Wonder Woman

Wonder Woman – Definitive Collecting Guide and Reading Order

Updated March 24, 2025! The Wonder Woman comic books definitive issue-by-issue collecting guide and trade reading order for omnibus, hardcover, and trade paperback collections. Find every issue and appearance! Part of Crushing Krisis’s Crushing Comics. Last updated March 2025 with titles scheduled for release through September 2025.

Wonder Woman has stood as a symbol of feminism and queerness for over 80 years.

That’s not just a modern reading of the character. Wonder Woman is a hero who was created with great intent by psychologist and inventor William Moulton Marston, along with wife and co-creator Elizabeth Holloway Marston, their romantic partner Olive Byrne, and artist H. G. Peter.

Marston was famous before entering the comics sphere as the inventor of the systolic blood pressure test, which became a critical component of the polygraph – or lie detector – of which he was also a component. He was also a defender of “abnormal” sexuality, including homosexuality and sadomasochism, as regular, omnipresent aspects of human behavior. [1][2]

Marston was interested in the influence of the new breed of American superhero comics, and after being interviewed on the topic by Byrne for Family Circle became a consultant for two of the companies that later merged into DC Comics.[3]

He wanted to invent his own hero, who would win fights by the virtue of truth and love rather than power (while still being strong); his wife suggested the hero be a woman. Wonder Woman’s appearance was initially based on Byrne, the niece of famous birth control activist Margaret Sanger.[4]

The result was Wonder Woman – a literal amazon from an entire same-sex society with obvious themes of lesbianism who was as strong as Superman, wore an (at the time) outrageously skimpy outfit accessorized with bondage cuffs, and defeated enemies by tying them up and forcing them to tell the truth. In fact, Wonder Woman would most often find herself not beaten or threatened by enemies, but tied and chained along with her gang of female sidekicks – each time breaking free of her bonds to save the day.

Today this character would likely be labeled as an outrageous fantasy of social justice – a niche character made for the interests of a minority. Instead, she quickly rose to fame as one of the most recognizable superheroes of the 40s, a member of the Justice Society of America, and one of the few DC heroes to survive the Golden Age with the majority of her story and identity intact rather than being wholly reinvented for the Silver Age – solidifying her membership in DC’s “Trinity” along with Superman and Batman.

While Wonder Woman has rarely merited the multiple ongoing titles of her Trinity peers, she has enjoyed a lengthy and unbroken publication history, a prominent role in all of DC’s major event storylines, a string of high-profile creators from the 70s to today, and near-constant membership in the Justice Society and League. [Read more…] about Wonder Woman – Definitive Collecting Guide and Reading Order

Wonder Woman Comic-Con Trailer!

July 23, 2016 by krisis

I’ve already recently covered my lifelong love of Wonder Woman, so I don’t think I need to explain that I found this trailer to be heart-stoppingly good. I gasped out loud the first time Diana used the lasso of truth.

I also appreciated that Chris Pine is playing the same mouthy handsome guy he always plays, but that every one of his little pieces of pith in the trailer was undermined by the somber score. While this still has a little too much “defining Wonder Woman as the inverse of a man” to it for my liking, it never once gives the illusion that Pine is the star or that the camera mirrors his gaze.

Oh, and: Etta Candy is wonderful.

Review: Wonder Woman – Earth One, Vol. 1, by Morrison, Paquette, & Fairbairn

June 5, 2016 by krisis

As a kid, I never wanted to be in a boys’ club and was always jealous of anything that was exclusively “girls only.”

I can recall many instances of this. Riding in the car, my mother tried to convince me that I might enjoy joining the Boy Scouts. “But, they’re all boys,” I replied, my rejection implicit. Later, when my female friends were allowed to sleep over together after parties while males went home, I rebelled. “Why shouldn’t I be allowed to stay over?” I raged. “They’re all of my best friends!”

It was hard for me to understand the power of either gendered space because, upon reflection, I did not feel strongly aligned to the idea of my maleness. There was nothing about it I particularly wanted – not the strength, or the camaraderie – because I did not have any evidence in my life that maleness could be good or worthwhile. I hated the idea of being a member of the boys’ club. If all you know about being a boy is bullying and irresponsibility – if the only masculinity you witness is toxic – then why would you want to access it?

That’s not to say I was desperate to be a girl. I liked to wear nail polish and own pink things because they were pretty, not out of a sense of gender dysphoria. Upon reflection, I think the idea of a gender continuum , or even simply a third gender, would have been powerful for me to be able to identify with at the time. (So would have a positive male influence, but I think the former would have been more accessible than the latter.)

Instead, I counteracted my boyness by idolizing female influences, none more than Wonder Woman – the only superhero that mattered to me even though Spider-Man shared my name.

Thirty years later, I can appreciate my ability to define my own maleness and that my gender role or expression does not define my gender identity. I also appreciate the power of single sex spaces in certain contexts. At RJ there was a recurring Ladies Night, were all the women would get together for dinner or drinks. Of course, I wanted to attend – these were all my friends out together! Yet, as women in tech, those friends shared an important, connected experience, and even as the most well-meaning male I might interrupt the ability to share that. Also, there may be women who don’t appreciate or benefit from that shared, female-only space.

Now this is a part of my story. Even when I’m accidentally or tacitly included in a boys’ club or male privilege, I don’t experience it in the same way as my peers.

I’m happy about that. I think it’s powerful to be able to access some piece of otherness to influence your viewpoint when you are in the majority. It doesn’t make you The Other, and you still have a lot of work to do to understand the experience of someone who prohibited from enjoying the club or the privilege, but it means you can see outside of your cave into the wider world of sunlight outside.

Oh, hey, and we’re here to review a comic book. [Read more…] about Review: Wonder Woman – Earth One, Vol. 1, by Morrison, Paquette, & Fairbairn

Does the past matter after a reboot?

July 10, 2012 by krisis

To be fair, I don’t know if any of us really wanted to see a fourth film of Maguire’s puffy prematurely-balding version of Peter Parker.

We are living in the age of the reboot.

Last week, Amazing Spider-Man relaunched the webhead’s cinematic universe while the body of the old Tobey Maguire series was still warm. There’s a new Dallas series on TV. Sherlock Holmes revisionist history movies are being released alongside a present-day version of the detective on BBC TV.

So do those older, original versions matter?

Alternate Future History

Think about your favorite TV show or series of books. It’s a serialized, ongoing story that builds with every installment and references its past. You love it. You watch every episode and buy every volume. You are a super-fan.

What if there was some prior series with the same characters and concepts, but it was not a part of the current story you love? Would you buy it? This is increasingly common in our age of reboots. If you loved the new JJ Abrams Star Trek movie – which departs from the traditional Trek timeline post-Enterprise – are the other TV series and films automatically a must-watch? What about past Spider-Man movies, original Dallas, Sherlock Holmes books, Charlie’s Angels, G.I. Joe, Inspector Gadget, or Battlestar Galactica?

To me, Garfield is the perfect embodiment of Peter Parker – thin, gangly, awkward, and genuine.

Probably not. All those past series are just an alternate reality to the present ones. You don’t need to watch both.

Case Study: DC’s Crisis of Collected Editions

DC Comics is one year into their successful line-wide New 52 reboot. Now they’re faced with a major crisis: they have a huge back catalog of trade paperbacks and hardcovers that might not matter.

DC’s rich history of iconic characters stretches back to 1938. Superman, Batman, Wonder Woman – these heroes emerged as pure archetypes and over many decades evolved into the rounder, more dynamic characters they are today. There are many hundreds of older issues of their exploits available to reprint and press into the hands of eager young fans of today.

Action Comics #1, 1938

Except, today’s characters are not the same people – and I don’t just mean their personalities. DC’s Crisis On Infinite Earths rebooted everyone back in 1984, making post-1984 books the equivalent of new-Trek. Some of the characters beneath the masks of Flash and Green Lantern weren’t even the same as before! Then, after many years of tweaking, DC rebooted again last fall – creating a new-new-Trek.

What wasn’t immediately evident from those #1 issues was that some characters survived more intact than others. Batman’s corner of the DC Universe? Seemingly mostly the same, even if Bruce is younger than before. Superman? Origin retold from scratch, parents now dead, never in a relationship with Lois. Wonder Woman? Major changes in the Amazonian status quo, right down to her parentage.

Which brings me to my titular question: do DC Comics Collections matter? Yes, there are the Watchmen and the Killing Joke, the indisputable evergreen classics of the comics medium that will move units regardless of if their stories still count for anything.

But what about DC Archives, their premium hardcover reprints of Golden and Silver Age comics? What about Wonder Woman #205? Action Comics #527? The 70s Green Arrow / Green Lantern series?

Action Comics #1, 2011

None of it counts in continuity, so does it matter anymore? These classic stories have little to nothing to do with the current state of my favorite heroine. They aren’t all prohibitive classics. So, is there any point in reprinting them?

(Marvel doesn’t have this problem. Aside from some isolated soft reboots of certain characters, everything still counts, all the way back to the 40s. Every issue of X-Men is acknowledged and in continuity.)

Does the alternate past matter? You decide.

I want to know what you think. Do older stories still have a place post-reboot? If you loved JJ Abrams’s Star Trek did you immediately jump back to rewatch the original series?

And, on our case study: Should DC even bother to reprint non-seminal stories of characters other than Batman if they don’t matter in current continuity?

What do you think?

DC New 52 Review: Wonder Woman #1

September 24, 2011 by krisis

Wonder Woman has always been my favorite super hero.

I’m not sure how it got that way. I had her Super Friends toy. I had seen the Lynda Carter show in syndication.

The thing I remember most is a library book. I still have it, actually, on my now bookcase of comics. It was a collection of her earliest strips from the 40s. We had checked it out of the library so many times that I was under the impression it was my personal copy. I suppose my mother finally told them I had misplaced it somewhere and paid the fine so I could keep it.

(Don’t judge her too harshly – It wasn’t so easy to track down obscure books back then! Also, we didn’t really have the money for that sort of thing.)

My love of Wonder Woman never expired, but I’ve never loved her comics the same way, aside from a thrilling mid-90s reimagining by William Messner-Loebs and Mike Deodato, Jr. I know I’ve missed a lot of Wonder Woman comics in the interim, and if DC could get their heads out of their asses on reprints maybe I could catch up on them.

The relaunch is the perfect chance to launch Wonder Woman to the heights she belongs – equal to Superman and Batman, the holy trinity of the DC Universe.

Is her new number one issue up to the task?

Wonder Woman #1

Written by Brian Azzarello, art by Cliff Chiang

Rating: 2.5 of 5 – Okay

In a Line: “Failure… what a horrifying end to an endless life.”

#140 Review: Wonder Woman #1 hints at major myth-heavy plot to come, but has sparse script, hardly any WW in it, & angular, inconsistent art. Just okay.

CK Says: Consider it.

Wonder Woman #1 is an interesting comic book, but it’s simply not worthy of the redebut of one of DC’s holy trinity of heroes when we’ve seen absolutely stellar books from her compatriots Superman and Batman over the past two weeks.

Brian Azzarello’s story is slight on script but full of action, both dramatic and in battle. It features a girl marked for death by a Pantheon of forces, a certain horror of growing centaurs out of horses’ necks, Hermes carrying around a Portkey to Wonder Woman, and a rogue son of a god who makes his own oracles from scratch. The elements hint at the possibilty of spectacular plots to come, but this issue is merely moving pieces into play on a chess board.

I had major doubts about Chiang on Wonder Woman. He acquits himself adequately, but I don’t know that he merits all the many unscripted panels he gets here. His figures have a certain plainness to them that’s half DC animated half hieroglyphic, with thin limbs and angular features. A lot of his edges have a rough, unfinished look, which looks great on environments but can be a little off-putting on characters.

What Chiang does get right is Wonder Woman – to a tee. He lets her look Amazonian while still staying svelte, and manages to convey coyness even when she’s standing bare naked in the middle of a room. The handful of panels of Diana in action will get your heart racing – Chiang is much better on action than conversation. It’s a pity she’s not in her own debut a little more, as whenever she is she’s magnetic.

As for the cover, I cannot bring myself to like it. Diana’s figure is too far left looking off the page – it feels like half of an image.

Azzarello might be the writer to pluck Wonder Woman from the rut she has been in for the past year, but it is going to take him a few issues to get there. Buy this first one only if you have the patience to hang in for the next few months.