an assault on the United States.

Wonder Woman asks Kate Spencer (whom she knows to be Manhunter) to represent her before the Federal grand jury empaneled to determine if she should be tried for the murder of Maxwell Lord (even though she has been exonerated by the World Court). With the help of Sasha Bordeaux of Checkmate, Kate Spencer obtains a video of Wonder Woman killing Maxwell Lord which proves that Max was in control of Superman when she killed him. However, Wonder Woman will not allow Kate to use the evidence, as it would lead people to distrust Superman. Upon concluding their deliberations, the grand jurors refuse to indict Diana.

Diana, Superman, and Batman meet to re-form the Justice League. After a battle against Solomon Grundy, Green Lantern (Hal Jordan) and Black Canary offer membership to those involved in the last mission. The JLA and JSA join forces when members of the Legion of Super-Heroes are discovered in the 21st Century.

Known Powers: Diana received gifts of power from the Gods:
 * Powers                 =

Super-Strength: Granted by Demeter (Goddess of the Earth). Diana is literally as strong as the earth because of her link to the planet granted to her by Demeter. She is quite possibly capable of lifting anything on earth. It is obvious her strength is magical in nature, given her height and weight. Her strength is near the order of Superman's or Captain Marvel's. She is easily able to lift a 100 tons. With her superhuman strength and superior fighting abilities, she has proven to be a match for either one of them at one time or another.

Near Invulnerability: High resistance to damage and magical attacks. Granted by Demeter (Goddess of the Earth). Her resistance to injury is not quite as great as any of the above mentioned metahumans. She has withstood considerable bludgeoning damage in the form of hand to hand combat with metahuman opponents (such as Superman and Captain Marvel) and physical damage (as seen when she is knocked back through two multi-story office buildings and then buried beneath them). She has considerable resistance to human weaponries, although there are inconsistancies in her ability to resist injury, the variances are probably due to discrepancies in observation. Born of the clay of Themyscira, and given life and divine powers by the gods themselves, Diana has heightened resistance to magical attacks. She is highly experienced in battling foes who use sorcery as a weapon. As a divine creation herself, she is less susceptible to manipulation by magic than many of her fellow powerhouse heroes. Her body is also able to survive in extreme environments like outer space.

Flight: Granted by Hermes (God of Messengers). Wonder Woman is capable of unassisted flight through an as yet unknown but probably magical means. Her aerial maneuverability is not as developed as aerial combatants such as Hawkman or the Black Condor, but she is a relatively capable aerial combatant as well. However she is unable to survive long unaided in space.

Super Speed: Granted by Hermes (God of Messengers). She is able to think, react and move at superhuman speeds. She has been clocked at Mach 3 (2,100 mph) in flight for about an hour and can be presumed to be much faster if she wanted to be.Her super-speed, while impressive, is not comparable to that of the Flash. But at least enough to move in excess of orbital velocity (5 miles a second)and perhaps even escape velocity. Since Wonder Woman lacks the speed aura of true speedsters, the environmental effects/disruptions that she causes probably prevent her from utilizing superspeed mobility as a common mode of travel. It is unknown how long she can maintain a speedster's average pace (which we clock at approximately 125 mph (2.08 miles/second) to 200 mph (3.3 mile/sec) innercity and 225 mph (3.75 miles/sec) to 500 mph (8.3 miles/sec) over land outside of cities).

Superhuman Reflexes: Granted by Hermes (God of Messengers). Wonder Woman possesses reflex abilities similar to lower-level speedsters such as Jesse Quick and Max Mercury, somewhere in the range of 8 to 20 times normal human reflexes with concentration. She, however, does not maintain her enhanced speed awareness due to the temporal difficulties such thinking causes her. She seems able to keep up with Jesse Quick, referencing her patron diety of speed and messenger of the gods, Hermes as the source of her powers.

Animal Rapport: Granted by Artemis (Goddess of the Hunt). Ability to communicate with all forms of animals (including dinosaurs) and her presence alone can bring a raging beast to a calm standstill.

Enhanced Senses: Granted by Artemis (Goddess of the Hunt). Her Sight, Smell, hearing are greatly increased, She also possess the "Hunters Eye" which allows her to always hit her mark. Wonder Woman was briefly blinded, then had her sight restored by Athena. Since then, she has had the sight of Athena, a power that apparently grants increased insight. (For example, Diana can often detects others' emotions, and is now so fully immune to Doctor Psycho's illusions that she usually is not even aware of what illusions he is attempting to project, apparently mind control doesn't work on her either).

Enhanced Healing: Granted by Demeter (Goddess of Earth). Like the Earth, Diana is constantly renewing herself, allowing her to quickly heal. In cases where she was gravely injured or poisoned, Diana showed the ability to physically merge with the earth, causing whatever injuries or poisons to be expelled from her body as it regains shape.

Beauty: Granted by Aphrodite (Goddess of Love).

Wisdom: Granted by Athena (Goddess of Wisdom). possesses great wisdom and intelligence, though the degree varies from author to author. She is among the most intelligent members of the Justice League of America, along with the Martian Manhunter and Batman.

Oneness with fire: Granted by Hestia (Goddess of the Hearth). Apparent making her a focus of truth.

Master Combatant: Diana is the finest warrior ever born among the Amazons of Themyscira. She is a master of armed and unarmed combat, proficient with nearly every weapon ever made (especially the bow and the javelin) and the exotic martial arts styles of the Amazons. Because those martial skills are unknown outside of Themyscira, it is almost impossible to defeat her in battle. Batman once remarked that Wonder Woman is the best melee fighter in the world.
 * Abilities              =

Master Strategist & Tactician: Diana is also an accomplished strategist and tactician, trained in the arts of leadership, persuasion and diplomacy, and possesses a great deal of courage as well.

Polylingual: Diana has exhibited heightened proficiency with languages, being able to speak her native Themysciran, Ancient and Modern Greek, English, Portuguese, Spanish, French, Mandarin Chinese (she expressed "difficulty" with the tones of Cantonese during an interview with Lois Lane), Russian, and Hindi. Wonder Woman's physical strength is superhuman, comparable to that of Superman. Arguably the second strongest superhero after Superman.
 * Strength               =

Earth Connection: Due to Wonder Woman's origin her powers are tied to the Earth. Consequently, a prolonged time in space starts to diminish her powers. This loss of power affects her strength, invulnerability and Endurance every day. As long as Diana remains within the life-giving Gaea-sphere around the Earth, everything is ok.
 * Weaknesses             =

Build Disadvantage: It is interesting to note that her height and weight make her vulnerable to attacks that cannot be blocked and that potentially move her from location to location. Repulsion technology might be an efficient means of attacking and subduing her since she cannot block area effect attacks and her true height and weight are independent of her strength.

Piercing Weapon Vulnerability: Wonder Woman is vulnerable to piercing weapons.

Energy Vulnerability: She is also vulnerable to electrical and energy attacks.


 * Equipment              =
 * Indestructible Gauntlets: modeled after the shackles the Amazons were once enslaved with. The gauntlets were formed from the remains of Zeus's legendary Aegis shield, and were re-forged for her use by Hephaestus. Diana's superhuman reflexes enable her to use the gauntlets to easily deflect projectiles (such as bullets) and powerful energy blasts from beings such as Ares and Darkseid. She is even fast enough to protect herself from multi-vector attacks. At close-range the gauntlets block blades, weapons and punches. In some stories, Diana has used the gauntlets as a dual defensive/offensive weapon, redirecting energy blasts back to their point of origin or other targets. When crossed, the gauntlets generate a remnant of the Aegis itself, forming an impenetrable barrier just in front of them which allows Diana to protect herself and those behind her from area attacks.With bracelets forged by Hephastes, Wonder Woman boosts her resistance to injury with her near-indestructible bracelets. She is able to deflect attacks that might otherwise cause her considerable injury but she can only deflect attacks she is aware of.


 * Lansarian Morphing Disk: Wonder Woman has at her disposal a small lightweight disc of alien (Lansinar) technology that, when triggered by her thoughts, transforms into a transparent version of whatever object or vehicle is appropriate for her needs. The device has been used for several purposes, including a communication device, but is most frequently used by Wonder Woman in the form of an invisible jet plane, thus reintroducing this vehicle for the first time in post-Crisis continuity. She has also used the amorphous disc in partnership with Green Lantern's power ring, to hold Earth's moon together while shifting its orbit.


 * Transportation         = Flight commonly.
 * Invisible Jet


 * Weapons                =
 * Lasso of Truth
 * Boomerang Tiara: Diana's golden tiara also doubles as a throwing weapon, as it is razor-edged and can cut through most substances.


 * Notes                  =
 * The character of Wonder Woman was originally created by William Moulton Marston.


 * According to DC comics official statistics, Wonder Woman stands 5 ft 11 in and weighs 140 lbs. However, comic book depictions consistantlly portray her as equal to Batman and Superman in height with heels as they are 6 ft 3 in this would put her at approximatlly 6 ft 1 in.


 * The prospect of Wonder Woman and Superman as a possible romantic couple has long been a question posed by fans, with the two characters occasionally being depicted as having a mutual on again/off again attraction to each other, perhaps because they view each other as male/female reflections of themselves. During the John Byrne era of Superman, the Man of Steel had intense dreams and fantasies about Wonder Woman, which he suspected might have been his subconcious telling him Wonder Woman was his most likely chance for a potential romantic partner. The idea of Wonder Woman and Aquaman as a couple has also been proposed, in part because of their frequent team pairings in the Super Friends cartoons, and also because it would be an allusion to Wonder Woman's Silver Age romance with Manno the Mer-Man. During JLA Batman and Wonder Woman shared a mutual attraction but Batman was too uncomfortable and used the excuse of fighting a crime to run out on their date.


 * Wonder Woman's exact strength range has never been precisely determined, but it appears to be similar to the strength levels of Superman and Captain Marvel.


 * John Byrne would be the lead writer starting with issue #101. Several changes came along with Byrne: Diana relocated from Boston to Gateway City; her costume was redesigned (the "braclets" now covered most of her forearms, the pants were no longer "star-spangled"); and much of the supporting cast was replaced. John Byrne emphasized a "back-to-basics" approach, reincorporating some of the more classic elements and focusing on Diana's role as a superhero. His run received mixed critical reviews, although compared to the series under Perez and later under Jiminez, it is sometimes cited as the lowpoint of the series.


 * Post-Crisis, Wonder Woman was rebooted in 1987. Writer Greg Potter, who previously created the Jemm, Son of Saturn series for DC, was hired to rework the character. He spent several months behind the scenes working with editor Janice Race on new concepts before being joined by writer/artist George Pérez. Potter dropped out of writing the series after issue #2, and Perez became the sole plotter with help from writer Len Wein, who wrote the series' finished dialogue.

John Byrne left the title with issue #136. After two issue written by Christopher Priest, Eric Luke became the regular writer for issues #139-159.

Comic book fans and critics consider Perez's 60-issue run one of the highlights of Wonder Woman's history. Pérez and Potter gave her a pro-woman personality, and Perez's extensive research into Greek mythology gave more depth and verisimilitude to Wonder Woman's world than in her previous incarnation.

Phil Jimenez produced a run which was likened in some ways to Pérez's, particularly since Jimenez' art bears a striking resemblance to his.

Recently, the writing on the series was turned over to Greg Rucka, whose initial story arc involved a book Wonder Woman had written which caused controversy. The initial arc was full of political subtexts, but more recent storylines have involved the mythology aspect.

The second Wonder Woman series was among several series that were cancelled at the conclusion of the Infinite Crisis storyline, specifically as part of the "One Year Later..." event focused around the weekly series 52. The final issue was #226. At the end of Infinite Crisis, we see Diana giving up the mantle of Wonder Woman to get in touch with her "human" side. This is probably inspired by her meeting with the Wonder Woman of Earth-Two.


 * Post-Crisis, Steve Trevor was now an Air Force officer considerably older than Diana's apparent age, thus sidestepping the traditional romance between the two. Instead, Trevor became involved with Etta Candy, who herself became a mature military officer of good standing and a large, but realistic physique. The Greek war god Ares and the Greek witch Circe eventually become two of Diana's greatest enemies. Diana's enemy list also included the Cheetah who was a woman who could transform into a powerful and ferocious feline-humanoid creature.


 * A significant change in Diana's Post-Crisis history was that she was one of the late comers to the super hero community--relatively 5-6 years after most of the other heroes had debuted. This meant that she was not one of the founding members of the Justice League.  Her place in history was replaced by Black Canary. Diana emerged on the scene during the Legends adventure.


 * Trivia                 =
 * In the alternate future seen in Kingdom Come Superman and Wonder Woman became a couple and are expecting a child together.


 * In Dark Knight Strikes again not only have Superman & Wonder Woman become a couple (albeit estranged) they have a daughter Lara.

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 * Links                  =

Recommended Readings

 * Wonder Woman (Volume 2)
 * Wonder Woman (Volume 3)
 * Wonder Woman: Gods of Gotham

Animated


The animated Justice League series on the Cartoon Network in the 2000s was the first chance to add Wonder Woman (voiced here by Susan Eisenberg) to the DCAU, her rights having been previously tied up in possible movies and television shows. To introduce her anew into a landscape already populated by famed and experienced heroes like Batman and Superman, Bruce Timm and his team decided to take a cue from the George Pérez newcomer-to-Man's-world interpretation. This Diana started off with complete innocence of Man's world, coupled with a certain adherance to Amazonian dogma and class structure (causing her teammates to react to her attitude by calling her "Princess" somewhat disdainfully). Also like the Pérez version, she does not keep a secret identity, and so she quickly becomes an international celebrity for her heroism (as seen in Maid of Honor). Seemingly unique to this incarnation, though, is the noticable effect of Man's World on Diana. Her first appearances are marked by her constantly acting off of Amazonian beliefs and ideas (in Fury, she questions how necessary men really are), but as time passes, she becomes more interested in men - in particular, Batman, with whom she has a consistently flirtatious relationship (a source of controversy among fans) - and also experiences the emotional excesses of Man's world, as compared to the Amazons (who are portrayed as emotionally stunted and stiff). She finds joy, but she also begins to develop a massive temper that on multiple occasions needs to be derailed by her teammates (Hereafter, Hawk and Dove, Eclipsed, and many more). After recent episodes that have dealt directly with her temper, Diana seems to be keeping it relatively in check and has adopted the role of ambassador of the Amazons (on the request of her mother) as first seen in To Another Shore, making for another comic-borne trait that the DCAU Wonder Woman has taken to heart.

Alternate Realities

 * Superman: Red Son: In an reality where Superman's spaceship landed in Russia rather than the United States, Wonder Woman is a friend and love interest for Superman until he becomes an evil dictator. She then leads an Amazonian army against him, but she and her entire army are eventually defeated by him.
 * Wonder Woman: Amazonia: by William Messner-Loebs. Set in an imaginary Victorian-era England. This book was a top votegetter for the Comics Buyer's Guide Fan Award for Favorite Original Graphic Novel for 1998.
 * Superman/Wonder Woman: Whom Gods Destroy: Set in a Nazi-controlled future.
 * Just Imagine: Marvel Comics' Stan Lee and artist Jim Lee reimagine Wonder Woman as Peruvian María Mendoza, reborn as a warrior who wields a staff forged by Incan gods.
 * Kingdom Come: Set in the future, Wonder Woman has been stripped of her royal heritage because of the world's chaos and battle. She convinced Superman to come out of exile and becomes his lieutenant in their crusade against the meta-humans, but she is far more willing than Superman to admit that all out war might be necessary--and war means casualties.
 * Wonder Woman The Blue Amazon is the third volume of the Elseworlds trilogy Superman's Metropolis and features a Diana Prince based on the film Der blaue Engel.
 * Wonder Woman: Tangent comics. A genetically engineered being intended to bridge the gaps between two warring species of aliens, one with brute strength, the other with psionic powers. This being possesses both.

Related Articles

 * Wonder Woman image gallery
 * Wonder Woman/Appearances
 * Superman
 * Cheetah
 * Batman