Diana of Themyscira / Diana Prince

Diana of Themyscira is the daughter of Queen Hippolyta, ruler of the mythical Themysciran Amazon tribe which lives on Paradise Island, and Zeus, god of thunder and king of the Olympians. Legends say she was made of clay and mud by her mother and given life by Zeus, but Diana herself says she was made through the much more typical (and fun) method of procreation. By the time that Diana was born, the Amazons of her tribe had already settled Themyscira, fading into the realm of myth and legend. For centuries, Diana learned of the mortal world through stories and trained among the ranks of legendary Amazonian warriors. By the time Diana was first given permission to enter the Realm of Mortal Men, the Trojan War had been fought to its conclusion, but Diana found an unexpected pleasure in living among the imperfect mortals and longed to return, escaping centuries later during the reign of the Roman Empire. When Diana was brought back to Paradise Island, she was punished and forbidden from returning to the mortal realm for another thousand years.

When Diana had regained her mother’s trust, she again sought permission to return to the mortal world. Upon being denied, Diana decided (like I often do) that forgiveness is easier gained than permission, so she
escaped from Paradise Island and found herself caught up in the Hundred Years’ War of Europe in the late 14th century. Diana stuck around for much of the war, often disguising herself as a man or even fighting openly as a woman (much like Joan of Arc did in the same war).

Toward the end of the long war, in a long lull between skirmishes, Diana fell in love with another fighter, Stephan Lowell. Stephan was the only man that Diana had met that could hold his own against her in combat and their sparring sessions heated up on a number of occasions. Stephan and Diana had a brief affair that turned to marriage when it was discovered that Diana was with child. The couple settled into the French countryside to raise their child together. The Lowells had a daughter, who Diana named Aresia, after the God of War who Diana credited for having brought her and Stephan together. But their daughter was not a normal child as Aresia was born with eerie purple eyes and a streak of blood red hair. Superstitions and fear prevailed at the time, so the couple chose to raise their daughter in seclusion.

When Aresia was ten years old, Diana was discovered by her mother’s agents when she went into town for supplies. Not wanting her mother to know of her family, Diana peacefully returned to Paradise Island once more where she was imprisoned for five centuries for her disobedience. But even five hundred years of living in Paradise Island’s dungeon could do little to affect Diana’s love of the mortal realm. Upon her release, she was caught again trying to sneak into the mortal realm. Infuriated with her daughter but not wishing to punish her further, Queen Hippolyta decided to appoint Princess Diana as the Ambassador of Themyscira to the mortal realm… and so armed with many of Themyscira’s most prized relics, Diana returned to Man’s World.

Let me tell you about the metaphysical nature of Themyscira, actually no, it’s too complicated to get into right now, but let’s just say that sometimes Themyscira is in the Mediterranean, sometimes in the Bermuda Triangle, and sometimes it’s somewhere else or nowhere all together. Anyway, Diana’s magical re-entry into the Realm of Men had dropped her off the coast of Florida and also fired the systems of military jet overhead, causing its pilot to crash into the sea. Diana came to the rescue and swam Captain Steve Trevor back to shore on a crowded public beach. Though Princess Diana did not know it until later, in that moment, Wonder Woman was born. Of course, things were not as they once were; we now had things like computers, indoor plumbing, germ theory, and ice cream. Diana needed someone she could trust to act as her mentor in the ways of this brave new world.

Officially recognized as an ambassador of Themyscira, the Princess of Paradise Island became quite the sensation. Her celebrity status was a monster Diana wasn’t prepared to overcome. In the wake of the events of the September 11th, 2001, the U.S. Government was interested in gaining Themyscira’s assistance in the war on terror. Diana knew her mother had no interest in the wars of men, but Diana agreed to help the military on two conditions: she’ll be given an undercover identity to help her enjoy life as an average mortal might and that she be allowed to work alongside Steve Trevor. In order to allow Diana to operate in a conflict zone, she became Captain Diana Prince, an Air Force Intelligence Officer. After the U.N. began holding hearings on the use of “persons of mass destruction”, Diana and Steve were shipped back to the States. In 2003, the two joined the Extranormal Operations Task-Force (later restructured as the D.E.O.). A year later, Wonder Woman would be part of the Justice League's founding seven, an integral part of the already impressive roster of heroes.

As Wonder Woman, Diana was an icon for women everywhere. As Diana Prince, she would continue her work as a federal agent, eventually being named DEO liaison to ARGUS.

Weaknesses

VOX Recording 1

VOX Recording 2