Wonder Woman #201

Jul 1972 · DC · 0.20 USD

📊 ~29,202 copies sold its debut month

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“The Fist of Flame”

★ 1st appearance — Fafhrd

About this Issue

Wonder Woman #201 is the cliffhanger first chapter of an audacious genre mashup that dropped depowered Diana Prince, blind martial-arts mentor I-Ching, and a newly revived Catwoman into the same pulp-adventure frame, ending on the last page with a dimension-crossing reveal of Fritz Leiber's sword-and-sorcery duo Fafhrd and the Gray Mouser — their debut cameo in comics. The issue also marks one of the most significant returns of Catwoman in years: after being sidelined following the cancellation of the 1966–68 Batman TV series, she had gone almost entirely unrepresented in new comics stories before resurfacing here. Situated at the turbulent tail end of DC's 'relevance' era, the issue bridges the de-powered Diana Prince spy-adventure run and the short, bold editorial experiment that followed, making it a hinge point for both Wonder Woman's publishing history and DC's early-Bronze Age approach to women's stories.

In "The Fist of Flame," Wonder Woman teams with I-Ching to track a legendary artifact said to ignite uncontrollable greed—while Catwoman also closes in on the prize. With Jonny kidnapped and the Fist of Flame's power threatening to spiral out of control, Diana must navigate both the cunning of her allies and the shadows of those who would exploit the relic. Written by Denny O'Neil and illustrated with bold precision by Dick Giordano, this 1972 adventure blends mystery and high stakes, with cover art by Giordano capturing the tension in every line.

writer Denny O'Neil · artist, inker Dick Giordano · letterer Ben Oda · cover Dick Giordano

ComicBooks.com Value

Our Model is In Beta

Raw (Fine) $10

CGC 9.6 · 11 in census $502

CGC 9.4 · 26 in census $155

CGC 9.2 · 12 in census $121

CGC 9.0 · 5 in census $105*

CGC 8.5 · 8 in census $92

CGC 8.0 · 9 in census $78

Show all 15 grades ▾

CGC 7.5 · 5 in census $69*

CGC 7.0 · 3 in census $58*

CGC 6.5 · 4 in census $51

CGC 6.0 · 5 in census $48

CGC 5.5 · 1 in census $48

CGC 5.0 · 2 in census $48

CGC 4.5 · 1 in census $34*

CGC 4.0 none in existence

CGC 3.5 · 2 in census $27*

* estimate — limited direct-sales data at this grade

Our model’s value — refined as new sales data arrives · CGC census counts shown where available

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History

Written and edited by Denny O'Neil with art and cover by Dick Giordano, the issue was published on May 2, 1972, carrying an August 1972 cover date, during the final stretch of O'Neil's tenure as the series' writer-editor. O'Neil had been steering Wonder Woman through its de-powered, mod-boutique 'Diana Prince' phase since the late 1960s, deliberately modeling the book on the British TV series The Avengers, and #201 was crafted as the opening half of a two-part story he intended Samuel R. Delany — a Hugo and Nebula Award-winning science fiction author and personal friend — to resolve in the following issue. DC had deliberately chosen Wonder Woman as the launchpad for the Fafhrd and Gray Mouser characters, positioning the duo's cameo appearance here as a teaser ahead of their own planned ongoing series.

Trivia · 8 facts

Written by Denny O'Neil (also editor at the time); interior art and cover by Dick Giordano; cover-dated August 1972, on sale May 2, 1972.
The story, titled 'The Fist of Flame,' ends with a full-page panel in which Diana, Catwoman, and I-Ching phase out of the physical world and materialize on Nehwon, face to face with Fafhrd and the Gray Mouser — the barbarian duo's first-ever appearance in comics (as a cameo/intro).
The full first appearance of Fafhrd and the Gray Mouser occurs in the following issue, Wonder Woman #202 (Oct. 1972), scripted by Samuel R. Delany — a distinction that multiple sources note explicitly.
Catwoman (Selina Kyle) appears here in her Neal Adams-designed green costume that debuted in Batman #210 (1969); this marks one of her first significant comic-book appearances after a near-total absence following the end of the Batman TV series era.
DC deliberately introduced Fafhrd and the Gray Mouser through Wonder Woman as a preview for their upcoming Sword of Sorcery series (1973), written by Denny O'Neil with art by Howard Chaykin — a five-issue run before cancellation.
The story is a two-parter spanning #201–202; it was resolved in #202 by science fiction author Samuel R. Delany, who had volunteered to O'Neil that he could better capture the women's liberation themes the series was trying to address.
The issue has been reprinted multiple times, including in Diana Prince: Wonder Woman Vol. 4 (DC, 2009), Catwoman: A Celebration of 75 Years (DC, 2015), the Wonder Woman: Diana Prince Celebrating the '60s Omnibus (DC, 2018/2019), and as a single-issue reprint in DC Retroactive: Wonder Woman – The '70s #1 (2011).
The de-powered Diana Prince era depicted in this issue later influenced the 1974 Wonder Woman TV movie starring Cathy Lee Crosby, in which Wonder Woman was portrayed as a non-superpowered globe-trotting spy.