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 HOLLYWOOD
Lynda 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.")