Arr-rr-rgh! I hate them - that arrogant Amazon, and Darling the hypocrite - I'd like to scratch their eyes out! 
- — Cheetah
Wonder Woman #6 is an issue of the series Wonder Woman (Volume 1) with a cover date of September, 1943.
Synopsis for "Wonder Woman and the Cheetah"
Wonder Woman is headlining an eagerly anticipated charity performance but her popularity inadvertently angers the program's spokesperson, society debutante Priscilla Rich. Consumed with near psychotic jealousy, Priscilla secretly sabotages Wonder Woman's act, a complex water tank escape. Though she nearly drowns, the amazing amazon improvises quickly enough to escape, winning even more accolades.
After the performance, Priscilla's ego continues to self-destruct. It reaches a nadir when the event's treasurer, Courtley Darling, cancels a date with Priscilla in favor of partying with Wonder Woman. As she broods in her bedroom, Priscilla is suddenly confronted by the image of her repressed secret personality in the vanity mirror: a snarling, ruthless, beastlike woman. This alternate personality quickly dominates Priscilla, compelling her to create a costume from a cheetah-skin rug, and become a new villainess, the Cheetah.
Possessing all the stealth and grace of her namesake, Cheetah effortlessly steals the money Wonder Woman's performance had raised and then sneaks into Wonder Woman's bedroom and prepares to knife the sleeping Amazon. Only a last-second whim convinces her to forgo the murder. Instead, she frames her enemies for stealing the money. The next day, Wonder Woman and Darling are charged but the former accepts all blame, leaving Darling free.
Hours later, Wonder Woman is sent bail and a lawyer's card by an anonymous friend. The card leads her to a local granary, where she finds Cheetah and a bound Darling. At gunpoint, the Cheetah forces her enemies to jump into the main wheat bin, intending for them to suffocate in its millions of grains. Meanwhile, Steve and Etta prepare a real lawyer for Wonder Woman only to learn about her friend from the police. The pair find the granary just as Wonder Woman is starting to free herself and help her save the near-suffocated Darling.
As the quartet escape, they discover Cheetah trying to burn it down. Upon seeing her quarry free, Cheetah is paralyzed with anger and falls into her own blaze. The case now seems closed; Darling claims to have a confession of the frame up. Nevertheless, Wonder Woman ponder the true motivation behind her latest opponent's scheme.
Appearing in "Wonder Woman and the Cheetah"
Featured Characters:
Supporting Characters:
Antagonists:
- Cheetah (First appearance) (Origin) (Apparent Death)
Other Characters:
- Courtley Darling (Single appearance)
- Inspector Dugan (Single appearance)
- Detective Casey
Locations:
- Washington, D.C.
- 400 Club
- Capital Grain Co.
Items:
Synopsis for "The Adventure of the Beauty Club"
During a rash of espionage, Diana is inexplicably invited to the Beauty Club, a posh salon servicing many army officers' wives. The suspicious Diana accepts, and soon learns her patron is none other than Priscilla Rich, a fact that confirms Diana's theory of Priscilla being the (now-dead) Cheetah. Moments later, however, she discovers a new conspiracy involving salon manager Brenda West and a strange stenographer named Gail Young. Diana changes into Wonder Woman and lassos Gail, extracting a truly incredible story from her in the process.
Gail and Brenda had once been friends of Priscilla. Gail is a genuine telepath, but one who only reads minds for light entertainment. At one of Priscilla's parties, Gail had accidentally revealed secrets about Brenda's fiancé, a commander of a secret airbase in China. Priscilla, jealous of Brenda's romance, regressed into her Cheetah personae and abducted the girls. By threatening to leak the airbase secrets to the Japanese and implicate Brenda's fiancé as a traitor, Cheetah blackmailed Brenda and Gail into doing her bidding. As her slaves, the girls' main duty was to use the Beauty Club to blackmail other women that the Cheetah envied, such as the wives of army officers. While Brenda relaxed them with beauty treatments, Gail read their minds and recorded their secrets, secrets which now included Wonder Woman's dual identity!
To her horror, Gail soon learns that the Cheetah has already leaked several secrets to the Japanese, badly damaging the war effort. Seconds later, she is caught by Cheetah who accuses her of betrayal and spirits her away. Lacking the time to search the salon's many secret passages, Wonder Woman deploys Etta to rescue Gail and then flies to China with Steve, determined to disrupt the Japanese intelligence as quickly as possible.
At the first Japanese base she finds, Wonder Woman surrenders and is taken prisoner. As the base's officers prepare to torture her, the amazon sows chaos by using ventriloquism to impersonate each officer, making them disagree with one another. In the confusion, Wonder Woman escapes and reunites with Steve who estimates her disruption has bought the allies more than enough time for reinforcement. Subsequently, Etta reports a successful rescue at the salon. But the Cheetah remains at large, already planning her next attack.
Appearing in "The Adventure of the Beauty Club"
Featured Characters:
Supporting Characters:
- Etta Candy
- Col. Phil Darnell
- Agnes (Single appearance)
- Maj. Steve Trevor
Antagonists:
- Cheetah
- Gen. Snidu (Single appearance)
- Col. Chinda (Single appearance)
- Private Itchi (Single appearance)
- Col. Chinda (Single appearance)
Other Characters:
- Brenda West (Single appearance)
- Gail Young
Locations:
- China
- Hoochin Air Base
- United States of America
- Washington, D.C.
- Army Intelligence Headquarters
- Beauty Club
- Washington, D.C.
Items:
Vehicles:
Synopsis for Wonder Women of History: "Madame Chiang Kai-Shek"
Appearing in Wonder Women of History: "Madame Chiang Kai-Shek"
Featured Characters:
Synopsis for "The Conquest of Paradise"
An army drill sergeant denounces Wonder Woman's superhuman feats as hoaxes, only to be given a personal and humiliating demonstration by the Amazon herself. Although impressed, the Sergeant remains skeptical about the Amazon training which Wonder Woman claims can give such power to any ordinary girl. To prove her claims, Wonder Woman proposes a mini Olympics, pitting a team of Amazons against America's best female athletes.
The Sergeant's handpicked American team soon arrives on Paradise Island. Their opponents are Paula's former slave girls, all now amazons in training. Both parties are unaware that the American team's hurdler, Kay Carlton, has been kidnapped and impersonated by Cheetah. Only Gail Young, a stowaway on Wonder Woman's invisible plane, has some inkling but her telepathy fails to provide enough details for Wonder Woman to act.
As the amazons in training (wearing their chains as deliberate handicaps) win event after event, the Cheetah becomes more and more enraged, until she brazenly challenges Paula to high hurdles. Upon realizing how fast Paula is, the ersatz hurdler wins through flagrant cheating, a victory that Paula nevertheless concedes, having appreciated the challenge. Further enraged by what she sees as pity, Cheetah hunts for the secret to the Amazons' power, eventually determining that it stems from Queen Hippolyta's golden girdle.
Near midnight, the Cheetah sneaks into the Queen's palace and steals the girdle which she dons herself. With her strength augmented, she kidnaps the Queen, intending to declare herself ruler over all of Paradise Island with Hippolyta as a hostage. When Gail tries to investigate, Cheetah quickly overpowers her and erases her memories with a magical drug. Wonder Woman and the other Amazons find Gail, as well as their captive Queen, the next morning.
The Cheetah soon re-appears, threatening to kill the Queen if she is not obeyed. Thinking fast, Wonder Woman taunts the villainess into one-on-one combat, handily winning and recovering the stolen girdle in one fell swoop. The Cheetah is then unmasked as Priscilla Rich, and bound with the Lasso of Truth, whereupon she confesses all her insecurities and begs for Amazon training to better control her feral personality.
Appearing in "The Conquest of Paradise"
Featured Characters:
Supporting Characters:
- Etta Candy
- Amazons
- Carla
- Claudia
- Mala
- Queen Hippolyta
- Paula von Gunther
- Col. Steve Trevor
Antagonists:
Other Characters:
- Kay Carlton (Single appearance)
- Berta Hale (Single appearance)
- Gail Young
- Sgt. Doot (Single appearance)
Locations:
- Paradise Island
- United States of America
- Washington, D.C.
- Army Intelligence Headquarters
- Washington, D.C.
Items:
- Bracelets of Submission
- Girdle of Hippolyta
- Lasso of Truth
- Cheetah's Magic Amnesia Drug
Vehicles:
Notes
- Published quarterly by Wonder Woman Publishing Company, Inc.
- Previous issue was "bi-monthly", prior to that it was "quarterly".
- This complete issue is reprinted in:
- Wonder Woman Archives, Volume 3
- Wonder Woman: The Golden Age Omnibus Vol. 1
- "Wonder Woman and the Cheetah" is individually reprinted in Limited Collectors Edition C-45.
- "The Adventure of the Beauty Club" cites a Dr. Rhine from Duke University as scientifically proving ESP's existence. This is a reference to Joseph Banks Rhine, whose experiments in ESP during the 1930s (though criticized even at the time) gave the concept credibility in popular culture.
- Wonder Woman is shown being able to operate inside Japanese-occupied China without falling under the influence of the Dragon King's Sphere of Influence. Obviously the Sphere of Influence concept was not created during Golden Age itself, as it is a retcon.
- Gail Young is the first mortal to learn Wonder Woman's secret identity, though her knowledge is erased by the end of "The Conquest of Paradise".
- Also appearing in this issue of Wonder Woman was:
- "Hop Harrigan and the Radiosonde" (text story, featuring Hop Harrigan), by Jon L. Blummer.