wonder woman essay

ARTS & CULTURE

The surprising origin story of wonder woman.

The history of the comic-book superhero’s creation seven decades ago has been hidden away—until now

Jill Lepore

“Noted Psychologist Revealed as Author of Best-Selling ‘Wonder Woman,’” read the astonishing headline. In the summer of 1942, a press release from the New York offices of All-American Comics turned up at newspapers, magazines and radio stations all over the United States. The identity of Wonder Woman’s creator had been “at first kept secret,” it said, but the time had come to make a shocking announcement: “the author of ‘Wonder Woman’ is Dr. William Moulton Marston, internationally famous psychologist.” The truth about Wonder Woman had come out at last.

Or so, at least, it was made to appear. But, really, the name of Wonder Woman’s creator was the least of her secrets.

Wonder Woman is the most popular female comic-book superhero of all time. Aside from Superman and Batman, no other comic-book character has lasted as long. Generations of girls have carried their sandwiches to school in Wonder Woman lunchboxes. Like every other superhero, Wonder Woman has a secret identity. Unlike every other superhero, she also has a secret history.

In one episode, a newspaper editor named Brown, desperate to discover Wonder Woman’s past, assigns a team of reporters to chase her down; she easily escapes them. Brown, gone half mad, is committed to a hospital. Wonder Woman disguises herself as a nurse and brings him a scroll. “This parchment seems to be the history of that girl you call ‘Wonder Woman’!” she tells him. “A strange, veiled woman left it with me.” Brown leaps out of bed and races back to the city desk, where he cries out, parchment in hand, “Stop the presses! I’ve got the history of Wonder Woman!” But Wonder Woman’s secret history isn’t written on parchment. Instead, it lies buried in boxes and cabinets and drawers, in thousands of documents, housed in libraries, archives and collections spread all over the United States, including the private papers of creator Marston—papers that, before I saw them, had never before been seen by anyone outside of Marston’s family.

The veil that has shrouded Wonder Woman’s past for seven decades hides beneath it a crucial story about comic books and superheroes and censorship and feminism. As Marston once put it, “Frankly, Wonder Woman is psychological propaganda for the new type of woman who, I believe, should rule the world.”

The Secret History of Wonder Woman

A riveting work of historical detection revealing that the origins of one of the world's most iconic superheroes hides within it a fascinating family story-and a crucial history of twentieth-century feminism Wonder Woman

Comic books were more or less invented in 1933 by Maxwell Charles Gaines, a former elementary school principal who went on to found All-American Comics. Superman first bounded over tall buildings in 1938. Batman began lurking in the shadows in 1939. Kids read them by the piles. But at a time when war was ravaging Europe, comic books celebrated violence, even sexual violence. In 1940, the  Chicago Daily News  called comics a “national disgrace.” “Ten million copies of these sex-horror serials are sold every month,” wrote the newspaper’s literary editor, calling for parents and teachers to ban the comics, “unless we want a coming generation even more ferocious than the present one.”

To defend himself against critics, Gaines, in 1940, hired Marston as a consultant. “‘Doc’ Marston has long been an advocate of the right type of comic magazines,” he explained. Marston held three degrees from Harvard, including a PhD in psychology. He led what he called “an experimental life.” He’d been a lawyer, a scientist and a professor. He is generally credited with inventing the lie detector test: He was obsessed with uncovering other people’s secrets. He’d been a consulting psychologist for Universal Pictures. He’d written screenplays, a novel and dozens of magazine articles. Gaines had read about Marston in an article in  Family Circle  magazine. In the summer of 1940, Olive Richard, a staff writer for the magazine, visited Marston at his house in Rye, New York, to ask him for his expert opinion about comics.

“Some of them are full of torture, kidnapping, sadism, and other cruel business,” she said.

“Unfortunately, that is true,” Marston admitted, but “when a lovely heroine is bound to the stake, comics followers are sure that the rescue will arrive in the nick of time. The reader’s wish is to save the girl, not to see her suffer.”

Marston was a man of a thousand lives and a thousand lies. “Olive Richard” was the pen name of Olive Byrne, and she hadn’t gone to visit Marston—she lived with him. She was also the niece of Margaret Sanger, one of the most important feminists of the 20th century. In 1916, Sanger and her sister, Ethel Byrne, Olive Byrne’s mother, had opened the first birth-control clinic in the United States. They were both arrested for the illegal distribution of contraception. In jail in 1917, Ethel Byrne went on a hunger strike and nearly died.

Olive Byrne met Marston in 1925, when she was a senior at Tufts; he was her psychology professor. Marston was already married, to a lawyer named Elizabeth Holloway. When Marston and Byrne fell in love, he gave Holloway a choice: either Byrne could live with them, or he would leave her. Byrne moved in. Between 1928 and 1933, each woman bore two children; they lived together as a family. Holloway went to work; Byrne stayed home and raised the children. They told census-takers and anyone else who asked that Byrne was Marston’s widowed sister-in-law. “Tolerant people are the happiest,” Marston wrote in a magazine essay in 1939, so “why not get rid of costly prejudices that hold you back?” He listed the “Six Most Common Types of Prejudice.” Eliminating prejudice number six—“Prejudice against unconventional people and non-conformists”—meant the most to him. Byrne’s sons didn’t find out that Marston was their father until 1963—when Holloway finally admitted it—and only after she extracted a promise that no one would raise the subject ever again.

Gaines didn’t know any of this when he met Marston in 1940 or else he would never have hired him: He was looking to avoid controversy, not to court it. Marston and Wonder Woman were pivotal to the creation of what became DC Comics. (DC was short for  Detective Comics , the comic book in which Batman debuted.) In 1940, Gaines decided to counter his critics by forming an editorial advisory board and appointing Marston to serve on it, and DC decided to stamp comic books in which Superman and Batman appeared with a logo, an assurance of quality, reading, “A DC Publication.” And, since “the comics’ worst offense was their blood-curdling masculinity,” Marston said, the best way to fend off critics would be to create a female superhero.

“Well, Doc,” Gaines said, “I picked Superman after every syndicate in America turned it down. I’ll take a chance on your Wonder Woman! But you’ll have to write the strip yourself.”

In February 1941, Marston submitted a draft of his first script, explaining the “under-meaning” of Wonder Woman’s Amazonian origins in ancient Greece, where men had kept women in chains, until they broke free and escaped. “The NEW WOMEN thus freed and strengthened by supporting themselves (on Paradise Island) developed enormous physical and mental power.” His comic, he said, was meant to chronicle “a great movement now under way—the growth in the power of women.”

Wonder Woman made her debut in  All-Star Comics  at the end of 1941 and on the cover of a new comic book,  Sensation Comics , at the beginning of 1942, drawn by an artist named Harry G. Peter. She wore a golden tiara, a red bustier, blue underpants and knee-high, red leather boots. She was a little slinky; she was very kinky. She’d left Paradise to fight fascism with feminism, in “America, the last citadel of democracy, and of equal rights for women!”

It seemed to Gaines like so much good, clean, superpatriotic fun. But in March 1942, the National Organization for Decent Literature put Sensation Comics on its blacklist of “Publications Disapproved for Youth” for one reason: “Wonder Woman is not sufficiently dressed.”

Gaines decided he needed another expert. He turned to Lauretta Bender, an associate professor of psychiatry at New York University’s medical school and a senior psychiatrist at Bellevue Hospital, where she was director of the children’s ward, an expert on aggression. She’d long been interested in comics but her interest had grown in 1940, after her husband, Paul Schilder, was killed by a car while walking home from visiting Bender and their 8-day-old daughter in the hospital. Bender, left with three children under the age of 3, soon became painfully interested in studying how children cope with trauma. In 1940, she conducted a study with Reginald Lourie, a medical resident under her supervision, investigating the effect of comics on four children brought to Bellevue Hospital for behavioral problems. Tessie, 12, had witnessed her father, a convicted murderer, kill himself. She insisted on calling herself Shiera, after a comic-book girl who is always rescued at the last minute by the Flash. Kenneth, 11, had been raped. He was frantic unless medicated or “wearing a Superman cape.” He felt safe in it—he could fly away if he wanted to—and “he felt that the cape protected him from an assault.” Bender and Lourie concluded the comic books were “the folklore of this age,” and worked, culturally, the same way fables and fairy tales did.

That hardly ended the controversy. In February 1943, Josette Frank, an expert on children’s literature, a leader of the Child Study Association and a member of Gaines’ advisory board, sent Gaines a letter, telling him that while she’d never been a fan of Wonder Woman, she felt she now had to speak out about its “sadistic bits showing women chained, tortured, etc.” She had a point. In episode after episode, Wonder Woman is chained, bound, gagged, lassoed, tied, fettered and manacled. “Great girdle of Aphrodite!” she cries at one point. “Am I tired of being tied up!”

The story behind the writing and editing of Wonder Woman can be pieced together from Bender’s papers, at Brooklyn College; Frank’s papers, at the University of Minnesota; and Marston’s editorial correspondence, along with a set of original scripts, housed at the Dibner Library at the Smithsonian Institution Libraries. In his original scripts, Marston described scenes of bondage in careful, intimate detail with utmost precision. For a story about Mars, the God of War, Marston gave Peter elaborate instructions for the panel in which Wonder Woman is taken prisoner:

“Closeup, full length figure of WW. Do some careful chaining here—Mars’s men are experts! Put a metal collar on WW with a chain running off from the panel, as though she were chained in the line of prisoners. Have her hands clasped together at her breast with  double  bands on her wrists, her Amazon bracelets and another set. Between these runs a short chain, about the length of a handcuff chain—this is what compels her to clasp her hands together. Then put another, heavier,  larger  chain between her wrist bands which hangs in a long loop to just above her knees. At her ankles show a pair of arms and hands, coming from out of the panel, clasping about her ankles. This whole panel will lose its point and spoil the story unless these chains are drawn  exactly  as described here.”

Later in the story, Wonder Woman is locked in a cell. Straining to overhear a conversation in the next room, through the amplification of “bone conduction,” she takes her chain in her teeth: “Closeup of WW’s head shoulders. She holds her neck chain between her teeth. The chain runs taut between her teeth and the wall, where it is locked to a steel ring bolt.”

Gaines forwarded Frank’s letter of complaint to Marston. Marston shrugged it off. But then Dorothy Roubicek, who helped edit Wonder Woman—the first woman editor at DC Comics—objected to Wonder Woman’s torture, too.

“Of course I wouldn’t expect Miss Roubicek to understand all this,” Marston wrote Gaines. “After all I have devoted my entire life to working out psychological principles. Miss R. has been in comics only 6 months or so, hasn’t she? And never in psychology.” But “the secret of woman’s allure,” he told Gaines, is that “women enjoy submission—being bound.”

Gaines was troubled. Roubicek, who worked on Superman, too, had invented kryptonite. She believed superheroes ought to have vulnerabilities. She told Gaines she thought Wonder Woman ought to be more like Superman and, just as Superman couldn’t go back to the planet Krypton, Wonder Woman ought not to be able to go back to Paradise Island, where the kinkiest stuff tended to happen. Gaines then sent Roubicek to Bellevue Hospital to interview Bender. In a memo to Gaines, Roubicek reported that Bender “does not believe that Wonder Woman tends to masochism or sadism.” She also liked the way Marston was playing with feminism, Roubicek reported: “She believes that Dr. Marston is handling very cleverly this whole ‘experiment’ as she calls it. She feels that perhaps he is bringing to the public the real issue at stake in the world (and one which she feels may possibly be a direct cause of the present conflict) and that is that the difference between the sexes is  not  a sex problem, nor a struggle for superiority, but rather a problem of the relation of one sex to the other.” Roubicek summed up: “Dr. Bender believes that this strip should be left alone.”

Gaines was hugely relieved, at least until September 1943, when a letter arrived from John D. Jacobs, a U.S. Army staff sergeant in the 291st Infantry, stationed at Fort Leonard Wood, Missouri. “I am one of those odd, perhaps unfortunate men who derive an extreme erotic pleasure from the mere thought of a beautiful girl, chained or bound, or masked, or wearing extreme high-heels or high-laced boots,—in fact, any sort of constriction or strain whatsoever,” Jacobs wrote. He wanted to know whether the author of Wonder Woman himself had in his possession any of the items depicted in the stories, “the leather mask, or the wide iron collar from Tibet, or the Greek ankle manacle? Or do you just ‘dream up’ these things?”

(For the record, Marston and Olive Byrne’s son, Byrne Marston, who is an 83-year-old retired obstetrician, thinks that when Marston talked about the importance of submission, he meant it only metaphorically. “I never saw anything like that in our house,” he told me. “He didn’t tie the ladies up to the bedpost. He’d never have gotten away with it.”)

Gaines forwarded Jacobs’ letter to Marston, with a note: “This is one of the things I’ve been afraid of.” Something had to be done. He therefore enclosed, for Marston’s use, a memo written by Roubicek containing a “list of methods which can be used to keep women confined or enclosed without the use of chains. Each one of these can be varied in many ways—enabling us, as I told you in our conference last week, to cut down the use of chains by at least 50 to 75% without at all interfering with the excitement of the story or the sales of the books.”

Marston wrote Gaines right back.

“I have the good Sergeant’s letter in which he expresses his enthusiasm over chains for women—so what?” As a practicing clinical psychologist, he said, he was unimpressed. “Some day I’ll make you a list of all the items about women that different people have been known to get passionate over—women’s hair, boots, belts, silk worn by women, gloves, stockings, garters, panties, bare backs,” he promised. “You can’t have a real woman character in any form of fiction without touching off a great many readers’ erotic fancies. Which is swell, I say.”

Marston was sure he knew what line not to cross. Harmless erotic fantasies are terrific, he said. “It’s the lousy ones you have to look out for—the harmful, destructive, morbid erotic fixations—real sadism, killing, blood-letting, torturing where the pleasure is in the victim’s actual pain, etc. Those are 100 per cent bad and I won’t have any part of them.” He added, in closing, “Please thank Miss Roubicek for the list of menaces.”

In 1944, Gaines and Marston signed an agreement for Wonder Woman to become a newspaper strip, syndicated by King Features. Busy with the newspaper strip, Marston hired an 18-year-old student, Joye Hummel, to help him write comic-book scripts. Joye Hummel, now Joye Kelly, turned 90 this April; in June, she donated her collection of never-before-seen scripts and comic books to the Smithsonian Libraries. Hiring her helped with Marston’s editorial problem, too. Her stories were more innocent than his. She’d type them and bring them to Sheldon Mayer, Marston’s editor at DC, she told me, and “He always OK’d mine faster because I didn’t make mine as sexy.” To celebrate syndication, Gaines had his artists draw a panel in which Superman and Batman, rising out of the front page of a daily newspaper, call out to Wonder Woman, who’s leaping onto the page, “Welcome, Wonder Woman!”

Gaines had another kind of welcome to make, too. He asked Lauretta Bender to take Frank’s place on the editorial advisory board.

In an ad King Features ran to persuade newspapers to purchase the strip, pointing out that Wonder Woman already had “ten million loyal fans,” her name is written in rope.

Hidden behind this controversy is one reason for all those chains and ropes, which has to do with the history of the fight for women’s rights. Because Marston kept his true relationship with Olive Byrne a secret, he kept his family’s ties to Margaret Sanger a secret, too. Marston, Byrne and Holloway, and even Harry G. Peter, the artist who drew Wonder Woman, had all been powerfully influenced by the suffrage, feminism and birth control movements. And each of those movements had used chains as a centerpiece of its iconography.

In 1911, when Marston was a freshman at Harvard, the British suffragist Emmeline Pankhurst, who’d chained herself to the gates outside 10 Downing Street, came to speak on campus. When Sanger faced charges of obscenity for explaining birth control in a magazine she founded called the  Woman Rebel,  a petition sent to President Woodrow Wilson on her behalf read, “While men stand proudly and face the sun, boasting that they have quenched the wickedness of slavery, what chains of slavery are, have been or ever could be so intimate a horror as the shackles on every limb—on every thought—on the very soul of an unwilling pregnant woman?” American suffragists threatened to chain themselves to the gates outside the White House. In 1916, in Chicago, women representing the states where women had still not gained the right to vote marched in chains.

In the 1910s, Peter was a staff artist at the magazine  Judge , where he contributed to its suffrage page called “The Modern Woman,” which ran from 1912 to 1917. More regularly, the art on that page was drawn by another staff artist, a woman named Lou Rogers. Rogers’ suffrage and feminist cartoons very often featured an allegorical woman chained or roped, breaking her bonds. Sanger hired Rogers as art director for the  Birth Control Review , a magazine she started in 1917. In 1920, in a book called  Woman and the New Race , Sanger argued that woman “had chained herself to her place in society and the family through the maternal functions of her nature, and only chains thus strong could have bound her to her lot as a brood animal.” In 1923, an illustration commissioned by Rogers for the cover of  Birth Control Review  pictured a weakened and desperate woman, fallen to her knees and chained at the ankle to a ball that reads, “UNWANTED BABIES.” A chained woman inspired the title of Sanger’s 1928 book,  Motherhood in Bondage , a compilation of some of the thousands of letters she had received from women begging her for information about birth control; she described the letters as “the confessions of enslaved mothers.” When Marston created Wonder Woman, in 1941, he drew on Sanger’s legacy and inspiration. But he was also determined to keep the influence of Sanger on Wonder Woman a secret.

He took that secret to his grave when he died in 1947. Most superheroes didn’t survive peacetime and those that did were changed forever in 1954, when a psychiatrist named Fredric Wertham published a book called  Seduction of the Innocent  and testified before a Senate subcommittee investigating the comics. Wertham believed that comics were corrupting American kids, and turning them into juvenile delinquents. He especially disliked Wonder Woman. Bender had written that Wonder Woman comics display “a strikingly advanced concept of femininity and masculinity” and that “women in these stories are placed on an equal footing with men and indulge in the same type of activities.” Wertham found the feminism in Wonder Woman repulsive.

“As to the ‘advanced femininity,’ what are the activities in comic books which women ‘indulge in on an equal footing with men’? They do not work. They are not homemakers. They do not bring up a family. Mother-love is entirely absent. Even when Wonder Woman adopts a girl there are Lesbian overtones,” he said. At the Senate hearings, Bender testified, too. If anything in American popular culture was bad for girls, she said, it wasn’t Wonder Woman; it was Walt Disney. “The mothers are always killed or sent to the insane asylums in Walt Disney movies,” she said. This argument fell on deaf ears.

Wertham’s papers, housed at the Library of Congress, were only opened to researchers in 2010. They suggest that Wertham’s antipathy toward Bender had less to do with the content of the comics than with professional rivalry. (Paul Schilder, Bender’s late husband, had been Wertham’s boss for many years.) Wertham’s papers contain a scrap on which he compiled a list he titled “Paid Experts of the Comic Book Industry Posing as Independent Scholars.” First on the list as the comic book industry’s number one lackey was Bender, about whom Wertham wrote: “Boasted privately of bringing up her 3 children on money from crime comic books.”

In the wake of the 1954 hearings, DC Comics removed Bender from its editorial advisory board, and the Comics Magazine Association of America adopted a new code. Under its terms, comic books could contain nothing cruel: “All scenes of horror, excessive bloodshed, gory or gruesome crimes, depravity, lust, sadism, masochism shall not be permitted.” There could be nothing kinky: “Illicit sex relations are neither to be hinted at nor portrayed. Violent love scenes as well as sexual abnormalities are unacceptable.” And there could be nothing unconventional: “The treatment of love-romance stories shall emphasize the value of the home and the sanctity of marriage.”

“Anniversary, which we forgot entirely,” Olive Byrne wrote in her secret diary in 1936. (The diary remains in family hands.) During the years when she lived with Marston and Holloway, she wore, instead of a wedding ring, a pair of bracelets. Wonder Woman wears those same cuffs. Byrne died in 1990, at the age of 86. She and Holloway had been living together in an apartment in Tampa. While Byrne was in the hospital, dying, Holloway fell and broke her hip; she was admitted to the same hospital. They were in separate rooms. They’d lived together for 64 years. When Holloway, in her hospital bed, was told that Byrne had died, she sang a poem by Tennyson: “Sunset and the evening star, / And one clear call for me! / And may there be no moaning of the bar, / When I put out to sea.” No newspaper ran an obituary.

Elizabeth Holloway Marston died in 1993. An obituary ran in the New York Times. It was headed, “Elizabeth H. Marston, Inspiration for Wonder Woman, 100.” This was, at best, a half-truth.

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Jill Lepore | READ MORE

Jill Lepore is a staff writer at the New Yorker and the David Woods Kemper ’41 Professor of American History at Harvard University. Lepore is the author of Book of Ages , New York Burning and The Secret History of Wonder Woman .

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27: Everything You Need to Know About the Radical Roots of Wonder Woman (Finke)

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Her enigmatic creator believed women were destined to rule the world. 10 facts about the iconic heroine.

Christopher Zumski Finke

#heroes #artsandculture #reportinginformation #history

All these things are true about Wonder Woman: She is a national treasure that the Smithsonian Institution named among its 101 Objects that Made America ; she is a ' 70s feminist icon ; she is the product of a polyamorous household that participated in a sex cult.

She comes out of the feminist movements of women’s suffrage, birth control, and the fight for equality.

Harvard historian Jill Lepore claims in her new book, The Secret History of Wonder Woman , that Wonder Woman is the “missing link in a chain of events that begins with the women’s suffrage campaigns of the 1910s and ends with the troubled place of feminism fully a century later.”

The hero and her alter ego, Diana Prince, were the products of the tumultuous women’s rights movements of the early 20th century. Here are 10 essential elements to understanding the history and legacy of Wonder Woman and the family from which she sprung.

Wonder Woman first appeared in Sensation Comics #1 in December 1941.

Since that issue arrived 73 years ago, Wonder Woman has been in constant publication, making her the third longest running superhero in history, behind Superman (introduced June 1938) and Batman (introduced May 1939).

Wonder Woman’s creator had a secret identity.

Superheroes always have secret identities. So too did the man behind Wonder Woman. His name upon publication was Charles Moulton, but that was a pseudonym. It was after two years of popularity and success that the author revealed his identity: then-famous psychologist William Moulton Marston, who also invented the lie detector test.

William Moulton Marston was, as Jill Lepore tells it, an “awesomely cocky” psychologist and huckster from Massachusetts. He was also committed to the feminist causes he grew up around.

By 1941, Marston’s image of the iconic feminist of the future was already a throwback to his youth. He saw the celebrated British suffragist Emmeline Pankhurst speak in Harvard Square (she was banned from speaking at Harvard University) in 1911, and from then on imagined the future of civilization as one destined for female rule.

Actually, the whole Marston family had a secret identity.

The Marston family was an unconventional home, full of radical politics and feminism. Marston lived with multiple women, including his wife, Sadie Elizabeth Holloway, a highly educated psychologist, and another lifelong partner, a writer named Olive Byrne, who was the niece of birth control activist Margaret Sanger. He had four children, two by each of the women, and they all grew up oblivious to the polyamorous nature of their parents’ relationships.

Marston, Holloway, and Byrne all contributed to Wonder Woman’s creation, a character that Marston explicitly designed to show the necessity of equality and advancement of women’s rights.

Wonder Woman was an Amazon molded from clay, but she was birthed out of feminism.

Princess Diana of Themyscira, or Diana Prince (Wonder Woman’s alter ego), comes from the land of the Amazons. In Greek mythology, the Amazons are an immortal race of beauties that live apart from men. In the origin story of Wonder Woman, Diana the is daughter of the queen of the Amazons. She’s from Paradise Island (Paradise is the land where no men live), where Queen Hyppolita carves her daughter out of clay. She has no father.

Wonder Woman has been in constant publication, making her the third longest running superhero.

She comes out of the feminist movements of women’s suffrage, birth control, and the fight for equality. When Marston was working with DC Comics editor Sheldon Mayer on the origins of Wonder Woman, Marston left no room for interpretation about what he wanted from his heroine.

“About the story’s feminism,” historian Lepore writes, “he was unmovable. ‘Let that theme alone,’ Marston said, ‘or drop the project.’”

Wonder Woman fought for the people—all the people.

The injustices that moved Wonder Woman to action did not just take place in the world of fantasy heroes and villains, nor was she only about women’s rights. She also fought for the rights of children, workers, and farmers.

In a 1942 issue of Sensation Comics , Wonder Woman targets the International Milk Company, which she has learned has been overcharging for milk, leading to the undernourishment of children. According to Lepore, the story came right out of a Hearst newspaper headline about “milk crooks” creating a “milk trust” to raise the price of milk, profiteering on the backs of American babies.

For the Wonder Woman story, Marston attributed the source of this crime to Nazi Germany. But the action Wonder Woman takes is the same as the real-life solution: She leads a march of women and men in “a gigantic demonstration against the milk racket.”

There’s a whole lot of bondage in Wonder Woman.

In the years that Marston was writing Wonder Woman, bondage was everywhere. “In episode after episode,” Lepore writes, “Wonder Woman is chained, bound, gagged, lassoed, tied, fettered, and manacled.” Even Wonder Woman herself expressed exhaustion at the over-use of being bound: “Great girdle of Aphrodite! Am I tired of being tied up!” she says.

She appeared on the first issue of Ms. Magazine, in 1972, with the headline “Wonder Woman for President.”

There’s little doubt that the sexual proclivities of the Marston family were in part responsible for this interest. A woman named Marjorie Wilkes Huntley was part of the Marston household—an “aunt” for the children, who shared the family home (and bedroom) when she was in town. Huntley was fond of bondage.

The theme was so persistent that an Army sergeant who was fond of the erotic images wrote to Marston asking where he could purchase some of the bondage implements used in the book. After that, DC Comics told Marston to cut back on the BDSM.

But that bondage was not all about sex.

The bondage themes in Wonder Woman are more complex than just a polyamorous fetish, though. Women in bondage was an iconic image of the suffrage and feminist movements, as women attempted to loosen the chains that bound them in society. Cartoonist and artist Lou Rogers drew many women in bonds, and Margaret Sanger appeared before a crowd bound at the mouth to protest the censorship of women in America.

Later, Margaret Sanger’s Birth Control Review would use a similar motif. One cover image had a woman chained to the weight of unwanted babies.

Readers—boys and girls—loved Wonder Woman.

Despite the political and secretive history of Wonder Woman’s creation, she was a wildly popular character. After Wonder Woman’s early success, DC Comics considered adding her to the roster of the Justice Society, which included Batman and Superman and many other male superheroes. Charlie Gaines, who ran DC Comics, decided to conduct a reader poll, asking, “Should Wonder Woman be allowed, even though a woman, to become a member of the justice society?”

Readers returned 1,801 surveys. Among boys, 1,265 said yes, 197 said no; among girls, 333 said yes, and only 6 said no.

But Justice Society was not written by feminist Marston. After Wonder Woman was brought into the Justice Society, she spent her first episodes working as the secretary.

The feminist spirit of Wonder Woman waned for decades.

After the death of William Moulton Marston in 1947, DC Comics took the feminism out of Wonder Woman and created instead a timid and uninspiring female character. “Wonder Woman lived on,” Lepore writes, “but she was barely recognizable.”

The first cover not drawn by the original artist, Harry G. Peter, “featured Steve Trevor [Wonder Woman’s heretofore hapless love interest] carrying a smiling, daffy, helpless Wonder Woman over a stream. Instead of her badass, kinky red boots, she wears dainty yellow ballerina slippers,” Lepore observes. Without her radical edge, Wonder Woman’s popularity waned until the rise of second wave feminism in the '60s and '70s, when Wonder Woman was trumpeted as an icon of women’s empowerment.

Wonder Woman became president.

In a 1943 story, Wonder Woman is actually elected President of the United States. Marston was adamant that a women would one day rule the United States, and that the world would be better when civilization’s power structures were in the hands of women instead of men.

Women in bondage was an iconic image of the suffrage and feminist movements.

Wonder Woman’s popularity soared as the feminist movement picked up in the late 1960s. Wonder Woman appeared on the first issue of Ms. Magazine , in 1972, with the headline “Wonder Woman for President.” At that time, Gloria Steinem said of Wonder Woman, “Looking back now at these Wonder Woman stories from the '40s, I am amazed by the strength of their feminist message.”

The impact of Wonder Woman continues.

Wonder Woman is in for a great couple of years. Ms. Magazine just celebrated its 40th anniversary, and Wonder Woman is back on its cover. Jill Lepore’s book has been getting wonderful coverage (see her on The Colbert Report below discussing the kinks of the Marston Family), and Noah Berlatsky’s Wonder Woman: Feminism and Bondage in the Marston/Peter Comics will be published in January.

She’s also gearing up for her first-ever theatrical film appearance: Wonder Woman will appear in Zack Snyder’s 2016 film Batman vs. Superman: Dawn of Justice . In 2017, she will be the star of her own film, to be directed by Michelle McClaren ( Breaking Bad, The Walking Dead ). Wonder Woman will be played by the Israeli actress Gal Gadot.

Let us hope that Gadot in the role conjures the spirit of the original creation of Marston, Holloway, and Byrne: a radical, independent, fierce woman and leader for all women and men to admire.

____________________

Christopher Zumski Finke blogs about pop culture and is editor of The Stake.

Everything You Need to Know About the Radical Roots of Wonder Womanby Christopher Zumski Finke is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-NoDerivatives 4.0 International License .

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Why Wonder Woman is a masterpiece of subversive feminism

Yes, the new movie sees its titular heroine sort of naked a lot of the time. But the film-makers have still worked to turn sexist Hollywood conventions on their head

T he chances are you will read a feminist takedown of Wonder Woman before you see the film. And you’ll probably agree with it. Wonder Woman is a half-god, half-mortal super-creature; she is without peer even in superhero leagues. And yet, when she arrives in London to put a stop to the war to end all wars, she instinctively obeys a handsome meathead who has no skills apart from moderate decisiveness and pretty eyes. This is a patriarchal figment. Then, naturally, you begin to wonder why does she have to fight in knickers that look like a fancy letterbox made of leather? Does her appearance and its effect on the men around her really have to play such a big part in all her fight scenes? Even my son lodged a feminist critique: if she were half god, he said, she would have recognised the god Ares immediately – unless he were a better god than her (being a male god).

I agree with all of that, but I still loved it. I didn’t love it as a guilty pleasure. I loved it with my whole heart. Wonder Woman, or Diana Prince, as her civilian associates would know her, first appeared as a character in DC Comics in 1941, her creator supposedly inspired by the feminism of the time, and specifically the contraception pioneer Margaret Sanger. Being able to stop people getting pregnant would be a cool superpower, but, in fact, her skills were: bullet-pinging with bracelets; lassoing; basic psychology; great strength and athleticism; and being half-god (the result of unholy congress between Zeus and Hyppolyta). The 1970s TV version lost a lot of the poetry of that, and was just all-American cheesecake. Gal Gadot’s Wonder Woman made her cinematic debut last year in Batman v Superman , and this first live-action incarnation makes good on the character’s original premise, the classical-warrior element amped up and textured. Her might makes sense.

Yes, she is sort of naked a lot of the time, but this isn’t objectification so much as a cultural reset: having thighs, actual thighs you can kick things with, not thighs that look like arms, is a feminist act. The whole Diana myth, women safeguarding the world from male violence not with nurture but with better violence, is a feminist act. Casting Robin Wright as Wonder Woman’s aunt, re-imagining the battle-axe as a battler, with an axe, is a feminist act. A female German chemist trying to destroy humans (in the shape of Dr Poison, a proto-Mengele before Nazism existed) might be the most feminist act of all.

Women are repeatedly erased from the history of classical music, art and medicine. It takes a radical mind to pick up that being erased from the history of evil is not great either. Wonder Woman’s casual rebuttal of a sexual advance, her dress-up montage (“it’s itchy”, “I can’t fight in this”, “it’s choking me”) are also feminist acts. Wonder Woman is a bit like a BuzzFeed list: 23 Stupid Sexist Tropes in Cinema and How to Rectify Them. I mean that as a compliment.

Yet Wonder Woman is not a film about empowerment so much as a checklist of all the cliches by which women are disempowered. So it leaves you feeling a bit baffled and deflated – how can we possibly be so towering a threat that Hollywood would strive so energetically, so rigorously, for our belittlement? At the same time, you are conflicted about what the fightback should look like. Because, as every reviewer has pointed out, Wonder Woman is by no means perfect.

The woman who can fight is not new; from Sigourney Weaver’s Ripley in Alien, to Linda Hamilton’s Sarah Connor in The Terminator, this idea has a long pedigree. Connor was a far-fetched feminist figure because her power was concentrated in her ambivalent maternal love – like a hypothetical tiger mother, which doesn’t do a huge amount for female agency. She is still an accessory for male power, just on the other side of the mother/whore dichotomy. Ripley, being the same gender as her foe, recast action as a cat-fight, with all the sexist bullshit that entails (hot, sweaty woman saying “bitch” a lot – a classic pornography trope).

But the underlying problem is that the male fighter is conceived as an ego ideal for a male audience, who would imagine themselves in the shirt of Bruce Willis or mankini of Superman and get the referred thrill of their heroism. If you are still making the film for a male gaze, the female warrior becomes a sex object, and her fighting curiously random, like pole dancing – movement that only makes sense as display, and even then, only just. That was always the great imponderable of Lara Croft (as she appeared in the video-game, not the film): the listlessness of her combat, the slightly dreamlike quality of it. Even as it was happening, it was hard to remember why. When Angelina Jolie made her flesh, I thought she brought something subversive to the role; something deliberated, knowing and a bit scornful, as though looking into the teenage gamer’s soul and saying: “You don’t know whether that was a dragon, a dinosaur or a large dog. You are just hypnotised by my buttocks.”

The fighter as sex symbol stirs up a snakepit of questions: are you getting off on the woman or the violence? An unbreakable female lead can be liberating to the violent misogynist tendency since the violence against her can get a lot more ultra, and nobody has to feel bad about it, because she’ll win.

This is tackled head on in Wonder Woman. The tension, meanwhile, between the thrill of the action, which is what combat is all about, and the objectification, which is what women are all about, is referenced when Wonder Woman hurls someone across a room and an onlooker says: “I’m both frightened, and aroused.” A word on the fighting: there’s a lot of hurling, tons of lassoing, much less traditional fighting, where people harm one another with punches. This is becoming a sub-genre in films: “the kind of fighting that is ladylike”. It almost always involves bows and arrows, for which, as with so many things, we can thank Jennifer Lawrence in The Hunger Games. The way Lawrence fights is so outrageously adroit and natural that she makes it look as though women have been doing it all along, and men are only learning.

I find it impossible to imagine the feminist action-movie slam-dunk; the film in which every sexist Hollywood convention, every miniature slight, every outright slur, every incremental diss was slain by a lead who was omnipotent and vivid. That film would be long and would struggle for jokes. Just trying to picture it leaves you marvelling at the geological slowness of social progress in this industry, which finds it so hard to create female characters of real mettle, even when they abound in real life. Wonder Woman, with her 180 languages and her near-telepathic insights, would stand more chance of unpicking this baffler than Superman or Batman. But the answer, I suspect, lies in the intersection between the market and the culture; the more an art-form costs, the less it will risk, until the most expensive of them – blockbusters – can’t change at all. In an atmosphere of such in-built ossification, the courage of Wonder Woman is more stunning even than her lasso.

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Female Superhero: Beowulf and “Wonder Woman” Film Essay

Introduction, beowulf: the famous anglo-saxon epic proclaiming heroism, wonder woman: a recently released fairy tale with an ancient storyline, similarities between beowulf and wonder woman, works cited.

Literature is one of the oldest and most beloved kinds of art. People enjoy reading both ancient and modern texts as they can always find something valuable and inspiring in the process. Every individual’s taste is different, and it is not possible to predict which literary period one person or another will prefer. However, one issue remains steady, and that is the incorporation of old literature into contemporary arts. No matter how many fantastic new books may be published, humanity will continue to investigate the treasures created by poets and writers of many centuries past. The present paper focuses on the connection between the Anglo-Saxon epic Beowulf and a recently released movie, Wonder Woman . The central argument of the essay is that Beowulf inspired Wonder Woman and led to the creation of a story that asserts the ability of females to be superheroes. Through the analysis of secondary sources along with examples from primary ones, the paper will examine similarities between Beowulf and Wonder Woman and explain the effect of the former on the latter.

Beowulf is probably the most famous and beloved among the remnants of Old English literature. This epic poem tells the story of a fearless hero who is ready to defend his native land despite danger and risk of death. The author of Beowulf is unknown, but scholars have determined that the work was probably written in the first half of the eighth century ( Beowulf 29). Over the course of history, people have always needed reliable and trustworthy heroes who epitomized virtue and courage. In that vein, Beowulf was “an almost flawless hero” who became a shining example of bravery and love for his native land (Bhattacharya 14). By a carefully selected use of language to tell the story, the unknown author of this epic managed to create an outstanding legend whose storyline further inspired many other poems, tales, and films.

Whereas the main character is frequently overshadowed by the antagonist in heroic stories, this is not the case in Beowulf . Three major rivals oppose the hero: Grendel, his mother, and the dragon. None of these characters, no matter how formidable, can even slightly take away any of Beowulf’s fame and glory (Bhattacharya 25). Beowulf’s enemies are “peripheral” in every sense of the word (Bhattacharya 25). Antagonists both live far away from Beowulf and are very different from him in terms of power and courage. Grendel, although portrayed as seemingly invincible, appears from the periphery and returns there upon being wounded by Beowulf. Grendel’s mother takes the same path, although she almost manages to kill the hero (Bhattacharya 25). Finally, the dragon that defeats Beowulf also emerges from the periphery, and its fame does not increase upon the hero’s death. Thus, the popularity of Beowulf as a hero is established not only through the positive features used to describe him but also through the absence of powerful antagonists that could diminish the protagonist’s role.

Historically, women’s heroic deeds have not received as much attention as men’s. Most fairy tales, legends, poems, and films prefer to focus on masculine power and choose to present male main characters. Cinematography has made recent attempts to emphasize the heroic potential of females. Patty Jenkins, the director of Wonder Woman , decided to make a considerable change to the heroic gender stereotype and created a story where the main role belongs to a woman. The saga of Wonder Woman has been relaunched several times, leading to several different series (Carpenter vii). The first appearance of Wonder Woman, or Diana Prince, occurred in 1941, when she was presented as a DC Comics character (Williams). However, the latest version, created by Jenkins, became a hit, overshadowing all the previous female superheroes in existence. In his article, Rutenberg remarks on the lack of a “classic, female-led, big-budget superhero movie” in over a decade. Thus, it was high time to create such a film, and Jenkins explored the opportunity to the fullest.

The story of Wonder Woman is not new, but it is interesting both for viewers who have never seen other versions and for those who have watched previous interpretations and wish to compare them. Diana, the Amazon princess, learns about World War I from an American pilot whose plane crashes on the Amazons’ island, Themyscira ( Wonder Woman ). The heroine, believing the war was initiated by Ares, the Amazons’ long-time enemy, decides to stop the war ( Wonder Woman ). In the same way as Beowulf, Wonder Woman strives to defend her people from impending death. However, unlike the Old English literary hero, the modern movie character manages to survive in the end.

The works under analysis differ in genre, time, place, and even the gender of the main hero. However, many similarities are discernable between the epic poem and the movie. The major common feature is the portrayal of a heroic character that saves humanity from looming disaster. As mentioned in the thesis statement, Beowulf served as the basis for Wonder Woman . The following paragraphs will provide details regarding the impact that the Anglo-Saxon epic had on the contemporary movie.

Presenting the Danger

The first striking similarity can be observed at the beginning of the poem and the film, and it is reflected in the locality where events take place. In both cases, the affairs related to fighting and the need to defend the threatened people do not happen in the area where the hero lives. In Wonder Woman , a pilot accidentally crash-lands next to the Amazons’ island and tells its inhabitants about events happening in Europe and America ( Wonder Woman ). In Beowulf , an attack is made on Heorot, and the hero, living in Geatland, hears about it second-hand: “When he heard about Grendel, Hygelac’s thane / was on home ground, over in Geatland” ( Beowulf 194–195). Thus, both Wonder Woman and Beowulf are informed about the need to travel to another place and defend people who are in need.

Another common element in the two works relates to how evil is presented. Both instances present the approach of a sinister and dangerous enemy. In Beowulf , the author uses a metaphor to describe Grendel: “So times were pleasant for the people there / until finally one, a fiend out of hell, / began to work his evil in the world” ( Beowulf 99–101). In the movie Wonder Woman , Steve Trevor tells Diana, “We are the good guys, and those are the bad guys” ( Wonder Woman ). As he says these words, he points at ships carrying German soldiers and explains to Diana who they are ( Wonder Woman ). Therefore, the representation of the enemy in the film and the poem is similar: The superheroes begin at home, where they hear news about looming danger.

Superpowers and Weapons

Every superhero has a superpower or weapon that allows him or her to fight the evil more effectively than any other person can. Beowulf and Wonder Woman also have such powers. The female superhero is skillful in jumping, running, horseback-riding, and using her Lasso of Hestia, also known as the Lasso of Truth ( Wonder Woman ). The male superhero is fast, as well, and he uses a sword to slay his enemies. Beowulf is described as “a thane … with the strength of thirty / in the grip of each hand” ( Beowulf 380–381). The hero’s weapon is depicted as “the patterned sword, a smith’s masterpiece” ( Beowulf 671). Thus, in the best tradition of the heroic epic, both superheroes under consideration have special weapons and skills that make them formidable and allow them to be almost invincible.

Apart from weapons, both superheroes are in excellent psychical condition and have been practicing martial arts since childhood. When Wulfgar, one of Hrothgar’s soldiers, informs his lord about Beowulf’s arrival, he describes the latter as “formidable indeed” ( Beowulf 370). Similarly, in the film, several scenes of little Diana’s lessons with her aunt are depicted ( Wonder Woman ). Thus, both Beowulf and Wonder Woman have superpowers and weapons to help them in their fight against the enemy. However, they are also well-prepared physically, which allows them to avoid injury most of the time.

Antagonists

An inseparable element of any heroic saga is the presence of a villain. Without antagonists, protagonists would not be so attractive, and there would be no one to threaten people. In both analyzed works, superheroes have many enemies, but some of them are more dangerous than others. In the movie, the major opponent of the superhero is Ares, the god of war (Wonder Woman). The epic, in comparison, presents three main antagonists: Grendel, his mother, and the dragon. The first monster is described as someone so terrible that even God loathed him: “God-cursed Grendel came greedily loping” ( Beowulf 711). Grendel is “the bane of the race of men” ( Beowulf 712). Grendel’s mother is depicted as a less dangerous enemy: “Her onslaught was less” ( Beowulf 1282). The last antagonist, the dragon, has a superpower due to his nature: He can burn anything with his flames. During the clash between Beowulf and the beast, “The dragon began to belch out flames / and burn bright homesteads; there was a hot glow / that scared everyone, for the vile sky-winger / would leave nothing alive in his wake” ( Beowulf 2312–2315). Despite the many similarities in both works, one considerable difference is apparent: Beowulf dies in the end, unable to defeat the dragon.

The connections between Beowulf and Wonder Woman are so numerous that the idea expressed in the thesis statement may be considered as justified. Indeed, it appears that Wonder Woman was based on Beowulf . In both stories, a superhero saves people from an evil monster. Because of the common features in the two characters’ personalities, it is relevant to consider that superheroes can be feminine. Wonder Woman was created much later than Beowulf , but the appeal of the superhero that people in peril can call upon in difficult situations is eternal.

Beowulf. Translated by Seamus Heaney. The Norton Anthology of English Literature, edited by Julia Reidhead, 8th ed., Vol. 2, W. W. Norton and Company, 2006, pp. 29-100.

Bhattacharya, Prodosh. “The Peripheral Against the Mainstream: The Antagonists and the Hero in Beowulf .” Middle Flight , vol. 6, no. 1, 2017, pp. 14-25.

Carpenter, Mikala. Sculpted from Clay, Shaped by Power: Feminine Narrative and Agency in Wonder Woman . Master of Arts Thesis, Eastern Michigan University, 2018.

Rutenberg, Jim. “‘Wonder Woman’ Could Be the Superhero Women in Hollywood Need.” The New York Times . 2017, Web.

Williams, Zoe. “Why Wonder Woman Is a Masterpiece of Subversive Feminism.” The Guardian . 2017, Web.

Wonder Woman . Directed by Patty Jenkins, performances by Gal Gadot, Chris Pine, and Robin Wright, Warner Brothers, 2017.

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IvyPanda. (2024, February 21). Female Superhero: Beowulf and "Wonder Woman" Film. https://ivypanda.com/essays/female-superhero-beowulf-and-wonder-woman-film/

"Female Superhero: Beowulf and "Wonder Woman" Film." IvyPanda , 21 Feb. 2024, ivypanda.com/essays/female-superhero-beowulf-and-wonder-woman-film/.

IvyPanda . (2024) 'Female Superhero: Beowulf and "Wonder Woman" Film'. 21 February.

IvyPanda . 2024. "Female Superhero: Beowulf and "Wonder Woman" Film." February 21, 2024. https://ivypanda.com/essays/female-superhero-beowulf-and-wonder-woman-film/.

1. IvyPanda . "Female Superhero: Beowulf and "Wonder Woman" Film." February 21, 2024. https://ivypanda.com/essays/female-superhero-beowulf-and-wonder-woman-film/.

Bibliography

IvyPanda . "Female Superhero: Beowulf and "Wonder Woman" Film." February 21, 2024. https://ivypanda.com/essays/female-superhero-beowulf-and-wonder-woman-film/.

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• The Mead-Hall in “Beowulf” and Anglo-Saxon Society
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• Feminism: "Unbearable Weight" by Susan Bordo
• Bodies That Protest: Nude Protest
• Feminist Examination of Science

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Philosophy and Wonder Woman

When I saw the Wonder Woman (2017) film , I felt ambivalent. I have had the opportunity to apply different philosophical lenses to analyze superheroes as a contributor to the Blackwell Philosophy and Pop Culture series , so I wondered if I could dodge the topic of Wonder Woman and feminism in this post. But every discussion online is about this topic, and I also couldn’t stop thinking about it. It was unavoidable. But how could I write from a feminist perspective about this sexy, white, cisgender woman in body armor, wrist cuffs, and high heel boots who carries a lasso that looks like a golden whip? Does Wonder Woman’s physical presentation disqualify her out-of-hand as feminist? And why can’t I get Gal Godot’s dewy eyes out of my head long enough to form a thought? So, I went back to the theater to give it a second chance, and I had four realizations that helped me to begin to think that Wonder Woman is worthy of philosophical reflection with regard to feminism, and that a sequel might make it more interesting.

One : Wonder Woman is not representative of feminism in its diversity. But the absence of that diversity is prompting conversation. This is worth reflecting on. Feminism is for real women and men, inclusive of cisgender and genderqueer identities, who are of different races, ethnicities, sexual orientations, classes, and abilities. Feminism as equality is characterized by dialogue, negotiation, disagreement, listening, and generosity amongst people who are different from each other. Real women and men are talking about Wonder Woman —a lot.

And what they are talking about encourages philosophical reflection about how feminism is not monolithic, and how pop culture can interact with it. I started listening to writers who say that Wonder Woman’s whiteness doesn’t feel representative of all feminists, and that this goes to a deeper lack of representation of people of color in Hollywood (see Noah Berlatsky , Evelyn Diaz , Cameron Glover , Kadeen Griffiths , Monique Jones , and Maya Rupert ). I listened to writers talking about the missed opportunities to really explore LGBTQ issues (see Christina Cauterucci and Kadeen Griffiths ). I listened to those who thought Wonder Woman was a feminist movie (see Kelly Lawler , Melissa Leon , Carmen Rios , Alyssa Rosenburg, Dana Stevens , and Zoe Williams ), and to those who disagreed (see Lewis Beale , Christina Cauterucci, Theresa Harold , and Steve Rose ). I listened not because I want to figure out the final word on the feminist essence of Wonder Woman (as if any such essence is possible), but because people are actually talking about how popular culture is and is not reflecting diversity.

Two: Blockbuster superhero movies belong to a genre that is embedded in larger cultural stereotypes about masculinity and femininity in which the binary itself is a part of the stereotype. I wonder, can Wonder Woman , in the blockbuster superhero genre, do something new or different when gender hierarchies and stereotypes are so powerful and pervasive in that genre? Would we notice or take it seriously if it was trying to? I offer an illustrative example to explore these questions.

Before Wonder Woman began, I watched the trailer for Thor: Ragnarok . Thor is Wonder Woman’s counterpart in every way: a sexy, white, cisgender man whose muscles are bulging and he carries a big hammer. I have seen similar male archetypes in Batman Begins , Man of Steel and many other blockbusters. And I know why it bothers me less when I am watching Thor flex his muscles in slow motion rather than Wonder Woman.

A white, cisgender man cannot be objectified within American culture in the same way as a woman of any race, or men of color. White men are not socially positioned in the same way as women and people of color (and we could also nuance this to recognize other layers of privilege such as white women experiencing white privilege in comparison to women of color). Thor’s subjectivity has never been doubted so it is playful for him to be objectified. Wonder Woman’s subjectivity is always under attack because she is a woman. Objectification threatens Wonder Woman’s subjectivity in a way that it does not threaten Thor’s.

But objectification is not the only issue when we think about the differences between Thor and Wonder Woman. The act of physical fighting itself has deep cultural implications. Wendy Williams argues in “The Equality Crisis…” that mainstream American culture stereotypes men as aggressors—especially in war—and women as mothers and guardians of humanity. What does it mean for Wonder Woman to be a warrior? Is she merely assuming a masculine social role? Can she fight in slow motion without being objectified or vilified for abandoning her feminine duty to defend all life? What will it take for a female superhero to fight in a way that subverts the norms? How will we know when we are seeing it? (I discuss similar themes using Williams’s article in my chapter in Wonder Woman and Philosophy .)

Three: I almost forgot that Wonder Woman is pushing eighty (for a survey of Wonder Woman’s history in graphic novels, see chapters by J. Lenore Wright and Andrea Zanin in Wonder Woman and Philosophy ). It is hard to remember this when watching the 2017 blockbuster iteration of her story. But Wonder Woman is a mature character whose identity has been developed by multiple authors with competing and conflicting narratives that reflect social norms and criticisms of those norms. The 2017 Wonder Woman movie has a heavy burden. In my assessment, it needs to speak across generations, varying levels of familiarity with the superhero, differently positioned viewers, deeply embedded gender stereotypes, and fit into the blockbuster superhero genre. It is also directed by a woman in a genre dominated by men. I am not positive how to think about all of this, but I think it deserves more than just a passing glance. I also hope that it is just the beginning of a conversation that has been decades in the making.

Four: This is the first blockbuster movie dedicated to Wonder Woman, to a female superhero in general, and it is the beginning of Wonder Woman’s story arc. Remembering these important facts, makes the gender dynamics seem less sexist. When I first saw the film, I was bothered when Steve kept telling Diana to follow his lead, that Diana seemed so stereotypically naïve, and that Diana needed to understand that Steve loved her before she actualized her power.

But when I saw the film the second time, I tempered my position with regard to these particular dynamics. In the beginning of Wonder Woman’s story arc, most of the characters, including Wonder Woman herself, do not know she is a superhero goddess. Steve thinks Diana is wrong because she sounds wrong to someone who doesn’t know superheroes are real. Diana was naïve because this was her first interaction with humans outside of Paradise Island (but she learns quickly). Steve’s love did help Diana understand something about herself, but it is worth looking at how this story was told. Steve Trevor is always Wonder Woman’s love interest in the arc of her story. In this iteration, he really did seem to love her and respect her apart from her physical beauty (although he obviously liked that too as he often described her as “distracting”). But notice that his death precludes him playing a role in the sequel and that Wonder Woman mourns him but doesn’t fall apart. This movie is Wonder Woman’s beginning. I am holding back any definitive judgment about Wonder Woman because I don’t know yet what she will become.

My four realizations do not culminate in any grand pronouncements about feminism in Wonder Woman . So I end with a simple observation. A sequel is an opportunity for the director and screen writers to listen to their audiences and to reflect on what they want to do. In the making of Mad Max , the director consulted with feminist/activist/performer Eve Ensler . It only made the movie better. What about reaching out to a woman of color feminist/activist/performer like Anna Deveare Smith (she is obviously not the only option—I am just a huge fan) and asking her how to address the questions about, for example, challenging whiteness in Wonder Woman ? Listening and asking questions can only deepen Wonder Woman’s impact in a sequel. And, by the way, it is what Wonder Woman would do.

Image: Wonder Woman theatrical release poster via Warner Bros. Pictures.

Sarah Donovan

Sarah K. Donovan is an associate professor of philosophy and the interim dean of integrated learning at Wagner College . Her teaching and research interests include community-based, feminist, social, and moral philosophy. She has contributed multiple book chapters to the Blackwell Philosophy and Pop Culture series . 

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It’s thrilling that Wonder Woman is enjoying the critical and commercial success that it is. But, in some ways it’s also unfair. There is more weight than one film by one director about one woman should bear.

Very good read, but I am curious on your thoughts about how wonder woman was actually created in the beginning by Professor Marston, his wife, and Olive Burne. A very interesting twist to who we look at as Wonder Woman.

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The Strange, Complicated, Feminist History of Wonder Woman’s Origin Story

Circling the mug I drink from every day are versions of Wonder Woman’s iconic costumes from her 76-year history. There’s the character at the very beginning, created by William Moulton Marston and drawn by Harry G. Peter in 1941. She’s mid-step as the blue skirt dotted with white stars billows around her. The color scheme and main accoutrements mostly stay the same in each version — gold breastplate, tiara, bulletproof bracelets, the lasso of truth — but just about everything else is open to interpretation. Sometimes her face carries an open smile, other times she grimaces fiercely. Her hair lengthens, her muscles grow more prominent, the hemline rises. The mug is missing several costume changes, including the armored outfit that resembles what she wears in Patty Jenkins’s Wonder Woman , starring Gal Gadot as the Amazonian princess, which is currently dominating the box office. Jenkins’s film marks the first time this legendary character has been in a live-action feature film. It’s also the biggest pop-culture event surrounding the character since the kitschy 1970s series starring Lynda Carter, which for a certain generation remains the foremost image of her in the public imagination. Why has it taken decades to give the longest-running and most well-known female superhero her own film while her male peers have headlined features, animated series, and major comic-book events? It all goes back to her origin story.

Superheroes — particularly those as long-running as Wonder Woman — are inherently mutable. They shift and mold to the time they find themselves in and whichever artists are tasked with bringing them to life. Batman no longer carries a gun. Superman has grown immensely more powerful since his 1938 debut in Action Comics No. 1. But despite how much the characters have changed, they all feel true. Adam West’s goofy 1960s series and Scott Snyder’s more recent take on the character, despite being wildly different, both feel like Batman somehow. Perhaps it’s because images of Superman and Batman have proliferated the cultural consciousness so deeply. Ask laymen and comic diehards alike and you’ll get a neat summation of their origins as well as what they represent. Superman is the last son of Krypton who crash-lands in an idyllic version of the Midwest, inspiring hope when he takes on the mantle. And Batman? We’ve seen Bruce Wayne’s parents die so many times in that fateful alleyway, it goes without saying.

What separates Wonder Woman from her peers in DC’s trinity is that her origin has been adjusted so often, particularly in the last two decades, no one version has had the chance to take hold. In reality though, there are a few key aspects that have remained since Marston created her in 1941. Diana is a princess from a secluded, all-women island paradise now known as Themyscira, which was granted to the Amazons by the Greek gods. She’s the daughter of Queen Hippolyta, and she was molded from clay. The Amazons are a matriarchal society who were meant to have brought the message of peace to Man’s World, but they’ve secluded themselves away from that brutality, creating a society rich with culture, far more advanced than our own, steeped in magic and sisterhood. When Captain Steve Trevor crash-lands on Themyscira, a tournament is held to decide who will return him to Man’s World. Diana wins, and sets off to bring a message of peace to his world, becoming the hero we know as Wonder Woman. This origin is markedly different from her peers given its lack of tragedy (which for women usually comes down to sexualized violence). But it has romance, adventure, and it’s undergirded by a coming-of-age tale about a young woman leaving behind everything she’s ever known to help a world that very well may not accept her. Despite these alluring hooks, Wonder Woman’s origin is typically derided for being too weird, too complicated, too boring , and lacking a central narrative .

In 2013, DC Entertainment chief Diane Nelson was asked by The Hollywood Reporter why Wonder Woman hadn’t had a high-profile adaptation in decades. (Joss Whedon’s feature film attempt felt apart in 2007 due to creative differences; David E. Kelley’s tragic attempt never made it past the pilot stage.) Nelson referred to the character as “tricky,” saying , “She doesn’t have the single, clear, compelling story that everyone knows and recognizes.” The reason Wonder Woman doesn’t have an origin everyone recognizes is because her story hasn’t been told through multiple mediums the way Batman, Superman, and Spider-Man’s have. Nelson isn’t giving the character enough credit, either. Wonder Woman has still managed to reach icon status, which isn’t accidental — it’s indicative of the hunger for female-oriented stories, especially coming-of-age tales, that go against the usual depictions of female strength. In an interview with Entertainment Tonight, director Ava DuVernay said as much about Wonder Woman : “The numbers around the world that that film has done proves that people are thirsty, are hungry, are craving more nuanced [and] full-bodied images of women.” Wonder Woman has partially achieved this status because she’s the longest-running character to communicate such a narrative on a grand scale.

When Marston created Wonder Woman, he was very clear about his intentions . “Wonder Woman is psychological propaganda for the new type of woman who should, I believe, rule the world,” he said. As Jill Lepore mentions in her book, The Secret History of Wonder Woman, Marston argued that “the only hope for civilization is the greater freedom, development and equality of women in all fields of human activity.” Wonder Woman isn’t a bloodthirsty warrior á la Xena, but someone who solves problems with compassion rather than a carefully timed roundhouse kick. This puts her in a precarious position in a genre defined by a very particular, at times noxious, power fantasy. In the wake of Marston’s death in 1947, DC Comics didn’t seem to have a handle on Wonder Woman. While the touchstones of her origin remained — being made from clay, the Amazons, Queen Hippolyta, Steve Trevor — the way it was framed changed drastically. Sometimes the Amazons and Themysciran culture were positioned as beacons of hope far more advanced than the rest of the world. Other times, they fell victim to troubling feminist stereotypes, lacking interiority as vengeful warriors, or closed off, emotionally distant fixtures. It was as if the men writing them couldn’t imagine what women would talk about among themselves or the allure of all-women environments. (Sound familiar? ) Over the years, Wonder Woman has been stripped of her powers, turned into a super-spy, and has given up heroics altogether to marry Steve Trevor. Most troublingly, writers have forced her to become a warrior since it’s an easier selling point (but much less distinctive). By far the most regrettable and dramatic shift in her history is rooted in her 2011 reboot, in which she eventually becomes a figure that’s antithetical to everything Wonder Woman stands for: the God of War. The problem has never been Marston’s original origin story or how more recent creators like George Pérez and Greg Rucka have slightly updated it while still leaning into the feminist ethos central to the character. It’s those who have fundamentally changed who her character is over the years.

Due to the fact that she’s so intrinsically tied to the feminist movement, Wonder Woman is also often burdened with having to represent all facets of womanhood in ways other female superheroes, like Black Widow, Storm, and Captain Marvel, have not, which has created a more muddled sense of who she is. Charting the tangled lineage of Wonder Woman’s origin is to chart the history of American feminism itself and how female power is negotiated in a world that abhors it. At the beginning of her history, Wonder Woman carried the echo of the suffragette movement and first-wave feminism. The way her mythos reflected ongoing debates about womanhood only continued from there.

When Ms. magazine first debuted in 1972, it was Wonder Woman who appeared on its cover . She did so again for it’s 40th anniversary , a reminder of just how much the feminist movement and the character itself had, and had not, evolved. Feminist icon Gloria Steinem has long discussed the importance of the character. In 1972, she neatly explained how Wonder Woman has become a locus for feminist discussion and argument more than any other comic character: “Wonder Woman symbolizes many of the values of the women’s culture that feminists are now trying to introduce into the mainstream: strength and self-reliance for women; sisterhood and mutual support among women; peacefulness and esteem for human life; a diminishment both of ‘masculine’ aggression and of the belief that violence is the only way of solving conflicts.”

One of the most fascinating aspects in the wake of Wonder Woman ’s release is the criticism, positive and negative, that demonstrates the unique burden the character faces in regards to feminist expectations. Her politics are so baked into her origin that she’s expected to be all things to all women. A recent Slate essay, “I Wish Wonder Woman Were As Feminist As It Thinks It Is,” demerits other critics for their emotional connection to the recent film. A Wired piece titled “Wonder Woman Overcame Her Origin to Become a Feminist Icon” misconstrues aspects of her story. Throughout her history, Wonder Woman has been either too feminist or not feminist enough. She’s either a wonderful step forward for intersectional portrayals of womanhood or a film that continues the obsession with exalting white womanhood. She’s either a BDSM-tinged pinup or a glorious example of female heroism. No one character and mythos could ever live up to such stringent expectations. These arguments have raged about the character and her origins long before Gal Gadot ever wielded her iconic golden lasso. That Wonder Woman has finally gotten to star in her own live-action film just as the conversations around female power and intersectionality have hit a fever pitch is not surprising to me. The character has always been a vehicle for such discussions, whether it be how she was depowered in the late 1960s, much to the chagrin of Steinem, or her 1987 revamp, which gave the Amazons a backstory that echoed ongoing conversations about sexual violence happening within the second-wave feminist movement.

Looking back at my childhood discovery of Wonder Woman, I realize the reasons I’m drawn to her are the same reasons her origin is heavily critiqued or treated as a problem that certain writers believe only they can ameliorate. Wonder Woman offers what no other superhero can: an essentially female-power fantasy. Close your eyes and imagine an island with achingly gorgeous vistas in which a diverse group of intelligent, strong women have created an immensely more advanced society. No men. No sexism. No capitalist burden to perform that leaves women, especially women of color, vulnerable. At its best, Wonder Woman’s origin is a bold, feminist-minded refutation of the masculine, hyperindividualistic nature of her superhero peers. That it has been heavily criticized, reframed, and rewritten so often isn’t a mark of its failure, but the failure of DC Comics, and perhaps American culture as a whole, to understand and respect female-power fantasies on a larger scale. Wonder Woman has often fallen victim to a company that doesn’t always recognize why readers are drawn to the character. But there are several runs that expand upon her origin and prove Wonder Woman is worthy of her icon status. None of which is better than the arguable gold standard, released in 1987 in the wake of DC Comics’ legendary continuity wide reboot, Crisis on Infinite Earths.

Writers Greg Potter, George Pérez, and Len Wein were handed the difficult task of updating Wonder Woman while staying true to the core of the character Marston created. The first volume, Gods and Mortals , lays the groundwork for her reworked origin. All the mainstays are there, but they’re deepened over the five years Pérez wrote and penciled the comic . What’s most important here is how female-oriented her origin is. Diana is formed out of clay by a woman, given life and power by women, and raised by women. She is able to thrive without the painful experience of sexism. This origin is so meaningful, it has crossed over into other mediums, used for the Justice League series and the animated film Wonder Woman, in which Keri Russell voiced the titular character. That Wonder Woman is considered a “tricky” character is because she contradicts the rather modern notion that heroism is born from tragedy and pain. The version we see during Crisis on Infinite Earths is a great example of how female power need not replicate the bloodthirsty vengeance of male counterparts to be worthwhile. Perhaps no version of Wonder Woman has understood this less than Brian Azzarello’s misguided, offensive take on the character in 2011, during the previous revamp of the DC brand known as New 52 .

While writer Azzarello and artist Cliff Chiang’s Wonder Woman run has been praised in certain corners, it seems to only be done so by people who want her to be something she’s not: a typical heroine defined by brutality more than anything else . Azzarello’s disinterest in the character isn’t a secret. He’s referred to Themyscira as something out of a “Corona commercial.” He derided her as being mere window dressing when it comes to DC’s Trinity . But the worst insults were in the pages of the comics itself. In issue No. 7 of the series, Diana learns that she wasn’t actually made from clay, but gets her power from a man: She is the demigoddess daughter of Zeus. The Amazons aren’t powerful immortals, but actually have sex with sailors to keep their ranks and sell the male children to Hephaestus for weapons. This obliterates the feminist nature of Wonder Woman’s origin and flattens the fascinating weirdness of the character, turning her into the kind of warrior goddess we’ve seen countless times before. It also makes her seem kind of idiotic. How did she not notice what the Amazons were doing before? It’s the sort of gritty upgrade that demonstrates a great misunderstanding and disrespect of the character. As Corrina Lawson wrote for Wired , “Here are the Amazons, who are supposed to represent the best of their gender, now changed into man-hating mass murderers. To say nothing of the fact that Wonder Woman is also viewed as a gay icon and now the biggest group of fictional lesbians are basically evil.” Azzarello’s run lasted for three years, with the character only regaining the respect she deserves thanks to the team of writer Greg Rucka and artists Nicola Scott and Liam Sharp, whose run on the character wrapped up this month. In DC’s latest revamp of their entire brand, Rebirth, Wonder Woman has blessedly been returned to the made-from-clay origin, and the Amazons are now the complex, peace-loving sisterhood that has charmed audiences for generations.

When Rucka was asked in a recent interview why Wonder Woman’s origin was hard to explain, he was insistent that wasn’t the case: “There’s been this really weird fascination with her birth. With Batman and Superman you never go, ‘How were they born?’ That’s been confusing. Her origin’s actually quite simple. She is from a mythological paradise only of women, that is this warrior culture. She leaves her home, never to return, when a stranger crashes on their shores, and heralds a great evil that they have to fight. She’s the one who goes. And she goes willingly, and she abandons everything she’s known to go into this strange new world, with this stranger, to save us all … [I] do think we forget — this moment is huge. If you think about what it means, and what it means in terms of heroism, that she leaves everything she’s ever known — and everything she’s ever known is paradise and immortality — and she does it [out of duty].”

The Wonder Woman film currently in theaters — written by comic writer Allan Heinberg with a story by Zack Snyder, Jason Fuchs, and Heinberg — seems to conflate multiple takes on her origin. In one trailer, she explains to Steve that her mother formed her out of clay and Zeus gave her life. But as the film continues, it becomes clear that Azzarello’s origin is more than just a passing inspiration. This creates a schism within the film itself between the feminist ethos it leans toward and Azzarello’s origin, which nullifies it. That this origin — the more simplistic demigoddess take that ran for only a few years in the comics — will be the first introduction many have to the character’s backstory does her a disservice. (Thankfully, the Amazons aren’t portrayed as the feminist stereotypes Azzarello crafted them as.)

Perhaps the greatest element of Wonder Woman’s origin missing from the film is in the first act, which takes place in Themyscira. For longtime fans of the character, it is immediately noticeable that the contest to choose which Amazon would go to Man’s World is not included, which would have been the perfect opportunity to flesh out the sisterhood among the Amazons. In the film, Hippolyta’s sisters — Antiope (Robin Wright, having the time of her life) and Menalippe (Lisa Loven Kongsli) — are the characters most crucial to Diana’s growth into the hero she becomes. Beginning with the 1987 reboot, it’s Philippus who has been the most important Amazon influence for Diana, aside from her mother. (Artemis, created a few years later in 1994 is also a pivotal presence and simply an amazing character in her own right.) Since her introduction into the comics, Philippus has always been portrayed as a black woman and has become increasingly important to the mythos. (Thanks to Pérez and Rucka, Wonder Woman has also increasingly been defined by her inclusivity, both racially and in regards to sexuality, as she’s finally bisexual in the comics .) In the film, both Artemis and Philippus are played by black women, but their presence, while encouraging, is ultimately fleeting. More broadly, it’s those small moments, with Diana among her fellow Amazons, that I yearned to see given more weight and attention. Their dynamic is what always drew me to Wonder Woman, more than other superheroines whose relationships with other women are rarely treated with such continued importance.

The paucity of female-driven superhero stories represents a larger lack of film and TV shows interested in exploring the nuances of women’s fantasies. This year at Cannes, actress Jessica Chastain spoke passionately about the “disturbing” state of women at the festival . “I do hope that when we include more female storytellers we will have more of the kinds of women that I recognize in my day-to-day life. Ones that are proactive, have their own agencies, don’t just react to the men around them, they have their own point of view,” Chastain said. No matter the canon you’re speaking of — film, television, comics — the same criticism applies. This is why Wonder Woman and her made-from-clay origin feels so radical. She’s a superheroine who isn’t tied to the legacy of a man the way characters like Supergirl are, for better or for worse. She stands on the strength of her own mythos. And her powers and skills were granted primarily by women, not men.

There’s a two-page spread that neatly encapsulates Wonder Woman’s relationship with her own origin in the first issue of Greg Rucka’s The Lies . In it, Wonder Woman wears the version of her outfit that appears in Azzarello’s run. After turning the lasso of truth on herself in hopes of making sense of her life, she learns she’s been deceived about the origin of her previous reboot. This choice comes across as meta-commentary on the fluctuating changes Wonder Woman has dealt with, particularly during Azzarello’s run. She smashes the mirror in front of her. The shards of glass glitter with images from throughout her history — beheading Medusa, fighting with Cheetah, kissing Superman — many of which are from when Azzarello was writing her.

Rucka’s entire run on both The Lies and Year One is about reestablishing Wonder Woman as the hero she is at her best — compassionate, a seeker of truth, and inherently tied to the women who gave her life and raised her. That this version of Wonder Woman is somewhat obscured in the movie makes me worry about the character’s future within the cultural consciousness going forward. In many ways, the film’s inability to be overtly queer and more radically female-centered (it’s Steve whom Diana thinks about in her climactic battle, not her family) represents the conflicts that have always plagued the character’s origin, between her feminist underpinnings, the expectations of fans, and the requirements of a company often uncomfortable within leaning too far into these aspects of this character.

Despite my issues with how the writers tackle the particulars of Diana’s origin, I’d be remiss if I didn’t also acknowledge that Wonder Woman is a vibrant and powerful film. Jenkins’s Wonder Woman does understand the core of the character and what she represents. Her feminism is sly yet apparent, her relationships with the other Amazons are treated with loving care. With the praise the film is receiving and the success of Rucka’s recent comics, my hope is that a new age for Wonder Woman is dawning. Perhaps she is finally entering a point in her history in which what makes her so radical — her unabashed feminism, the female-oriented nature of her origin, her unerring compassion — is built upon rather than derided.

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Ever since William Moulton Marston created her in 1941, Wonder Woman has always been at her best when her stories lean into the feminist ethos at her core. When artists treat her compassion as the key to understanding her—rather than her brutality in battle—audiences are privy to a superhero who offers what no other can: a power fantasy that privileges the interiority and desires of women. But film rarely has made room for the fantasies of women on such a grand scale. And in comic adaptations, women can be tough, funny, and self-assured. But rarely are they the architects of their own destiny.

As a longtime Wonder Woman fan, I worried her distinctive edges would be sanded off when it came time for her standalone film. It’s arguably easier to sell Wonder Woman as a vengeful heroine in the vein of countless others, but less distinctive. But early in the film I noticed the terrain that director Patty Jenkins turned to most often in order to create the emotional through-line. It wasn’t the glimmer of a blade or even the picturesque shores of Themyscira, the utopian paradise Wonder Woman calls home. Through moments of quiet verisimilitude and blistering action sequences, Jenkins’ gaze often wisely returns to the face of her lead heroine, Diana ( Gal Gadot ). At times, her face is inquisitive, morose, and marked by fury. But more often than not she wears a bright, open smile that carries the optimism and hope that is true to the character’s long history as well as a much-needed salve from what other blockbusters offer. In turn, “Wonder Woman” isn’t just a good superhero film. It is a sincerely good film in which no qualifiers are needed. It’s inspiring, evocative, and, unfortunately, a bit infuriating for the chances it doesn’t take.

Written by Allan Heinberg , with a story also by Zack Snyder and Jason Fuchs , the story uses a variety of inspiration culled from Wonder Woman’s 76-year history. As a young girl, Diana enjoys the loving protection of the Amazons of Themyscira, a secluded island paradise created by the gods of Olympus. No Amazon is fiercer or more protective than her mother, Queen Hippolyta ( Connie Nielsen ). But Diana longs to be trained in the art of war by her aunt, Antiope (a stellar Robin Wright ). She grows from a kind, young girl into an inquisitive, brave, young woman who never hesitates to helps those in need. Even a man like Captain Steve Trevor (an endlessly charming Chris Pine ), who brings news of World War I when he crash-lands on the island disrupting this all-female sanctuary, gets saved by her. Diana leaves behind the only life she’s ever known, heading to late 1910s London to stop the war she believes is influenced by the god Ares.

Cinematographer Matthew Jensen , production designer Aline Bonetto , and costume designer Lindy Hemming form Themyscira into a gorgeous utopia that utilizes a variety of cultural touchstones. It’s free of the Hellenic influence you’d expect from a story that takes such inspiration from Greek myth with the Amazons creating their home in a way that respects the lush nature around them rather than destroying it. It isn’t sterile either. The scenes set in Themyscira have a dazzling array of colors including the gold of armor, the cerulean blue of the sea that surrounds them, warm creams, and deep browns. Jenkins films many of these scenes in wide shot, reveling in the majestic nature of this culture. Similarly, the history of the Amazons, told in a dense but beautifully rendered backstory by Hippolyta, evokes a painterly quality reminiscent of Caravaggio. Having said that, while “Wonder Woman” has a lot to offer visually, what makes this film so captivating is Gal Gadot and Chris Pine.

Gadot wonderfully inhabits the mix of curiosity, sincerity, badassery, and compassion that has undergirded Wonder Woman since the beginning. Most importantly, she wears her suit, the suit doesn’t wear her. She evokes a classic heroism that is a breath of fresh air and nods to Christopher Reeve ’s approach to Superman from the 1970s. Likewise, Pine matches her hopefulness with a world weariness and sharp sense of humor. He’s more than capable at bringing an emotional complexity to a character most aptly described as a dude-in-distress. There are particularly great scenes at the beginning, as Diana talks about men being unnecessary for female pleasure. Steve seems undone by her presence, which makes the development of their story authentic. Their chemistry is electrifying, making “Wonder Woman” a successful romance and superhero origin story set during one of the most brutal wars.

At their best, blockbusters evoke awe that can be both humbling and thrilling. Think of the first time you saw the T-Rex in “ Jurassic Park ” or the suspense that suffuses all of " Aliens ." “Wonder Woman” excels at this particularly in the earliest chapter set in Themyscira. I felt my heart swell watching Antiope smirk during an intense fight and Hippolyta’s tender scenes with Diana. “Wonder Woman” is like nothing that has come before it in how it joyously displays the camaraderie among women, many of whom are women of color and over 40. It's electrifying watching the Amazons train and talk with each other. These women are fierce and kind, loyal and brave. If anything, I wished the film dwelt in Themyscira a bit longer, since their culture is so poignantly rendered. Also, it was just awesome to see Artemis (Ann J. Wolfe) and Antiope in battle.

Elsewhere, the supporting cast is uneven. The villains—an obsessive German General Ludendorff ( Danny Huston ) and the mad scientist Doctor Maru nicknamed Doctor Poison ( Elena Anaya )—are painted too broadly and given too few details to have a lasting impact. Diana’s comrades that Steve rounds up are similarly crafted with little detail. Charlie ( Ewen Bremner ) is a Scottish sharpshooter, ravaged by what he’s witnessed in the war. Chief ( Eugene Brave Rock ) is a Native American, capitalizing on the war for profit. Sameer ( Saïd Taghmaoui ) is a confidence artist of sorts. But the actors are able to give these characters enough sincerity and wit to make their appearances  memorable.

While “Wonder Woman” is an overall light, humorous and hopeful movie, it isn’t afraid of touching on politics. The feminism of the film is sly. It’s seen in moments when characters of color comment on their station in life and Diana faces sexism from powerful men who doubt her intelligence. Of course, the feminism, charming performances, and delightful humor would be nothing without the direction by Patty Jenkins.

Superhero films inherently carry the thrill of seeing these characters come to life and brandish great abilities, but far too often the fight scenes are neither epic nor engaging. So often they’re flatly lit, unimaginatively framed extravaganzas of characters fighting in airplane hangers and other drab surroundings. But what makes “Wonder Woman” so blistering is Jenkins’ distinctive gaze particularly in the fight scenes. Yes, the CGI is at times half-baked, which occasionally would snap me out of the momentum, but, overall, her voice as a director is so distinctive and her handling of the action so deft I was in complete awe. She shows off the great physicality of the Amazons, Diana's included, giving the action full room to breathe without being burdened by excessive editing or an over-reliance on close-ups. She treats action as a dance of sorts, with important characters having their own distinctive styles so that nothing ever feels repetitive. The sequences depicting Themyscira and Diana’s first entry on the battlefield of World War I are particularly exemplary.

Unfortunately, there are several choices that prevent the film from fully inhabiting the unique, feminist aims presented at the beginning. Ares, when he’s finally introduced near the very end, at first seems to be a somewhat clever take on the God of War. He isn’t so much seeking to end the world as create a new one by influencing the darkest aspects of mankind. But then the story tips into being a far more traditional superhero film than it had been previously.

It’s in the third act that the constraints of being part of an extended cinematic universe become apparent. It’s as if the last 30 minutes were cut from another film altogether that sought to create the bombastic, confusing, fiery sort of finale that far too many superhero works hew toward. The third act's approach to Diana’s true origin creates a distinct schism between its sincere feminist aims and the desires of a company that often doesn’t understand why people are drawn to this character in the first place. But there are enough moving touches—like Diana’s last scene with Steve—that prevent the finale from weighing down the film entirely. 

Despite its flaws, “Wonder Woman” is beautiful, kindhearted, and buoyant in ways that make me eager to see it again. Jenkins and her collaborators have done what I thought was previously impossible: created a Wonder Woman film that is inspiring, blistering, and compassionate, in ways that honor what has made this character an icon. 

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Film credits.

Wonder Woman (2017)

Rated PG-13 for sequences of violence and action, and some suggestive content.

141 minutes

Gal Gadot as Diana / Wonder Woman

Chris Pine as Steve Trevor

Connie Nielsen as Hippolyta

Robin Wright as Antiope

Danny Huston as Ludendorff

David Thewlis as Sir Patrick

Said Taghmaoui as Sameer

• Patty Jenkins

Writer (based on the Characters from DC: Wonder Woman created by)

• William Moulton Marston

Writer (story by)

• Zack Snyder
• Allan Heinberg
• Jason Fuchs

Cinematographer

• Matthew Jensen
• Martin Walsh
• Rupert Gregson-Williams

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How Gloria Steinem Saved Wonder Woman

By Yohana Desta

In the upcoming film Professor Marston and the Wonder Women, director Angela Robinson explores the true story of the man who created the DC heroine, and the women he modeled her after. In 1941, Dr. William Marston created the character, basing her on his wife, Elizabeth (played by Rebecca Hall )—and his lover, Olive Byrne ( Bella Heathcote ), who amicably lived with the couple for years.

After she finished making the film, Robinson began wondering if a certain real-life heroine would approve of it: Gloria Steinem, the legendary feminist who is also largely responsible for Wonder Woman’s modern-day incarnation. Back in the 1960s, Steinem was a huge fan of the DC comic, but was disappointed in the way that Diana Prince’s character had changed for the worse; at one point, her superpowers were stripped away for an entire arc, debilitating the iconic character. Steinem decided to raise hell, lobbying DC Comics to reinstate Prince back to her old stature, and later featuring Wonder Woman on the first issue of Ms. magazine in 1972. As Robinson plainly put it in an interview with Vanity Fair, Steinem is “the woman who saved Wonder Woman.”

Though it seems like a coincidence that Robinson’s film is coming out now, just a few months after Patty Jenkins’s high-profile Wonder Woman adaptation , the writer-director has actually been working on Professor Marston for the last eight years. “It took about four years, nights and weekends, for me to write it between TV jobs, and another four years to get it made,” she said. Through producer Amy Redford, Robinson was able to send a copy of the film to Steinem, who ended up loving it so much that she wrote a blurb for it.

Robinson, still curious about Steinem’s incredible connection to the comic, e-mailed the activist a few questions about her work. The following is their ensuing conversation about the magical legacy of Wonder Woman.

Angela Robinson: Can you tell me about why you decided to mount a campaign to restore Wonder Woman’s superpowers? What did the campaign consist of? Did you lobby DC Comics?

Gloria Steinem: We lobbied DC Comics publicly, by putting Wonder Woman on the cover [of Ms. ] and reprinting some of her Golden Age stories, so girls plus women younger than I and Joanne Edgar, also a founder of Ms . who grew up on Wonder Woman, could see what they were missing. [We] also [lobbied] privately by lobbying Dick Giordano, who was then running all the DC Comics superheroes—with artists I always imagined chained by the ankle to drawing boards, churning out story after story—to stop making her into a powerless 1950s car hop. I remember him finally calling me at Ms. and saying something like, “O.K., she’s got her magic lasso back to make people tell the truth, she’s got her bracelets back to repel bullets, she’s got Paradise Island back as her origin story—and a black Amazon sister named Nubia. Now will you leave me alone?” I also hope—but don’t know—that we had something to do with the fact that the next head of DC Comics was a woman: Jenette Kahn.

By Savannah Walsh

By Chris Murphy

By Julie Miller

Did you ever meet Elizabeth Holloway Marston? What was your impression of her? What was your interaction like?

Yes. She sometimes dropped into the Ms . office. I remember her as a no-nonsense little woman who always wore a hat, was very precise, sure of herself, and encouraging to us.

What do you think of William Moulton Marston’s contention that seeing women in a dominant way, sexual or otherwise, would teach boys and men to respect powerful women?

It’s always flat-out wrong and dangerous to say that any group is born to dominate another. It also creates one more obstacle to equality, because it’s what some men fear most—out of guilt—that we will do to them what they’ve been doing to us. In fact, the gender roles of “masculine” and “feminine” were made up relatively recently in human history, by patriarchies in which men control reproduction and women’s bodies. The old and by far the longest-running cultures didn’t have gendered pronouns of “he” and “she,” and women controlled reproduction. Each of us was—and is—a unique combination of heredity and environment that could never have happened before or again, and each of us has access to the full circle of human qualities.

Did you see the Patty Jenkins-directed Wonder Woman film this past summer? What did you think of it?

Yes. I thought it was very good. It made her Amazon origin story clear; she was stopping war, not perpetuating it; her strength was communicating in 200 languages; and she was exploring and learning without giving up her uniqueness. I know some women were disappointed by all the makeup, but I may be desperate—I was just happy that the Amazons had wild hair!

The thing I least understand is that the movie turned World War II into World War I. What I least understand about your movie is that you didn’t use the fact that Wonder Woman was partly a response to the boys’ comic books during World War II—so sadistic and racist that there was a congressional hearing on the subject. Wonder Woman was a response to that.

What superpower would be the most important one [for Wonder Woman] to have today?

Her magic lasso that makes everyone tell the truth—no more falsehoods and Alternate Facts!

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67 Wonder Woman (2017)

Wonder Woman as a Sign of Feminism

by Alanna Martines

The classic DC comic we all know and love is brought to life in Wonder Woman (2017) starring Gal Gadot as the iconic Diana Prince, better known as Wonder Woman. The film serves as an origin story of the beloved hero and follows her journey as she steps into the outside world. Diana is portrayed as a strong, compassionate, determined, and willing to challenge traditional gender roles to become a symbol of female empowerment. The film explores themes of war, sacrifice, and the complexities we face as human beings. With the compelling storytelling and the impactful message, Wonder Woman has become a groundbreaking film, celebrating the strength and quality of women. The film uses its narrative and characters to shed light on DPD issues such as gender inequality, abuse of power, and discrimination. We will be taking a deep dive into the gender equality and feminism seen in Wonder Woman .

Wonder Woman stands as a powerful testament to female empowerment and representation. By showcasing the strength, courage, and compassion of its protagonist, the movie shattered gender stereotypes and celebrated the ideals of women. In a world where women have historically been treated as less than men, feminism emerged as a movement for women’s rights and equality. At the time of the movie, in January of 2017 there was a worldwide protest called The Women’s March. The march aimed to advocate legislation and policies regarding human rights and other issues. Ghaisani writes that “Women have been treated as lower than men ever since in the biological level ”. Throughout history, feminism has led to significant achievements, such as the right to vote and work. However, societal ideals of women, shaped predominantly by men, have persisted. This is particularly evident when examining portrayals of women in comic books, where they are often depicted in skimpy clothing and possess invisible powers, reinforcing traditional gender roles. Wonder Woman challenges these ideas by defying traditional stereotypes and featuring a lead actress from Israel, thereby improving the representation of feminism and women’s empowerment. Ghaisani writes that “Wonder Woman was firstly created by a man, psychologist William Moulton Marston. Even Marston portrays Wonder Woman as how the future ideal woman should be.” Marston believed that women possessed inherent qualities that made them superior to men in many ways.

Wonder Woman subverts the ideals of women by setting Princess Diana on an island where such traditional notions do not exist. The women on the island rely solely on themselves and do not require assistance from men. Cinematography techniques that are used are when Diana is shown climbing the wall and there are close up shots that show her strength. This portrayal challenges the societal construct that positions men as dominant and powerful, and women as weak and submissive. Moreover, the film aligns with real-world efforts towards gender equality, as the United Nations appointed the fictional character Wonder Woman as an Honorary Ambassador for the Empowerment of Women and Girls. This recognition underscores the film’s emphasis on portraying Wonder Woman as powerful, resilient, and independent, going beyond her physical beauty.

In addition to defying traditional ideals of women, Wonder Woman contributes to feminism through its choice of lead actress. Gal Gadot, hailing from Israel, becomes an icon for girls to look up to. Her journey from winning the Miss Israel beauty pageant to serving in the Israel Defense Forces as a combat instructor challenges stereotypes and demonstrates that women can occupy leadership roles. Gadot herself has expressed her belief that everyone should be feminist, emphasizing that feminism is about freedom of choice for all genders. Her casting in the film helps bridge cultural gaps and promotes inclusivity in the realm of superhero representation.

However, it is essential to acknowledge alternative perspectives that critique the film for objectifying women through the male gaze. Some argue that the film employs visual techniques that cater to the male audience and perpetuate the objectification of women. The portrayal of Gal Gadot as Wonder Woman, characterized by her slim figure, fair skin, and revealing costumes, is seen as intentionally flaunting her body. This can seen by having a Wonder Woman dresses in a corset and shorts, emphasizing her body and figure. While the film celebrates feminism in many aspects, it is important to recognize and critique instances where it may inadvertently reinforce traditional gendered expectations.

Despite these criticisms, Wonder Woman remains a significant milestone in promoting female empowerment and representation. Its success at the box office and positive reception among audiences highlight the demand for strong, complex female characters. By featuring a female superhero who possesses agency, strength, and compassion, the film provides a much-needed alternative to the male-dominated superhero genre. It offers a new model of heroism and inspires girls and women to embrace their own power and potential. Moreover, Wonder Woman films contribute to the broader feminist movement by sparking discussions and raising awareness about gender equality. It serves as a catalyst for conversations about representation, female empowerment, and the need for diverse voices in the entertainment industry. The film’s impact extends beyond the screen, inspiring individuals to challenge gender norms and fight for equal rights in their own lives and communities.

Wonder Woman explores the theme of the abuse of power through its portrayal of Ares, the god of war, and the larger context of World War I. Ares represents the embodiment of power and its corrupting influence. He is depicted as a manipulative and malevolent force, fueling the war and manipulating individuals to carry out his destructive agenda. This can be seen by Ares acting as someone who is on the side to help end the war, when in reality, he was the one creating the war. The movie illustrates how power, when misused, can lead to devastating consequences. Ares takes advantage of human vulnerabilities and weaknesses, exploiting their desires for power and control. His actions perpetuate the cycle of violence and suffering, showcasing the destructive nature of unchecked power. By exploring the abuse of power through the character of Ares and the larger context of war, Princess Diana highlights the need for individuals to be mindful of their own power and its potential consequences. It prompts viewers to reflect on the moral implications of power and encourages them to strive for a more just and balanced world.

Additionally, the film touches upon themes of discrimination and prejudice. Diana, as an outsider to the world of men, faces discrimination based on her gender and her origins. She encounters skepticism and disbelief from those who underestimate her abilities and dismiss her contributions. This serves as a commentary on the discrimination faced by marginalized groups and highlights the need to challenge and overcome prejudice. This can be seen throughout the whole movie especially, but a scene that stands out most to me is when Diana is willing to run out to the battlefield in order to stop Ares and save the village of people. Diana’s friends deny the request and instead insist on camping out behind the front line. Diana is furious with this and charges out onto the battlefield, also known as No Man’s Land, by herself. The film puts Wonder Woman in slow motion as she goes onto the field. Additionally, the film emphasizes the power by adding music that is powerful. By doing this, she showed Steve and the rest of the group what she was capable of, while also giving the men a chance to take the front line of Germany.

Wonder Woman , despite some criticisms, serves as a groundbreaking representation of female empowerment and challenges long-standing gender stereotypes. Through the strong and capable character of Diana Prince, the film inspires and empowers audiences, especially women and girls, to believe in their own strength and potential. By defying traditional ideals of women and featuring a lead actress from Israel, the film expands the notion of feminism and offers a diverse and inclusive perspective. While no work is without its flaws, Wonder Woma n contributes significantly to the ongoing dialogue surrounding gender equality and the representation of women in media and popular culture.

Driscoll, Molly. “Why Female Comic Book Fans Are Cheering for ‘Wonder Woman’.(The Culture).” The Christian Science Monitor, 1 June 2017, p. NA. EBSCOhost, search.ebscohost.com/login.aspx?direct=true&db=edscpi&AN=edscpi.A493902825&site =eds-live&scope=site.

Ghaisani, Marinda P. D. “Wonder Woman (2017): An Ambiguous Symbol of Feminism.” Rubikon : Journal of Transnational American Studies , vol. 6, Nov. 2020, p. 12. EBSCOhost, https://search-ebscohost-com.ezproxy.libweb.linnbenton.edu/login.aspx?direct=true&db= edsair&AN=edsair.doi.dedup…..ec9d92e44c874885010193dd319d304c&site=eds-live&s cope=site.

Marcus, Jaclyn. “Wonder Woman’s Costume as a Site for Feminist Debate.” Imaginations Journal , vol. 9, no. 2, July 2018, pp. 55–65. EBSCOhost, https://doi-org.ezproxy.libweb.linnbenton.edu/10.17742/IMAGE.FCM.9.2.6.

Potter, Amandas. “Feminist Heroines for Our Times: Screening the Amazon Warrior in Wonder Woman (1975 – 1979), Xena: Warrior Princess (1995 – 2001) and Wonder Woman (2017).” Thersites. Journal for Transcultural Presences & Diachronic Identities from Antiquity to Date , vol. 7, Nov. 2018. EBSCOhost, https://doi-org.ezproxy.libweb.linnbenton.edu/10.34679/thersites.vol7.85.

Difference, Power, and Discrimination in Film and Media: Student Essays Copyright © by Students at Linn-Benton Community College is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial 4.0 International License , except where otherwise noted.

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Feminism In Wonder Woman, A Superhero Film

• Feminism is contextual: there are not any rules written on how to be one.
• A girl’s job is not to be likable but to be her true self. Be honest, kind and brave.
• Women are not morally better than men. They are human and should not be seen any differently (Adichie).

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Wonder Woman 2 Pages 398 Words

             Super heroes devote their lives to fighting crime and keeping the streets safe. They are truly remarkable beings because they always put others first and risk their lives everyday to help people in trouble. Also, they usually have cool costumes, names, and personalities that children and adults around the world know and love. If I could be any superhero in the world I would be Wonder Woman, of course, because she has all the strength of Superman, all the allure of a good and beautiful woman, and she is respected and admired by young girls everywhere.              Wonder Woman is the ideal of girl power and strength. She is as strong and courageous as any man; thus, she has earned the respect of both females and males around the world. Wonder Woman is faster than Mercury and stronger than Hercules. She can deflect bullets with her gold bracelets. She has a lasso which forces people, when caught in it, to tell the truth. In addition, Wonder Woman has a telepathically controlled, invisible jet that flies her quickly to the problem. In regards to strength, Wonder Woman has the ability to survive in a world seemingly dominated by men.              Though Wonder Woman may be exceptionally strong, she also possesses the goodness and beauty of a flawless female. With her long brown hair and green eyes Wonder Woman has caught the eye of many. She dedicates her life to doing right and being a good person; therefore, her beauty is not only on the outside but on the              inside as well. Wonder Woman shows people that true beauty comes from the heart.              Wonder Woman is a positive role model to everyone because she teaches people to do right. She also shows how the fairer sex can break free from their traditional roles. Young girls everywhere look up to Wonder Woman because she fosters equality of the sexes and inner strength. She shows that women can flourish in this world and influences girls everywhere to strive for excellence.              ...

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Zack Snyder Explains Scrapped Wonder Woman 1854 Story: ‘We Talked About It So Much’ – Exclusive

Throughout the course of the DCEU , we saw Wonder Woman in a variety of environments – in her native home of Themiscyra with the Amazons; fighting through the battlefields of World War I with Steve Trevor; living in 1980s USA in Wonder Woman 1984 ; and battling alongside Batman and Superman in the present-day in Justice League . But, once upon a time, there was an idea to present a different kind of early Wonder Woman story – one that would have seen her fighting in the Crimean War in the 1800s. All that came of the possible project – dubbed ‘Wonder Woman 1854’ – was an image that Snyder shared on social media, with Gal Gadot’s Diana Prince surrounded by soldiers and… er, holding three severed heads.

In Empire ’s major new interview with Snyder – in The Acolyte issue – we posed him your reader questions. And among them came up the topic of Wonder Woman 1854, and what it might have been. Allow Snyder himself to explain. “The idea of that was an early riff we were doing: once Wonder Woman left the island in search of Ares, what happened to her in her different incarnations?” he states. “My idea for it was that she would travel around the world looking for Ares and she would go to every place where there was conflict.”

The resulting story would have been a combination of love and war. “On those battlefields she found these lovers, warriors, and they would age out because she is immortal,” he elaborates. “They would be her lover for ten years or they might die in battle, and it was probably sad for a lot of the guys because they would see her starting to be nice to the next young soldier and be like, ‘Oh, I’m being replaced.’ But all the guys that she had with her were those loyal warriors she found on the battlefields all over the world.”

Ultimately, the story would have led Diana to Chris Pine’s Steve Trevor. “We talked about if Steve Trevor was there in Crimea,” Snyder confirms. Instead, Wonder Woman’s journey through the Snyder-verse took another path – but that one shot, from Stephen Berkman, remained. “It was never a screenplay, but we talked about it so much that it kind of had its own life.” There you have it: wonder no more.

Read Empire ’s full Zack Snyder interview – answering reader questions on everything from sci-fi, to Superman, to Shrek – in The Acolyte issue , on sale Thursday 11 April. Order a copy online here . Rebel Moon: Part Two – The Scargiver comes to Netflix on 19 April.

Zack Snyder Explains What His 'Wonder Woman: 1854' Story Would Have Been

“It was never a screenplay, but we talked about it so much that it kind of had its own life.”

The Big Picture

• Director Zack Snyder envisioned a storyline for Wonder Woman that involved traveling the world in search of Ares and finding loyal lovers and warriors on battlefields.
• Snyder's darker take on the character was hinted at in Batman v Superman, exploring Wonder Woman's reluctance to help due to her history with mankind.
• Although Patty Jenkins' Wonder Woman 3 has been abandoned, a new series centered around Themyscira will be released by the new DCU.

Director Zack Snyder is just a week away from dropping his new film Rebel Moon - Part Two: The Scavenger on Netflix. However, fans are still pondering what his DC Universe could have been if given the proper chance. Now, Snyder has revealed more details about what his initial plans for Gal Gadot ’s Wonder Woman could have in what is known as Wonder Woman 1854 .

In an exclusive interview with Empire Magazine , the Man of Steel director was answering fan questions when the topic of 1854 came up. Specifically, what it could have looked like if it did make it off the island of Themyscira. “The idea of that was an early riff we were doing: once Wonder Woman left the island in search of Ares , what happened to her in her different incarnations ?” He went on to elaborate:

“My idea for it was that she would travel around the world looking for Ares and she would go to every place where there was conflict. On those battlefields she found these lovers, warriors, and they would age out because she is immortal. They would be her lover for ten years or they might die in battle, and it was probably sad for a lot of the guys because they would see her starting to be nice to the next young soldier and be like, ‘Oh, I’m being replaced.’ But all the guys that she had with her were those loyal warriors she found on the battlefields all over the world.”

Like the story we ultimately got, it would have led her on a familiar path, “We talked about if Steve Trevor was there in Crimea.” However, this was only ever an idea, as Snyder would go on to say, “ It was never a screenplay, but we talked about it so much that it kind of had its own life .” The only physical proof left of this storyline is a picture taken by Stephen Berkman that infamously showed Wonder Woman holding the severed head of an enemy.

Wonder Woman Remains a Bright Spot of the DCEU

While Snyder’s time in the DC Universe was full of rocky terrain, with all his films being very divisive, Wonder Woman and Gadot’s portrayal of the iconic Justice League member was always a highlight . Introduced in Batman v Superman: Dawn of Justice , we get hints of Snyder’s darker take on the character of a hero who was reluctant to help because of her history with mankind. Similar to what Snyder was alluding to with the potential 1854 storyline. However, somewhere in that film’s production, the backstory was changed, and the picture was replaced with a World War I-era shot. This would be further explored in her own solo film where she would ultimately track down Ares in 1918 Europe. Another change was that Diana was a beacon of hope while Steve Trevor was the war-weary soldier who had to discover love again through Wonder Woman’s eyes. The darker tones still grounded the character in some much-needed realism, but by the time Wonder Woman 1984 was released, the character went in a campier direction.

While Patty Jankins ’ Wonder Woman 3 has been abandoned and Gadot’s time as the character is seemingly over, Co-Head of DC Studios James Gunn will be releasing a series centered around Themyscira, Paradise Lost . This is a part of the new DCU starting with next year’s Superman . It’s unclear if their version of Wonder Woman will appear in it or not. While waiting for more Wonder Woman news, as we continue to wonder “what if”, you can currently stream both Wonder Woman films on Max in the U.S. and check out the 1854 image below.

Wonder Woman

When a pilot crashes and tells of conflict in the outside world, Diana, an Amazonian warrior in training, leaves home to fight a war, discovering her full powers and true destiny.

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Trina Robbins, Creator and Historian of Comic Books, Dies at 85

Obsessed with comics from a young age, she was a pioneer in a male-dominated field and later documented the contributions of other women.

By Gavin Edwards

Trina Robbins, who as an artist, writer and editor of comics was a pioneering woman in a male-dominated field, and who as a historian specialized in books about female cartoonists, died on Wednesday in San Francisco. She was 85.

Her death, in a hospital, was confirmed by her longtime partner, the superhero comics inker Steve Leialoha , who said she had recently suffered a stroke.

In 1970, Ms. Robbins was one of the creators of It Ain’t Me Babe, the first comic book made exclusively by women. In 1985, she was the first woman to draw a full issue of Wonder Woman, and a full run on a Wonder Woman series, after four decades of male hegemony. And in 1994, she was a founder of Friends of Lulu, an advocacy group for female comic-book creators and readers.

Before she devoted her life to comics and to the women who make them, Ms. Robbins was an accomplished clothes designer and seamstress in the 1960s, outfitting music stars like Donovan and David Crosby. She became a notable figure in the hippie communities of New York City and San Francisco, and in Los Angeles she caught the eye of Joni Mitchell.

The first verse of Ms. Mitchell’s song “Ladies of the Canyon,” featured on her 1970 album of the same name, is a portrait of Ms. Robbins:

Trina wears her wampum beads She fills her drawing book with line Sewing lace on widow’s weeds And filigree on leaf and vine.

Trina Perlson was born on Aug. 17, 1938, in Brooklyn, the younger of two daughters of Jewish immigrants from what was then Russia but is now Belarus. Her father, Max Bear Perlson, worked as a tailor until Parkinson’s disease forced him to retire; her mother, Elizabeth (Rosenman) Perlson, was a second-grade teacher.

At a young age, Trina became obsessed with comic strips and comic books, gravitating to female characters like Brenda Starr, Patsy Walker and Millie the Model . A particular favorite was the fashion plate Katy Keene , who inspired Trina to make dresses for her own paper dolls.

She also drew comics: In her 2017 memoir, “Last Girl Standing,” Ms. Robbins wrote, “My wonderful mother brought home from school an endless supply of 8½” by 11” Board of Education paper and No. 2 pencils, from which I would chew off the erasers.”

When she began high school, her mother told her that it was time to abandon comics, and Trina complied, shifting her obsession to science fiction. In her senior year, she wrote and costumed a sci-fi play called “Twenty Years Later.”

After one year at Queens College, she moved to Los Angeles, where she posed nude for pinup magazines in the erroneous belief that doing so would lead to a movie career. In 1962, she married Paul Jay Robbins, a magazine editor; they divorced in 1966. During that time she “locked herself in a room with an electric sewing machine,” she was quoted as saying in “Dirty Pictures,” Brian Doherty’s 2022 book about underground comics; she was soon making dresses, which she sold at craft and Renaissance fairs.

Ms. Robbins befriended members of the Byrds and the Doors and moved between the coasts. In New York City, she opened a clothing boutique on East Fourth Street in Manhattan called Broccoli, a name inspired by a claim she had made, while high, that she could communicate with vegetables.

When she read the alternative newspaper The East Village Other, she was captivated by its surreal comic strips and realized that the doodles she had been making could be comics, too. As a lark, she illustrated, in Aubrey Beardsley style, a one-panel cartoon about a teenage hippie named Suzi Slumgoddess and slipped it under the door of the paper’s office. To her surprise, it was printed, launching her career as an underground cartoonist.

Ms. Robbins became a regular contributor to The East Village Other, making comic strips that doubled as advertisements for Broccoli. She often rendered her characters like the dolls that had captivated her as a child, and her strips mined the contrast between that innocent style and taboo-breaking subject matter. When the paper published a comics tabloid called Gothic Blimp Works in 1969, she contributed a strip about having sex with a lion.

Her comics about sex were often playful — the two-page strip “One Man’s Fantasy,” for example, was about a man captured by a group of attractive women, who force him to make a tuna fish sandwich. But she found that many male cartoonists were threatened by any hint of feminism.

Ms. Robbins was repulsed by the dark material in Robert Crumb’s comics and the way the underground scene followed his lead. “Rape and humiliation — and later, torturing and murdering women — didn’t seem funny to me,” she wrote in her memoir. “The guys told me I had no sense of humor.”

Ms. Robbins was responsible for the first publication of some notable cartoonists in The East Village Other, including Vaughn Bode and Justin Green , but she took particular pride in the women’s anthologies she edited and co-edited, and in their explicitly feminist content: It Ain’t Me Babe Comix, Wimmen’s Comix and the erotic Wet Satin.

She also designed the famously skimpy outfit for Vampirella , a female vampire who appeared in black-and-white comics beginning in 1969 — although her design was not as skimpy as the costume later became. “The costume I originally designed for Vampi was sexy, but not bordering on obscene,” Ms. Robbins told the Fanbase Press website in 2015. “I will not sign a contemporary Vampirella comic. I explain, that is not the costume I designed.”

Along with Mr. Leialoha, her partner since 1977, she is survived by Casey Robbins, her daughter with her fellow cartoonist Kim Deitch; a granddaughter; and her sister, Harriet Nadel.

After the underground comics scene declined, Ms. Robbins took on more mainstream work. When DC Comics approached her to work on Wonder Woman, she chose to draw the character in a classic Golden Age style.

She also wrote and drew Meet Misty , a 1985-86 mini-series for Marvel Comics, aimed at girls, about a teenage soap opera actress who was the niece of Millie the Model. Although the series generated fan mail, it didn’t sell well enough to have its six-issue run extended; Ms. Robbins believed that male comic-shop owners had ordered as few copies as possible. She then wrote and drew a similar title for Eclipse Comics, California Girls, which lasted eight issues in 1987 and 1988.

She also wrote more than a dozen prose books, including “Pretty in Ink: North American Women Cartoonists 1896-2013” (2013) and “Flapper Queens: Women Cartoonists of the Jazz Age” (2020).

“Trina didn’t just support women,” Shary Flenniken , who created the “Trots and Bonnie” strip for National Lampoon, said in an interview; “she unearthed the history of all these women cartoonists who had never been talked about.”

While Ms. Robbins was happy to have male readers, she knew all too well that the comics industry was full of men making comics for other men, and her goal was to reach a female audience.

“Any time there was talk about integrating the industry more or getting comics to girls, that was Trina’s crusade,” the comics journalist and editor Heidi MacDonald told Vulture.com in 2018. “She didn’t want to be alone, didn’t want to be the only woman in the room.”

An earlier version of this obituary misstated Ms. Robbins’s age. She was 85, not 84. (As the obituary correctly notes, she was born on Aug. 17, 1938.)

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Zack snyder reveals details about scrapped wonder woman 1854 dceu movie.

Zack Snyder just revealed new details about his never-produced Wonder Woman movie for the DCEU, which would have seen the character in the 1800s.

• Zack Snyder's Wonder Woman movie plans at one point involved exploring her journeys outside Themyscira in 1854.
• The movie would have followed Diana as she traveled the world to find Ares, encountering lovers and warriors along the way.
• Snyder's idea for Wonder Woman 1854 never became a full screenplay, but it showed a different path for the character in the DCEU.

Zack Snyder recently revealed more information about his plans for a potential prequel to Wonder Woman in the DCEU , which ultimately never saw the light of day. Snyder's original plans seem like the opposite of the contentious Wonder Woman 1984 , taking Diana further into the past instead of closer to the present day. It may also have explored more of Diana's relationship with Wonder Woman antagonist Ares .

In an interview with Empire , Zack Snyder revealed his plans to explore Wonder Woman's other journeys outside Themyscira in a movie called Wonder Woman 1854 . Snyder's Wonder Woman comments can be seen below:

"The idea of that was an early riff we were doing: once Wonder Woman left the island in search of Ares, what happened to her in her different incarnations? My idea for it was that she would travel around the world looking for Ares and she would go to every place where there was conflict. On those battlefields she found these lovers, warriors, and they would age out because she is immortal. They would be her lover for ten years or they might die in battle, and it was probably sad for a lot of the guys because they would see her starting to be nice to the next young soldier and be like, ‘Oh, I’m being replaced.’ But all the guys that she had with her were those loyal warriors she found on the battlefields all over the world. We talked about if Steve Trevor was there in Crimea. It was never a screenplay, but we talked about it so much that it kind of had its own life."

Snyder's comments elaborate on a previous tweet that he made hinting at other Wonder Woman stories in 2021, but new story details give more insight into what could have been had the DCEU followed a different path for Wonder Woman.

Snyder's comments about Diana's faith in people not yet being restored could hint that this Diana would have been a bit less compassionate than the one seen in Wonder Woman . This story would seemingly contradict Wonder Woman 's assertion that Diana had never left Themyscira or met a man before.

How To Watch Wonder Woman Movies In Order (By Release Date & Chronologically)

How wonder woman 1854 would have fit into the dceu & how it may have changed diana's story, wonder woman's new story could have addressed an issue with wonder woman 1984.

A Wonder Woman prequel would have significantly changed Diana's DCEU story in a few ways. First, it would mean a retcon of Wonder Woman being the first time Diana has left Themyscira. More than that, it would also seemingly run the risk of making her relationship with Steve Trevor feel far less significant. If Diana was going through consistent cycles of the same type of romance, it wouldn't make a lot of sense that Steve would have as big of an impact on her outlook.

The main point of Diana's relationship with Steve in Wonder Woman was for Diana to learn that there is goodness in men and that humanity is worth protecting. If Diana had already fallen in love with multiple other humans before this point, one would assume that she already had some appreciation for life outside Themyscira. While this would fundamentally change the impact of Wonder Woman , this story could also have helped avoid an issue with Wonder Woman 1984 .

Wonder Woman 1984 revisits Diana decades after losing Steve. With Diana still in grief over her lost love, Steve is brought back to life - but he inhabits the body of another living person. This creates serious problems of bodily autonomy as Steve lives in someone else's body and engages in sexual activity. If Wonder Woman had followed Snyder's earlier character arc, she might have been more willing to move on, avoiding the controversy altogether.

Wonder Woman

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