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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

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

1 Sgt. Sanderson Vanderbilt, “The Comics,” Yank: The Army Weekly, November 1945, 8.2 Vanderbilt, 6.

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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

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

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.

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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.

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

6 Sheldon Mayer, “Scribbly,” All-American Comics, November 1940, 11-14.7 Tim Hanley, Wonder Woman Unbound, 9.

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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

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

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.

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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

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

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, 254.14 Franklyn Branley “The Plague of the Comics,” The Elementary English Review 19, no. 5 (May 1942): 181-82.

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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

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

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): 336-42.18 Jill Lepore, 256.

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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 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. 19 Jill Lepore, 258.20 Peter Marston, “Elizabeth H. Marston, Inspiration for Wonder Woman, 100,” New York Times, April 3, 1993.21 William Marston, “Why 100,000,000 Americans Read Comics,” The American Scholar 13, no. 1 (Winter 1943-44): 35-44.

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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.

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.

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, 108.25 Charles Moulton, All-Star Comics #8 (New York: DC Comics, 1941), 59.

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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.

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

26 Charles Moulton, All-Star Comics #8 (New York: DC Comics, 1941), 59-64.27 Charles Moulton, Wonder Woman (1943) #4 (New York: DC Comics, 1943), 17-30.

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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.

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

28 Charles Moulton, Wonder Woman (1942) #2 (New York: DC Comics, 1942), 6.29 Jill Lepore, 241.

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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.

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 30 Jill Lepore, 242.31 Gardner Fox, All-Star Comics (1942) #14 (New York: DC Comics, 1942), 3.32 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.

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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

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

35 Alice Marble, Wonder Woman #8 (New York: DC Comics, 1944), 21-24.36 Jill Lepore, 358.

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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

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.

37 Jill Lepore, 390.38 Jill Lepore, 420.

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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

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

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/.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.

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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.