| ||||
 | ||||
| Wonder Woman | ||||
| Real name | Diana | |||
| Debut | Wonder Woman (November 1975) | |||
| Played by | Lynda Carter | |||
.jpg){kind=link}
“Go in peace, my daughter, and remember, that in the world of ordinary mortals, you are a Wonder Woman”
—The Queen, The New, Original Wonder Woman
Biography[]
In 658 BCE[1] (or 58 BCE[2] or 942 CE[3] according to various accounts) a once-enslaved race of women from Rome and Greece find a new home on a remote island in the North Atlantic. Their queen christens it Paradise because there are no men on it. Thus they begin a new life of peace, harmony, and sisterhood. This pure environment allows them to develop their minds and physical skills, unhampered by masculine destructiveness. In 549 BCE,[4] born into this immortal race of Amazons is Diana, first Princess and eldest daughter of the Queen.
More than two millennia pass when United States Army Air Corps Major Steve Trevor parachutes to the shores of Paradise Island after a dogfight with a Nazi pilot. It's 1942 and the world is at war. Near death, Trevor is discovered on the beach by Diana and her friend, Rena. They bring him to the island hospital where the Princess serves as his nurse — a request reluctantly granted by the Queen. When questioned under special serum, Steve reveals the Nazi threat to mankind. He also stirs strange, new feelings within Diana.
The Queen decides that Trevor must be returned to America and plans a tournament of athletic games from which the champion will be charged with taking him back. Diana is eager to participate but the Queen forbids it. The princess enters anyway using a disguise and beats all her sisters except one, her friend, Rena. A final tie-breaking game of Bullets and Bracelets establishes that Diana is the best of them. She removes the disguise and all are shocked — all but the Queen — who expresses pride in her daughter.
Diana is presented with an indestructible red-white-and-blue costume with a golden eagle bodice and star-spangled shorts — designed by her mother to show allegiance to freedom and democracy. Next, two more magical gifts: the Golden Belt — symbol of Amazon supremacy and source of strength away from Paradise Island; the Golden Lasso possessing the power to compel people to tell the truth. Along with her rubied tiara and Feminum bracelets, they make up the Garb of Justice. "Remember," The Queen tells Diana, "That in the world of ordinary mortals, you are a Wonder Woman."
Diana pilots the Invisible Plane, delivering Steve Trevor back to America. There, she adopts the secret identity of "Diana Prince," a Navy WAVE, and positions herself as secretary to Trevor who runs General Blankenship's Intelligence office at the War Department. Ignorant of her duel identity, together they face gargantuan guerillas, man-made earthquakes, judgments from outer space, and of course, the evil of the Nazis — including an invasion of Paradise Island. Eventually, they help make the Axis fold and war soon comes to end in 1945. Her mission complete, Diana returns home.[5]
But her retirement is short-lived when just three decades later, in a remarkable twist of fate, a distressed plane, carrying the son of Steve Trevor, lands on Paradise Island. His arrival heralds a new era for Wonder Woman as she learns of a terrorist organization that is trying to destroy all governments. The Queen is vehemently against Diana's return to the outside world but concedes to a vote of confidence by an Amazon council. However, Diana is challenged to the supreme test of Bullets and Bracelets by her cousin, Evadne. Diana wins.
Once again the Queen presents her daughter with the Garb of Justice — updated in design and function; the ruby in the tiara now allows Diana to contact her mother. "Remember," the Queen warns, "In the outside world, without these things that I've given you, you are only an ordinary woman with no special powers." With that, Diana bids farewell to her mother and sister Amazons and returns to America with Steve Trevor, Jr. There, she begins a life full of new adventures as Wonder Woman.
Equipment[]
See Also[]
- Wonder Woman
- Batman '66 Meets Wonder Woman '77
- Wonder Woman '77
- Wonder Woman '77 Meets The Bionic Woman
References[]
- ↑ Episode 102: Fausta: The Nazi Wonder Woman in 1942 Wonder Woman states that Amazons have lived [on Paradise Island] in peace and harmony for 26 centuries.
- ↑ Episode 113: Wonder Woman in Hollywood In 1942 Drusilla states that it's the two-thousandth anniversary of [the Amazons] arrival on Paradise Island.
- ↑ Episode 100: The New Original Wonder Woman The Queen states that [Paradise Island] has always been perfect for [the Amazons]; in a thousand years no one has discovered them.
- ↑ Episode 201: The Return of Wonder Woman In 1977 Wonder Woman states she will be 2,527 years old on her next birthday.
- ↑ Episode 201: The Return of Wonder Woman Gloria states that Wonder Woman was originally active from 1942 through 1945