It was early in 1939, and Superman had made only two cover appearances on Action Comics, but it was clear to those in the comics business that he was a hit. So in order to take advantage of that success other publisher began to tee up their own "Super Men". One of the first, if not the first was Wonder Man from Fox Comics. Wonder Man was created for the pages of Wonder Comics by a guy named "Willis" who it turns out was actually Will Eisner. He was at that time working in the famed Eisner and Iger Shop, an outfit which produced comics for publishers such as the notorious Victor Fox.
And as fast as speeding locomotive the entity which became DC Comics sued for copyright infringement. A court held that indeed the similarities between Superman and Wonder Man were too great and the latter was ordered to cease and desist. And so, he disappeared after one adventure. Key to winning that case was the testimony of Will Eisner who said under oath that he'd been given instructions to copy Superman. Eisner has always claimed that Fox had told him to keep the true origins of Wonder Man under wraps.
Soon a flood of superheroes made it almost impossible for DC to wrangle them all, so they kept their powder dry for those that were especially successful. That proved to be Captain Marvel from Fawcett Publications. For a time, the "Man Who Would Become Shazam" outsold the "Man of the Steel". He was eventually sued into oblivion. That is until DC raised him from the dead a few decades later, and Stan Lee had nicked his name.
If you want more information on the "Superman V. Wonder Man" lawsuit, check out this Wiki link.
For more on Will Eisner's testimony check out this The Comics Detective link.
To actually read this one-and-done controversial comic book story starring Wonder Man for yourself, go to this Comic Book Plus link.
Eisner offers up a somewhat fictionalized version of his side of what happened in his slight graphic novel The Dreamer.
The Dreamer is one of my favorites of Eisner's 80's works, as it gives an insight into just how the comic book industry took shape, but it does so with more than bit of heart. The Dreamer is the story of a young artist named "Billy Eyron" finds success and failure as he tries to ply a trade making comics. The story takes the young man up to the point in which he leaves the relative financial security of packaging stories for other publishers and goes off to create something new for the newspaper funnies. The story is tole with a Horatio Alger flair.
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