Cover Story - Top 15 Wonder Woman Covers

Hello, and welcome to Cover Story: digging as little into comic books as we can.  In case you haven’t heard there’s a Wonder Woman in the works and we just got our first picture from it.  I’ll discuss the picture in more depth later down the line but for now I’ll just that I really like it and it’s actually got me excited for a DC film for a change.  It also got me thinking about Wonder Woman, one of the most underappreciated comic book heroes of all time.  Wonder Woman has an incredibly long and storied history, both in terms of inception and the actual content that informs her comics.  Just like fellow titans Batman and Superman, Wonder Woman’s comic was one of the few superhero books that never stopped running during the decline of superhero popularity.  That means she lasted through 2 whole decades of creativity and craziness, like the fanciful and unrestricted insanity that was the ‘40s or the blend of sci-fi and horror weirdness that was the ‘50s.  With all that in mind I’ll be focusing solely on her volume 1 comics from #1-#105, the issue where her origin was revamped for a new decade.  So, let’s dive into the shallow end and get the cover story on the top 15 Wonder Woman covers. 

As I mentioned a lot of these covers are coming from the Golden Age of comics in the ‘40s, back when no one really knew what to do with superheroes.  Superheroes were a fairly new concept at the time, only being invented in 1938 with Superman followed by Batman in 1939 and Wonder Woman in 1941.  There weren’t even any junkie B-movies to really draw from for inspiration like in the ‘50s, instead authors drew from fantasy stories which, at the time, were also pretty unmoored.  That’s why these covers look like a weird blend of surreal madness and someone badly misunderstanding the myth of Hercules.  

I haven’t read any of these issues so I can’t really hazard a guess as to why Wonder Woman is fighting lolcatz but I’m sure there’s no good reason in the comic either.  This was just the kind of craziness that used to get a total pass back in the Golden Age because the important thing was it was happening rather than how it was happening.  Now Wonder Woman using a wild boar as a flail is both the greatest thing she’s ever done and actually pretty grounded in myth.  I’m betting that’s the Erymanthian Boar from the labors of Hercules, which would make the cowering incompetent beneath her Hercules himself.  This would actually start a longstanding tradition of Hercules showing up I Wonder Woman’s comics to be absolutely useless. 

If ever there was a cover that depicted the ‘50s giving way to the Silver Age it would be this amazing one.  By this time in the comics Wonder Woman had developed her alter ego of Diana Prince, a military person whose actual role has always been more than a little nebulous.  Right off the bat this is the kind of zany cover that most of the Silver Age made its bread and butter on, the idea being it was SO insane you’d just have to scoop it up off the newsstand to give it a read.  

What sets it apart as a later entry in that admirable genre is the construction such as the threat being to the hero’s secret identity or the prominently featured thought balloon.  Incidentally that thought balloon is just great because it means he’s not actually talking to us, the reader, he’s just thinking at us.  I also really like the incredibly goofy and evil design of the painter as his face seems to actually be a triangle.  Also with that angular face, massive smile, and hilarious facial hair I’m fairly certain Wonder Woman’s about to have her secret identity revealed by Guy Fawkes. 

Now this is a ‘50s cover through and through and a great example of how well DC managed to blend the styles and aesthetics of ‘50s weird science comics with their superheroes.  Having gone over all the Wonder Woman covers the book has a tendency to repeat themes and ideas, like there about 6 different covers featuring multiple Wonder Women, and the idea of shrinking Wonder Woman is another common concept to appear but this is definitely one of the better ones.  What I really like about this cover is that they aren’t just doing the idea of Wonder Woman being trapped in alien zoo, which was actually very common at the time, but rather kidnapped by some shrink powered jerko who wants to use her in his flea circus.  

That is a plan so ingenious yet incredibly short sighted it’s kind of brilliant.  Like this guy had to invent shrink ray technology, kidnap Wonder Woman, shrink her and his whole end goal was “make marginally more money off his flea circus,” an already antiquated form of entertainment.  I’m also not sure what the fleas are meant to be doing as they look like they’re posing sassily with their hands on their hips.  Also their big, human eyes made me think they were aliens at first, also the fact that they’re clearly as big as a human finger; those are some giant fleas. 

Another classic ‘50s type of visual.  The big give away with ‘50s covers is that they feature some idea based around science gone mad rather than the fanciful abandon of ‘40s comics while also mainly using text boxes rather than the speech balloons and thought bubbles that were so endemic to ‘60s covers.  Sort of like last issue I like how much effort went into this evil plan and how the villain seems to be going through an inordinate amount of effort for a pretty opaque end goal.  

Like this guy had to develop some kind of impenetrable floating bubble technology to capture Wonder Woman all in service of his big goal to “shake the Earth?”  I’m not really sure what profit there is to be gleaned from destroying all life on Earth but then again I’m to a super villain so I’m sure it made sense at the time.  What I really like about this cover is the visualization of the destruction and how well it blends the creativity and unrestrained imagination of comics with a pretty nightmarish scenario.  There’s enough fun so as to be intriguing and cool but not enough to overcome the devastation we’re witnessing.  

Like I said, multiple Wonder Women is a major theme of the classic Wonder Woman comics.  This cover is thoroughly Silver Age; all it’s missing is the go-go checks at the top of the page to make it complete.  The visual of the three Wonder Women is actually supremely evocative and memorable and in preparing this list this was a cover I ended up coming back to a lot, mainly because of what a weird scene it is.  

A big part of this is how rare it is to actually see multiple versions of a hero that aren’t different in some distinctive visual way.  Like whenever we run into duplicates of Superman or Spider-Man there’s always some immediate visual identifier that they aren’t the hero so the fact that Wonder Woman has some secret army of perfect duplicates is really rare in comics.  It’s also pretty impressive how identical all these Wonder Women look given they had to be drawn by hand.

What, you thought Jessica Jones was the only superhero P.I.?  In all seriousness this cover is absolutely amazing and I’m actually more committed than ever to tracking down this comic.  The idea of detectives in the world of superheroes isn’t really new or unique, both Detective Chimp and Howard the Duck have filled pretty much that same role to a great degree.  What is rare is a comic that actually throws its superhero into a noir detective mode, which is a shame because there’s a lot of potential for great stories there and the idea of just plunking Wonder Woman into some shady and sordid noir plotline sounds amazing.  

What’s more, this cover actually speaks to a great trend in the Wonder Woman comics, which was to match broader elements of the popular culture.  DC never had any hard and firm rules on what her stories were supposed to be like or about so often she ended up following more successful running genres like the time she got stripped of her powers and became a groovy ‘60s crime fighter modeled after Ms. Peel from BBC’s Avengers TV show.  I don’t really know why Wonder Woman looks concerned about going up against the shadowy gun wielding figure as her bracelets allow her to deflect bullets with incredibly ease but she’s probably worried about some how injuring the crook with her awesomeness when she throws him into next week. 

I love this cover so much.  Like if ever there was a near perfect encapsulation of everything right and good about comic books it’d probably look like this cover.  Firstly, I love that this random bird somehow either knows Wonder Woman’s identity or was trained to shout those words by parties unknown, both of which are scenarios that come off as completely plausible.  Additionally I love that it’s shouting her identity so incredibly loud everyone around it and Wonder Woman can totally hear it.  

Also there’s the fact that Wonder Woman is carrying the bird, she chose to bring this little chatterbox out in public even though that is clearly the most jerk-o bird ever drawn by human hands.  Finally I just love that Wonder Woman treats this like an absolute end of the world crisis, which is really just her way of insulting the audience as it would imply she think we’re all so stupid we’d totally believe whatever some random animal tells.  It’s also pretty impressive that this cover manages to get every form of comic communication on it; there’s speech bubbles, thought balloons, and a caption box. 

I want this cover framed and displayed at the entrance of my home.  There’s actually a weird theme in comics of heroes fighting clocks but this is by far my favorite iteration of it.  Firstly I love that the clocks had to be given angry eyes and mouths to show how evil they were but also I absolutely love that they’re complete immobile.  They don’t have any legs or arms and so clearly can’t move, they’re basically just falling at Wonder Woman and hoping for the best.  It also looks a lot like Wonder Woman is high as a kite on this cover, like her facial expression speaks to “dull surprise.”  I’m not sure if she’s just shocked by the insanity of the clock avalanche or is just responding with extreme skepticism that any of this is happening.  I also really like that the title makes this situation sound far more existential and serious.  Like this scene is described as the “trail of lost hours” which would suggest like lost chances and missed opportunities but nope, angry clocks far as the eye can see. 

Alright time for some history: due to World War 2 the 1940s actually had a lot of social upheaval to be more progressive than you probably imagine, it’s just that most of that progressivism decayed into a regressive status quo in the 1950s as the country settled back to a more static state.  But, in the ‘40s when most of the men were away there was a wide spread movement of women taking over the jobs reserved for men and one element of that was taking over sports position.  As the ‘40s waned this declined but it still happened, most specifically in 1949 when NASCAR had its first woman driver.  This cover came out one year later.  

That’s something folks don’t get about Wonder Woman, how much feminist ideals were woven into her identity and how much she’s always been a reflection of the moment in time when her stories were being crafted.  Aside from all the great historical context of this cover it’s just a great image, especially given that you know Wonder Woman is just somehow magicing that car up the side of the wall.  Like there’s no reason she couldn’t just fly over to that woman, she just wanted to test out her new rocket car and prove it could crush the batmobile any day of the week. 

I feel like “the story that startled the world” is a bit of an overstatement for this comic.  This is another great example of Wonder Woman blending the superhero aesthetic with the “science gone wrong” aesthetics of the ‘50s.  Back when this came out 3D movies were new and more of a novelty that nobody really understood but just sort of ran with.  So, the idea that it could basically magic up any kind of random horrifying science insanity is perfectly in line with how in the ‘50s radiation could basically do whatever the writers wanted.  

We’ve actually got this same kind of thing going nowadays with the idea of “quantum science” only it’s nowhere near as fun and crazy as this.  I think my favorite thing about this cover is also it’s greatest failing: Wonder Woman came to this junkie 3D B-movie about…what I'm guessing is Godzilla in full costume.  Even though she’s clearly sitting with fellow military personnel and has a secret identity she still got up and said to herself “no, today I wear the costume.”  The only problem is that we just get her discarding those retro 3D glasses instead of wearing them through her fight with not-Godzilla there. 

I told you shrinking was a common theme in the Wonder Woman comics, fun fact though: the most famous shrinking story remains The Incredible Shrinking Man but this cover actual predates it by nearly a decade.  Despite that this is a pretty great title, especially because it plays off of something that’s usually absent from superhero shrinking stories: Wonder Woman still has her gear and powers despite being tiny.  Seriously, it’s actually super rare to see like Superman or Green Lantern get shrunk but maintain their incredible abilities so the idea of Wonder Woman going all Indian in the Cupboard I’m all for it.  I will take umbrage with the cover’s claim that Wonder Woman has been reduced to “microscopic size” because most things that are microscope aren’t bigger than your palm.  I also really wonder what her lasso is attached to in this cover as based on the angle she’s throwing it and where she’s being held my guess is she’s lassoed her captor’s nose, shame that didn’t make it onto the cover.

You know the weirdest part of this cover is that this isn’t the first time I’ve seen an ape playing baseball.  Even so this cover is probably up there with the Mona Lisa and the Sistine Chapel as one of humanity’s greatest achievements.  What I love most about this cover, aside from the fact someone sat down at their desk and thought “a gorilla playing baseball, that should be this Amazonian warrior’s challenge of the month” is how incredibly serious everyone looks on this cover.  Wonder Woman is terrified she won’t make it to the plate in time, that Umpire is staring at this scene with an intensity usually reserved for Willam Defoe performances, and that gorilla looks like he’s been waiting his whole life for this one moment.  

I also super wonder if the gorilla chose to wear that baseball cap or someone else just put it on him and he rolled with it.  It is kind of weird that the actual cover seems to contradict completely with the caption’s claim that the Gorilla is Wonder Woman’s student?  I mean it’s certainly possible but I’m not really sure Wonder Woman has the right qualifications for training an ape to play baseball but then again I’m not the kind of person who would demand my baseball team be made up of sports-apes. 

Between Superman, Batman, and Wonder Woman, Wonder Woman’s first issue easily has the best cover, by a wide margin.  It’s interesting to see how old this comic really is given it was only 10 cents at the time and featured American soldiers on horseback and wearing world war 1 style helmets.  I’m not exactly sure why those things are featured given this was published in 1942 and by that time I’m pretty sure America wasn’t using mounted soldiers for any given purpose but it’s still a great cover regardless.  

What I really love is how powerful Wonder Woman looks on it; specifically the definition afforded her muscles with that lasso.  She genuinely looks like she’s about to ride into bloody warfare and destroy the enemy with Amazonian fury.  We actually don’t see many war stories with Wonder Woman nowadays which is a shame because I think there’s a real development to be had there, especially with how much it lets her release her inner Amazonian fury.  So often Wonder Woman has to be the calm one or the voice of compassion in the trinity, we forget she started as a brutal warrior. 

Pictured here: power.  Seriously, we tend to forget Wonder Woman is supposed to be every bit as strong as Superman but damn if this cover doesn’t remind you just how powerful she really is.  I also like how much this cover incorporates all the central elements of Wonder Woman’s powers and abilities.  She’s perched on top of her invisible jet while using her magic lasso of truth to rope the tallest building in the world and keep it from collapsing.  For me this is right up there with Superman catching a falling plane or Batman dangling a mugger off a roof: pure Wonder Woman.  

Though I will say that building was just a terrible idea from the start given it looks tall enough to reach the edge of Earth’s atmosphere.  Seriously, if you consider Wonder Woman is already above every other building and there’s a plane flying past the building’s midsection this skyscraper must be huge, like if it collapsed it’d probably strike across multiple state lines.  I’m also not sure exactly how the seeds of peril managed to fell this structure but I think we can take the comic’s word for it in this case. 

Firstly this cover is just stupendous, the kind of go for broke craziness you’d expect from the ‘50s or ‘60s but smack dab in the ‘40s.  That’s something to definitely remember: this cover, featuring President Wonder Woman and her throngs of supporters came out in 1942.  Aside from just being the coolest thing ever this cover actually really encapsulates the weird blend of politics and ideology that informed Wonder Woman’s creation.  Wonder Woman has one of the strangest origins out there.  She was primarily created by Will Marston, the inventor of the lie detector, whose work with the polygraph convinced him women are more honest than men and could work more efficiently.  Additionally, Elizabeth Marston and Olive Byrne, the two women Marston was in a polyamorous relationship with, molded Wonder Woman’s development.  

All this added up to a unique vision of Wonder Woman as a hero, meant to embody all the strength of Superman but without sacrificing the peace-loving qualities that were often considered feminine.  Marston himself once wrote “Wonder Woman is psychological propaganda for the new type of woman who should, I believe, rule the world.”  Well, I can’t think of a better form of propaganda for the trio’s new woman than having her take the highest office in the land because she was just the best name on the ballot. 


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