William Moulton Marston (1893–1947)

Let's be honest the writing for the first issues of Wonder Woman could be tweaked and fixed quite a bit. However, she is most iconic female superhero. Reading her first few issues isn't just for fans of Wonder Woman, but it's a look at comic book history in the making.

Her stories were ahead of her time. It's laughable to think that the modern day stories of Wonder Woman have no value as they did back in her day. Not sure what happened, but DC literally took out any sign that Wonder Woman had some smart writing.

With Marston writing the comics it went into politics and very heavy feminism topics. He was was also a psychologist and you can see that with various things, one being her magic lasso. The feminism really stands out though. Unlike the women at the time, she was fighting on the battle field. Yes her alter ego was a nurse, but she was fighting Nazis as Wonder Woman. In this volume too you see her face several other things that represents what it means to be a feminist. There are also early hits cross dressing in comics. About three of her villains are cross-dressers and it's not used in the comedic sense like the cartoons at the time.

So what happened to the writing of Wonder Woman? The only writers who I thought did a good job with her were in the 80s, the late 00s, and a little bit of the first few issues of her New 52 run. Other then that it seems like most of the writers focus on her outfit or they just don't get her character at all. They leave out any trace that her character was in fact a feminist. With all these "strong female leads" in comics you'd think we'd bring up actual issues again.

Five stars because this is were it all began and how involved she was originally. Three or four stars because yes it can get cheesy and erotic at times when it's not necessary.… (plus d'informations)

https://nwhyte.livejournal.com/3708841.html

I got this in 2019 because one of the stories, "Battle for Womanhood", was up for the Retro Hugo that year, which I was administering, and it won - topping the poll at nominations stage and convincingly carrying the final ballot. I voted for it too, and on reflection I'm really not sure why; these are a weird set of stories combining an attractively subversive feminism with some pretty awful racism against the Japanese. (But the Chinese, who of course are allies and victims of Japan, are all right.) I almost gave up after the first few, which were all about Wonder Woman biffing either the Germans or the Japanese, though getting tied up a lot. Then it starts getting interesting, with weird alien creatures and ancient gods getting involved, and an interesting mentoring relationship between Wonder Woman and human girl; along with the full-figured Etta Candy and her sorority, and recurrent villains Dr Psycho and the Cheetah, and Wonder Woman still gets tied up a lot. Oh, and Steve as well.

But honestly, it's not all that good. Inspiration for what came later, of course, and it's not like any comics were especially brilliant by today's standards at the time. But I am a bit surprised at my own vote, in retrospect.… (plus d'informations)