1. Russ Barbee 1
Wonder Woman:
Male Power Fantasy or Feminist Icon?
The superhero character Wonder Woman has been in constant publication since 1941.
Created in a time when most female characters were relegated to the role of damsel in distress or
“Girl Friday” for a titular male character, she has persevered as a strong central female character
for almost seventy-five years. Her creator, William Moulton Marston, has stated that he thought
Wonder Woman represented the type of feminist that should one day rule the world. Is this just
rhetoric or does Marston’s statement reveal a true representation of the character and her ideals?
Is Wonder Woman just a male power fantasy played out in four color adventures or are there
underlying, or perhaps overt, representations of the feminist ideal present in her adventures?
To understand the importance of Wonder Woman’s place in comic book history we first
need a little background on comic books and the widespread popularity of them in the history of
the United States. Comic books first rose to popularity as a cheap source of entertainment during
the Great Depression. They provided a cheap means of escape from the economic troubles of the
time and were often traded among readers. By 1945, the Market Research Company of America
stated that nearly half of the U.S. population were reading comics. Roughly 90 percent of boys
and girls between the ages of six and eleven were avid comic readers. Over 80 percent of boys
and girls between the ages of twelve and seventeen also read comics. Comic readers were not
exclusively children though. The same study reveals that 41 percent of men and 28 percent of
women ages eighteen to thirty and close to fifteen percent of men and women over 30 were
reading comics.1
1
Sgt. Sanderson Vanderbilt, “The Comics,” Yank: The Army Weekly, November 1945, 8.

2. Russ Barbee 2
In fact comics were so popular among enlisted men in the states that at PXs comics sold
ten times more than the combined sales of the Saturday Evening Post and Reader’s Digest.2
The
roughly 150 separate titles being published had a combined circulation of around 30,000,000 and
sold for a dime a piece. In comparison the famous Rosie the Riveter “We Can Do It!” poster had
a print run of 1,800 copies or less and was only seen at the Westinghouse factories for about two
weeks.3
Comic books had a very wide reach and lasting impact on the people during World War
II.
Despite the widespread popularity of comic books, the beginning of the comic book
industry wasn’t anything remarkable. Publishers in the 1930s wanted to keep their presses
running, so they used the excess paper they had to run reprints of daily newspaper comic strips
such as Li’l Abner or Mutt and Jeff.4
At the height of the Great Depression, comic books
provided a cheap source of entertainment and grew in popularity. Due to Post Office
Department regulations on second-class mailing privileges comics were forced to print twenty
percent new, previously unpublished, material.5
This facilitated the creation of new characters
and stories. The comic book publishers of the time expanded their catalog with war stories,
adventure stories, horror and even romance.
The superhero craze started in 1938 with the publication of Action Comics #1, the first
appearance of Superman. There had been costumed adventurers before, such as Doc Savage,
The Shadow and Buck Rogers, to name a few, but never any with power and abilities far beyond
those of normal men. No one had ever seen anything like Superman before. The popularity of
2
Vanderbilt, 6.
3
James Kimble and Lester Olson, “Visual Rhetoric Representing Rosie the Riveter: Myth and Misconception in J.
Howard Miller's 'We Can Do It!' Poster.,” Rhetoric and Public Affairs, 2007, 533-69.
4
Tim Hanley, Wonder Woman Unbound: the Curious History of the World's Most Famous Heroine (Chicago:
Chicago Review Press, 2014), 14.
5
Vanderbilt, 6.

3. Russ Barbee 3
the new type of character Superman represented spawned many similar characters that are still in
publication today. Superman’s debut is widely considered the beginning of the Golden Age of
comic books. The following years saw the debut of Captain America, Batman, Captain Marvel
and an entire pantheon of superheroes almost entirely male.
In 1941 Wonder Woman made her first appearance in All-Star Comics #8, though she
was not the first female superhero. The Red Tornado is considered by some the first female
superhero. Debuting a year before Wonder Woman, the Red Tornado was Ma Hunkel, a large
working mother who donned a pair of long johns and put a cooking pot on her head as a disguise
to fight local criminals in her New York neighborhood.6
Due to her size she was often mistaken
for a man and even once put her costume on a gorilla when the police were trying to arrest her as
a vigilante.
There were other female heroes in the era as well: The Woman in Red, a policewoman
who dresses in red and fights crime, Fantomah was a blonde jungle woman similar to Tarzan but
she turned into a skull faced monster to punish evildoers. The most unfeminine character of all
was called The Black Widow. A different Black Widow than the one currently appearing in the
Avengers movies, this black widow was a demon who killed evildoers. She would then deliver
their souls to her master, Satan.7
Far from being role models for young girls, all these characters
served as backup stories in male dominated comics. Though there are roughly twenty or thirty
male superheroes who have survived from this era; all the female superheroes ran their course in
about five years and ceased publication. All except one disappeared into obscurity, Wonder
Woman.
6
Sheldon Mayer, “Scribbly,” All-American Comics, November 1940, 11-14.
7
Tim Hanley, Wonder Woman Unbound, 9.

4. Russ Barbee 4
In the 1940s the predominant role of female characters in comics was the love interest for
a male character. In this role, the women were more often than not captured by the villain and
relegated to the damsel in distress stereotype. Where Superman had Lois Lane, Batman had
Julie Madison.8
These women were fairly one dimensional characters hoping that their hero
would come save them. The male heroes were a violent bunch, pick up any issue from the
golden age of comics and you could see any of the male heroes slinging punches to take down
the bad guys. Batman would sometimes accidentally kill his villains. In a story in issue 9 of
Batman all four criminals died accidental deaths because of Batman and Robin’s intervention.9
Superman would routinely threaten his villains and sometimes cause their deaths through
inaction. Captain America was punching Hitler on the cover of his first issue and in the second
issue used a hand grenade to kill a Nazi soldier.10
Violence was the way all the male superheroes
solved their problems.
This violent boys club was where Wonder Woman was introduced in All-Star Comics #8
and by her second appearance the difference in technique was already apparent. After the attack
on Pearl Harbor, the members of the Justice Society—the 1940s team of DC Comics’
superheroes and precursor to the Justice League—joined the armed forces in their civilian
identities. Wonder Woman was already in the armed forces serving as an Army nurse in her
civilian identity of Diana Prince.
She was stationed in the ambulance corps in a coastal battle in the Philippines. As she
tended to the wounded she noticed the U.S. troops were outnumbered and the Japanese soldiers
were continuing to press their attack. She thinks, “Hawkman fought as the Hawkman—so why
8
Tim Hanley, Wonder Woman Unbound, 9.
9
Bob Kane, “The Four Fates,” Batman, 1942, 1-12.
10
Joe Simon, “Trapped in the Nazi Stronghold,” Captain America, 1941, 27.

5. Russ Barbee 5
can’t I get into this free-for-all as Wonder Woman!” After a quick costume change, she faces the
entire Japanese force. She deflects their bullets, takes their guns, ties them up, and gives them to
the commanding officer as prisoners of war. The C.O. sends Wonder Woman to take care of
another spot on the island that is under siege and she singlehandedly liberates the islands without
throwing a single punch, though she does use a few switches to keep the prisoners in line until
the Army arrives to take them off her hands.11
This relatively non-violent approach is a far cry
from the take no prisoners attitude of Captain America and other heroes at the time. In fact,
Wonder Woman was always intended to be different though she was not always intended to be a
woman. The idea was to create a character who had the same strengths as Superman but fought
with compassion instead of fists.
Despite the widespread popularity of comic books at the time, there were many people
condemning them as trash and dangerous for children. With Batman carrying a gun and
Superman very much the Übermensch of German propaganda, a Time Magazine article asked
“Are Comics Fascist?”12
Despite the patriotic nature of comics such as Captain America, which
routinely saw him facing off against Nazis, and Wonder Woman’s constant public service
announcements to buy war bonds and war stamps, literary editor of the Chicago Daily News,
Sterling North called comic books “a national disgrace” and called for parents and teachers to
“band together and break the ‘comic’ magazine!” There were twenty-five million reader
requests for a reprint of the article.13
In an article in The Elementary English Review titled “The
Plague of the Comics,” Franklyn M. Branley warned against the plague running its course
leaving devastation in its wake. In his view children believed comic books as reality and were
11
Charles Moulton, “The Justice Society Joins the War On Japan,” All-Star Comics, 1942, 13-18.
12
Jill Lepore, The Secret History of Wonder Woman, 1st ed. (New York: Knopf, 2014), 256.
13
Jill Lepore, 254.

6. Russ Barbee 6
addicted to the adventures. He said it was up to parents and teachers to steer children away from
comics and towards the library and books such as Treasure Island and The Jungle Book.14
Despite the backlash against comic books two psychiatrists, Drs. Lauretta Bender and
Reginald S. Lourie, dismissed arguments about the harms of comic reading in 1941. Their study
in The American Journal of Orthopsychiatry showed that children disturbed by comics had
unresolved trauma in their lives.15
Their studies at Bellevue Hospital were reported on in The
Science News-Letter saying they were clearing up common misconceptions about comic books,
radio and movies.16
By 1943 support for comic books was growing, in an Elementary School
Journal article, Ruth Strang made the case for comic books continued readership. She said that
comics represent a modern folklore and that through comics children find a way to overcome
their limitations.17
In reaction to support from the social sciences and to combat the threat to the industry
Charlie Gaines, the publisher of Superman, decided to set up a group of experts to serve as an
editorial advisory board. His first hire as a consulting psychologist was William Moulton
Marston. Marston came to the attention of Charlie Gaines by way of an article for Family Circle
magazine written by Olive Byrne, daughter of Ethel Byrne and Margaret Sanger’s niece. In the
article Marston states that, “comic books are pure wish fulfillment for children.” He went on to
say that the wishes presented in Superman were to develop strong national might and to use that
might to protect the innocent from evil. If those wishes were not wrong for America then why
14
Franklyn Branley “The Plague of the Comics,” The Elementary English Review 19, no. 5 (May 1942): 181-82.
15
Lauretta Bender and Reginald S Lourie, “The Effect of Comic Books On the Ideology of Children,” American
Journal of Orthopsychiatry 13, no. 3 (1941): 540-50.
16
Unknown, “Let Children Read Comics; Science Gives Its Approval,” The Science News-Letter 40, no. 8 (August,
23 1941): 124-25.
17
Ruth Strang, “Why Children Read the Comics,” The Elementary School Journal 43, no. 6 (February 1943): 336-
42.

7. Russ Barbee 7
should they be wrong for children? Byrne ended her article by buying a Superman comic book.18
Little did her publisher or Charlie Gaines know but Olive Byrne was actually Marston’s mistress
of several years.
Gaines hired a wide range of experts in various fields for his editorial board. The board
featured a professor of educational psychology, an NYU teacher of literature, a psychologist, a
Navy Lieutenant Commander and director of a Catholic youth organization, psychologist
William Moulton Marston, and the Executive director of the Child Study Association of
America. This panel of experts would assure the moral integrity of the stories being told and
they placed a circular seal on the covers of all comics they were involved in editing. This
circular seal would eventually become the DC Comics logo. Three members of the panel were
women and one of them had previously worked with Marston’s wife.19
Shortly after starting the editorial board, Gaines pulled Marston from the board because
he had hired him as a writer. Gaines wanted Marston to create a new type of superhero for him,
one that parents and teachers could have no complaints about. According to their son Peter,
while Marston was trying to come up with his new hero, his wife said, “'Come on, let's have a
Superwoman! There's too many men out there.”20
Marston liked the idea and argued with Gaines
for the new hero to be a female reflection of Superman with all his power but with the added
strength of love and compassion. In a 1943 article in The American Scholar Marston says:
from a psychological angle…comics’ worst offense was their blood-curdling
masculinity. A male hero, at best, lacks the qualities of maternal love and
tenderness which are as essential to a normal child as the breath of life. Not even
girls want to be girls so long as our feminine archetype lacks force, strength,
power. The obvious remedy is to create a feminine character with all the strength
18
Jill Lepore, 256.
19
Jill Lepore, 258.
20
Peter Marston, “Elizabeth H. Marston, Inspiration for Wonder Woman, 100,” New York Times, April 3, 1993.

8. Russ Barbee 8
of a Superman plus all the allure of a good and beautiful woman. This is what I
recommended to the comics publishers.21
He pitched her to Sheldon Mayer, editor of All-American Comics as Suprema the Wonder
Woman. Mayer shortened her name to Wonder Woman and with his new idea agreed upon all
Marston had to do was design the character.
At the time all the women in comics were drawn with seductive faces covered in makeup.
For Wonder Woman Marston and Gaines wanted something different. They chose Harry G.
Peter to draw Wonder Woman’s stories because he drew realistic, pleasing women. Peter had
also drawn women’s suffrage cartoons in the 1910s.22
Through many sketches and many hours
of work they decided that Wonder Woman should look like the Vargas pinup girls from Esquire
magazine, publicly acceptable and alluring without being overly sexualized. Marston pulled
inspiration from his life as well. His live-in mistress, Olive Byrne, wore silver wrist bands so
Marston gave Wonder Woman bulletproof arm bands.23
Hoping to cash in on the wave of
patriotism in comics, the rest of her costume consisted of a red girdle with an American eagle
across her chest and a blue skirt covered in white stars. This red white and blue color scheme
was inspired by the latest superhero to pop onto the scene, Captain America.24
His star spangled
adventures had quickly made him the top selling comic for rival publisher, Timely Comics,
which would one day become Marvel Comics.
21
William Marston, “Why 100,000,000 Americans Read Comics,” The American Scholar 13, no. 1 (Winter 1943-
44): 35-44.
22
Jill Lepore, “The Last Amazon,” The New Yorker, September 22, 2014, 1, accessed March 24, 2015,
http://www.newyorker.com/magazine/2014/09/22/last-amazon.
23
Jill Lepore, 278.
24
Tim Hanley, Wonder Woman Unbound, 108.

9. Russ Barbee 9
Wonder Woman presented something entirely new in the field of comic books and indeed
children’s entertainment overall. “As lovely as Aphrodite – as wise as Athena – with the speed
of Mercury and the strength of Hercules,” she was a hundred times stronger than any man in
body, mind and spirit and it showed in every story.25
Though she was a storybook princess, she
was unlike any princess featured before. The fictional story of Wonder Woman starts with
American Intelligence Officer, Steve Trevor, crashing on Paradise Island, mythical home of the
Amazons. The princess and her friend carry the injured pilot to the hospital so he can heal and
leave, as men are forbidden on Paradise Island. The Princess has never seen a man before and
falls in love with him. To explain the danger she has placed herself in, Queen Hippolyte takes
the princess aside to show her the history of the Amazons.
In ancient Greece they were deceived and enslaved by Hercules and his men, the women
kept in chains. After appealing to the Goddess Aphrodite the queen retrieved the magic girdle
and set her people free. The Amazons took the men’s entire fleet and sailed for a new land.
Aphrodite wanted them to set up their own society away from the world of man. They must
keep the bracelets, fashioned by their former masters, as a reminder to always “keep aloof from
men.” They founded a society on Paradise Island with no want, no illness, no hatreds and no
wars. If they remain on the island and keep the magic girdle they are immortal, as long as they
don’t succumb to the charms of men.26
The magic girdle, though a laughable sounding creation, is a thinly veiled reference to the
twelve labors of Hercules and the theft of Hippolyta’s belt. In the Amazon’s origin story
Hercules has to steal a girdle instead of a belt. The early Wonder Woman stories are filled with
symbolism. In these stories the villains are almost always men. This serves a double purpose.
25
Charles Moulton, All-Star Comics #8 (New York: DC Comics, 1941), 59.
26
Charles Moulton, All-Star Comics #8 (New York: DC Comics, 1941), 59-64.

10. Russ Barbee 10
The first is Marston’s male power fantasy at play, he had many times said that men secretly want
to be dominated by women. The male villains receiving their comeuppance at the hands of a
woman achieves this. The second is a more feminist purpose, the male villain’s defeat shows the
superior strength that the women possess. Though rare, when a female villain makes an
appearance, she has usually thrown in with a man in some vile scheme.
Another recurring theme in the stories is women, and often Wonder Woman herself,
being captured and bound in chains by men. They must break free of the chains and capture the
men. Wonder Woman tells all the freed women to capture one of their captors without harming
them, showing that they are superior to the men.27
This also serves multiple purposes in the
context of power fantasy and feminism. Marston has admitted that the binding of women is a
thinly veiled reference to sexual bondage. However the chains are symbolic of the chains of
oppression that women face every day in the forms of sexism and chauvinism in a male
dominated world. When Wonder Woman is bound she loses her superhuman strength. She has
to break free of the chains using the wits and strength any normal woman possesses. It is all
about showing the strength of women.
However men are not always depicted as villains. There are a few good men who assist
Wonder Woman in her adventures. Most notable is Steve Trevor, the American Intelligence
Officer who crashed on Paradise Island. Wonder Woman only came to America to get him
home and assist in the war effort. Steve is usually a part of her adventures and she regularly has
to rescue him. She is often seen carrying an injured Steve Trevor to safety reversing the
stereotype of male dominance and superiority.28
Yet Steve was not the only male hero in the
comics, after all Wonder Woman fought side by side with U.S. soldiers in Japan and Germany.
27
Charles Moulton, Wonder Woman (1943) #4 (New York: DC Comics, 1943), 17-30.
28
Charles Moulton, Wonder Woman (1942) #2 (New York: DC Comics, 1942), 6.

11. Russ Barbee 11
Batman and Superman promoted the war effort on the covers of their comics but inside, the
stories had nothing to do with the war. Wonder Woman on the other hand was on the front lines:
nursing the wounded in her civilian identity, fighting and delivering supplies as Wonder Woman,
and even foiling a plot by Hitler to attack America in her second issue. The final panel in her
books often has her delivering a message on the importance to buy war bonds to help in the war.
In 1942, the National Organization for Decent Literature, a Catholic bishops organization
blacklisted Sensation Comics. According to the “Code for Clean Reading” Wonder Woman did
not have enough clothes on.29
Rather than address the issue, DC Publisher Charlie Gaines had
readers vote on which character appearing in the book would join the superhero team the Justice
Society of America in All-Star Comics. In every age group among both boys and girls Wonder
Woman’s popularity dwarfed the other heroes in Sensation Comics. The combined total of votes
for all the male heroes in Sensation Comics did not approach half of Wonder Woman’s votes.30
All-Star Comics was written by Gardner Fox and he did not share Marston’s views on the
superiority of women. So in the next issue of All-Star Comics when Wonder Woman joined the
team, she was relegated to an honorary member and secretary for the team. As if downgrading
the most powerful superhero on the team to a mere secretary was not enough, she was more often
left behind while the men went off to fight. In fact the scenes where she said she would be “with
them in spirit” were often the only scenes she appeared in.31
Still this half-hearted depiction did
not hurt Wonder Woman’s popularity. She soon expanded into a second title where she was the
only superhero in all the stories.
29
Jill Lepore, 241.
30
Jill Lepore, 242.
31
Gardner Fox, All-Star Comics (1942) #14 (New York: DC Comics, 1942), 3.

12. Russ Barbee 12
Wonder Woman was selling more than half a million copies by its third issue and she
became the first female character to headline her own comic book. But the fictional stories of
Wonder Woman were not the only place where Marston showed the capability of women. The
staff of the Wonder Woman comics were filled with female contributors.32
Dorothy Roubicek
was hired as the new editor of All-Star Comics. Joye Murchison was Marston’s assistant and
helped him write Wonder Woman while he was ill with cancer. Helen Schpens helped ink and
draw Wonder Woman and Marston’s daughter-in-law, Louise, was a letterer of several issues.
When Wonder Woman’s popularity granted her a second title Marston hired Alice Marble to be
Associate editor.33
Alice was a retired grand slam tennis champion, the first woman to play the
serve-and-volley game. She went without losing a single game in 1939 and 1940, including
mixed doubles, and paved the way for women in tennis.34
Her contribution to Wonder Woman
was twofold. She served as associate editor but she also wrote a section for the Wonder Woman
comic called Wonder Women of History.
Wonder Women of History was a four page feature story in every issue of Wonder
Woman. It highlighted a famous woman of historical note and featured more realistic style of
artwork than found in the rest of the comic. One issue features the story of Juliette Lowe and the
founding of the Girl Scouts of America. Another tells of Sister Elizabeth Kenny and her war
against infantile paralysis.35
Other issues featured Susan B. Anthony, Helen Keller, Sojourner
Truth, Lillian D. Wald, Clara Barton, Nurse Edith Cavell and Madame Chiang Kai-Shek, First
Lady of China. Alice Marble’s Wonder Women of History even covers Joan of Arc and
Florence Nightingale. She covered scientists, doctors, nurses, writers, politicians, and
32
Tim Hanley, Wonder Woman Unbound, 115.
33
Tim Hanley, Wonder Woman Unbound, 100.
34
Christopher E. Clouser, “Alice Marble Member Page,” International Tennis Hall of Fame & Museum, accessed
March 26, 2015, https://www.tennisfame.com/hall-of-famers/alice-marble.
35
Alice Marble, Wonder Woman #8 (New York: DC Comics, 1944), 21-24.

13. Russ Barbee 13
adventurers.36
Other comics at the time might feature a single page devoted to a sports star, but
Wonder Woman comics taught their readers something valuable in every issue. A woman
doesn’t need super powers, she can accomplish anything through perseverance.
With Wonder Woman appearing in Sensation Comics and Wonder Woman monthly and
Comic Cavalcade and All-Star Comics quarterly, it seemed to be smooth sailing for the first
successful female superhero, but in 1947 William Moulton Marston died of cancer. He had only
worked on Wonder Woman for six years. Publisher of Wonder Woman and Sensation Comics
Charlie Gaines died in a boating accident the same year and Marston’s assistant Joye Murchison
resigned that month to take care of her sick child. DC Comics publisher, Jack Liebowitz, had to
find a replacement for Wonder Woman. Elizabeth Holloway, Marston’s wife, appealed to Jack
Liebowitz to take over for her husband, but in the end the job of writing Wonder Woman went to
Gardner Fox. The man who brought Wonder Woman into the Justice Society, made her their
secretary and kept her out of as many adventures as he could was now the writer of her
adventures.37
Over the course of the next few years Wonder Woman saw a drop in sales as Gardner
Fox all but destroyed the character. She lost her powers and became a lonely hearts columnist.
The Wonder Women of History feature dropped from four pages, to two, and then was phased
out completely. Any notion of feminism was replaced with a stereotype of the modern girl of the
50s. Wonder Woman pined away over Steve Trevor and drifted into near obscurity for almost
two decades.38
Yet following the success of the 1966 Batman series starring Adam West, DC
36
Jill Lepore, 358.
37
Jill Lepore, 390.
38
Jill Lepore, 420.

14. Russ Barbee 14
Comics decided to try Wonder Woman as a television show. From 1975 to 1979, Wonder
Woman started her return to prominence as Lynda Carter donned the star spangled outfit for
three seasons.
The feminist roots Marston set down in 1941 never fully returned to her stories but
Wonder Woman is still a reflection of her time. Today the character is as equal to her male
counterparts as Ronda Rousey and Gina Carano are to the men of the UFC. She appears in four
monthly titles and two weekly titles. In three of those titles she is the featured star and the other
three is an essential part of a team featuring men and women. She will be featured in the
upcoming Justice League movie franchise and her own feature film in 2017, but her legacy is
more astounding.
Today there are thousands of female superheroes and villains. Seven of the top ten
selling comic books last month featured a female lead. Female representation is also growing in
the creation of comic books. The Will Eisner Comic Industry Awards, the Oscars of the comic
book industry, this year feature 39 female nominees in artist, writer and editor categories.
Almost a third of the creators in comics today are women.39
When the comic book industry
started it was almost entirely a boys club. The readers, the characters and the creators were
predominantly men. Today it is not unusual to see women at the comic book shop and nearly
half of the attendees at comic book conventions worldwide are women.
It is not a stretch to say that Wonder Woman is the start of it all. When a publisher took a
chance on an Amazon princess back in 1941, he helped develop a feminist enterprise around the
character. They employed women in the creation of her stories, featured famous feminists in an
educational segment of the books and opened the door for female characters to prosper in the
39
Rich Johnston, “Comics with Female Leads, and with Star Wars, Dominate Marvel Digital Sales,” Bleeding Cool,
April 8, 2015, accessed April 8, 2015, http://www.bleedingcool.com/2015/04/08/comics-with-female-leads-and-
with-star-wars-dominate-marvel-digital-sales/.

15. Russ Barbee 15
mostly male world of comic books. Is Wonder Woman a male power fantasy or a feminist icon?
Gloria Steinem said, “Wonder Woman symbolizes many values of women’s culture: strength,
self-reliance, sisterhood, peace and esteem for human life.”40
Though William Marston certainly
played out a few fantasies; he made a professor who had irked him in real life into a villain
named Dr. Psycho. Lynda Carter said, “Wonder Woman is about a lot more than just superhero
stuff…she’s about truth, and it’s all heart with her.”41
Wonder Woman showed her strength and
superiority to men in every adventure. She showed compassion and love to her enemies and
shattered glass ceilings so other women could follow her. Gal Gadot, the actress who will play
Wonder Woman in the upcoming films, said in response to playing strong women onscreen, “I
get to play the strongest most empowering woman ever – Wonder Woman.”42
She’s been going
strong since 1941 and will probably be around for generations to come. Wonder woman is not
just a feminist icon. She is the first feminist icon of the comic book industry.
40
Phyllis Chesler and Gloria Steinem, Wonder Woman: A Ms Book (New York: Holt, Rinehart and Winston and
Warner Books, 1972), 3-5.
41
Jamie Sharpe, “Lynda Carter On What She Wants from the New Wonder Woman,” Vulture, October 20, 2014,
accessed April 24, 2015, http://www.vulture.com/2014/10/lynda-carter-new-wonder-woman.html.
42
Gai Pines, “Gal Gadot On Playing Wonder Woman in Batman v Superman,” Superherohype, March 21, 2015,
accessed March 25, 2015, http://www.superherohype.com/news/334265-gal-gadot-on-playing-wonder-woman-in-
batman-v-superman#/slide/1.