A 40TH ANNIVERSARY celebration… By PETER STONE Wonder Woman has had a colorful and brilliant history. William Moulton Marsdon to begin with, the legendary creator of the Amazing Amazon. Many argue that his wife had a lot to do with it, but I wasn’t there, so I don’t know for sure. Then there is Gene Colan, a legendary artist who took his turn at the demi-goddess in the very early 1980s. His work, was truly new and exciting. There’s also been Phil Jimenez, who brought a particularly detailed look to the character. Liam Sharp, David Finch, and Terry Dodson also provided luminous visions of the Warrior from Themyscira… or Paradise Island. There are so many others, too many to name. Writers alone include Greg Rucka, Denny O’Neil, William Messner-Loebs, Gail Simone. On a personal note, I love 1977’s Superman vs. Wonder Woman (aka All New Collectors Edition #C45), the treasury edition written by Gerry Conway and drawn by Jose Luis Garcia-Lopez and Dan Adkins. It features some of the greatest art that both of those heroes ever had. With the backdrop of World War II and the atomic bomb, our heroes fight it out on… the MOON. I read that comic a million times and still love it today. However, for extended runs, I personally think the late George Perez created the best. When he started his run — Wonder Woman #1 was released Oct. 14, 1986 — I had seen his work on The New Teen Titans (a series that rivaled The Uncanny X-Men), Crisis on Infinite Earths (he is the ONLY artist who could have pulled that epic together), Justice League of America, The Avengers, Marvel Two-in-One, and too many more comics to even mention. Then, he took a very personal stab at Wonder Woman. Plotting and penciling, Perez brought the Amazonian Princess back to her roots… and then elaborated upon it. With dialogue writers like Greg Potter and Len Wein, Perez’s plots would sing triumphantly. He journeyed all the way back to 1200 B.C. and Olympus. The female goddesses gather together, and to battle Ares’ belief that the world is controlled by men and war, they create a new race of only women… the Amazons. The goddesses carefully guide Hippolyta to her greatest desire, a daughter. To honor the Greek goddess of the hunt and protector...
THE GEORGE PEREZ INTERVIEWS: Stepping up to preserve an icon… — UPDATED 10/14/26: George Perez and Greg Potter’s Wonder Woman #1 came out 40 years ago, on Oct. 14, 1986! Perfect time to reprint this piece from the June 2019 GEORGE PEREZ INTERVIEWS. Also check out Pete Stone’s brand-new GEORGE PEREZ’S WONDER WOMAN AT 40: Still the Best the Amazon Princess Ever. Dig it! — Dan — Welcome to THE GEORGE PEREZ INTERVIEWS, a weekly series where the comics master discusses his greatest series. Over 13 weeks, Perez, who’s retiring from the world of comics, gives you his take on each installment of our recent TOP 13 GEORGE PEREZ COUNTDOWN, which was written by 13th Dimension contributor Anthony Durso. (Click here for much more on that.) The segments are culled from a panel Perez and I did at East Coast Comicon. Last time was #7 — Justice League of America. (Click here.) This week, it’s Wonder Woman, which Perez and DC relaunched at the end of 1986, post-Crisis on Infinite Earths, with co-plotter Greg Potter: — Dan Greenfield: We’re doing OK on time so we’re just going to keep pushing through. Number 6 on the list was Wonder Woman. George Perez: Ah! Yeah, Wonder Woman is a personal triumph for me. As much as my fortune has been made because of Titans primarily, Wonder Woman was a book that, not until recently when the movie came out, did I realize how much of an impact I actually left on the character. Because it was an uphill battle. Even though I had a wonderful champion in my editor, Karen Berger, a lot of the DC editors at the time really didn’t care for Wonder Woman. I didn’t realize until I came into the office of the then-editor Janice Race, and they were putting together a new Wonder Woman book, that there wasn’t a single woman working in that company — and you’re talking about a company whose publisher was a woman! — who was happy with the direction they were going to go in. But they had to get the book published, or else they would lose the rights to Wonder Woman. I saw that, and at that point John Byrne was on Superman, Frank Miller had just done Dark Knight and was going to be doing Batman: Year One with...
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