Does Wonder Woman Kick Ass or Not?

    At times, Charles Moulton's Wonder Woman has the potential of being a really innovative comic series.  The lead heroine, Wonder Woman aka Diana Prince, is portrayed as a strong, independent woman who can easily block off bullets and beat up evil Nazis.  Her physicality and willingness to hold a profession (as a nurse and secretary) in a very male-dominated military environment are some admirable qualities that make her more modern than the typical mid-century girl.  For this reason, Wonder Woman can initially come across as being a rather progressive feminist series for its time period.
   But for every pro-feminist panel that appears, there's another panel that not only mitigates Wonder Woman's mental and physical strength, but also questions Moulton's intentions.  For example, at the end of each book, Steve Trevor adamantly insists to whoever is congratulating him for defeating the enemy  that it is in fact Wonder Woman who should be given the credit.  This is a great instance where a man is trying to show another man that a woman is as capable of doing something that he can do.  However, this "Yay, Women!" moment is consistently snubbed out in the final panel(s).  Diana relentlessly tries to shift Steve's thoughts away from Wonder Woman and onto herself, but Steve shuts her down saying that she doesn't compete with Wonder Woman's beauty.  Then, to top it off, Diana continues to wistfully hope that Steve will notice and love her.  When each book ends in this pattern, one can't help but wonder if Moulton was naive to some of his sexist content or if he purposely made his comics less feminist so as not to scandalize the public.