DC Finest - Wonder Woman: Introducing Wonder Woman

DC Finest - Wonder Woman #1942-1943

by William Moulton Marston, H.G. Peter (Illustrator)

Discover the origins of Diana Prince aka Wonder Woman as part of DC’s major new line of collected editions!

Welcome to DC Finest, a major new publishing initiative presenting comprehensive collections of the most in-demand and celebrated periods in DC Comics history, spanning genres, characters, and eras!

This collection spotlights the origin of Wonder Woman: her arrival in Man’s World with the wounded Steve Trevor and her secret identity of Diana Prince.

Explore Wonder Woman’s heroic beginnings as she faces off against infamous villains such as Baroness Von Gunther (a recurring villain during her early adventures) and loses her strength!

Collects Wonder Woman #1-4; All-Star Comics #8; Sensation Comics #1-18; Comic Cavalcade #1-2

Genres: Comics, Superheroes, Fantasy, Dc Comics, Graphic Novels

528 pages, Paperback

First published December 9, 2025

About the author

Dr. William Moulton Marston (May 9, 1893 – May 2, 1947), also known by the pen names Charles Moulton and William Marston, was an American psychologist, feminist theorist, inventor, and comic book writer who created the character Wonder Woman. Two women, his wife Elizabeth Holloway Marston and Olive Byrne (who lived with the couple in a polyamorous relationship), served as exemplars for the character and greatly influenced her creation.

He was inducted into the Comic Book Hall of Fame in 2006.

Reviews

[Jonathan · Rating 4 out of 5]

This is an absolutely wild ride. I think most people know about bondage being an integral element of Golden Age Wonder Woman but I was not prepared for how kinky this gets. Beyond simply getting tied up and tying other people up, Wonder Woman explores BDSM quite in depth. William Moulton Marston plays with the contradictions of the desire to submit and ties it into the psychology of patriarchy and fascism. It's about as subtle as a hammer but it goes to crazy places: a planet of women who want to be in prison and are sentenced to freedom for crimes; an Amazonian holiday where women dress up as deer and get hunted and trussed for cooking; billionaires are conditioned love their submission to women and Nazi mind control weapons are appropriated to "print a picture of Wonder Woman on their brains." Every story involves at least one original bondage situation, it's great. Unfortunately, a lot of the stories revolve around generic wartime fifth columnist sabotage plots that get really racist about Japanese people. Still, this has some of the most inventive and creative kink scenarios in Golden Age comics and is incredibly entertaining.

[Matt Fuller · Rating 4 out of 5]

Might be the wordiest of the Golden Age comics, despite that this is worth reading for historical reasons if for nothing else. The first Wonder Woman comics are actually pretty good, you just have to suffer though many words, stereotypes, and Etta Candy the worst character in comics. Covers 1941-1943. 8/10

[S.E. Martens · Rating 3 out of 5]

Collects the very first Wonder Woman stories, mostly printed in Sensation Comics, from 1941-1943. Do I ever have mixed feelings about the Golden Age WW! As a historic artefact these comics are fascinating, a real window into a different time period, with different aesthetics and social norms.

The Secret History of Wonder Woman by Jill Lepore explored the connection between a lot of these stories and the feminist movement, and the types of feminist writings from the 1920s-30s. On the other hand, you've got this over-the-top BDSM element with slave girls, sorority hazing rituals, and WW herself getting tied up in all sorts of weird ways. There's a real push/pull of ideas here, which is interesting.

Wonder Woman herself has a lot of sassy snark in these comics that has sadly been leeched from her character in a lot of newer, "more serious" iterations. I really like how she just seems to be having a ball the entire time, making lots of quips - which is not something associated with the character anymore.

Also, similarly to the Golden Age Superman stories, it's really nice to see these heroes tackle some more real-world problems. For example, in Sensation Comics No. 7 WW stands up to a company overcharging for milk, declaring: "It can't be legal to deprive poor children of milk!" (p.103) In the next issue, she investigates a department store that isn't paying its clerks a livable wage.

There is also an interesting pulp fantasy/sci-fi flavour to a lot of these stories. Diana is polytheistic and her people worship the Greek gods, who also manifest as either physical or spiritual entities. The gods live on the different planets in the solar system, usually the ones that are their namesake (i.e. Ares, the god of war, lives on Mars.) Characters travel to these various planets/realms by means of astral projection, but while in their astral form it is treated just as though they were physically there.

I was also tickled that before long WW has other characters, including military personnel, openly praising the goddess Aphrodite when things go their way! When Steve Trevor learns that the Amazons don't celebrate Christmas it isn't treated as a big deal, he simply wishes Wonder Woman a "Happy Diana's Day" instead.

Unfortunately, it's impossible to ignore the racism in these war time comics. The anti-Japanese racism in particular is a lot, and very gross whenever it appears. The Japanese enemy agents and spies are constantly referred to by racial slurs and pejoratives throughout the text. It sucks a lot of the enjoyment out of reading these stories.

However, the stories can be fun in places, definitely weird in places, and always interesting as a window into both 1940s popular culture and early superhero comics.

[Ángel Javier · Rating 4 out of 5]

Después de leer este volumen, mi admiración por el gran William Moulton Marston ha aumentado hasta alturas estratosféricas. Por supuesto, ya sabía que el buen doctor vivía en una relación poliamorosa con su esposa y su amante, y que le iba cosa mala el bondage, pero el cómo logró salirse con la suya durante tantos años guionizando unos cómics dirigidos al público infantil en los que el sadomaso y las relaciones homosexuales femeninas eran protagonistas absolutos se me escapa, y solo puede ser obra de una mente privilegiada y adelantada décadas a su tiempo. Y lo digo totalmente en serio.

Porque, vamos, estamos ante una oda al amor sumiso, al sometimiento —casi siempre consensuado— a las relaciones ama-esclava, al jugueteo erótico entre mujeres. También al pacifismo, por cierto, y a la creencia en la redención y el perdón. La malvadísima baronesa Von Gunther (me encanta esta villana) en realidad resulta ser una víctima de las circunstancias y, cosas de la vida, extraordinariamente eficaz como dominatrix; ambas cualidades la convierten en candidata ideal para que Diana la ponga de nuevo en el buen camino, tras enviarla a la silla eléctrica unas cuantas veces, eso sí... pero pelillos a la mar, una mala tarde la tiene cualquiera. ¿Y qué decir de la maravillosa Etta Candy, una mujer obesa y orgullosa de ello, capaz de plantarle cara al más pintado y de preparar las más refinadas torturas para las desgraciadas que pretenden unirse a su sororidad universitaria? Normal que los guionistas actuales no tengan ni idea de qué hacer con ella...

Como contraste, los hombres que aparecen en estos tebeos son extraordinariamente aburridos, incluso los villanos, todos perfectamente genéricos. Marston apunta hacia un mundo dirigido por mujeres fuertes, y, como modo de prepararnos para su llegada, despliega una imaginería de dominación amable y consensuada, una utopía sadomasoquista en la que ni siquiera hacen falta palabras de seguridad. ¿Raro? Hombre, pues sí, para qué vamos a negarlo, pero, oigan, ni que el mundo real fuera mejor...

[Drew L · Rating 3 out of 5]

The gender politics here are generally super interesting, as is the idea of mutual submission. I can’t believe what Marston was able to get away with. I also found the Baroness’s redemption arc was really well done

However the repetitive plots and racism really hold the book back