Wonder Woman
Welcome to the "World Wide Website for Wonder Woman". Paradise Island, that is.
The island that psychologist William Moulton Marston created under the pseudonym
of Charles Moulton as the home of his female version of Superman. She made her
1st appearance in All Star Comics #8 in December of 1941. Wonder Woman
has not made an appearance in theaters in so much as an old-movie serial, and
was only seen on tv previously in the 1973 Saturday morning cartoon series
"Superfriends" (currently being rerun on Turner's Cartoon channel, check
www.turner.com for schedule). The current version may be Xena, Warrior Princess,
but Wonder Woman was just as popular back in the 1940s to 1970s (when she became
a more recent feminist icon).
According to
the comicbook, a race of Amazons escaped slavery in Greece and established an
advanced, all-female kingdom on Paradise Island. Queen Hippolyte created Wonder
Woman out of special clay and she was brought to life by Aphrodite (goddess of
love). During WW2 (the 1st issue came out about the time Pearl Harbor was
attacked), a US plane crashes on Paradise Island and Wonder Woman meets the
first man she's ever seen, promptly falling in love. He's Steve Trevor, Army
Intelligence officer.
Realizing the threat that the Japanese, Hitler and Mussolini (men, of course),
are to the world, Hippolyte gives Wonder Woman a new name: Diana. And makes a
red, white & blue battle-dress for her based on the colors of a flag they
find in the plane wreckage. Diana is charged with taking the unconscious Major
back to the United States, and to joining the fight against "the forces of hate
and oppression." Diana, a princess on Paradise Island, calls herself Diana
Prince, and goes to work for Major Trevor as his secretary. Like Clark Kent,
simply wearing glasses makes her Wonder Woman face unrecognizable, though Trevor
seems to suspect the dual identity.
The
technologically-advanced Amazons provide Wonder Woman with an invisible plane
(not just stealth: you can look through it), a 2-way radio that works
telepathically, a machine that emits a purple healing-ray, a truth-inducing
lasso made from links of Hippolyte's magic girdle, and bullet-proof bracelets.
She is not allowed to kill anyone, or even use violence except to protect
herself or others.
After
Marston's death in 1947, Wonder Woman stories became less super-powered and
Diana more dependent on Trevor. By the 1960s, the comic book was virtually a
series of romance novels with Diana in high-heels and high-hairdo like Mrs.
Kennedy's. The success of Superman and Wonder Woman had spun-off yet another
copy - Supergirl, but her comics in this period were also more concerned with
love-life than going after bad guys. This all changed with the women's movement
in the late 1960s & early 1970s, when both Wonder Woman and Supergirl went
back to using super-powers on criminals instead of looking for dates.
A 1974 movie, starring blond Cathy
Lee Crosby (Wonder Woman's brunet), was set in the present. It was intended
to be the pilot for a Wonder Woman tv series but failed to sell until much
later, when Crosby was no longer available.
For the
new Lynda Carter series, ABC returned to the WW2 era so Wonder Woman could again
be throwing Nazis thru the air each week, but cancelled it after the first year
(1976-77). CBS took over (1977-79) and returned Diana Prince to the present. As
a continuity-bridge to the previous year, she now worked for Steve Trevor, Jr
(played by the same actor, Lyle Waggoner, who retired from acting after 1979 to
run a company supplying hundreds of trailers for the cast and crew of Hollywood
productions shooting on location)
ABC made the 90 minute tv-movie "Wonder Woman" in 1974 in hopes of launching a tv series starring Cathy Lee Crosby, with Ricardo Montalban (Star Trek 2: Wrath of Khan) as the guest star, but the series
didn't find a sponsor right away and Cathy Lee left for other projects; Lynda
Carter would end up playing the role in all 3 years of the tv series
(1976-79). Executive Producers Bruce Lansbury and Douglas Carmer played the
series strait rather than campy (as with the 1966-68 Batman series).
Neither the tv-movie or any of the episodes have ever been available on
video
(we checked and the only Wonder movie on video was Wonder
Man,
a comedy starring Danny Kaye).
But there are a number of Wonder Woman books and novels available, mostly paperbacks published by DC Comics:
Wonder Woman in Gods & Goddesses
Wonder Woman: Featuring over 5 Decades of Great Covers
and Wonder Woman is also mentioned in "DC COMICS: SIXTY YEARS OF THE WORLD'S
FAVORITE COMIC BOOK HEROES".
Last, and possibly least, a novel What They Did To Princess Paragon, about a
gay cartoonist who changes the comic book superhero to a lesbian in hopes of
increasing sales.
Wonder Woman too tame for you? Then return to another link.
A marathon a few year ago on the Scifi Channel:
Tue, May 1 THE RICHEST MAN IN THE WORLD Wed, May 2 A DATE WITH DOOMSDAY Thu, May 3 THE GIRL WITH THE GIFT FOR D Fri, May 4 THE BOY WHO KNEW HER SECRET Mon, May 7 THE BOY WHO KNEW HER SECRET Tue, May 8 THE MAN WHO COULD NOT DIE Wed, May 9 PHANTOM OF THE ROLLER COASTER, part 1 Thu, May 10 PHANTOM OF THE ROLLER COASTER, part 2 Fri, May 11 THE NEW, ORIGINAL WONDER WOMAN Mon, May 14 WONDER WOMAN MEETS THE BARON Tue, May 15 FAUSTA, THE NAZI WONDER WOMAN Wed, May 16 BEAUTY ON PARADE Thu, May 17 THE FEMINUM MYSTIQUE -PT 1 Fri, May 18 THE FEMINUM MYSTIQUE -PT 2 Mon, May 21 WONDER WOMAN VS. GARGANTUA Mon, May 21 SUPERHEROLAND - WONDER WOMAN Marathon - 11:00 AM THE NEW, ORIGINAL WONDER WOMAN 12:00 PM THE FEMINUM MYSTIQUE -PT 1 & 2 2:00 PM THE RETURN OF WONDER WOMAN 3:00 PM ANSCHLUSS '77 Tue, May 22 THE PLUTO FILE Wed, May 23 LAST OF THE TWO DOLLAR BILL Thu, May 24 JUDGEMENT FROM OUTER SPACE - part 1 Fri, May 25 JUDGEMENT FROM OUTER SPACE - 2 Sat, May 26 3:30 AM, SCINEMA FEATURE (pilot movie) WONDER WOMAN Tue, May 29 FORMULA 407 Wed, May 30 THE BUSHWACKERS Thu, May 31 WONDER WOMAN IN HOLLYWOODLynda Carter was in the 2005 movie "Sky High" about a high school for superheroes' kids, in which she played the school principal and Kurt Russell played a superhero parent Steve Stronghold the Commander. At the end of the movie she says that as the principal "I'm no Wonder Woman," though her character's superhero past is only hinted at in the movie.
In 2009 there was an animated movie "Wonder Woman" (Warners Brothers Animation Home Video) with Keri Russell (no relation to Kurt) as the starring voice and Nathan Fillion as Steve Trevor, and Rick Overton as The President when Washington DC is attacked by warriors released from Hades. Tara Strong is Wonder Woman's little sister (Batgirl in the animated New Batman Adventures, voice of Betty Boop in commercials, and the American voice of Japanimation movies "Princess Mononoke.")
