Diana Prince

**Diana Prince**, also known as **Wonder Woman**, is a fictional character and hero in comic books published by the American company DC Comics. She first appeared in *All-Star Comics* #8 (December 1941), but her first appearance in *Swamp Thing* comics was in *Swamp Thing* Vol. 2 #24 (May 1984). She was created by William Moulton Marston and H.G. Peter.

## History

Diana is the daughter of Queen Hippolyta, the first child born on Paradise Island in the three thousand year history that the immortal Amazons lived there. The Amazons had been created around 1200 B.C. when the Greek goddesses drew forth the souls of all women who had been murdered by men and placed them on the island. One soul was held back from creation, the one that would be born as Diana. That soul originally belonged to the unborn daughter of the first woman murdered by a man (whom Hippolyta was the reincarnation of). In the late 20th Century, Hippolyta was instructed to mold some clay from the shores of Paradise Island into the form of a baby girl. Six members of the Greek Pantheon then bonded the soul to the clay, giving it life. Each of the six also granted Diana a gift: Demeter, great strength; Athena, wisdom and courage; Artemis, a hunter's heart and a communion with animals; Aphrodite, beauty and a loving heart; Hestia, sisterhood with fire; Hermes, speed and the power of flight. Diana grew up surrounded by a legion of sisters and mothers. When she was a young woman, the gods decreed that the Amazons must send an emissary into Man's World. Queen Hippolyta ordered a contest to be held, but forbade Diana from participating. Diana disobeyed and did so anyway in disguise, easily winning the contest and being named the Amazons' champion. She was given a uniform fashioned from the standard of someone who had visited the island a few decades earlier.

Diana did not keep her identity a secret, and she was not at first a "super-heroine". Indeed, her character was in many ways that of a babe in the woods, innocent and without guile. Diana spoke only Themyscirian, a combination of classical Greek and Turkish. She had to learn English when she arrived in America, rather than knowing the language intuitively. Nonetheless, Diana was trained as a warrior and had no compunction against using deadly force when called for. She often dealt with war, injustice, inequality, death, and conflicts involving the Olympian Gods.

Before embarking on her mission, Diana was given the Lasso of Truth, forged by Hephaestus himself. She was also given the Sandals of Hermes, which allowed her to instantly traverse great distances in seconds. Diana's mission was one of peace, but part of it initially involved defeating a mad plot by Ares to destroy the world. She ventured into the world by starting at Boston. There she met a Harvard professor, Dr. Julia Kapatelis, and her daughter, Vanessa Kapatelis, as well as the Air Force Officers Steve Trevor and Etta Candy. Diana stayed with Julia and Vanessa and over the course of a month or two, she learned to speak English. She was attacked at their home by Decay, one of Ares' minions, and after a battle that spilled out into the streets of Boston she first came to the public's eye and was given the name Wonder Woman. Upon discovering Ares' plan (one that involved causing a nuclear holocaust), Diana managed to foil it, first battling his sons Phobos and Deimos before finally convincing him the error of his ways using her Lasso. After defeating the God of War, Diana returned home for healing at the hands of Poseidon himself.

## Powers and Abilities

### Powers

* **Divine Empowerment:** Directly after being sculpted from clay, several Olympian gods granted attributes to Diana.
	+ **Superhuman Strength:** Granted by Demeter (Goddess of the Earth). Diana is literally as strong as the Earth because of her link to the planet granted to her. She is even said to be "Stronger than Hercules". Wonder Woman has shown she is strong enough to hold herself against those like Superman.
	+ **Superhuman Durability:** Granted by Demeter (Goddess of the Earth). Diana possesses a high resistance to damage and magical attacks. Her resistance to injury is not quite as great as any of the above mentioned metahumans. However, due to her vast threshold for pain and her amazon ability to heal at a superhuman rate, this easily makes up for the difference. She has withstood considerable bludgeoning damage in the form of hand to hand combat with metahuman opponents such as Superman and Captain Marvel. She has considerable resistance to human weaponries, though this is not absolute; Bullets can cause minor to moderate injury, but never life threatening. Later on it was implied that only god made weapons could harm her.
	+ **Flight:** Granted by Hermes (the Messenger God). Wonder Woman is capable of unassisted flight by gliding on air currents.
	+ **Superhuman Speed:** Granted by Hermes (the Messenger God). She is able to think, react, and move at superhuman speeds. According to the Flash, she can easily keep up with him if he is at regular cruising speed (but not at top speed). In flight, she has managed to reach up to Mach 3 unaided.
	+ **Superhuman Reflexes:** Granted by Hermes (the Messenger God). Wonder Woman's reflexes are far beyond the limitations of the finest human athletes. She has been able to react to a barrage of gunfire from multiple opponents at once unharmed. Batman noted that her reflexes are superior to that of Superman.
	+ **Superhuman Agility:** Wonder Woman's agility is far beyond that of even an Olympic level athlete, as is her balance and coordination.
	+ **Superhuman Stamina:** Wonder Woman can last a great deal of time in any fight and with virtually anyone. She has held her own in combat with foes as powerful as a Doomsday clone. She doesn't tire out, as her body produces no lactic acids in her muscles.
	+ **Accelerated Healing:** Granted by Demeter (Goddess of Earth). Like the Earth, Diana is constantly renewing herself, allowing her to quickly heal mild to moderate injuries at an amazing rate. Her normal regenerative abilities allow her to recover from injury within seconds to minutes. She possesses an incredible immunity from poisons, toxins, as well as disease.
	+ **Empathy:** Granted by Athena (Goddess of Wisdom). "The Sight of Athena" apparently grants her increased insight. For example, Diana can often detects others' emotions, and is now so fully immune to Doctor Psycho's illusions that she usually is not even aware of what illusions he is attempting to project.
	+ **Charisma**
	+ **Animal Empathy:** Granted by Artemis (Goddess of the Hunt). Ability to communicate with all forms of animals (including dinosaurs) and her presence alone can bring a raging beast to a calm standstill. She is also able to directly command wild animals when needed. She used bald eagles to distract Superman after defeating him in battle once.
	+ **Enhanced Senses:** Granted by Artemis (Goddess of the Hunt). Eyesight, hearing, taste, touch and smell.
		- **Enhanced Vision:** She also possess the "Hunters Eye" which allows her to always hit her mark. She can see to far greater distances than any normal human. After a short period of blindness, Athena bound her own vision to her champion, not only restoring her sight, but granting her further insight as well.
		- **Enhanced Sense of Smell**
		- **Enhanced Hearing**
	+ **Dimensional Teleportation:** On occasion, Wonder Woman can literally leave the planet through meditation. She did this to rescue Artemis when she was in hell, and has even conversed with the Greek Gods on occasion.
	+ **Longevity:** Diana possesses a longer lifespan than regular humans though far from Immortality. As seen she is at 90's, but has an appearance of a young woman.

### Abilities

* **Hand-to-Hand Combat (Advanced):** Diana is the finest warrior ever born among the Amazons of Themyscira. She is a master of armed and unarmed combat, proficient with nearly every weapon ever made (especially the bow and the javelin) and the exotic martial arts styles of the Amazons. Batman once remarked that Wonder Woman is the best melee fighter in the world.
* **Wisdom of Athena:** Granted by Athena (Goddess of Wisdom). Diana possesses great wisdom and intelligence, though the degree varies from author to author. She is among the smartest and wisest members of the Justice League of America, along with the Martian Manhunter and Batman.
	+ **Multilingualism:** Diana has exhibited heightened proficiency with languages, being able to speak her native Themysciran, Ancient and Modern Greek, English, French, Mandarin Chinese (she expressed "difficulty" with the tones of Cantonese during an interview with Lois Lane), Portugese, Russian and Spanish. Plus, through precise muscle control, she can mimic other people's voices for short conversations (on the telephone). It is more difficult, for her to mimic a man's voice than another woman's voice.
	+ **Master Tactician and Strategist:** Granted by Athena (Goddess of Wisdom). Diana is an accomplished strategist and tactician, trained in the arts of leadership, persuasion and diplomacy, and possesses a great deal of courage as well. She is a gifted leader.
	+ **Occultism:** Diana possesses knowledge and understanding of magic. She has used her magical knowledge to use an alchemical spell to create a portal.
	+ **Diplomacy**
* **Indomitable Will**
* **Aviation:** Expert pilot. Can fly the Invisible Jet with ease.
* **Weaponry:**
	+ **Archery**
	+ **Swordsmanship**
	+ **Lassoing**
	+ **Throwing:** Diana is an expert at using her tiara as a boomerang.

### Weaknesses

* **Piercing Weapons:** Diana is extremely resistant to blunt force attacks and has a vast tolerance for pain. However, she is more vulnerable to piercing weapons, such as arrows and bullets.
* **Blindness:** During a fight with Medusa, Diana was forced to blind herself with a snake's venom. Her eyesight was eventually restored by Athena after she usurped the power over Olympus.

### Equipment

* **Bracelets of Submission:** Modeled after the shackles the Amazons were once enslaved with. The gauntlets were formed from the remains of Zeus's legendary Aegis shield, and were re-forged for her use by Hephaestus. Diana's superhuman reflexes enable her to use the gauntlets to easily deflect projectiles (such as bullets) and powerful energy blasts from beings such as Ares and Darkseid. She is even fast enough to protect herself from multi-vector attacks. At close-range the gauntlets block blades, weapons and punches. They are even able to deflect Darkseid's energy attacks. When crossed, the gauntlets generate a remnant of the Aegis itself, forming an impenetrable barrier just in front of them which allows Diana to protect herself and those behind her from area attacks. They are also capable of channeling Zeus' holy lightning when struck together.
* **Gold Armor:** For use in large battles, Wonder Woman has a golden body armor with chest plate, pteruges, greaves, an open visor helmet, and large, non-functional wings on her back.
* **Lasso of Truth:** The Lasso of Truth is her signature weapon. Most who are captured in it are forced to answer any questions she asks and are unable to lie. It cannot be broken, snapped or cut. She can also control it to a certain degree using telepathy. It can also be used to erase memories, heal the mentally ill (in some cases), and implant commands that must then be obeyed.
* **Amulet of Harmonia:** A gift from the mad goddess Harmonia, a small red disc would aid her in her battle against Ares when she came to Man's World.
* **Lansinarian Morphing Disk:** Wonder Woman has at her disposal a small lightweight disc of Lansinarian technology that, when triggered by her thoughts, transforms into a transparent version of whatever object or vehicle is appropriate for her needs. The device has been used for several purposes, including a communication device, but is most frequently used by Wonder Woman in the form of an invisible jet plane.
* **Black Lantern Ring:** During her brief period as a Black Lantern, Diana was given a Black Lantern Ring by Nekron.
* **Star Sapphire Ring:** Diana temporarily held a copy of Carol Ferris' Star Sapphire Ring, and was drafted in its corps as an emergency measure for the final part of the Blackest Night. Once the battle was over, Diana was officially discharged from the Star Sapphire Corps.

### Transportation

* **Invisible Jet**
* **Kane Milohai's Sea Shell:** Granted as a boon to Diana when she pledged loyalty to Kane Milohai in order to save her mother Hippolyta, this sea shell floats in air and water, may grow in size to carry large numbers of passengers, and can travel between dimensions and even places that are otherwise mystically inaccessible.
* **Sandals of Hermes**

### Weapons

* **Lasso of Truth**
* **Tiara:** Diana's golden tiara also doubles as a throwing weapon, as it is razor-edged and can cut through most substances.

## In other media

*Main article: Wonder Woman in other media*