The original Wonder Woman was a circular story of re-education, whirling through lessons on gender and power dynamics. One recurrent teaching was mastery over one’s drive to dominate, and choosing submission to the greater good instead. In Wonder Woman #8 (Spring 1944), the Atlantean Princess Octavia petitioned Wonder Woman to be her mentor. Octavia was unusually tall, strong, and hot-tempered. In their first meeting, ...
Centuries after the Amazons landed on Paradise Island, Diana was born. On her fifteenth birthday, she pledged herself to Aphrodite’s service and received her Bracelets of Submission, made from the indestructible metal, Amazonium, found only on Paradise Island. It seems safe to infer that the Amazons have all adopted such ceremonial bracelets made from this mighty metal by the time ...
Fun Fact: Wonder Woman's Magic Lasso was not part of the character's original design. Her creator, William Moulton Marston (aka Charles Moulton) added it as a story element to solve a problem—excessive force.The lasso is well known for its power to compel its captives to tell the truth, forcing them to confess their crimes and reveal embarrassing private thoughts. What ...
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 ...
Like all the Amazons, Queen Hippolyte enjoyed a bountiful life brimming with every happiness—save one. After centuries of personal development and self-actualization, and ruling over a thriving nation, her heart ached for a different kind of love. She longed for a child. Unfortunately, Aphrodite’s gender restrictions presented a significant impediment to motherhood—but that was okay because Marston had read Pygmalion, the ...
My Magic Bracelets Both of my grandmothers were delightfully indulgent of my Wonder Woman love, helping me construct costumes from household items. For instance, one hot Saturday afternoon after my weekly cartoon ritual, I wanted to play Bullets and Bracelets. Billie, my mother’s mother, had the idea to fashion protective bracelets from toilet paper rolls. My grandparents believed at age ...
Paradise Island The battle with the Hercules and the Greeks marked the end of Amazons’ participation in men’s affairs, but also the beginning of their own isolated civilization. Guided by Aphrodite, the Amazons discovered a hidden island where they could build a new world. In the original comics, it was called Paradise Island. Later, George Pérez dubbed it Thermyscira, after ...
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. ...