We continue the countdown of YOUR picks for the greatest Wonder Woman stories ever told! We continue with stories #40-36!
40. The God of War (Wonder Woman Vol.1 #2)
Ares, one of Wonder Woman's greatest enemies, made his debut in the second issue of Wonder Woman's solo title and it was just as awesomely insane as you might expect. Ares, the God of War, has a home base on Mars (get it?) and he kidnaps Steve Trevor to mess with Wonder Woman's head, so she has to travel to Mars to kick some ass.
This was just a perfect encapsulation of how over-the-top but amazing William Marston and H.G. Peter's early Wonder Woman stories were. True classics. Truly weird, but true classics.
39. Second Genesis (Wonder Woman Vol.2 #101-104)
John Byrne kicked off his run as the writer/artist on Wonder Woman with a follow-up to his classic Action Comics #600 adventure where Wonder Woman and Superman teamed up to fight Darkseid. Here, Darkseid launches an all-out assault on the Amazons and the Greek gods in general and Wonder Woman has to fight back...
One of Byrne's goals in this run was to amp up Wonder Woman's standing in the DC Universe. He wanted her to be second only to Superman in strength, so this arc is filled with her throwing down in some awesome full page splashes.
38. Legend of Wonder Woman (Legend of Wonder Woman Vol.1 #1-4)
At the end of Crisis on Infinite Earths, Wonder Woman was ostensibly dead (all as a set-up for her Post-Crisis reboot), but the problem was that the Post-Crisis reboot wasn't quite ready yet. DC had a deal where they HAD to publish a Wonder Woman comic book or else perhaps be in trouble with William Marston's estate (perhaps even lose the rights to the character), so Kurt Busiek and Trina Robbins were brought in for a mini-series. Of course, the mini couldn't be set in the present, so Busiek and Robbins did a delightful pastiche of the Marston/Peter era...
It's almost like it stepped out of the 1940s!
37. Guts (Wonder Woman Vol.4 #7-12)
The second arc of Brian Azzarello and Cliff Chiang's Wonder Woman run is perhaps best remembered for its shocking revelations about the nature of the Amazons, but it also dealt with the shocking revelation that Wonder Woman was the daughter of Zeus (something that has become a major part of her character in the films) and she shows off her power when she has to defend a young woman pregnant with Zeus's child from the rest of Zeus' offspring...
Damn, that's a very powerful sequence by Chiang.
36. Wonder Woman vs. Doctor Cyber (Wonder Woman Vol.1 #179-182)
While Wonder WOman #178 is the true beginning of the new Wonder Woman, she doesn't REALLY take over her new look until Wonder Woman #179, when the Amazons decide to leave this dimension and Wonder Woman decides to stay her, despite losing her powers and weapons by doing so. She meets the mysterious I-Ching, who trains her as a martial artist and she buys a clothing store for her secret identity. Mike Sekowsky, Denny O'Neill and Dick Giordano told a really interesting story of Wonder Woman taking on the evil Doctor Cyber (who kills Steve Trevor just when it looks like Wonder Woman and Steve are finally going to get together)...
Understandably, some fans found it not be "their" Wonder Woman, but it was still a compelling tale.