The story kicks off in the middle of World War Two when Major Steve Trevor gets into a nasty dogfight with a Nazi plane over the Bermuda Triangle. His plane takes a beating and he crashes right onto the shores of Paradise Island, which is a hidden sanctuary completely populated by immortal Amazons. Queen Hippolyta discovers him and decides they need to send a champion to fly him back to America to help fight the Nazis. They hold this big athletic competition to pick who goes, and even though her mother forbids her from entering, Princess Diana disguises herself, wins the whole tournament, and earns the right to take him home.
Once Diana arrives in Washington DC in her invisible plane, she drops Steve off at the hospital and realizes she needs a way to stick around and watch over him. She ends up buying some civilian clothes, puts on some big glasses, and takes a job as his secretary under the name Diana Prince. The plot thickens because a Nazi ringleader named Marcia is working deep undercover inside the military command, trying to steal the secret plans for a new American fighter plane. Marcia figures out that Steve is the key to getting those plans, which puts him right back in the crosshairs of the enemy.
This is where the real action kicks in because Diana has to constantly switch back and forth between her secretary disguise and her superhero persona to protect Steve. She ends up tracking the Nazi agents down to a theatrical booking agency that is acting as a front for their spy ring. There is a great sequence where she gets captured and they try to force her into a theatrical knife throwing act to get rid of her. Of course, she uses her super strength and those bullet deflecting bracelets to completely wreck their plans, round up the spies, and save the day before anyone realizes her secret identity.
What makes this pilot work so well is how closely it follows that original Golden Age comic book storyline. The pacing keeps you interested because it focuses heavily on the cat and mouse game between Diana and the Nazi infiltrators right in the heart of the American government. It is a straightforward good versus evil story that delivers exactly what it promises, showing how a princess from a hidden island manages to outsmart a whole network of international spies while keeping her boss completely clueless.
