Wonder Woman – Page 2 – Comics Archeology

All-Star Comics #8 (1941)
by William Moulton Marston & H.G.Peter

It’s taken a long time, but we’re finally here: the debut of Wonder Woman.

Which you wouldn’t be able to tell by the cover, by the way.
We’ll get to the OTHER stories of this book later; Wonder Woman is technically the LAST one.

The story itself is quite brief, so before we tackle that change the format a bit and talk about the character’s creation.

The writer, William Moulton Marston, is a FASCINATING person.
He’s the inventor of an early prototype of the polygraph… yes, seriously… but he was also a psychologist.
And of course his creation of Wonder Woman was influenced not just by his interest in psychology, but also in his polyamorous relationship with both his wife Elizabeth and their lover Olivia Byrne. To the point that there’s an argument to be made that all three of them TOGETHER are the actual creators of Wonder Woman.
This whole thing is so complicated that you could make a movie out of it… WHICH THEY DID.

I suppose it’s kind of weird that Wonder Woman got a full movie out on the life of her creators and the reasons behind her existence before Superman and Batman did.
Admittedly those two probably wouldn’t involve a threesome relationship… plus a movie about the lives of Siegel and Shuster might a bit too depressing, and a movie about Bob Kane would require two hours of Bill Finger kicking him in the nuts.
Well I suppose it’s not “required”, but that’s the only way I’d watch a movie about Bob Kane.

The origins of Wonder Woman go all the way back to October 25th 1940, where Marston was interviewed by his lover Olive about comic books in the women’s magazine “The Family Circle”, where he talked about the potential of comics as an educational medium.
Sadly I couldn’t find a copy of that interview, but it caught the attention of Max Gaines, publisher of DC Comics (or rather the predecessors of DC) who hired him as a consultant.
Drawing on his ideas about psychology and society, Marston decided to create a new superhero who would win not through strength but through love. Reportedly, the idea to make the hero a woman came from his wife and the inspiration for the bracelets was from those worn by their polyamorous lover Olive.

To summarize Marston’s goal, this is what he writes in a 1943 issue of The American Scholar:

Not even girls want to be girls so long as our feminine archetype lacks force, strength, and power. Not wanting to be girls, they don’t want to be tender, submissive, peace-loving as good women are. Women’s strong qualities have become despised because of their weakness. The obvious remedy is to create a feminine character with all the strength of Superman plus all the allure of a good and beautiful woman.
WILLIAM MOULTON MARSTON

To draw the comic he recruited his friend H.G.Peter, who used to work in newspaper illustrations and like Marston had been a strong supporter of the suffragette movement in the early 20th century.

Pictured below, left to right: William Moultin Marston, H.G.Peters, Sheldon Mayer and Max Gaines in 1942.

But what about the actual story?

The first page gives us a good look at Wonder Woman herself, in her original Golden Age costume.
And her tiny, tiny feet.

A bit different from the original sketch, which shockingly we still have!!!

But we truly begin with a pilot crashing into Paradise Island, home of the Amazons.
You’re probably used to seeing it called Themyscira, which IS the name of the place in Greek mythology, but that’s a post-Crisis thing.
In both the Golden and Silver Age, it’s just Paradise Island.

According to the narration the place should remind us of Ancient Greece, but other than the occasional buildings it’s really a stretch.

The Amazons learn about the pilot’s identity, and we get our first look at Queen Hippolyta (who is also from mythology).
Unlike most other DC characters she’s incredibly easy to distinguish between the eras: in the Golden Age she has dark hair, in the Silver Age she’s blonde, and post-Crisis she basically looks like a clone of Wonder Woman.
Also: get used to the lettering, it’s consistently atrocious.

The pilot is fine, but the princess is falling in love with literally the first man she has ever seen.

Interestingly, Princess Diana has absolutely no idea of the origins of her own people.

Which is bizarrely explained in prose!!! Extremely weird to see this approach in late 1941.

But let’s get into the specifics of that prose, because there’s stuff worth discussing.
Hercules showing up on the Amazon island is indeed from Greek mythology, but that’s where the similarities end: he wasn’t defeated by Hippolyta and her MAGIC GIRDLE didn’t make her invincible.
But apparently must always be in capital letters.

In the actual myth Heracles impressed her so much that she gave him the MAGIC GIRDLE (which didn’t have any powers), but thanks to a scheme by Hera he ends up distrusting her and murdering her.

So Hippolyta is better off in comics than in mythology, but only so much: since she lost the girdle, her entire civilization had to be enslaved.

But Aphrodite later changed her mind, allowing the Amazons to retrieve the MAGIC GIRDLE and free themselves.

And that’s the reason why Wonder Woman wears bracelets, people.
To remind her that her mother was sold to slavery by her goddess because someone stole a belt.

But it’s not all that bad for the Amazons, all things considered: they get to live forever in a paradise.

A huge difference between post-Crisis Amazons and their original version is that while today they lean heavily on their mythological side… they originally had an incredibly bizarre mix of mythology and weird sci-fi.

The “Magic Sphere” allows the Amazons to look into the past and discover why the pilot, Steve Trevor, ended up crashing on their island.

Which includes the first time he gets captured, something that will happen A LOT.
Seriously, he might be the only comic book character that gives Lois Lane serious competition.

The foreign agents plot involves robot-controlled planes (!!!), and unfortunately this is where you can really see that H.G.Peter doesn’t have a lot of experience with action scenes.

But then Steve Trevor regains consciousness and is able to pilot the robot-controlled plane into crashing on the bomber.
I’ll let you figure out why this makes little sense.

This concludes the profoundly uninteresting 3 pages dedicated to Steve Travor crashing.

The Queen then consults both Aphrodite and Athena on what to do, and they reveal that they caused Steve to crash into the island as a message that Paradise Island should help America.
What did I say about Greek gods being jerks?

But Paradise Island can’t just pledge support to America: for some reason they have to select just ONE ambassador and the other Amazons will just stay home.

First contest: running faster than a deer!

And more contests of “strength and agility”, which must have been even less interesting than 3 whole pages on Steve Trevor since we don’t get to see ANY OF THEM.

With just two contestants remaining, it’s time for the most iconic Amazon trial: Bullets And Bracelets.

Which makes me wonder: are those Amazon guns? Because I’m pretty sure we never see them use regular guns for anything else.

And the winner is the mysterious contestant who has been wearing a mask the whole time.

There IS a reason given for the mask… the princess wanted to compete like any other Amazon… but I don’t think a single reader was fooled.

And so the Queen gives Princess Diana the costume that she designed for the occasion, making her Wonder Woman.

And that’s already the end, with the final panel showcasing the costume we saw in the first panel.

Historical significance: 10/10
She’s part of the DC trinity for a reason.

Silver Age-ness: 6/10
As far as Wonder Woman weirdness goes it’s surprisingly tame.

Does it stand the test of time? 4/10
Between the stiff artwork and the inclusion of the prose text this feels older than it actually is.
It does introduce some classic tropes, but it’s incredibly old-fashioned.

How close is this to the modern character? 3/10
She barely has a personality, which is the main thing holding her back from later incarnations.
I can’t fault her for not showcasing her powers, since Wonder Woman’s powers fluctuate WILDLY between eras.
Her origin doesn’t include her being made from clay (that’s from Wonder Woman #1 in 1942); she doesn’t even have the Invisible Plane (from Sensation Comics #1, also from 1942) or even her most iconic possession, the Lasso of Truth (from Sensation Comics #6, once again 1942).
The Golden Age Wonder Woman would barely recognize the modern version!

I would normally go over the history of the character, but Wonder Woman has been published without interruptions for over eighty years!!!
But there are a couple of things to mention that relate to other retrospectives.

First of all, she’s accepted into the Justice Society in All-Star Comics #13… as her secreatary.
While that seriously stinks of sexism, it probably has more to do with the Justice Society typically granting membership only to characters without their own series.

Wonder Woman will later be the one to vouch for the other female member of the Society, Black Canary.

While she’s considered part of the DC Trinity today, it took some time for her to reach that point.
For example, the first time she actually meets Superman and Batman is a Justice Society story, All-Star Comics #36 from 1947.
The story doesn’t make a big deal out of this and they BARELY interact.

Marston wouldn’t survive the Golden Age, dying of cancer in 1947.
Peter would continue drawing Wonder Woman until his death in 1958 after a heart attack.

Wonder Woman’s adventures in the early Golden Age are… something else.

And some day we’ll revisit the transition between Golden Age Wonder Woman and Silver Age Wonder Woman, because I plan to EVENTUALLY review the legendary Robert Kanigher run.

That retrospective is definitely in my plans at SOME time.
I just… need to work up the courage to tackle that, so don’t hold your breath.

Golden Age Wonder Woman is weird and completely off the wall, there’s no denying that.
But does Marson’s initial goal with her creation survive the ages?

The only hope for peace is to teach people who are full of pep and unbound force to enjoy being bound… only when the control of self by others is more pleasant than the unbound assertion of self in human relationships can we hope for a stable, peaceful human society.
WILLIAM MOULTON MARSTON

Yeah she still has the inspirational stuff locked in.

But she can also, you know, kick ass all the way from here to Olympus.

She’s definitely gone through some rough patches, and I can’t say I’ve been able to enjoy all of her runs. But despite her often ridiculous past, make no mistake: Wonder Woman rocks!!!

Wonder Woman’s debut obviously outshines anything else in the issue, but is there anything else of note in the rest of the book?
Well it’s the issue where Starman and Dr. Mid-Nite join the Justice Society.

We’re still in the period where the Justice Society is little more than an excuse to have solo adventures of each member.
Weird that they need the scientific help of Dr. Mid-Nite whene they already have three members who can basically do anything.