Female Thor, pregnant Spider-Woman, hipster Batgirl, poster-child Captain Marvel, people see these characters and praise writers for erupting an era of female superheroes. Not to step on the toes of feminists-I think I did enough stepping in The Groaning Joke-but I think people these days forget there were strong female heroes long before our modern era. I'm not talking about the Birds of Prey or The Sensational She-Hulk, I'm talking about the heroine who started it all: Wonder Woman.
Princess Diana of Themyscira/Wonder Woman was created in 1941 by William Moulton Marston, the same man who invented the lie-detector. Marston used his lie-detector to research men and women, and he found that women were more honest and when he created Wonder Woman, he intended the character to represent the type of woman who should rule the world. She was powerful, she was righteous, and she instilled lessons in boys and girls around the country. In her earliest origin, Diana was molded from clay and given life by the Greek Gods, this made her conception free of man's involvement. She grew up on an island of warrior women, and when a U.S. soldier named Steve Trevor crashed on the island, she dressed in his country's colors and escorted him back to "man's world". She aided Trevor and the U.S. in fighting the Nazis and became the ambassador/superhero, Wonder Woman. Later origins rework her past to say she was the child of Hippolyte-the Amazon's Queen-and Zeus-the King of Gods-and never told of her conception. Some felt this new origin was counter-intuitive to Wonder Woman's message, but others argue it enforces Wonder Woman's strength for putting that reality behind her and continuing to represent the strength of women. For a short time Wonder Woman didn't have her god-given superpowers and worked as a secret agent, further teaching readers that a woman can be an effective hero even without a costume or powers. Wonder Woman is sometimes written to kill her enemies, but while on the JL or fighting mortals she does not kill.
Wonder Woman has been a member of almost every Justice League, often making up the Trinity of DC Comics with Superman and Batman. Along with Steve Trevor, her admirations have been towards Superman and Batman as well. Wonder Woman has mentored two sidekicks: the first Wonder Girl Donna Troy, and the second Wonder Girl Cassandra Sandsmark. Donna was Diana's adoptive sister who wasn't an Amazon, but given Wonder Woman's powers via a villain's invention. She was a founding member of The Teen Titans and went on to ditch the mantle, call herself Donna Troy and be a prominent superhero. Cassandra was the daughter of archeologist Helena Sandsmark-friend of Diana-and Zeus-that guy again-who discovered her demigod powers during a Doomsday attack. She crafted a costume and became Wonder Girl, she would go on to join both Young Justice and The Teen Titans.
Wonder Woman's powers include super strength, super speed, super durability and the ability to fly. Her training with the Amazons taught her multiple arts of combat, both lethal and non-lethal, making her a better hand-to-hand combatant than even Superman and Batman. Her fighting ability impressed Ares the God of War and the title of God of War was given to Diana, giving her a power strengthened by war and conflict. Diana wears two bracelets made from Athena's shield that contain her godlike power, but more famously deflect bullets and other projectiles. She carries The Lasso of Truth, a rope of undetermined length that can release targets from mind control, hold them with unbreakable force, and force anyone bound by the lasso to tell the truth. Hephaestus crafted a sword for Diana that can split electrons off an atom, a shield branding her crest, and a magic tiara that can be thrown like a boomerang and can cut like a blade. She has access to a suit of Amazonian armor bearing heavy plating and wings. She also has access to a jet that can move 3,000 mph and turn invisible to achieve stealth status.
Mythological figures like Ares, Hades, Hercules, Circe and Hera have battled Wonder Woman, but she also has more mortal foes. The First Born was the first demigod son of Zeus, sealed away in fear of his power. The Cheetah was an archeologist who became infused with animalistic power after touching an ancient artifact. Doctor Psycho was a woman-hating psychiatrist with powers of telepathy and telekinesis. Baroness Von Gunther was a Nazi scientist and femme fatal. Doctor Cyber was a scientist who became obsessed with Wonder Woman's beauty after a horrible accident. Giganta was a dying scientist who was consciously put into the body of a size-changing strong-woman. The Silver Swan was manipulated into being experimented on and given destructive superpowers.
I think Wonder Woman deserves more attention. Batman and Superman have a slew of movies and all she got was a 70's TV show and an upcoming film. Batman and Superman have at least four books each and she has one and a half. Superman and Batman get to have their own personal events that sprawl over many books and arcs and Wonder Woman got two significant events devoted to her. More important than anything else, people of our new generation praise new female heroes for being "progressive and empowering" when Wonder Woman has been around for seventy-four years doing what all these female heroes are doing. Does she get two more titles? No. Does she get a new TV series or seven films? No. Even fans of Wonder Woman outside her comics only like her because of her appearance and her show, totally unaware of her origins, her characters, and her feats. We don't need a TV show telling the same stale origins of Batman. We don't need another comic book following Superman's struggle on Earth. We need-and the Tumblr folk need-a Wonder Woman phenomenon. Video games, cartoons, TV shows, movies, comics, a line of clothing articles celebrating the superhero who made all of your Ms. Marvels and female Thors a reality. We need Wonder Woman.
Thank you for reading.
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Twitter: @ThePanelBiter
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Wonder Woman has been a member of almost every Justice League, often making up the Trinity of DC Comics with Superman and Batman. Along with Steve Trevor, her admirations have been towards Superman and Batman as well. Wonder Woman has mentored two sidekicks: the first Wonder Girl Donna Troy, and the second Wonder Girl Cassandra Sandsmark. Donna was Diana's adoptive sister who wasn't an Amazon, but given Wonder Woman's powers via a villain's invention. She was a founding member of The Teen Titans and went on to ditch the mantle, call herself Donna Troy and be a prominent superhero. Cassandra was the daughter of archeologist Helena Sandsmark-friend of Diana-and Zeus-that guy again-who discovered her demigod powers during a Doomsday attack. She crafted a costume and became Wonder Girl, she would go on to join both Young Justice and The Teen Titans.
Wonder Woman's powers include super strength, super speed, super durability and the ability to fly. Her training with the Amazons taught her multiple arts of combat, both lethal and non-lethal, making her a better hand-to-hand combatant than even Superman and Batman. Her fighting ability impressed Ares the God of War and the title of God of War was given to Diana, giving her a power strengthened by war and conflict. Diana wears two bracelets made from Athena's shield that contain her godlike power, but more famously deflect bullets and other projectiles. She carries The Lasso of Truth, a rope of undetermined length that can release targets from mind control, hold them with unbreakable force, and force anyone bound by the lasso to tell the truth. Hephaestus crafted a sword for Diana that can split electrons off an atom, a shield branding her crest, and a magic tiara that can be thrown like a boomerang and can cut like a blade. She has access to a suit of Amazonian armor bearing heavy plating and wings. She also has access to a jet that can move 3,000 mph and turn invisible to achieve stealth status.
Mythological figures like Ares, Hades, Hercules, Circe and Hera have battled Wonder Woman, but she also has more mortal foes. The First Born was the first demigod son of Zeus, sealed away in fear of his power. The Cheetah was an archeologist who became infused with animalistic power after touching an ancient artifact. Doctor Psycho was a woman-hating psychiatrist with powers of telepathy and telekinesis. Baroness Von Gunther was a Nazi scientist and femme fatal. Doctor Cyber was a scientist who became obsessed with Wonder Woman's beauty after a horrible accident. Giganta was a dying scientist who was consciously put into the body of a size-changing strong-woman. The Silver Swan was manipulated into being experimented on and given destructive superpowers.
I think Wonder Woman deserves more attention. Batman and Superman have a slew of movies and all she got was a 70's TV show and an upcoming film. Batman and Superman have at least four books each and she has one and a half. Superman and Batman get to have their own personal events that sprawl over many books and arcs and Wonder Woman got two significant events devoted to her. More important than anything else, people of our new generation praise new female heroes for being "progressive and empowering" when Wonder Woman has been around for seventy-four years doing what all these female heroes are doing. Does she get two more titles? No. Does she get a new TV series or seven films? No. Even fans of Wonder Woman outside her comics only like her because of her appearance and her show, totally unaware of her origins, her characters, and her feats. We don't need a TV show telling the same stale origins of Batman. We don't need another comic book following Superman's struggle on Earth. We need-and the Tumblr folk need-a Wonder Woman phenomenon. Video games, cartoons, TV shows, movies, comics, a line of clothing articles celebrating the superhero who made all of your Ms. Marvels and female Thors a reality. We need Wonder Woman.
Thank you for reading.
Facebook: The Panel Biter
Twitter: @ThePanelBiter
Podbean: Panelbiter.podbean.com
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