In "When We First Met", we spotlight the various characters, phrases, objects or events that eventually became notable parts of comic lore, like the first time someone said, "Avengers Assemble!" or the first appearance of Batman's giant penny or the first appearance of Alfred Pennyworth or the first time Spider-Man's face was shown half-Spidey/half-Peter. Stuff like that.

Today, in response to a couple of readers who thought about this after a few of my recent articles about Wonder Woman (Michael H. asked me on Facebook after reading my article about Wonder Woman's magic lasso and reader Karl G. asked me via e-mail after reading my article about the God-Killer Sword), I address when Wonder Woman started using a sword and shield in the comic books.

Now do note, right off the bat, that Wonder Woman has used a sword at a few different points over her long comic book career. She just didn't use them with any regularity, which is obviously the real question here.

When Wonder Woman lost her powers, she used pretty much any weapon she could get her hands on (including guns), so she used a sword then...

And when Nubia was first introduced, it was notably during a sword battle between her and Wonder Woman...

So, yeah, Diana was certainly not AVERSE to using a sword, if necessary...

But what really changed things was when George Perez and Greg Potter rebooted Wonder Woman following Crisis on Infinite Earths. They gave Wonder Woman a whole arsenal of weapons, including armor, a spear, an ax and, perhaps most notably (in that it was used the most) a cool shield...

(As an aside, anyone know why the cover to #1, or a variation of it, wasn't used for the trade paperback collection of Perez's Wonder Woman? They went with this cover, instead, which was the original cover for #5...

Does that make ANY sense to you? It doesn't to me)

Here is Wonder Woman decked out in her whole new attire...

And here's an amazing Brian Bolland cover for no real reason other than it is awesome to look at (and, okay, the weapons are in this shot, as well)...

So you could accept "George Perez' Wonder Woman" as the answer to the question of when Wonder Woman first started using a sword and shield, but I think the answer is probably a BIT later, as there's no sword/shield combo during the Perez run.

It was, then, Kingdom Come (by Alex Ross and Mark Waid) that the classic Wonder Woman armor, shield and sword combo debuted...

That was then adapted into the regular DC Universe in 2001 during Our Worlds at War...

And obviously, since the New 52, it has been a mainstay in her outfitting...

Thanks for the suggestions, Michael and Karl! If anyone else has an idea for a future edition of When We First Met, drop me a line at brianc@cbr.com!