DC Finest: Wonder Woman: Enter the Cheetah

DC Finest - Wonder Woman #1943-1944

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

Wonder Woman faces one of her earliest and most dangerous enemies—the Cheetah. These classic stories show Diana battling jealousy, deception, and fierce foes with courage and compassion. It’s the beginning of a legendary rivalry that helped shape her heroic journey.

DC Finest: Wonder Woman – Enter the Cheetah collects Wonder Woman #5–9, Sensation Comics #19–34, Comic Cavalcade #3–7, and All-Star Comics #20, originally published between 1943 and 1944. These stories feature the debut and early battles between Wonder Woman and Priscilla Rich—the original Cheetah—alongside appearances by Steve Trevor, Etta Candy, and the Holliday Girls. With themes of justice, identity, and transformation, this collection showcases the mythic and psychological depth that has defined Wonder Woman since her earliest days.

Genres: Comics, Dc Comics, Graphic Novels, Superheroes

536 pages, Paperback

First published February 3, 2026

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

[S.E. Martens · Rating 3 out of 5]

I'm not sure what possessed me to read 1,000 pages of 1940s comics this weekend, but here we are!

Enter the Cheetah collects Wonder Woman's adventures from Wonder Woman, Sensation Comics, and Comics Cavalcade from 1943-1944. We see spacefaring kangaroos, ectoplasm body-doubles, the lost world of Atlantis, time travel shenanigans, and the earliest appearances of some of Wonder Woman's best known villains.

I continue to have mixed-feelings on Golden Age WW, mostly from having to wade through the 1940s-era stereotypes and racism. Also, William Moulton Marston's propensity for inserting his kinky fetishes into every story.

But there are aspects I genuinely enjoy about this era. For instance, I prefer the Golden Age version of the Cheetah, a wealthy socialite whose jealousy of Wonder Woman fuels a split-personality disorder. A nitpick about this collection, though: they should have placed Wonder Woman No. 6 before Sensation Comics No. 22, as the "The Secret Submarine" is a direct sequel to the Cheetah stories from the WW issue. Clearly, the person compiling this didn't bother to actually read the stories they were including.

WW's supporting cast is also pretty fun in these stories. I enjoy Etta's energy and pep, she makes for a fun sidekick. I also found it interesting that while Steve Trevor fills the role of love interest for Wonder Woman, it's his more reserved superior, Colonel Darnell, who has a pretty obvious crush on her secret identity, Diana Prince.

All in all, another interesting dip into the past. I do like how DC is releasing these "finest" collections for different eras and characters.

[Matt Fuller · Rating 3 out of 5]

Not as good as the first Golden Age volume as some of the novelty and strangeness of the stories has worn off as the issues are tamer. The original Cheetah was not what I expected and my favorite issue was when Diana fought Achilles. 1943-1944. 6/10

[Ángel Javier · Rating 4 out of 5]

¡Por fin súper villanos de verdad! Se acabaron los quintacolumnistas (bueno, casi: hay una historieta involuntariamente hilarante en este tomo en la cual Diana se asombra de que todos los trabajadores de una compañía maderera sean leñadores nazis, tal cual), los gánsteres de medio pelo, los políticos corruptos, etc. Ahora, lo que mola —y mola mucho— son malos como el Doctor Psico, Giganta, la atlante Clea, un viejo vestido de buitre gigante (¿a quién me recordará este?) y, por supuesto, Cheetah, una tía pija en apariencia normal, pero con una doble personalidad más mala que el demonio y capaz de poner en jaque a Wonder Woman, a Isla Paraíso y al mundo entero si se lo propone. Por supuesto, el gran William Moulton Marston vuelve a sacarse cualquier conejo de la chistera, por inverosímil que sea, con el loable fin de que en cada historia salgan escenas de bondage y dominación, señoritas que llaman "ama" a otras señoritas, y cosas parecidas, lo que sigue pareciéndome un logro extraordinario para su época y para cualquier otra. Y lo es todavía más el encendido feminismo del que hace gala en relatos como aquel en el que las amazonas ven el futuro a través de una esfera de cristal (no me ha quedado muy claro si es mágica, tecnológica o ambas cosas), y perciben una realidad utópica gobernada por mujeres, en la que siniestros y envidiosos varones tratan una y otra vez de arrebatar el poder al benigno matriarcado. Ahora, acusarían a nuestro querido doctor de «woke» o gilipolleces semejantes.

Señor Marston, era usted la caña, pero me temo que su brillante futuro no tiene muchos visos de hacerse realidad, mientras cromañones continúen gobernando... y neandertales votándolos.

[Jonathan · Rating 5 out of 5]

Following on from the first DC Finest volume, here we transition from predominately wartime espionage stories to more properly Superhero vs. Supervillain stories. This has the introductions of a ton of classic Wonder Woman villains, not only Cheetah but Dr. Psycho, Queen Clea, and Giganta. The stories also get a lot stranger. Sure, there are still Nazi spy plots, but they are interlaced with journeys to space, journeys into dreams, journeys into the 4th dimension, journeys into the future (via magic seeing sphere) and the past (via "de-evolutionizer" machine), journeys to Atlantis and journeys to age-regression-fetish land. The art is as lovely and sultry as ever, and the kink scenarios continue to be creative and core to the stories. (This made for a very interesting read with Kallidora Rho's Warhound on the mind.) William Moulton Marston was very fascinated by the psychology of kink and saw that libidinal struggle of dominance and submission as core to the human experience and indeed to childhood fantasies of the adult world. It's not just so-crazy-that-they-went-there, but more often than not there is something being tapped into that just works as a compelling story.