The Secret History of Wonder Woman

Here we learn of the origins of Wonder Woman. The popularity of comic books in America dovetailed with World War II, which highlighted the fight between good and evil. Some worried about the effects of comics on children, and the character Superman had vague echoes of Hitler’s focus on a supposedly superior race of humans called Aryans. Others saw comics as a way of instilling American values in children.

Into the fray came Olive Byrne with another Family Circle article that consulted Marston as an expert psychologist. He had studied comic books, he said, and concluded that they were an effective way of instilling the values of building national strength in order to protect the innocent and the weak. This caught the attention of Charlie Gaines of All-American Publications. Gaines was putting together an editorial advisory board of experts to oversee their comics and decided to hire Marston.

Before long, however, Marston’s position shifted from board member to writer. He pitched an idea to Gaines about creating a female superhero to deflect the criticism. Women best provided what both the world and young readers needed: love. When Gaines argued that previous female comics characters had not been successful, Marston replied that they had not been superwomen, superior to men.