While Wonder Woman might not be the earliest female superhero, she’s certainly the best known. And much like Batman’s first adventures and Superman’s first adventures, hers took place on Earth-Two. Though the concept didn’t exist at the time, when Earth-One as a concept was made up, it was suddenly decided that most of their adventures before a certain year all took place on Earth-Two.
This version of Wonder Woman was fairly similar to the one readers know today, but she wasn’t identical by any means. For one, her origins on Paradise Island (the original name for Themyscira) don’t quite line up to the ones of the modern era, but more closely line up with Grant Morrison’s Wonder Woman: Earth One.
10 Drank From The Fountain Of Youth
Diana Prince was gifted with many gifts from the gods, but one that came directly from the Amazons was agelessness. Paradise Island contained a fountain of youth itself, that belonged to the Amazons by birthright. This allowed Diana to remain forever youthful… but she gave it up once she decided to leave Paradise Island to go with Steve Trevor.
9 Became An Army Nurse
After bringing Steve Trevor back to America, Wonder Woman was quick to leave him with physicians to see after him. She would return later to check on him, but decided to take a disguise. She ran into a nurse who wanted to quit so she could go to South Africa to be with her fiance, but she couldn’t afford it.
After making quite a bit of cash with her powers, Diana gave the nurse the money in exchange for her identity and clothing. She would take on the nurse’s name, Diana Prince, and use her knowledge of medicine to aid the country.
8 Was A Secretary for the Justice Society
Diana wasn’t just a secretary for the government. Despite her incredible powers and abilities, one of her main duties as a member of the Justice Society of America was handling much of the dictation. The group ran itself much more like an organization than the super-teams of today, with Hawkman being the official chairperson and Wonder Woman volunteering to handle the minutes while they were at war. At the time, the team was referred to as the Justice Battalion, but Wonder Woman was still just as much a part of the action as the other heroes.
7 Refused To Go Back Home
Initially, Diana had a very strict limit on how long she was meant to remain in Man’s World. She was supposed to be Aphrodite’s young charge who fought against Mars and saved the planet from war.
After she helped lead the Allies to victory, Diana was expected to return to Paradise Island. But when Steve Trevor was turned into a being that was meant to combine all of humanity into a single mind, Diana refused to return until her mission to save Steve was done, and her mother decided not to force her to stay. With that, Diana flew off in her invisible jet, still lacking the ability to fly at the time.
6 Married To Steve Trevor
After the war, Diana agreed to stay as Wonder Woman until she eradicated all evil from Man’s World. She also decided she wouldn’t marry Steve Trevor until she’d done so… but that promise didn’t hold up quite as well. Instead, she wound up getting married to Steve in the decades after the war. The two of them enjoyed a marriage that lasted twenty years before the Crisis on Infinite Earths happened, erasing their Earth entirely.
5 Her Daughter Is A Superhero
After getting married, Diana mostly retired from being Wonder Woman. She still worked with the Justice Society on occasion, but largely enjoyed the life of a regular civilian. She would eventually get pregnant with Hippolyta “Lyta” Trevor, named after her mother. Lyta would develop powers similar to her mother, and become the superheroine Fury while joining the organization Infinity Inc.
4 Survived Crisis on Infinite Earths
One of the oldest superheroes in the DC Universe, Diana wasn’t simply wiped out when the Crisis on Infinite Earths merged all the Earths. Instead, she was invited by the gods themselves to ascend to Mount Olympus where she would be allowed to continue to exist. She was also able to ascend alongside her husband Steve, making them both safe from the changes that would happen when the Earths combined.
3 Has A Photographic Memory
Thanks to her training with the Amazons, Diana has a number of incredible gifts that most people don’t have. Early on, she reveals that one such gift is perfect memory.
After deciding she wanted to follow Steve Trevor with him on missions, she attempts to become the secretary of Steve’s superior, Colonel Darnell. Though Darnell doesn’t want her for the position, he’s left with no choice but to hire her after he gives her an unfair test that she still manages to pass easily thanks to her eidetic memory.
2 Berserker Rage
One of the more obscure pieces of Wonder Woman history is that all Amazons are bound by Aphrodite’s Law. This pushes the amazons to be loving and want to help people, but during a story in the early 40’s, Wonder Woman is captured by an evil conqueror known as Manlius. Manlius’ aimed to subjugate all the women in his society, and though Wonder Woman was brought in to save them, she wound up captured as well, her bracelets having been welded together. But when one of them broke, she flew into a berserker rage and destroyed Manlius empire and nearly killed Manlius himself. The only thing that saved everyone was her lasso of truth, calming her down until the bracelets could be repaired.
1 Revealed Her Secret Identity
During the 1950’s, the Justice Society were commanded by the government to reveal their true identities to the public. Refusing to do so, they all decided to retire instead, giving up their costumed identities. The only exceptions were Batman, who was sanctioned to operate by Gotham City, Superman, and Wonder Woman, who claimed she had no secret identity. She continued to operate both as Diana Prince and Wonder Woman for years, but eventually revealed her secret identity to the world to be married.
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