The Pre-Crisis Wonder Women and their Post-Crisis Pinch-Hitters

[Lorendiac]

What follows is my best effort to sort out the different characters who a) have called themselves "Wonder Woman" in stories that were supposed to be "in continuity" at the time they were published, and/or b) have retroactively been shoehorned into old, Pre-Crisis stories (that seem to feature a Wonder Woman as a character) as the retconned "pinch-hitters" who "really" had those particular things happen to them, after you make allowances for different names, faces, costumes, and so forth.

If I made any mistakes or omitted anything important, I hope diehard Wonder Woman fans will set me straight so I can correct my errors in the future. This is just a quick approximation of what effects I think the long-term fallout from "Crisis on Infinite Earths" had on previously published stories that had appeared to be talking about one version or another of "Wonder Woman."

Pre-Crisis, we had two Wonder Women who were virtually identical (except that they started their careers a generation apart, and details of each woman's costume might change from time to time).

So the old version went like this:

RULES FOR DISTINGUISHING BETWEEN THE TWO WONDER WOMEN BEFORE “CRISIS ON INFINITE EARTHS”

1. Any comic book that showed a "Wonder Woman" to us in a story that was printed before the mid-50s, or was published later but was obviously set in or shortly after the World War II years, and/or explicitly mentioned that it was set on Earth-2, featured the Golden Age (GA) Wonder Woman of Earth-2.

2. Any comic book that was published after DC’s Silver Age began, and didn’t explicitly say it was happening back around WWII, or at any time on Earth-2, that showed a “Wonder Woman,” was showing the Earth-1, Silver Age (SA) version of Wonder Woman.

Horribly complicated, isn't it? Fortunately, Crisis came along in 1985 and ended up more-or-less "rebooting" the old Wonder Woman continuity, erasing the previous adventures of both the GA and SA versions of Diana - except that some writers, for various reasons, wanted to "salvage" as much of it as they could, and so we've ended up with the following set of rules which we should bear in mind whenever we read old Pre-Crisis stories that, at first glance, would strike the uninitiated as featuring one version or another of "Princess Diana, also known as Wonder Woman," but - in the Post-Crisis DCU, actually feature other people entirely!

Since we all know that "Crisis" was meant to greatly improve and simplify the previous tangled continuity of DC's superheroes, let's see how much easier to understand the new rules turned out to be! ;)

RULES OF WONDER WOMAN POST-CRISIS RETCONS (for understanding who is "really" being featured in old Pre-Crisis comic books that seem to be showing Wonder Woman's adventures)

1. Any story that seemed to show Wonder Woman living in the Pre-Silver Age period (say, World War II or the years immediately after it ended), either because the comic was set in the same timeframe as when it was written, or because it was published many years later but was clearly stated to be retroactively set in that era, was probably showing Joan Dale, Miss America; unless it was actually showing Hippolyta of Themyscira who had traveled back in time to spend eight years working with the JSA as Wonder Woman, "in honor of her daughter's memory," as John Byrne much later informed us.

2. Any story (such as the first few years of Roy Thomas’s Infinity Inc. series in the 1980s) that refered to Lyta Trevor’s mother as Diana Prince Trevor, and/or as Wonder Woman, really meant to refer to either her foster mother, Joan Dale Trevor, Miss America, or else to her biological mother, Helena Kosmatos, the “original” Fury.

3. Any story that showed Wonder Woman working with the JLA in a story that had been published during the Silver Age, or after the Silver Age but still before the Post-Crisis Reboot and the subsequent "Legends" crossover event, was probably actually showing Dinah Lance, the second Black Canary, who was now the only female among the founding members of the JLA and apparently stayed the only female member for quite some time. (Pre-Crisis, Wonder Woman of Earth-1 was the only female among the founding members, and Dinah only joined the JLA much later.)

(NOTE: I have heard rumors that at least a couple of writers of the modern days have written flashback scenes that contradict this rule to some degree. I'm not clear on the details.)

4. Any story that showed Wonder Woman having adventures of her own anytime from the start of the Silver Age to the last days of the Pre-Crisis era, which basically meant most (but not all!) of the stories published in the old “Wonder Woman” title from around the mid-50s to the mid-80s, had simply never happened. Period.

5. Any story that had been published after the Post-Crisis Reboot, and showed a woman living in “modern times” and calling herself Wonder Woman, was probably still featuring Diana of Themyscira, the “real” Wonder Woman.

[Lorendiac]

Now let's attack the problem differently by listing the individual characters involved, Pre- and Post-Crisis.

THE PRE-CRISIS WONDER WOMEN

Up through 1985, here were the characters you had to keep straight, knowing that just about any old comic book you had that showed the image and mentioned the name of “Wonder Woman” almost certainly featured one or the other of these heroines:

1. Diana of Earth-2, who was first active as Wonder Woman in the WWII era, joined the JSA, was featured in the regular “Wonder Woman” title until sometime in the 1950s, eventually married Steve Trevor and raised their daughter Lyta Trevor (“The Fury” in Infinity Inc. in the 1980s) with him; popped up occasionally in appearances of the JSA after that – and, in fact, returned to starring in “her own title” again for a while in the 1970s, when the Wonder Woman comic book was going through a phase where its stories were set in Earth-2’s World War II all over again. (This probably had something to do with the fact that the first season of the 1970s “Wonder Woman” TV series was also set in World War II.)

2. Diana of Earth-1, who was first active as Wonder Woman in the Silver Age era, a founding member of the JLA, was featured in her own title from sometime in the 1950s (probably) up through the mid-80s and “Crisis on Infinite Earths” with time out for the “World War II” era stories I mentioned above that featured her older counterpart; was the foster “big sister” to Donna Troy, the first Wonder Girl; was a founding member of the JLA.

All of their Pre-Crisis stories were erased or modified so that there had never been a "Diana" also known as "Wonder Woman" in any of those old adventures, and here's the result:

THE POST-CRISIS “WONDER WOMEN” AND THEIR RETCONNED PINCH-HITTERS FOR STORIES SET BEFORE THE CRISIS

1. Joan Dale, Miss America of the Golden Age, filled in for many of the appearances of the Earth-2, Golden Age Wonder Woman, in the Post-Crisis DCU history, according to Roy Thomas. Later she married Derek Trevor and they became the foster parents to Lyta Trevor, later known as The Fury in her days with Infinity Inc.
2. Helena Kosmatos, The Fury of the WWII era (retroactively created post-Crisis by Roy Thomas), filled in for the Pre-Crisis Golden Age Wonder Woman in the role of giving birth to Lyta, later known as Lyta Trevor. Presumably the general idea behind Helena was to maintain some sort of family ties between Lyta Trevor on the one hand, and the ancient Greek myths on the other.
3. Dinah Lance, Black Canary II retroactively filled in for all JLA-related appearances of the Pre-Crisis Wonder Woman.
4. Diana, the usual Wonder Woman of the modern era, has done all the things shown in the modern Wonder Woman title after the character was rebooted around 1987 as "just now" appearing as a superhero operating in the DCU for the first time as the "Legends" event unfolded. Initially she hadn’t done anything else as a superhero before that time – but I hear reports that some writers who have come along since then either resent that or don’t understand it or just refuse to take it seriously, and have allegedly written “flashback” scenes suggesting that at least some of her Pre-Crisis appearances in the JLA during its “satellite era” are still “in continuity.”
5. Hippolyta, Queen of the Amazons, mother of Diana, went back in time from the modern era to the Golden Age and spent eight years there, calling herself "Wonder Woman" and doing much of what the Pre-Crisis Earth-2 Wonder Woman was originally supposed to have done in the stories originally published in the 1940s, according to John Byrne.

For my purposes I omit Artemis, who served as "Wonder Woman" for several issues in the mid-90s, because she wasn't being retconned into old, Pre-Crisis stories as a "pinch-hitter" for any previous version of Wonder Woman. She was simply a new character who very briefly claimed the title of Wonder Woman without upsetting any previous continuity in the process.

So: Instead of struggling under the crushing burden of trying to keep straight the humongous number of TWO different women who had each filled the role of “Wonder Woman” at one time or another, and who shared the same name and essentially the same origin story, we now had the much lighter burden of trying to keep straight the tiny number of FIVE different female characters who have each done some of the things that we originally might have thought were done by one “Wonder Woman” or another.

(I keep telling myself that "five women" must be a much smaller, simpler number than "two women," thus proving that DC really has been very good to us about "simplifying" these things in the Post-Crisis continuity, because the dreadful alternative would be to conclude that the more outspoken critics of "Crisis on Infinite Earths" might actually have a point when they accuse it of ultimately creating more confusion than it settled! And who would want to believe such a blasphemous notion? ;))

[Gingold]

Nicely done. While I loved Perez's revamp of Wonder Woman, yanking her out of both JSA and JLA continuity created many more continuity headaches than it solved. Unlike Superman and Batman who were only supporting players in JSA stories and the earliest JLA stories, Diana was an integral part of both groups. It's a shame Byrne's Hippolyta solution wasn't implemented earlier, it was nice fix to the GA Wonder Woman problem and we wouldn't have to suffer through all the Fury/Ms. America nonsense that never really stuck. Though the best solution would have been to simply make Diana the Wonder Woman of both the Golden, Silver, and Modern Ages. She's an immortal Amazon, why not? She could've provided a link between the three ages. It was fun to read about Diana as a new visitor to Man's World, but it negatively impacted the DCU as a whole.

[Paradox]

Lorendiac tackles the thorny equation:

What follows is my best effort to sort out the different characters who a) have called themselves "Wonder Woman" in stories that were supposed to be "in continuity" at the time they were published, and/or b) have retroactively been shoehorned into old, Pre-Crisis stories (that seem to feature a Wonder Woman as a character) as the retconned "pinch-hitters" who "really" had those particular things happen to them, after you make allowances for different names, faces, costumes, and so forth.

That, sir, is one very long sentence.

Interesting angle, as always, Lorendiac.

So the old version went like this:

RULES FOR DISTINGUISHING BETWEEN THE TWO WONDER WOMEN BEFORE “CRISIS ON INFINITE EARTHS”

1. Any comic book that showed a "Wonder Woman" to us in a story that was printed before the mid-50s, or was published later but was obviously set in or shortly after the World War II years, and/or explicitly mentioned that it was set on Earth-2, featured the Golden Age (GA) Wonder Woman of Earth-2.

2. Any comic book that was published after DC’s Silver Age began, and didn’t explicitly say it was happening back around WWII, or at any time on Earth-2, that showed a “Wonder Woman,” was showing the Earth-1, Silver Age (SA) version of Wonder Woman.

Dear boy, you're forgetting about the most important difference between them of all!

Hyppolyta's hair color. :)

Horribly complicated, isn't it?

The mind boggles. I don't know how we ever kept it all straight. Surely, we were "confused" and bewildered by such madness. We must have been. They told us we were. ;)

RULES OF WONDER WOMAN POST-CRISIS RETCONS (for understanding who is "really" being featured in old Pre-Crisis comic books that seem to be showing Wonder Woman's adventures)

1. Any story that seemed to show Wonder Woman living in the Pre-Silver Age period (say, World War II or the years immediately after it ended), either because the comic was set in the same timeframe as when it was written, or because it was published many years later but was clearly stated to be retroactively set in that era, was probably showing Joan Dale, Miss America; unless it was actually showing Hippolyta of Themyscira who had traveled back in time to spend eight years working with the JSA as Wonder Woman, "in honor of her daughter's memory," as John Byrne much later informed us.

Hmmm...I guess I just assumed that Joan's "filling in" for WW were out the window after Byrne's retcon, but now that I think about it... When, exactly, during the War Years does Hyppolyta show up? Anyone know?

2. Helena Kosmatos, The Fury of the WWII era (retroactively created post-Crisis by Roy Thomas), filled in for the Pre-Crisis Golden Age Wonder Woman in the role of giving birth to Lyta, later known as Lyta Trevor. Presumably the general idea behind Helena was to maintain some sort of family ties between Lyta Trevor on the one hand, and the ancient Greek myths on the other.

That plus he was (petulantly, some might say) filling in all the other "toys" he'd just had taken away from him, like with Arn Munro and the rest of the Young All-Stars. Y'know, much of this is Roy's "fault", as he gave us two of these five all by himself.

5. Hippolyta, Queen of the Amazons, mother of Diana, went back in time from the modern era to the Golden Age and spent eight years there, calling herself "Wonder Woman" and doing much of what the Pre-Crisis Earth-2 Wonder Woman was originally supposed to have done in the stories originally published in the 1940s, according to John Byrne.

For a very short time, she was a JLAer, too (when Diana was "dead"). Still, it's clearly marked as her and she doesn't do much important in the story, I can see why it doesn't get a mention here. Are there other appearances by Hyppolyta as WW during that time (outside of WW's book itself, of course)? In any case, it doesn't cause any confusion and isn't really in the category of "filling in" (same as with Artemis, as you mention).

So: Instead of struggling under the crushing burden of trying to keep straight the humongous number of TWO different women who had each filled the role of “Wonder Woman” at one time or another, and who shared the same name and essentially the same origin story, we now had the much lighter burden of trying to keep straight the tiny number of FIVE different female characters who have each done some of the things that we originally might have thought were done by one “Wonder Woman” or another.

(I keep telling myself that "five women" must be a much smaller, simpler number than "two women," thus proving that DC really has been very good to us about "simplifying" these things in the Post-Crisis continuity, because the dreadful alternative would be to conclude that the more outspoken critics of "Crisis on Infinite Earths" might actually have a point when they accuse it of ultimately creating more confusion than it settled! And who would want to believe such a blasphemous notion? ;))

Well, as is often the case with the Crisis retcons, it was all in the execution. The reboot itself wasn't the problem, but how they handled it afterward. As has been noted, there's a lot easier ways out than they used. Aside from the "starting from the ground up" point, I never understood why Pérez decided to restart her where he did. He could have easily told flashback stories of this Diana's beginnings and then slowly "caught up" to the modern times. 'Course, there's crossovers and marketting to deal with, but that didn't seem to bother Superman's remake any. Left with a blank slate, I think they often just kept scribbling until finally it resembled something. ;)

[Paul Newell]

Hmmm...I guess I just assumed that Joan's "filling in" for WW were out the window after Byrne's retcon, but now that I think about it... When, exactly, during the War Years does Hyppolyta show up? Anyone know?

July 1942, which, if you follow Mikel Midnight's chronology, comes between All-Star #14 and #15 and after the events in Young All-Stars. Hippolyta was a member until 1950.

Miss America can be ruled out as a member before her as she was comatose at Project M, due to Uncle Sam's attempt to stop the attack on Pearl Harbor, (Shown in All-Star Squadron 31 and Secret Origins 26), until reviving in Young All-Stars #12. The scene where she joins the JSA happens between YA-S #12 and All-Star #14 so if that was still in continuity she was only a member of the JSA for just over a month.

[Paradox]

Thanks, Paul. So we could effectively just leave her out of the picture if it weren't for her role as Fury's foster mom.

[Paul Newell]

Thanks, Paul. So we could effectively just leave her out of the picture if it weren't for her role as Fury's foster mom.
I don't think that affects things really as Fury giving her daughter up for adoption doesn't really impact continuity as Hippolyta had gone back to the future at that point. There was a retcon inserted by the Wonder Woman title, I think, revealing that Hippolyta had mentored the original Fury and, out of admiration, she named her daughter after her. Maybe that's why she picked Miss America, because she reminded Fury of WW?

[GabrielleWP]

Very nice post.
Don't forget Pre Crisis Orana who was also wonder Woman. Crowned by the blonde Hippolyta.

Speaking of which , was Hippolyta blonde until Perez or was she ever dark haired?


GWP

[Bored at 3:00AM]

Very nice post.
Don't forget Pre Crisis Orana who was also wonder Woman. Crowned by the blonde Hippolyta.

Speaking of which , was Hippolyta blonde until Perez or was she ever dark haired?


GWP

Hippolyta originally had black hair, like her daughter. At some point, this was changed to blonde, presumably to visually differentiate her from her daughter, then Perez changed it back to black in the reboot since he was more than capable of drawing two different black haired women with different enough builds and faces to get across the idea that they were mother and daughter.

[Sk8maven]

Speaking of which , was Hippolyta blonde until Perez or was she ever dark haired?I've seen the Original Golden Age Hippolyta inked with dark brown hair, but that was in reprints. (She also wore her hair up in a Greek twist vs. her daughter's loose and flowing hair - a difference that could have been, but never was, introduced post-Perez.)

Maven

[DDM]

Very nice post.
Don't forget Pre Crisis Orana who was also wonder Woman. Crowned by the blonde Hippolyta.

Speaking of which , was Hippolyta blonde until Perez or was she ever dark haired?


GWP

The Earth-2 Hippolyta was blonde. As was the Earth-1 version. However, post-Crisis, Hippolyta has black hair.

[AllisterH]

Heh, this is kind of spooky.

Take a look at "The Return of Donna Troy #4"

[Lorendiac]

Okay, two different people have each pointed out a different "Pre-Crisis Wonder Woman" that I missed. In one case, I think it was because I had never heard of her before in my life. In the other case, I now vaguely recall having read the issues that would have mentioned her . . . but it was years ago and she must have completely slipped my mind. As far as I can tell, neither of these characters ever really amounted to anything beyond going for the temporary shock value, in a couple of issues each, of showing the audience a "different" Wonder Woman than the usual model.

In the spirit of fair play, here they are:

Orana, an Amazon who first appeared in "Wonder Woman #250." She competed with Diana in a new contest over the right to be Wonder Woman, and won. Having thus provided a sensational surprise in a fiftieth issue, Orana promptly got herself killed in the line of duty in the very next issue, "Wonder Woman #251"!

Artemis, not the same person as the 1990s character who eventually became known as "Requiem." Artemis was the Very First Wonder Woman, thousands of years ago, at least in the Earth-1 continuity. She was only "shown" to us for the first time, probably without the name being given right away, in Wonder Woman #298.

The cover illustration (http://www.comics.org/graphics/covers/277/400/277_4_298.jpg) which Frank Miller did for Wonder Woman #298 (first series, cover-dated December 1982) showed a skeleton chained up in a dungeon somewhere. The most distinctive things about the skeleton, at least in the cover illustration, were that it still had long black hair and a tiara much like Diana's.

As near as I can tell, this was not further developed until a two-part story in #'s 301 and 302 of that same series, wherein Diana of Earth-1 ended up duelling with this tiara-wearing, sword-wielding skeleton, and belatedly learned that this particular Artemis had been sent out to Man's World as a Wonder Woman champion of the Amazons, approximately three thousand years ago, but was destroyed after she was corrupted and abandoned the teachings of Athena. Now Circe had cast a spell to more-or-less "revive" her in the sense that the skeleton could walk and talk and so forth - until Wonder Woman defeated her and the skeleton crumbled into dust.

So one character was "Wonder Woman" just long enough to promptly die as soon as she actually tried to do anything in that role, and the other character had once been "Wonder Woman" but had already been dead for 3000 years before we ever knew she existed! As far as I know, neither of these characters made any sort of significant impact on the Pre-Crisis Wonder Woman continuity. Although I could be wrong, I strongly suspect that in either case, if you had only started reading the monthly title a few months after each character had very quickly come and gone, you never would have known from the subsequent stories that these "other Wonder Women" had ever existed in the first place!

[Squashua]

I'd like to see you slip Donna Troy's history into all this.

Especially considering the last issue of The Return of Donna Troy.

[Lorendiac]

I'd like to see you slip Donna Troy's history into all this.

Especially considering the last issue of The Return of Donna Troy.

There are a few problems with that idea:

1. I started this strictly as an attempt to explain how the various Post-Crisis Retcons had mangled the previous continuity of the stories that featured appearances by either the Earth-1 or the Earth-2 Wonder Woman. I wasn't trying to get any more ambitious than that in the post that started this particular thread.

2. I still haven't read "The Return of Donna Troy." I'm waiting for a TPB collection; I still resent the way DC killed her off in a story that I found disappointing and exceptionally contrived, and I don't want to reward bad behavior on their part by rushing out to buy the individual issues of the new mini.

3. I already wrote a capsule summary of about five (or was it six? ;)) previous origins Donna Troy has had over the years as part of another post several months ago; part of my "Superhero Reproduction" series. It's a little out of date now because of the "Return of Donna Troy" mini and its retcons which I've heard a little about; but if you really want to see it, I can offer this link and then you'll have to Search for "Donna Troy" until you find the key passage :)

Superhero Reproduction (Part 9): Foster Children (http://forums.comicbookresources.com/showthread.php?t=46650)

[tangentman]

DDM: Earth 2 Hippolyta was not a blonde, she was very much a brunette. The Golden Age series showed either brown-haired or black-haired Hippolyta. In fact, issues of Infinity Inc. even showed Hippolyta as being dark-haired during Lyta's flashbacks of summer vacations on Paradise Island.

Lorendiac, you should add Nubia to your list of "Wonder Women". Pre-Crisis, she first appeared in the early 70's when Diana ended her "Emma Peel" phase. The story featuring Nubia's debut told of how Hippolyta had actually molded TWO daughters from clay, and one of them was a black Amazon. Nubia had the standard Amazon super-powers set and was Diana's equal in fighting skill.

Post-Crisis, the character appeared as Nu'bia, an Amazon who was a "proto-Wonder Woman" in that she won a "Contest of Champions" to determine which Amazon would guard the passage to Tartarus from within "Doom's Doorway". Nu'bia won the contest and guarded the Amazons by living in the Underworld. She apparently had powers of flight, heightened strength and durability, as well as the Gorgon-granted power to turn opponents into stone.

[Lorendiac]

Lorendiac, you should add Nubia to your list of "Wonder Women". Pre-Crisis, she first appeared in the early 70's when Diana ended her "Emma Peel" phase. The story featuring Nubia's debut told of how Hippolyta had actually molded TWO daughters from clay, and one of them was a black Amazon. Nubia had the standard Amazon super-powers set and was Diana's equal in fighting skill.

Post-Crisis, the character appeared as Nu'bia, an Amazon who was a "proto-Wonder Woman" in that she won a "Contest of Champions" to determine which Amazon would guard the passage to Tartarus from within "Doom's Doorway". Nu'bia won the contest and guarded the Amazons by living in the Underworld. She apparently had powers of flight, heightened strength and durability, as well as the Gorgon-granted power to turn opponents into stone.

Should I add her? You say I should, but you didn't really explain why :) Did the Pre-Crisis version, for instance, ever run around wearing a superhero costume, with other people calling her "Wonder Woman" at the time?

Anyway, I add in self-defense, originally I wasn't even thinking of starting a list of everybody who ever wore a Wonder Woman outfit, and used that exact name, Pre-Crisis. :) I was only trying to sort out all the different Post-Crisis Retcons that were made by various people who wanted to "salvage" as many of the old stories about the Earth-1 and Earth-2 versions of Diana, Wonder Woman, as possible. However, because I carelessly just said "The Pre-Crisis Wonder Women" in the title, fans of the Wonder Woman concept have been telling me about one character after another who also, at some point in the Pre-Crisis continuity, was "entitled" to call herself "Wonder Woman." I admit it's been an educational experience to fill out the list of "alternate" Pre-Crisis Wonder Women beyond the most famous two, but it wasn't my original mission statement at all :)

On the other hand, I have now started writing a post about all the different DC characters who have used the name "Artemis" at different times, Pre-Crisis or Post-Crisis. I think I'm up to eight and counting. In fact, I'm about to post a request on this forum, asking for help in sorting out a bit of the history involving the Greek goddess Artemis and her Roman counterpart, Diana :)

[Bored at 3:00AM]

Don't matter how many times DC tries to pretend Wonder Woman wasn't a founding member of the JLA, it just doesn't wash. They can run around in circles trying to plug all the holes this leaves, but, as far as I'm concerned, she was and always will be part of the Silver Age heroes.

Hippolyta as the Golden Age Wonder Woman works wonderfully though and, despite the pointless time travel aspect of it, is a nice bit of retconning on Byrne's part.

[glennsim]

The fact that Hippolyta traveled throught time to be the Golden Age Wonder Woman doesn't bother me.

The fact that Hippolyta stayed in the past and became the Golden Age Wonder Woman after giving a speech about how you shouldn't muck about with the past does.

[tangentman]

Lorendiac, you might want to be more clear in your word choices the next time you post a question asking for so much information. ;)

Pre-Crisis Nubia was the "Wonder Woman" of an island civilization that worshiped Ares. Nubia showed up to challenge Diana for the title of "Wonder Woman" on Paradise Island. As I explained, Post-Crisis Nu'bia was a proto-Wonder Woman who won a similar contest to travel into the Underworld as the defender of Themyscira.