We continue the countdown of YOUR picks for the greatest Wonder Woman stories ever told! We continue with stories #30-26!
30. Battle for Womanhood (Wonder Woman Vol.1 #5)
Wonder Woman #5 saw Ares determine that the biggest threat to the future of war was women gaining independence and that they were on their way due to their work for the war effort. Therefore, he had to come up with a way to discredit women, so he hired Doctor Psycho, in the first appearance of that bizarre villain. His origin was twisted, as he was just a weird looking guy who everyone made fun of until his fiancee framed him for theft and when he got of prison, he got his revenge in a dark way.
I love the sight of George Washington being a dick to women. This was a fine example of William Marston and H.H. Peter's brilliantly twisted original stories.
29. War of the Gods (War of the Gods #1-4, Wonder Woman Vol.2 #58-61, plus a bunch of tie-ins)
George Perez bid farewell to Wonder Woman in this company-wide crossover where Circe manipulates the gods of Earth to go to war with each other, while also convincing the United States to declare war on the Amazons. So Wonder Woman was getting it from all ends - her fellow superheroes were getting involved in the invasion of Paradise Island while her other mythological heroes were being forced to fight her, like when the Egyptian gods sent Captain Marvel after Wonder Woman....
The final story was a bit more condensed that what Perez originally envisioned, but it was still a great send-off for one of Wonder Woman's finest creators.
28. Gods of Gotham (Wonder Woman Vol.2 #165-168)
Phil Jimenez began his run as the writer/artist on Wonder Woman with this awesome four-part storyline where Ares' children (and some other deities) decide to merge with the villains of Gotham City, leading to a massive team-up of Wonder Woman, Donna Troy, Wonder Girl and Artemis with Batman, Nightwing, Robin and Huntress, respectively.
While an awesome story, it was particularly cool at the time to see Jimenez draw so many cool characters. J.M. DeMatteis was on board to script this initial arc, as Jimenez naturally wanted to ease into actually scripting the series himself (a common event for artists who become writers).
27. Villainy, Incorporated (Wonder Woman Vol.1 #28
One of the last stories credited to William Marston before his untimely death was the introduction of Wonder Woman's version of the Superman Revenge Squad, although what is interesting is this idea came out BEFORE other, similar ideas had debuted. While credited to Marston, it was actually written by Joye Hummel. She and artist H.G. Peter were breaking new ground with the introduction of a supervillain team made up of Wonder Woman's greatest enemies, as a villain frees them from the shackles of the Amazons (who apparently use mind-control girdles to control prisoners - most of the prisoners don't want their girdles off).
Joye Hummel did not get the regular gig on the title, though, so this great new villain team did not appear again for decades.
26. The Witch and the Warrior (Wonder Woman Vol.2 #174-175)
This epic two-parter by Phil Jimenez (aided by a bunch of inkers, plus some pages drawn by Brandon Badeaux) saw Circe team up with all of the female supervillains in the world and use her powers to transform all of the male superheroes in the world into animals, so Wonder Woman had to lead all the female superheroes in the world to stop her...
The Joker crossover, "The Last Laugh," actually briefly ties in, as well, with Circe falling victim to Joker's venom for a bit. Circe transforms Superman into a Doomsday-like creature and Wonder Woman has to fight her close friend.