I once read that Marston wrote every single Wonder Woman story during his lifetime, including four stories in each issue of Wonder Woman, single episodes Sensation Comics and Comic Cavalcade, and the syndicated newspaper strip, plus a few odds and ends. That makes a whopping 211 tales in just six years–an astounding accomplishment, especially when you consider that nearly all superhero comics at the time were written ...
Note: This post builds on The History of Hercules and Herstory of Hippolyte. The legend of the Amazons unfolds on page two of Wonder Woman‘s first issue, told through a scroll Wonder Woman dropped shortly after she arrived in America. A Smithsonian archaeologist called the manuscript “an ancient document sought for centuries — the History of the Unconquerable Amazons!” Marston’s Amazon-centric ...
A Tale of Two Olives When I began researching William Moulton Marston in the early 1990s, it struck me as odd that two of his collaborators shared the name Olive—Olive Byrne and Olive Richard. Olive Byrne had assisted Marston in his research for Emotions of Normal People in the 1920s. Olive Richard was a magazine columnist who interviewed him a few times ...
In 2016, the year leading up to the release of her eponymous movie, Wonder Woman was named the United Nations’ Honorary Ambassador for the Empowerment of Women and Girls. The initiative was announced in October, which also coincided with the 75th anniversary of her comic book debut. It was designed to promote the UN’s goals of gender equality and female ...
The controversy surrounding Wonder Woman’s appearance goes all the way back to the beginning. The character’s visual design was a collaboration between Marston and artist H. G. Peter. Like Marston, Peter was much older than the other comic artists of his day. Both men were completely on board with women’s empowerment, in terms of both gender equality and sexual expression. ...
Sadie Elizabeth Holloway was a wonder among women. Born in 1893, she emigrated with her parents from the Isle of Man, an island situated in the Irish Sea between Ireland and Great Britain. Elizabeth was a force to be reckoned with—stubborn, fierce, and tough as nails. The fiery trailblazer earned three degrees at a time when the very idea of ...
One Comic Book Writer’s Extraordinary ResuméWonder Woman’s creator, Professor William Moulton Marston, was a peculiar figure in the comic book industry. The creators of Superman (Jerry Siegel and Joe Shuster) and Batman (Bob Kane) were all children of Jewish immigrants in an anti-semitic America. They were in their twenties when their brainchildren first donned their capes. By the time Marston ...