Wonder Woman made her first appearance in All Star Comics #8 (December, 1941). The character was so popular that she was given her own comic book the following year.

Wonder Woman's magic lasso was forged by the god Hephaestus from the magic girdle of Aphrodite which her mother, Queen Hippolyta, had inherited. As a result, Wonder Woman's lasso is unbreakable and has the power to force those ensnared by it to tell the truth.

The first costumed villain Wonder Woman ever faced was Dr. Poison in Sensation Comics #2 (February, 1942). A masked enemy agent whose secret weapon, a formula known as "reverso," forced American soldiers to disobey their orders, Dr. Poison was eventually unmasked and turned out to be a Japanese Princess named Maru.

The first superhero team to boast Wonder Woman in its ranks was the Justice Society of America -- she joined in All-Star Comics #12 (1942). Unfortunately, times being what they were, Wonder Woman didn't take an active part in most of the team's adventures and only served as the JSA's secretary, a position which she quickly renamed "Chief Amazon and Superhero Administrative Assistant." In later years, she would take a more active role in JSA activities. She would also join several other super groups including the All-Star Squadron and the Justice League.

William Moulton Marston, under the pseudonym Charles Moulton, created Wonder Woman in 1941. A Harvard-trained psychologist and feminist theorist, Marston, who had been hired as a consultant by Detective Comics (now DC Comics), pointed out to publisher Max Gaines that all of the company's superheroes were men and suggested that they develop a female superhero. Gaines agreed and Marston quickly returned with a concept for a superheroine called "Suprema, the Wonder Woman." The name "Suprema" was wisely cut by editor Sheldon Mayer and "Wonder Woman" soon made her debut in All Star Comics #8 (December, 1941). Reportedly, Marston based Wonder Woman's physical appearance on Olive Byrne, a former student with whom he had been romantically involved.

When Captain Steve Trevor, an American pilot, crash landed on Paradise Island, Diana, princess of the Amazons, fell in love with him and decided to accompany him back to the world of man where she used her Amazonian skills to fight crime as Wonder Woman.

Lynda Carter played Wonder Woman in the popular 1970s TV show Wonder Woman or The New Adventures of Wonder Woman which ran from 1976 to 1979 and told the story of an amazonian princess, Diana, who left her home on Paradise Island to fight for justice in the world of man. Wonder Woman also featured Lyle Waggoner as Major Steve Trevor, Beatrice Colen as Private Etta Candy, Richard Eastham as General Philip Blankenship, and Norman Burton as Joe Atkins. Although the first season was set in World War II, the show was updated at the beginning of the second season to modern times. There had been several previous attempts to bring Wonder Woman to the small screen including a 1974 made-for-television movie starring Cathy Lee Crosby as a blonde Wonder Woman and a 1960's pilot which never aired.

In 1972, the first issue of Gloria Steinem's Ms. Magazine featured Wonder Woman on the cover and included an article applauding the feminist nature of the world's most famous female superhero.

Towards the end of the 1960s, Wonder Women temporarily lost her Amazonian powers. During this period she became the pupil of a Chinese martial arts master named I Ching who taught her how to use her body as a deadly weapon. This storyline continued for about two years before she finally regained her powers.

Wonder Woman's earrings provide her with oxygen, allowing her to breathe in outer space. For a brief period in the 1970s, they also doubled as miniature grenades powerful enough to blast her way through a steel door!