Let's be honest the writing for the first issues of Wonder Woman could be tweaked and fixed quite a bit. However, she is most iconic female superhero. Reading her first few issues isn't just for fans of Wonder Woman, but it's a look at comic book history in the making.

Her stories were ahead of her time. It's laughable to think that the modern day stories of Wonder Woman have no value as they did back in her day. Not sure what happened, but DC literally took out any sign that Wonder Woman had some smart writing.

With Marston writing the comics it went into politics and very heavy feminism topics. He was was also a psychologist and you can see that with various things, one being her magic lasso. The feminism really stands out though. Unlike the women at the time, she was fighting on the battle field. Yes her alter ego was a nurse, but she was fighting Nazis as Wonder Woman. In this volume too you see her face several other things that represents what it means to be a feminist. There are also early hits cross dressing in comics. About three of her villains are cross-dressers and it's not used in the comedic sense like the cartoons at the time.

So what happened to the writing of Wonder Woman? The only writers who I thought did a good job with her were in the 80s, the late 00s, and a little bit of the first few issues of her New 52 run. Other then that it seems like most of the writers focus on her outfit or they just don't get her character at all. They leave out any trace that her character was in fact a feminist. With all these "strong female leads" in comics you'd think we'd bring up actual issues again.

Five stars because this is were it all began and how involved she was originally. Three or four stars because yes it can get cheesy and erotic at times when it's not necessary. ( )

I honestly could not finish this book. I think it was written too long ago for me to enjoy it because Wonder Woman annoyed me more than anything. She chose to leave her entire people for some guy she literally didn't even know, which turned me away almost immediately.

I honestly could not finish this book. I think it was written too long ago for me to enjoy it because Wonder Woman annoyed me more than anything. She chose to leave her entire people for some guy she literally didn't even know, which turned me away almost immediately.

This collection reprints Wonder Woman's first appearance in All Star Comics no. 8 from December 1941-January 1942, the Wonder Woman stories in Sensation Comics nos. 1-12 from January-December 1942, and Wonder Woman no. 1 from Summer 1942. Creator William Moulton Marston created Wonder Woman to advance a feminist message of female strength. By modern standards, many of these stories appear regressive since Marston could not push his message too forcefully, though readers who view them from a 1940s perspective will appreciate them. Unfortunately, despite his progressive (for their time) views on gender, Marston, like many 1940s comics writers, fills his stories with racial caricatures. As the inventor of the lie detector, Marston often portrays lie detectors or has Wonder Woman use her magic lasso to compel her enemies to obey her and tell the truth. The lasso, combined with the frequency with which characters tie each other up or otherwise bind each other, fed into Fredric Wertham's condemnation of the character in the 1950s. Though Marston intended this trope to reflect suffragist propaganda that portrayed women as breaking shackles, those unaware of this context interpreted the art at its most basic level. Readers of these classic Wonder Woman stories should also read Jill Lepore's The Secret History of Wonder Woman for background and context. ( )

This was a very interesting read, from a historical perspective. Published in the early 1940s, Wonder Woman's first stories are groundbreaking with the first major super heroine. However, the stories are also indicative of attitudes of the era with a bit of misogyny and some very racist caricatures of all the non-white characters. Keeping the historical context in mind, it was good to read the quirky origins of this iconic super hero, even though the storytelling style was a bit of a slog for me at times. ( )