| ||||
All Star Comics | ||||
Issue # | 8 | |||
Cover Date | December/January 1942 | |||
* Release Date | October 21-25, 1941[1] | |||
Next Issue | All Star Comics #11 |
"Introducing Wonder Woman"
- Written by William Moulton Marston
- Art by Harry G. Peter
Synopsis
In the skies above the open ocean, a military plane begins its unruly descent toward Paradise Island. The crash site is approached by two women, Mala and a "princess", who are shocked to find a man as the craft's only occupant. He is brought to the hospital where it is discovered that his papers identify him as Captain Steve Trevor, enlisted in the U.S. Army Intelligence Service. The Queen, Hippolyte, orders the doctor to keep his eyes covered while she nurses him back to health, and declares that he must leave the island as soon as he's well.
The princess spends several days assisting the doctor, and slowly begins to fall in love with Trevor. The Queen forbids her daughter from seeing the man, and tells her the story of how the Amazon women came to be on Paradise Island.
During Trevor's convalescence, mother and daughter use the Magic Sphere to discern the nature of his arrival on the island. Two Nazi agents named Von Storm and Fritz had hijacked an experimental robot plane and attempted to bomb an army airfield, but Trevor heroically took control of the plane and drove the Nazis away. He was in pursuit of Fritz' fighter across the ocean, when he crashed on the island.
After revelatory counsel from Aphrodite and Athena, Hippolyte decrees that an Amazon agent should be sent to the United States to aid the Americans against hate and oppression. She holds a great tournament to determine which of her warriors should act as their good will ambassador. Her daughter wants to participate in the tournament, but Hippolyte forbids it.
The princess disguises herself with a simple mask and enters the tournament anyway. She masters every competition and becomes one of two finalists to compete in the bullets and bracelets competition. The princess emerges triumphant, at which time her identity is revealed to the crowd.
The Queen expresses a bittersweet pride in her daughter, gifting her with a costume made especially to be worn in America. "In America," she says, "you'll indeed be a Wonder Woman." She continues, "Let yourself be known as Diana, after your godmother, the goddess of the moon."
Dressed in her new outfit, Diana embarks on a journey to America, "giving up her heritage, and her right to eternal life."
Appearances
- Wonder Woman
- Steve Trevor
- Colonel Darnell
- Fritz
- Von Storm
- Amazons
- Aphrodite
- Athena
- Hercules (flashback only)
- Hippolyta
- Mala
Reprints
Sources
- ↑ All Star Comics #7 advertised #8 as "on sale everywhere about Oct. 25!"
The 1941 Library of Congress Periodicals filed copyright on October 21, 1941
(DC did not report actual on-sale dates to the copyright office until 1958).