In Wonder Woman’s current iteration, her powers are bestowed by the gods of Olympus. That was not the case originally.
Wonder Woman’s original source of strength is brain power, and the only direct declaration from Wonder Woman that her strength comes from the brain (in the 1940s) is from this strip published in 1944.
In the first panel, Wonder Woman declares to an audience, “I’m often asked the secret of Amazon strength. It’s this – the human brain contains enough energy to blow up mountains. Amazon girls are trained to direct their brain power into their muscles!”
Look carefully at the last panel and you’ll see “12-8” under H.G. Peter (artist). That is the intended date of publication – December 8, 1944. The intended date is not always the actual date of publication.
This Wonder Woman strip was published on December 29, 1944, three weeks after the date written on the last panel. This strip is found on page 19 of New York Journal-American.
Wonder Woman comic strips were distributed across the United States in newspapers that licensed King Features Syndicate content, and the date of publication for any newspaper that featured the 12-8 strip is the same. King Features Syndicate and New York Journal-American are owned by the Hearst media empire. New York Journal-American “ceased publication in 1966” (New York Journal-American Photographic Morgue). King Features Syndicate still operates today.
This strip is from page 73 of the compilation Wonder Woman: The Complete Newspaper Strip, 1944-1945, and has a clearer printed 12-8 (longer panels too – more space under 12-8 making the numbers clearer – than the original New York Journal-American print).
The original newspaper strip has the title Wonder Woman and author Charles Moulton. The compilation did away with title and author and simply stacked strips on top of each other.
Wonder Woman comics from the 1940s did not show any direct declaration from Wonder Woman or any Amazon about brain power, but it was implied through Amazon training when William Moulton Marston (Charles Moulton) was the writer.
The closest is possibly Wonder Woman #28 (Mar.-Apr. 1948) where Irene says, “What good is my Amazon training if I can’t break little ropes like these? I will break them!” Irene then proceeds to bend and destroy prison bars with bare hands. Compare Wonder Woman’s words with Irene’s in panel 4 of the 12-8 strip: “My Amazon training sends brain power to my hands and – hola!”
Wonder Woman directly atttributes brain power in the 1973 cartoon Super Friends. In the episode “The Power Pirate,” Wonder Woman tells Aquaman, “The only thing that can surpass super strength is the power of the brain.”
Recap
Wonder Woman’s original source of strength is brain power. This was directly declared by Wonder Woman in the comic strip published on December 29, 1944 (not December 8) by New York Journal-American and other newspapers published across the United States.
References
Moulton, Charles. “Wonder Woman.” Illus. H.G. Peter. New York Journal-American 29 Dec. 1944: p. 19.
New York Journal-American Photographic Morgue. Harry Ransom Center, University of Texas at Austin, n.d. Web. 27 July 2026. <https://norman.hrc.utexas.edu/nyjadc/history.cfm>.
Moulton, Charles. Wonder Woman: The Complete Newspaper Strip, 1944-1945. Illus. H.G. Peter. Ed. Dean Mullaney. San Diego: IDW Publishing, 2014. p. 73.
Moulton, Charles (w), Harry G. Peter (a). Wonder Woman #28 (Mar.-Apr. 1948), National Comics Publications, Inc. [DC Comics]. p. 5-B.
“The Power Pirate.” Super Friends. ABC. 8 Sep. 1973. Television.
