In another thread, one of the members mentioned how they liked to hear about how a person was first exposed to Wonder Woman. I like those stories too and would like to know more about your first Wonder Woman comic.

Mine was this issue to the left. Wonder Woman #34. My mother and I were visiting family in New York and when we got off the flight from California our first stop was at one of the airport gift shops at JFK. There was a spinner rack loaded with comics and I was compelled to ask my mom if she would buy me this one. While I don't remember the details of the story I had been buying comics sporadically to draw from pages or the covers and this one struck me.

I'd have a vivid recollection of Wonder Woman for the Superfriends and the Lynda Carter reruns but I wasn't into the character like I was Superman or the Punisher and the Hulk. I think what compelled me to get it was the characters physical strength as I had always found that aspect of women very compelling. I think that I had bought John Byrne's post Crisis Superman series where He and Wonder Woman were duking it out and I was impressed by her ability to withstand his onslaught and deliver in her own right.

I didn't even become an avid collector until the 90's and would return to the character only once in a while when my budget would allow or if there was something bringing me to the title.

What was your first Wonder Woman comic?

I go to an Antique Market every weekend from April through October. I got into comics at later in a season, and one person had comics. I was buying just about everything they had to try and get into more characters. This was the only WW comic there was. I read it, and enjoyed the character, though was very confused by the story. Overtime I was able to get more WW comics from that era and learn more about her. I just started to like her, and she eventually rose to my second favorite hero.

@Press Oblivion: OMG I feel like I was reading my own recollection of WW :) I was introduced to her as a child watching Lynda Carter portraying Diana and the Super Friends during the 70's and started collecting her comic books right after the crisis around the mid 80's. I also remember seeing a comic book of her battling Superman prior to the crisis, which stuck in my head and thought it was the most awesome thing I've seen, a woman going toe to toe with Superman. I've been a fan of the Princess since I've known her. Different writers have portrayed her, some are good and others, well let's just say, they were Diana's Dark Ages.

@x_29 said:

This^ (lol)

@Press Oblivion: I think it was JMS "The Odyssey", after watching the animated film, I ordered a few WW cause I loved the mythology, it had a great deal of symbolism and I really never knew anything about WW, apart from the Lynda Carter show which I was way to young to really understand, although I liked it as a kid. I really was maybe 3 or 4 when the reruns were showing, so obviously I didn´t get it. But anyway what impressed me about animated film is it really demonstrated how nicely WW rounded off the Trinity. It was truly as unique and compelling a story as Batman or Superman. So as I said I ordered about 5 different WW´s from Amazon specifically trying to get an origin graphic novel. The first to arrive was JMS´s. Needless to say I was rather confused, but thankfully Perez came the next day, and although it was a bit cheesy in places, some of the feminist, and, greek mythology stuff in his origin blew my mind. It´s truly a beautiful origin story he wrote. Since I´ve been an avid fan.

Good topic, really like it, I´ll be interested to hear others stories.

the blackest night event , flashpoint (amazons vs atlanteans!!) , and her N52 series

yes im a bit late to this party...

actually my first experience with WW was a superman issue , i think it was called "For the Man who has everything..." ? it had mongul strap a black mercy on superman and while batman and robin where trying to remove the flower off superman , WW was doing her best to fight mongul

I started in 1975.

@jphulk26: One really good stories in the Perez run were the 2 girdle of Gaeas and the introduction of the Banas :)

Of course, I was familiar with Wonder Woman through Justice League of America, as well as guest appearances in other titles (though I don't recall too many of those), I never bought an actual issue until this one, due to the guest appearance of the New Teen Titans. I remember being incredibly disappointed that Perez was not doing the interior art. After that, I picked up a few more sporadic issues, again based on the guest stars. I didn't become an actual fan of the character until the post-Crisis Perez run. I'm a huge fan of both Greek Mythology and Perez's artwork, so that series hit all the right notes for me. I stayed with her through Byrne's run, but abandoned the title after that. I think Wonder Woman is a great character, and i've enjoyed her adventures immensely within the pages of the various Justice League titles, but for whatever reason, I never went back to her own series.

@Goddessa said:

@Press Oblivion: OMG I feel like I was reading my own recollection of WW :) I was introduced to her as a child watching Lynda Carter portraying Diana and the Super Friends during the 70's and started collecting her comic books right after the crisis around the mid 80's. I also remember seeing a comic book of her battling Superman prior to the crisis, which stuck on my head and thought it was the most awesome thing I've seen, a woman going toe to toe with Superman. I've been a fan of the Princess since I've known her. Different writers have portrayed her, some are good and others, well let's just say, they were Diana's Dark Ages.

That's great! Kindred spirits :D

@Goddessa said:

This is such a great story. I think RazzaTazz reviewed it and said that it was perfect. . . there isn't a better word to describe it.

@colonyofcells said:

I started in 1975.

Do you remember what month?

@Press Oblivion: PERFECT was the right word to describe it. I think I got it around March or April 1987....god that was a looong time ago! LOL

@jphulk26 said:

@Press Oblivion: I think it was JMS "The Odyssey", after watching the animated film, I ordered a few WW cause I loved the mythology, it had a great deal of symbolism and I really never knew anything about WW, apart from the Lynda Carter show which I was way to young to really understand, although I liked it as a kid. I really was maybe 3 or 4 when the reruns were showing, so obviously I didn´t get it. But anyway what impressed me about animated film is it really demonstrated how nicely WW rounded off the Trinity. It was truly as unique and compelling a story as Batman or Superman. So as I said I ordered about 5 different WW´s from Amazon specifically trying to get an origin graphic novel. The first to arrive was JMS´s. Needless to say I was rather confused, but thankfully Perez came the next day, and although it was a bit cheesy in places, some of the feminist, and, greek mythology stuff in his origin blew my mind. It´s truly a beautiful origin story he wrote. Since I´ve been an avid fan.

Good topic, really like it, I´ll be interested to hear others stories.

Yours is a great story because of the impact of that animated film. I really wish they would leave the live action stuff to Bruce Timm and Paul Dini. Perhaps Marvel would be on the run if they were in charge of the summer block busters. I couldn't get through the JMS stuff, I really don't know why, I was behind it like I am for this NEW 52 campaign, I guess I knew that it would come back to the star spangles panties at some point. I read the first three issues and the last issue of that run. I've recently reread the first 14 issues of the 1987 run and find myself wishing that this was N52 version. It has everything we've all been screaming for.

@SoA said:

the blackest night event , flashpoint (amazons vs atlanteans!!) , and her N52 series

yes im a bit late to this party...

actually my first experience with WW was a superman issue , i think it was called "For the Man who has everything..." ? it had mongul strap a black mercy on superman and while batman and robin where trying to remove the flower off superman , WW was doing her best to fight mongul

This Mongul fight was a more recent story? I would love to see her whip Mongul's ass.

@chalkshark said:

Of course, I was familiar with Wonder Woman through Justice League of America, as well as guest appearances in other titles (though I don't recall too many of those), I never bought an actual issue until this one, due to the guest appearance of the New Teen Titans. I remember being incredibly disappointed that Perez was not doing the interior art. After that, I picked up a few more sporadic issues, again based on the guest stars. I didn't become an actual fan of the character until the post-Crisis Perez run. I'm a huge fan of both Greek Mythology and Perez's artwork, so that series hit all the right notes for me. I stayed with her through Byrne's run, but abandoned the title after that. I think Wonder Woman is a great character, and i've enjoyed her adventures immensely within the pages of the various Justice League titles, but for whatever reason, I never went back to her own series.

This is kind of a sad story, that you haven't come back to the character. I'm not sure if you've seen a bunch of us debating the appeal or treatment of the character in other threads but one of my points to her struggle is the lack of fans to rally to her cause. Do you think you could try to dig a little and find a reason for dropping her title? It seems like you have a lot of respect for the character and I'm curious. If not that's cool too :)

@Goddessa said:

@Press Oblivion: PERFECT was the right word to describe it. I think I got it around March or April 1987....god the was a looong time ago! LOL

Yeah that was a long time ago . . . I was so naive and ambitious, really just discovering comics that year. :D

@Press Oblivion: She's actually the only comic book I was collecting then, I only started collecting the Justice League titles and some others either because she's part of it or she's a guest :D

I started during the time of Wonder Woman The Twelve Labors (wonder woman 212 to 222) when 12 JLA members were monitoring Wonder Woman. After this, Wonder Woman became a JLA member again and her first adventure with the JLA was against Nekron (jla 128-129). I started with Wonder Woman 219 aug 1975 the elongated man issue.

http://www.comics.org/issue/28870/cover/4/

@Press Oblivion: It wasn't just Wonder Woman. I bailed on the whole comics scene. Stopped collecting for several years. The 90's were a pretty poor time for a lot of books, and with continually rising costs, I just decided that it was time to get out. I didn't start collecting again until after my father died. He started my comic collection when I was just a child, and going back to it was a way of re-connecting with my father. I kind of eased my way back into collecting, gravitating to titles that had been childhood favorites, and thus held strong nostalgic appeal to me. Aquaman had been, and still is, my favorite character, so I started with his current title, and slowly branched out from there. My return to Wonder Woman came with Wonder Woman:The Hiketeia, which, to this day, stands as my favorite story of all time featuring the Amazon Princess. I started picking her title up with the 2006 series, but it was plagued with scheduling difficulties that just irritated me. I quickly dropped it and never went back.

I am not a fan of DC's "new" 52 initiative, and am only picking up titles for the artwork. No offense to his fan base, but Chiang's work does nothing for me, so Wonder Woman is not a title I'm carrying. Though my friend, Matt, having just returned to collecting in 2011, is picking up Wonder Woman. Maybe I'll take a second look at them.

@Press Oblivion: it was back in the late 80s , jason todd was robin , i guess it was recent change since WW mentioned jason reminding her of dick grayson. and this was mongul senior not the sinestro corps stealing junior , it was a nice superman story , i think they adapted it in the justice league unlimited show

@colonyofcells said:

I started during the time of Wonder Woman The Twelve Labors (wonder woman 212 to 222) when 12 JLA members were monitoring Wonder Woman. After this, Wonder Woman became a JLA member again and her first adventure with the JLA was against Nekron (jla 128-129). I started with Wonder Woman 219 aug 1975 the elongated man issue.

http://www.comics.org/issue/28870/cover/4/

Sounds like some epic stuff. Thanks for that, the 12 lagors sounds like a great title .

@chalkshark said:

@Press Oblivion: It wasn't just Wonder Woman. I bailed on the whole comics scene. Stopped collecting for several years. The 90's were a pretty poor time for a lot of books, and with continually rising costs, I just decided that it was time to get out. I didn't start collecting again until after my father died. He started my comic collection when I was just a child, and going back to it was a way of re-connecting with my father. I kind of eased my way back into collecting, gravitating to titles that had been childhood favorites, and thus held strong nostalgic appeal to me. Aquaman had been, and still is, my favorite character, so I started with his current title, and slowly branched out from there. My return to Wonder Woman came with Wonder Woman:The Hiketeia, which, to this day, stands as my favorite story of all time featuring the Amazon Princess. I started picking her title up with the 2006 series, but it was plagued with scheduling difficulties that just irritated me. I quickly dropped it and never went back.

I am not a fan of DC's "new" 52 initiative, and am only picking up titles for the artwork. No offense to his fan base, but Chiang's work does nothing for me, so Wonder Woman is not a title I'm carrying. Though my friend, Matt, having just returned to collecting in 2011, is picking up Wonder Woman. Maybe I'll take a second look at them.

I completely understand, I've had my own bouts with collecting and have taken a couple of several year breaks from the books mostly due to the ever rising costs of the product.

I like that you sight the nostalgia of the relationship with your father, that's beautiful. I always thought that if I had children we would bond over comics as well.

Should you have the opportunity to get back into Wonder Woman's comic be sure to let us know what you think :)

@SoA said:

@Press Oblivion: it was back in the late 80s , jason todd was robin , i guess it was recent change since WW mentioned jason reminding her of dick grayson. and this was mongul senior not the sinestro corps stealing junior , it was a nice superman story , i think they adapted it in the justice league unlimited show

I'm no really up on my Lantern stuff. As long as Wonder Woman is dolling out punishment, that's what I'm all about.

I think it was a bundled issue in the 70's. It featured some arrogant millionaire who arranged to discover the location of Paradise Island and wished to unleash whatever terror would be caused by a man setting foot in the island. He managed to lock up WW and then went to the island, but WW beat him to the beach and much to his dismay nothing happened. She then explained that if any of the Amazons saw a man on the island they would instantly fall in love with him and fight among themselves for his love. It featured WW as Diana Prince working for the UN and she used her lasso to transform herself.

It wasn't until I bought somebody's extensive comic collection that I had some proper WW issues (most of the post-Perez reboot in fact)

That 1970s issue is probably Wonder Woman 216 feb 1975. Synopsis : Black Canary observes Wonder Woman's fifth mission, as a billionaire - Diogenes Diamandopoulos - attempts to learn the secret of why no man may set foot on Paradise Island. It is part of Wonder Woman The Twelve Labors (212 to 222) when the JLA members were monitoring Wonder Woman before accepting her back as a member. During this time, there were some giant issues with reprints such as 211, 214 and 217. I am familiar with WW 216 bec it is near the time I also started on comics.

http://www.comics.org/issue/28234/cover/4/

Notable about this bronze age issue : Hyppolyte (not Hippolyta) is blonde, Artemis is a nice amazon with brown hair, amazon science, Wonder Woman cannot fly but can glide, the secret that amazons will fall in love with any man who sets foot on paradise island was not revealed to the villain and was kept secret by Black Canary and this part of the mythology was not used in other stories.

After the Diana Rigg period, Woman Woman changed from shorts to panties and the costume was evolving. In WW 215, the belt color changed from white to yellow and the bottom point was removed. In WW 216, the boots were still all red and don't have the white strips which became the standard in the later bronze age. The costume stabilized during the earth 2 world war 2 run. Changing from eagle symbol to W was still a few years away.

@Press Oblivion said: I'm no really up on my Lantern stuff. As long as Wonder Woman is dolling out punishment, that's what I'm all about.

I love it when heroes or villain punish Diana, the bigger threat the better! :)

@kapitein_zeppos said:

I think it was a bundled issue in the 70's. It featured some arrogant millionaire who arranged to discover the location of Paradise Island and wished to unleash whatever terror would be caused by a man setting foot in the island. He managed to lock up WW and then went to the island, but WW beat him to the beach and much to his dismay nothing happened. She then explained that if any of the Amazons saw a man on the island they would instantly fall in love with him and fight among themselves for his love. It featured WW as Diana Prince working for the UN and she used her lasso to transform herself.

It wasn't until I bought somebody's extensive comic collection that I had some proper WW issues (most of the post-Perez reboot in fact)

What a weird sounding story, I´ve got to get my hands on that. I need to check out WW V.1 on DC database.

@chalkshark said:

@Press Oblivion: It wasn't just Wonder Woman. I bailed on the whole comics scene. Stopped collecting for several years. The 90's were a pretty poor time for a lot of books, and with continually rising costs, I just decided that it was time to get out. I didn't start collecting again until after my father died. He started my comic collection when I was just a child, and going back to it was a way of re-connecting with my father. I kind of eased my way back into collecting, gravitating to titles that had been childhood favorites, and thus held strong nostalgic appeal to me. Aquaman had been, and still is, my favorite character, so I started with his current title, and slowly branched out from there. My return to Wonder Woman came with Wonder Woman:The Hiketeia, which, to this day, stands as my favorite story of all time featuring the Amazon Princess. I started picking her title up with the 2006 series, but it was plagued with scheduling difficulties that just irritated me. I quickly dropped it and never went back.

I am not a fan of DC's "new" 52 initiative, and am only picking up titles for the artwork. No offense to his fan base, but Chiang's work does nothing for me, so Wonder Woman is not a title I'm carrying. Though my friend, Matt, having just returned to collecting in 2011, is picking up Wonder Woman. Maybe I'll take a second look at them.

Thanks for sharing that. I´d recommend to you to look at DC´s online database, some great collections of WW stories from the 2000´s is there. Ruckas run was sublime.

@Goddessa said:

@Press Oblivion: She's actually the only comic book I was collecting then, I only started collecting the Justice League titles and some others either because she's part of it or she's a guest :D

Dude or Dudet, read Batwoman, especially Ruckas Batwoman or Batwoman issue 0 of the New 52, I think you´ll love it, if you like WW. It kind of annoys me they had to call her Batwoman, I think she´s individual enough to stand on her own two feet, but I guess she wouldn´t have sold as much.

@Press Oblivion: @Press Oblivion said:

@jphulk26 said:

@Press Oblivion: I think it was JMS "The Odyssey", after watching the animated film, I ordered a few WW cause I loved the mythology, it had a great deal of symbolism and I really never knew anything about WW, apart from the Lynda Carter show which I was way to young to really understand, although I liked it as a kid. I really was maybe 3 or 4 when the reruns were showing, so obviously I didn´t get it. But anyway what impressed me about animated film is it really demonstrated how nicely WW rounded off the Trinity. It was truly as unique and compelling a story as Batman or Superman. So as I said I ordered about 5 different WW´s from Amazon specifically trying to get an origin graphic novel. The first to arrive was JMS´s. Needless to say I was rather confused, but thankfully Perez came the next day, and although it was a bit cheesy in places, some of the feminist, and, greek mythology stuff in his origin blew my mind. It´s truly a beautiful origin story he wrote. Since I´ve been an avid fan.

Good topic, really like it, I´ll be interested to hear others stories.

Yours is a great story because of the impact of that animated film. I really wish they would leave the live action stuff to Bruce Timm and Paul Dini. Perhaps Marvel would be on the run if they were in charge of the summer block busters. I couldn't get through the JMS stuff, I really don't know why, I was behind it like I am for this NEW 52 campaign, I guess I knew that it would come back to the star spangles panties at some point. I read the first three issues and the last issue of that run. I've recently reread the first 14 issues of the 1987 run and find myself wishing that this was N52 version. It has everything we've all been screaming for.

True. Still loving hearing all these stories.

Have you read WW spirit of truth, I wish elements of that came into the New 52.

@jphulk26: I'll see if I can fit Batwoman in my monthly collection. At the moment I'm collecting (New 52) Wonder Woman, Justice League, Flash, Green Lantern New Guardians, Teen Titans, and Aquaman.

I couldn't honestly say. I read a few issues here and there over the years, but never got into the character. Over this past summer I read the Nu52 WW hardcover and then decided to start collecting that series.

Wonder Woman # 600

@Goddessa said:

Ditto. There was a cover story in "Amazing Heroes" that got me hyped for it though.

Afterwards I made it my business to collect the PreCrisis version and several Golden Age compilations.

The first one I bought was JLA: A League of One. Technically, it's not a Wonder Woman comic book, but it is a Wonder Woman story, so it counts for me.

However, the first one I read was from William Messner-Loebs' run, back when Artemis was Wonder Woman and Circe was Donna Milton and stuff... yeah, I was confused as f*ck.

@SmashBrawler: I hated William Messner-Loebs' run on Wonder Woman. That's one of her weakest moment as a superhero.

@SCORPIO_CASSADINE: That Amazing Heroes one is awesome!

Well, I can't remember the first Wonder Woman comic I ever bought or read. The first wondy comic I can remember reading was Perez's post crisis reboot. I know that I'd bought several tie ins for major events over years but none of them really stick out in my mind.

The first Wonder Woman comic I can distinctly remember buying was this one

Good ol One Year Later. I don't think I ever bought so many comics as I did back in 06. Not a bad year for comics, I still remember vividly how much I loved Dini's run on TEC.

@colonyofcells: @colonyofcells said:

That 1970s issue is probably Wonder Woman 216 feb 1975. Synopsis : Black Canary observes Wonder Woman's fifth mission, as a billionaire - Diogenes Diamandopoulos - attempts to learn the secret of why no man may set foot on Paradise Island. It is part of Wonder Woman The Twelve Labors (212 to 222) when the JLA members were monitoring Wonder Woman before accepting her back as a member. During this time, there were some giant issues with reprints such as 211, 214 and 217. I am familiar with WW 216 bec it is near the time I also started on comics.

http://www.comics.org/issue/28234/cover/4/

Notable about this bronze age issue : Hyppolyte (not Hippolyta) is blonde, Artemis is a nice amazon with brown hair, amazon science, Wonder Woman cannot fly but can glide, the secret that amazons will fall in love with any man who sets foot on paradise island was not revealed to the villain and was kept secret by Black Canary and this part of the mythology was not used in other stories.

After the Diana Rigg period, Woman Woman changed from shorts to panties and the costume was evolving. In WW 215, the belt color changed from white to yellow and the bottom point was removed. In WW 216, the boots were still all red and don't have the white strips which became the standard in the later bronze age. The costume stabilized during the earth 2 world war 2 run. Changing from eagle symbol to W was still a few years away.

I think mine was a French reprint in small format which included the origins of Steel in WWII and IIRC it also included a Captain Marvel story. At the time I thought that cyborgs fighting Nazis were a lot cooler, Captain Marvel was a bit daft and WW was that fun TV show.

I was first exposed to WW via the JLU i believe but i always knew of her existence. I feel in love with her watching those JL/JLU cartoons though and then when I grew up I found more material for her. Also, my mom was a fan of her