WONDER WOMAN: YEAR ONE

This weekend’s escapist, light-hearted superhero post from Balladeer’s Blog looks at the first year of Wonder Woman stories in the 1940s. 

ALL STAR COMICS Vol 1 #8 (Dec 1941)

Title: Introducing Wonder Woman

Villains: Nazis

Synopsis: When a pair of Nazi spies hijack an experimental American aircraft, U.S. Army Captain Steve Trevor pursues them and seizes control of the vessel from them.

The Nazis are driven off, but Captain Trevor crash-lands and washes ashore at Paradise Island in the Mediterranean Sea. 

The island is inhabited by THE Amazons from Greco-Roman myths and they are still ruled over by Queen Hippolyta. The Queen’s daughter Princess Diana nurses Trevor back to health and falls in love with him but while he was recovering, Hippolyta used magic to probe Steve’s mind.

She learned about the ongoing World War and felt that a champion from Paradise Island should accompany Steve Trevor back to the human world to help combat the Axis Nations. Diana won the all-Amazon tournament to become that champion.

Hippolyta bestows on the princess her paraphernalia like her wrist bands, tiara, invisible plane and costume based on the flag of Steve Trevor’s homeland (but not yet her lasso). The queen also granted her the title Wonder Woman. She and Captain Trevor left Paradise Island together for human lands.

SENSATION COMICS Vol 1 #1 (Jan 1942)

Title: Wonder Woman Arrives in Man’s World

Villains: Nazi Spies

Synopsis: Wonder Woman flies herself and Captain Trevor to Washington D.C. in her Invisible Plane. He reports on what happened to the stolen experimental aircraft while Wonder Woman adopts her secret identity of Army Nurse Diana Prince in order to remain close to Steve Trevor.

Steve sniffs out an entire network of Nazi spies operating in the U.S. but they capture him when he tries to expose them. Diana Prince becomes Wonder Woman and frees Steve Trevor. They corral all the spies and Steve tells the media that Wonder Woman did most of the work.

SENSATION COMICS Vol 1 #2 (Feb 1942)

Title: The Menace of Dr. Poison

Villain: Dr. Poison

Synopsis:  One day while our heroine is in her Diana Prince guise she and Captain Trevor are abducted by undercover Gestapo agents. To avoid blowing her secret identity Diana pretends to be as helpless as Steve in the clutches of the villains.

They take Steve and Diana to an abandoned old plantation in southern Virginia. the place is really the HQ of female Japanese scientist Maru-hike, Axis Codename: Dr. Poison. She had Steve and Diana grabbed so she could use her serums to get Top Secret info from them.

Meanwhile, she provided Axis agents with a chemical concoction that has driven the troops at a nearby military base insane. Eventually, Diana gets the chance to become Wonder Woman, then saves Steve, defeats the enemy spies and captures Dr. Poison. Steve again credits Wonder Woman.

SENSATION COMICS Vol 1 #3 (Mar 1942)

Title: A Spy in the Office

Villain: Agent X-46

Synopsis: With Captain Trevor’s help, Diana Prince transfers from being a nurse to working as the secretary for Steve’s boss Colonel Phillip Darnell. From this vantage point, she deduces that a ring of women in the army are being run by a male Nazi operative called Agent X-46.

That agent has organized a death trap to kill Steve Trevor, but Diana becomes Wonder Woman and saves Trevor while also taking down Agent X-46. Steve modestly assures the public yet again that Wonder Woman’s heroics saved the day.

SENSATION COMICS Vol 1 #4 (Apr 1942)

Title: School for Spies

Villain: Baroness Paula Von Gunther

Synopsis: Nazi agent Baroness Paula Von Gunther has been using her scientific genius and inventions to abduct young American ladies from around the country and brainwash them into being her slaves, spies and saboteurs. 

Wonder Woman gets involved and finds Baroness Von Gunther’s hideout but gets caught and her bracelets bound together. This is the first story establishing that this act neutralizes Wonder Woman’s Superman-level strength.

It’s Steve Trevor’s turn to save Wonder Woman as he finds her and unbinds her bracelets. Our heroine then mops up the Baroness and her minions. 

SENSATION COMICS Vol 1 #5 (May 1942)

Title: Wonder Woman versus the Saboteurs

Villains: Nazi Saboteurs

Synopsis: Diana Prince is still the secretary for Captain Trevor’s superior in Military Intelligence – Colonel Darnell. Through her position, Diana learns that the U.S. Navy is about to tests an experimental new submarine.

As Wonder Woman she learns that Nazis plan to sabotage the submarine. With help from some of her female fans at nearby Holliday College our heroine succeeds in preventing the sabotage and in capturing the villains.

SENSATION COMICS Vol 1 #6 (Jun 1942)

Title: Summons to Paradise

Villain: Baroness Von Gunther

Synopsis: Queen Hippolyta summons Wonder Woman to Paradise Island, so our heroine flies there in her Invisible Plane. Hippolyta has created a Magic Lasso for Wonder Woman formed out of fibers from her girdle, the same girdle that Hercules once stole from the queen as one of his Labors.

Back in the U.S. Steve Trevor gets promoted to Major. Baroness Von Gunther escapes prison and takes over the American ship Gigante to abduct Colonel Darnell. Wonder Woman uses a Magic Sphere to locate the Baroness and the Gigante, then defeats a Nazi U-Boat before the Baroness can use it to get herself and Darnell to Germany.

ALL STAR COMICS Vol 1 #11 (Jun 1942)

Title: The Justice Society Joins the War on Japan

Villains: Imperial Japanese forces

Justice Society Roster: Hawkman, Hawkgirl, Dr. Fate, Starman, the Spectre, Dr. Midnight, Sandman and the Atom

Synopsis: Hawkman and Hawkgirl introduce Wonder Woman to the Justice Society. Dr. Fate nominates her for membership and the team unanimously welcomes her.

Japan’s forces are defeated by the Justice Society in the Philippines and elsewhere. Wonder Woman’s strength lets her smash tanks and tear apart battleships with her bare hands. On a small island in the Philippine Archipelago she even drives off an entire Japanese landing force single handled.   

WONDER WOMAN Vol 1 #1 (Jun 1942)

Story 1: Wonder Woman Goes to the Circus – Our heroine performs with a circus to raise money for a children’s charity and thwarts villains who are trying to poison the circus animals to death.

Story 2: The Master Plan of Paula Von Gunther – A Nazi spy ring which is terrorizing the American home front is found by Wonder Woman and Steve Trevor to be commanded from behind bars by the brilliant Baroness Von Gunther via her inventions. The Baroness is defeated and seems to have been killed at story’s end.   

Story 3: The Greatest Feat of Daring in Human History – Wonder Woman traces espionage activity into Mexico, where Mexican traitors are working with Imperial Japan to carry out a Japanese invasion of Mexico. Our heroine shuts down the ring of traitors and foils the Japanese invasion.

SENSATION COMICS Vol 1 #7 (Jul 1942)

Title: The Milk Swindle

Villains: Alphonso de Gyppo and Baroness Von Gunther

Synopsis: It turns out that the Baroness is still alive and from afar she’s pulling the strings of her Italian Fascist ally Alphonso de Gyppo.

Alphonso uses a combination of racketeering and espionage techniques to achieve dominance of America’s dairy industries. When de Gyppo uses that dominance to hinder the U.S. war effort, Wonder Woman takes down his entire operation from coast to coast. 

ALL STAR COMICS Vol 1 #12 (Aug 1942)

Title: The Black Dragon Menace

Villains: The Black Dragon Society 

Synopsis: Japan’s infamous Black Dragon Society turns out to have hundreds of their operatives all over America. They have been activated by Emperor Hirohito and ordered to abduct American scientists and steal inventions crucial to the war effort.

Wonder Woman and the rest of the Justice Society stop the villains from using a mind-controlled aircraft to decimate New York City, & from using explosives and an earthquake to destroy San Francisco. They also beat a flying version of a seaborne aircraft carrier, a gigantic tank, and a rocket bomb aimed at Chicago. 

SENSATION COMICS Vol 1 #8 (Aug 1942)

Title: Department Store Perfidy

Villains: Mr. Googins and Guigi Del Slimo 

Synopsis: While shopping at Bullfinch’s Department Store, Diana Prince is shocked by the harsh treatment inflicted on the employees. She exposes those conditions.

In addition, as Wonder Woman, she and Major Steve Trevor succeed in thwarting a robbery and attempted demolition of the store by a criminal and the Bullfinch’s store manager.

Less than earth-shaking stakes with a war on.

SENSATION COMICS Vol 1 #9 (Sep 1942)

Title: The Return of Diana Prince

Villain: Dr. Togo Cue

Synopsis: Another woman named Diana Prince shows up and is now married to a man named Dan White. The couple have a baby.

Dan is an inventor who has come up with an invention crucial to America’s war effort.

Japanese supervillain Dr. Togo Cue and his men try to steal Dan White’s invention, but Wonder Woman and Major Trevor manage to defeat and capture the bad guys.

WONDER WOMAN Vol 1 #2 (Sep 1942)

Title: The God of War

Villain: Mars, the Roman God of War

Synopsis: On the planet Mars, which happens to be ruled by the god of war in this setting, Mars wants to help the Axis nations against Wonder Woman because he likes their aggressive pursuit of war. To that end he abducts Steve Trevor to the Red Planet in order to lure our heroine into his clutches.

Wonder Woman follows Steve to Mars, where she defeats the war god’s troops and returns to Earth with her man. The furious Mars influences Hitler, Hirohito and Mussolini to take action against the U.S. and/ or Wonder Woman but she thwarts all their military campaigns against her.

ALL STAR COMICS Vol 1 #13 (Oct 1942)

Title: Shanghaied into Space

Villains: Graf Hans Heinrich Gootsden and hostile aliens

Synopsis: Hitler’s favorite scientist Graf (Count) Gootsden uses his advanced technology to scatter the Justice Society of America members throughout the Solar System. The heroes must battle deadly alien menaces while striving to get back to Earth.

The JSA members face Crystal Men on Uranus, plant people on Neptune, metal creatures on Jupiter, Andromedan colonists on Pluto, giant insects on Mercury, enslaved winged women on Venus and a civil war on Saturn.

SENSATION COMICS Vol 1 #10 (Oct 1942)

Title: The Railroad Plot

Villains: Ishti and Dolly Dancer

Synopsis: Diana Prince becomes concerned when her true love Major Steve Trevor seems to be falling under the influence of beautiful Nazi spy Dolly Dancer. However, it turns out Steve is aware of Dolly’s real nature and has been feeding her misinformation.

Diana becomes Wonder Woman, then she and Trevor thwart a plot by Dolly and her ally – Japanese spy Ishti – to blow up subway trains beneath New York City.   

SENSATION COMICS Vol 1 #11 (Nov 1942)

Title: Mission to Planet Eros

Villain: Dominus of Eros

Synopsis: Queen Desira of Venus, the ruler of the winged Venusian women that Wonder Woman freed from interplanetary slavers in All Star Comics #13 above, meets with our heroine. She asks her to please help the suffering women on the far-off planet Eros.

Those women have been conquered and taken as slaves by Dominus, one of the military leaders on Eros. Wonder Woman goes to Eros to help, dragging along Steve Trevor. Naturally, our heroine manages to end the rule of Dominus and his slavers.

FOR BATMAN: THE REAL YEAR ONE (1939-1940) CLICK HERE. 

FOR SUPERMAN: YEAR ONE (1938-1939) CLICK HERE.