Wonder Woman wasn’t always a member of DC’s holy trinity of superheroes. She was just another hero in the DC lineup. Sometimes she kicked arse, sometimes she watched her pal Etta Candy eat hams, and sometimes she was a powerless spy stalking Steve Trevor. But in 1972 Gloria Steinem put Wonder Woman on the cover of Ms. Magazine, instantly improving the hero’s cultural cache and elevating her from also ran into one of America’s most iconic heroes.
The launch of the Wonder Woman TV show, three years later in 1975, cemented Wonder Woman’s place in the DC lineup. The show, starring Lynda Carter, also created a whole new legion of fans. Like John Petrie.
Petrie, as a young boy who knew he was different, found something inspiring in Wonder Woman’s message of lover and tolerance. (That she could also drop kick villains into space helped too.) After an episode of the show, and one issue of the comic — in which Wonder Woman had only recently had her powers returned to her — Petrie was hooked.
He used to live in a tiny apartment in Manhattan, but he later moved up to the Bronx, taking his extensive Wonder Woman collection with him. Besides portraits of Carter, Petrie’s got original art by some of the best artists in the business, as well as cool toys and kitsch chronicling decades of Wonder Woman’s history, and a crazily extensive collection of Wonder Woman comics, ranging from books in the 40s up until the modern day, and including an absolutely pristine copy of that iconic issue of Ms. Magazine.
Petrie’s collection is a rare treat, as you can see the whole history of one of comic’s most iconic characters in a single tour.