Wonder Woman, Vol. 1 #237 (1977)

The Secret Origin Of Wonder Woman
On Paradise Island, Wonder Woman repairs the bracelet damaged by Armageddon in the previous issue. Hippolyte, is worried by her daughter's eagerness to return to America… and to Steve Trevor, still hospitalized from the after-effects of being transformed into the savage Muutorr. Returning to Washington, the Amazing Amazon hurriedly switches to her Diana Prince identity, due to stand in for Trevor at a War Production Board Meeting. Entering her apartment, she finds herself held at gunpoint by… Diana Prince! A policeman attempts to arrest a hobo prowling among the trains at Union Station, only to be attacked and slain by a clawed giant. Revealing her true identity, Wonder Woman tells Diana of the origin of the Amazons, of their civilization on Paradise Island, of her own creation from clay brought to life by Aphrodite and of Major Trevor's near-fatal crash-landing off the shore of the Amazon homeland. Two blocks from Diana's apartment, another cop confronts a clothing thief. This officer too dies horribly when the thief transforms into a huge monster, half man, half praying mantis. The women's conversation is interrupted by a call from Etta Candy, warning Diana that missing the board meeting could anger General Blankenship enough to damage her career. The real Diana allows WW to change into her Navy uniform and accompanies her to the Acme Corporation factory where the meeting is being held. On the way, the Amazon princess tells her mortal double of the tournament held to determine which Amazon would accompany Trevor back to America, a tournament the headstrong heir to the throne won despite being forbidden to enter. Unnoticed among the throngs of women workers at Acme is the sinister shapeshifter that killed the policeman, intent on assassinating General Douglas MacArthur, one of the VIPs attending the War Production Board meeting. As they approach the factory, Wonder Woman finishes the story of her coming to America with an account of her purchase of Diana Prince's identity, a transaction the real Diana forgot after being placed in the Amazon's magic lasso and commanded to do so. It was this amnesia that caused the real Diana to believe the woman posing as her was an Axis agent using her credentials to infiltrate Military Intelligence. At that moment, a bizarre human/mantis hybrid attacks MacArthur. Turning into Wonder Woman, Princess Diana pauses long enough to erase once again Diana Prince's memories of her dual identity before leaping to the general's defense. MacArthur disdains the heroine's aid but the assassin feels honored to face such a worthy foe. He resumes his true form of Kung, called the Assassin of a Thousand Claws, a Japanese martial arts master who has learned the secret of assuming the actual forms of the animals for which certain of his discipline's stances and movements are named. To underline this assertion, he transforms into a tiger and leaps for Wonder Woman's throat.
Release Date: 1977