The purpose of my research concerning the super heroine Wonder Woman is to identify the
circumstances under which the comic was created, why its creator was set on using the medium of
comics, the messages he was trying to communicate to American society regarding the roles of
women, plus why it has maintained its fan base from the 1940s to the present. My use of feminist
and iconographic analysis provided me with a wealth of knowledge concerning how this
avant-garde comic series contested the widely accepted conventions concerning women with its
sarcastic images plus pejorative text. Creator William Moulton Marston in collaboration with
comic artist Harry Peter set into motion a wave of feminist nuances within their comic run of
Wonder Woman that aided the epoch of female empowerment during the 1940s. The text coupled
with the artwork created a cohesive whole upon which the creative team could instill their views on
contemporary society. Wonder Woman’s personage gave both men plus women an icon of what a
woman was capable of should she possess an air of social, political, plus sexual autonomy. I came
to the conclusion that upon creation, Marston infused an image of a strong-willed woman among
his contemporaries that he hoped would one day overtake its widely traditional submissive
counterpart, plus not only in the realm of comics.

“In the beginning, there was Wonder
Woman. And in the beginning of Wonder
Woman, there was feminism”.i Following
the attacks on Pearl Harbor on December 7,
1941, a Harvard-educated psychologist by
the name of William Moulton Marston took it
upon himself to enter the realm of the comic
book world. Not only was he taking on a
medium that was not strictly speaking
“popular”, he also endeavored to create a
female super hero character plus endow her
with traits not typically associated with the
female sex. Inspired by his wife Elizabeth
Holloway Marston to create a female super
hero character, Marston envisaged a
character with the likeness of his secretary
and assistant, Olive Byrne Richard (she had
dark hair, blue eyes, plus wore metal bracelets
on both wrists).ii Marston had already
established a name for himself in the
psychological field, had written several
books, plus is known today as the brains
behind the lie detector test. He, his wife
Elizabeth, their four children, plus his lover
Olive Richard all lived together. While the
men were away at war following the Pearl
Harbor attacks, women were allowed to enter
the work force plus go outside the confines of
their designated plus widely-accepted social
“place”, be it the nursery, the home, or the
kitchen within it. This radical change
corresponds to the shift of conventions
generally accepted in the American mindset
concerning the roles of women within the
domestic, economic, plus political spheres
that are explicitly disclosed in Marston’s
work. His creation of Wonder Woman, in
collaboration with comic artist Harry Peter,
instilled an image to contemporary 1940s
America of what a woman could, should, and
would look like in the generations to follow.