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There's no glory in warfare, just as there's no shame in being scared or feeling vulnerable.
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— Himself
Sculpted from the sacred clay and brought to life by the will of the gods, Dion is the son of King Hippolytus of Paradise Island. After becoming champion of his people and returning test pilot Steve Trevor to the outside world, Dion rose to the task of being a champion to all humankind as the Wonder, also sometimes known as Wonder Man.
Background
King Hippolytus of Paradise Island had lived for centuries, peacefully separated from what the people of Paradise Island came to know as Man's World, the world of the rest of humanity, of mankind. Various other names came to refer to it, but that seemed the most common.
Hippolytus appealed to the goddess Aphrodite, in order to be taught the secret craft of bringing clay to life. The king desperately wished to have an heir, to one day rule Paradise Island. The goddess instructed him to take clay from the beach of the island and to sculpt it into the perfect child. For days and weeks, Hippolytus worked with painstaking detail, crafting the clay into the most perfect son he could imagine.
At last, he completed the statue and appealed to Aphrodite, who with several other gods combined their powers to bring Dion to life, named after the divine powers who inspired him.
He grew quickly from a promising child to a beautiful youth, and then into a robust young man. All of Paradise Island's inhabitants dearly loved Dion, and Hippolytus was satisfied that there would at last be someone to take the burden of leadership, some day in the future.
But that all changed one day, when test pilot Steve Trevor crashed into the ocean just off the island. Dion could not be discouraged and dove into the water, saving Steve with his peerless swimming ability and bringing him back to the island.
It was little matter for the Purple Ray of Healing to help Steve Trevor, but Dion was fascinated with the man. It was his first outsider, and everything about Steve spoke to him. He appealed to the gods for guidance, and they encouraged him to stay with Steve. So, when Hippolytus called a contest for a champion to return the pilot to the Man's World he had come from, Dion wore a mask and secretly entered and won...after having been forbidden from doing so.
Hippolytus had to admit that Dion must have been meant to be the champion, and his courage and steadfastness were perfectly in keeping with the virtues he hoped his son would have. Dion was given the costume of the champion of Paradise Island and sent, with a magnificent robot plane, to return Steve Trevor back to the outside world.
Dion brought Steve to a hospital for recovery and, in the meantime, started to investigate that happenings that had brought him to crash outside of Paradise Island. Trevor had been testing an experimental plane, the Dynasonic...which brought the wrath of the dangerous Cheetah. Though well-intentioned and acting to protect nature, Cheetah nonetheless put some of the animals in danger that she claimed to be interested in protecting. Dion was, ultimately, able to defeat the Cheetah for the moment and additionally to persuade the developers of the Dynasonic to be more conscious of their effects on the environment. With that first victory, he became an icon.
In time, he also met Etta Candy, with whom he became close friends and worked frequently. He joined the Justice League upon their founding, and Dion regularly helped the go-getter Steve Trevor out of the frequent peril he found himself in. He maintains a high profile as one of the most iconic figures in the heroic world, working for a greater understanding and peaceful enlightenment for humanity and a greater awareness of and respect for nature for the world.
SKILLS
Animal Handling - Competent Level
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Thanks to the atmosphere of combining nature with human habitation on Paradise Island, Dion is exceptional at relating to animals and, in any normal situation, is able to successfully deal with most any animal. Situations become more challenging, the farther afield they fall from the usual experience and at least the general types of animals he is familiar with. He's still more likely to manage than the vast majority.
Dion is able to express himself through art in various media: painting, sketching, sculpting, voice, and instrument are among the ways available to him. Accordingly, he also is able to appreciate and analyze art at a higher level than most.
A lifelong athlete, Dion is able to do things that many can only dream of ever doing. He's especially good at acrobatic stunts and visually impressive acts, which many of Paradise Island's inhabitants learn for play. To the rest of the outside world, these tend to be spectacular world-class performances.
Aviation - Competent Level
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Dion is able to pilot the robot plane, which is more advanced technology than most of the world outside of Paradise Island. He is able to understand simpler and more primitive equipment and, with minimal learning needed, usually can pilot it to a level of skill greater than most people.
Ever since he was old enough to learn, Dion has been trained in advanced combat skills. He is, accordingly, an extremely able fighter in virtually any circumstances. Not only does he excel at fighting itself, he is also superb at the strategy surrounding battle, which he most often employs to shorten conflict as much as possible, if it cannot be avoided.
Equestrianism - Expert Level
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All inhabitants of Paradise Island are trained in kanga riding, as this is their main method of transport on land. This translates to riding various other types of animals that can be saddled and provide transportation. Dion is exceptional in his riding skill, and could compete successfully on a global level, if he so wished.
Escapology - Competent Level
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Dion learned an impressive amount of how to escape bonds growing up and continues to hone his skills in his heroic career.
History - Competent Level
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Having been educated by people who were there while history was happening, Dion is extremely knowledgeable on quite a large amount of the world's history.
Leadership - Expert Level
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From a very early age, Dion was trained in all the things a leader should know. From managing people to public speaking and more, even knowing what to wear or how to establish appropriate priorities, Dion knows a great deal about everything related to leading others. He may use this skill to inspire a crowd or to persuade them to help or support him, as well as being able to reason with those who otherwise may not have listened.
Marskmanship - Expert Level
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Dion can hit a flying airplane with a thrown ambulance at 300 yards, and that's just one of many impressive feats he can boast. He also regularly uses his tiara to fight his enemies and, in this capacity, often bounces it off a number of targets in order to hit its main target. He is an excellent marksman, made even more impressive by his ability almost always being tested under great duress.
Medicine - Competent Level
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Like all of the inhabitants of Paradise Island, Dion has an education in medicine and healing equivalent to a medical professional in the outside world.
The advanced science and knowledge in general available to Paradise Island sets Dion head and shoulders above virtually anyone else on the planet. He understands technology at an extremely advanced level and is capable of reasoning his way through a number of very complex paths, to reach an effective solution.
Dion swims like the merfolk surrounding Paradise Island, able to keep up with them and spend time in their underwater home. He can fairly effortlessly glide through the water and dive deep, with no adverse consequences.
Tracking - Competent Level
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Dion is able to trace the movements of people and animals, in city environments and more natural ones. He tends to do this by taking note of details and indications that others might miss.
Weaponry - Competent Level
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Dion did not learn only hand-to-hand combat, though that is his preference. Nonetheless, he knows how to competently use a wide range of weapons. Except for uniquely extenuating circumstances, he tends never to use any weapon with intent to kill and is unlikely to use an especially dangerous weapon if it seems likely to do lethal harm.
Dion has learned from gods themselves how to focus his will and resist trickery. Accordingly, he possesses massive willpower and is able to resist most any kind of mesmerism, suggestion, or psychic command, as well as being able to behold things beyond the human experience without any damage to his sanity or self-image.
ABILITIES
Tech: Bracelets - Enhanced Level
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The bracelets Dion wears, formally called the Bracelets of Submission, are crafted by techniques known only to the artisans and scientists of Paradise Island, to commemorate their darkest days enslaved by their enemies. All residents of Paradise Island wear them, and they are extremely durable, able to deflect solid projectiles such as bullets from a gun.
They can be fused together and are able to be welded, but it takes much more power to do so than most any other metal in the world. It would be prohibitively difficult to cut them off of anyone.
Power: Enhanced Senses - Enhanced Level
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All of Dion's senses are enhanced beyond even peak human levels. He can see pinpoint detail a significant distance away, hear and make out distinct individuals from a distance, in a crowd, and so forth. Naturally, the farther and the more complicated the situation, the less he is generally able to take away from it. Fortunately, he is also protected from attempt to overload his senses as well and isn't any more susceptible to such tricks than anyone else.
Power: Flight - Enhanced Level
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Gifted with the ability to glide on air currents, Dion can fly at quite a speed, as long as he can find the winds to support him and continue finding them. When he is unable to find sufficient currents already existing, he is able to use his lasso and other things to create them.
Power: Invulnerability - Basic Level
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Dion is tough enough that he can shrug off a fairly significant impact that would finish a regular human. Simple force is typically not enough to affect Dion significantly, though piercing weapons and projectiles are dangerous and can injure him.
His healing, related to this, is accelerated greatly over a human's. Even seriously broken bones tend to take only hours to heal and generally heal correctly. He is more or less immune to human disease, though he can become intoxicated. It does take much more to cause that, however, than it does with any normal human.
Pressure has little detrimental effect on Dion, and even the force of gravity is unlikely to harm him. The scientists of Paradise Island have theorized that their people possess the ability to automatically adjust as needed to any pressure bearing on them.
Tech: Lasso of Truth - Supreme Level
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The Lasso of Truth is a divine item, created from sacred artifacts. Not only is it unbreakable, but it also has the amazing quality of being infinitely elastic depending on the needs of its user. The lasso forces any bound within it to tell the truth, as well as obliging them to obey the commands of whoever is using the lasso. The effect is reduced, proportionally to the more targets it attempts to effect.
The Lasso of Truth can disrupt most magic spells and protect any wrapped in it from most magical effects. It can also resist most magic attacks and will protect whatever is wrapped in it from them.
The lasso can also be used to perform a number of power stunts with it, including but not limited to allowing Dion to change from civilian clothes to his costume and back, twirling it to create air currents upon which he can glide, and even spinning it at just the right frequencies to disrupt his opponents, or to defy dimensional barriers. These last items are of course extremely situational.
Power: Longevity - Basic Level
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Dion ages at a fraction of the rate that an average human does in the world outside of Paradise Island. Every time he returns to Paradise Island, his youth is refreshed again, thanks to the special energies there. These are most directly available through the Fountain of Youth to anyone, but simply spending enough time on Paradise Island infuses the body with the youth-restoring energies. The Fountain's waters are especially handy for emergency healing, and in cases where Dion cannot spend long on Paradise Island before returning to his duties in the world outside it.
Tech: Magnetic Earrings - Basic Level
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In his past adventures, Dion picked up a set of magnetic hearing earrings, which allows him to communicate with the ruler of the planet Venus. Presumably, he intends to one day apply the technology in these earrings to further developments of the Mental Radio.
Power: Polyglot - Supreme Level
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From his godly gifts, Dion is able to quickly pick up any sort of puzzle, cipher, or language. He can usually figure out a code simply by reading it, and he approaches language similarly. It's unlikely he could meet a language he couldn't eventually figure out, though the complexity will dictate how quickly it's possible, much as with a code or puzzle.
Tech: Robot Plane - Enhanced Level
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A gift in part created by the gods themselves, the robot plane is a marvel of science and magic. It has a personality and, though it would be known as AI, it seems to have a degree of sentience. Dion can communicate with the robot plane through simply thoughts, and it responds as quickly as thinking.
The robot plane is invisible to all instruments, and it is also extremely difficult for anyone to see it if Dion doesn't want them to. It can travel at speeds past the sound barrier with ease, and it is capable of escape velocity, able to depart and enter an atmosphere without damage.
The robot plane's communications can be disrupted like the Mental Radio's communications, or like most types of telepathy. Distance and disruptive things coming between the parties involved can make it very difficult to maintain any mental connection.
Power: Speed - Enhanced Level
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Thanks to gifts of the gods, Dion can move very fast, keeping up with moving vehicles effortlessly and able to perform elaborate actions even at significantly high speeds. He could, for example, balance himself on a large ball, on the wing of a plane traveling at the speed of sound, and be reasonably sure to remain there as long as he wishes.
This also extends to his reflexes, which are fast enough to deflect gunfire from even a repeating or automatic weapon and more than fast enough to simply pluck a number of projectiles out of the air.
Power: Strength - Supreme Level
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Dion is blessed with unbelievable strength, able to lift even armored vehicles with ease. He can lasso the top of a mountain off and skillfully maneuver it into place as a temporary fix for a broken dam.
Tech: Tiara - Enhanced Level
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Dion's tiara is a symbol of his royal birth, and it's also a handy weapon that doesn't tend to be very seriously harmful. He can throw it and ricochet it off a number of things, which does not tend to damage the tiara, thanks to durable Paradise Island excellence in craft. It can be used to deflect projectiles and beams, much like his bracelets, and it is also able to scrape and cut a variety of substances, with a density approaching that of diamonds.
Power: Wisdom - Enhanced Level
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The gift of Athena was one of great intelligence and great wisdom in the application of that intelligence. Dion is a genius, to say the least, with tremendous ability to apply his mental excellence to practical situations in the best of ways. Dion's ingenuity serves him well and readily, even impromptu thought on a topic usually serving to benefit him in some way.
ADVANTAGES
Various allies of Dion's give him support and access to things he might otherwise not be able to access. Steve Trevor's contacts keep him in circles that others might find difficult to interact with, and Etta Candy's connection to Holliday College and the sorority friends from her days there can be a surprising amount of help. Of course, Dion's heroic allies are a huge help too, as are his people back home on Paradise Island.
Dion is well-known to a number of people in his civilian guise, but he's even more widely known in his heroic identity, and can call upon a number of allies and interested parties, as well as being able to influence even virtual strangers from his reputation alone.
All of the inhabitants of Paradise Island are trained in recall. Dion happens to have near-perfect ability to recall whatever he might notice. This requires him to have noticed something when he committed it to memory, though he is able to extrapolate and use deductive reasoning to make conclusions as well.
After helping free a race of gremlins from their intergalactic oppressors, they became friends with Dion. Though most of them have returned to the stars, one nicknamed Glitch (real name unpronounceable by human tongue) chose to stay on Earth and occasionally helps Dion. Gremlins are superlative at being able to put together and to deconstruct virtually anything, as well as able to learn very quickly how to operate and interface with virtually any sort of machine or vehicle. They are best at function and dysfunction, though it's easiest, of course, to break something.
Gremlins can only be seen by a select few. Those awakened to magic, and children and those with a strong sense of wonder can even see or hear gremlins. For most anyone else, gremlins are impossible to perceive. Steve Trevor, for example, can perceive gremlins and is friends with Glitch.
As a member in good standing of the Justice League, Dion is able to call upon them for support and has access to all their technology and resources affording to members. His involvement with the League also gives him even greater renown and gravitas.
The Magic Sphere is a technology of Paradise Island that resembles a large disk. It was a gift given to them by the goddess Athena and is generally indestructible. By using the Magic Sphere, a user can see into the past or the future, which Dion's people have used to help develop their own technology and sociocultural identity.
Under certain circumstances, it is possible to use the Magic Sphere to travel in time, though this seems to require special circumstances and special assistance. It is naturally resistant to time distortion and even disruptions in reality, able not only to perceive but also to communicate inconsistencies in the timestream such as major attempts to change history.
With technology similar to that of the robot plane, Dion has a device called the Mental Radio. This is, essentially, a videophone able to communicate over even interdimensional gulfs, which Dion uses to communicate with Paradise Island when he is separated from it.
Dion works at the Metropolis Museum of Art and Antiquity, and he occupies a high position that allows him to come and go at will. Thanks to his tremendous knowledge and total recall, few if any can compare to his ability. This high position and attachment to a well-known institution in the City of Tomorrow may at times afford him privileges and access to things and people that he otherwise might not have. The museum is known internationally and has contacts and allies worldwide, so in places where its reputation precedes him, he may be able to use that to his advantage. Though he doesn't strictly need the money from the job, it's no small potatoes and can be useful for many purposes.
Dion's home is of course at his disposal, for any support it or its people can muster. Though they almost never leave Paradise Island, they are still quite resourceful even while staying there and having virtually no contact with the outside world.
Similarly to all his people, Dion maintains a steady heartbeat at all times.
Dion has all the advanced and extremely impressive technology of Paradise Island at his disposal, should he need it.
WEAKNESSES
Dion is very honest and, when he gives his word, he is bound by it. It would be very hard for him to break his promise, though he may be moved to do so if others are endangered by him maintaining it. It would still be a great burden to him, though, and would likely cause him upset and to feel a need for some sort of penance.
If Dion's bracelets are fused together and he is bound in this way, it will be an extremely difficult position for him to extricate himself from and will reduce his effectiveness. If his bracelets are removed without the proper rituals, he will go berserk, unable to distinguish friend from foe, until they are restored to their proper position.
If Dion is surrounded by the same clay as he was sculpted from, he will start to revert to clay. This can be disrupted, which immediately reverts him to normal, once he is extricated from the clay. It must specifically be a matching sort of clay, however, which makes it a pretty rare substance, and necessary in enough quantity to completely surround an adult.
Dion likes to believe the best of people, and so at times he may do things far more optimistic than anyone else would be willing to do. Sometimes, he might put himself into greater danger by trusting someone questionable to keep their word. However, this in the past has led to his people gaining valuable allies, as well as former villains changing their ways. To Dion, it is worth the risk, even if it can put him in a sticky situation.
Dion is especially vulnerable to piercing weapons. Though not all bullets can penetrate his skin, armor-piercing bullets, for example, can present a terrible danger to him. He may also be injured by a piercing weapon, but that weapon would have to be extremely sharp and extremely durable to manage to cut him. It may still bruise or affect him.
