Editing William Moulton Marston (section)

==Wonder Woman==
{{Main|Wonder Woman}}

===Creation===
On October 25, 1940, an interview conducted by his partner Olive Byrne (under the pseudonym "Olive Richard") was published in ''[[Family Circle|The Family Circle]]'' (titled "Don't Laugh at the Comics"), in which Marston said that he saw "great educational potential" in comic books. (A follow-up article was published two years later in 1942.<ref>Richard, Olive. ''[http://www.wonderwoman-online.com/articles/fc-marston.html Our Women Are Our Future] {{webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20060727002702/http://www.wonderwoman-online.com/articles/fc-marston.html|date=July 27, 2006}}''</ref>) The interview caught the attention of comics publisher [[Max Gaines]], who hired Marston as an educational consultant for [[National Periodical Publications]] and [[All-American Publications]], two of the companies that would later merge to form [[DC Comics]].<ref>{{cite web |url=https://comicsalliance.com/tribute-william-moulton-marston/ |title=Sex, Love, Bondage: The Singular Vision of William Moulton Marston |last=Cereno |first=Benito |date=May 9, 2016 |website=[[ComicsAlliance]] |access-date=May 9, 2016}}</ref>

In the early 1940s, the DC Comics line was dominated by superpower-endowed male characters such as the [[Green Lantern]] and [[Superman]], as well as [[Batman]], with his high-tech gadgets. According to the Fall 2001 issue of the [[Boston University]] alumni magazine, it was the idea of Marston's wife, [[Elizabeth Holloway Marston]], to create a female superhero. Marston recommended an idea for a new kind of superhero, one who would conquer not with fists or firepower, but with love. "Fine," said Elizabeth, "but make her a woman."<ref name="bu">Lamb, Marguerite. "[https://web.archive.org/web/20070104060542/http://www.bu.edu/alumni/bostonia/2001/fall/wonderwoman/ Who Was Wonder Woman? Long-Ago LAW Alumna Elizabeth Marston Was the Muse Who Gave Us a Superheroine]", ''Boston University Alumni Magazine'', Fall 2001.</ref><ref name="outtowns">Malcolm, Andrew H. [https://query.nytimes.com/gst/fullpage.html?res=9E0CE1DF1539F93BA25751C0A964958260&sec=&spon=&pagewanted=print "OUR TOWNS; She's Behind the Match For That Man of Steel"]. ''The New York Times'', February 18, 1992.</ref>

Marston introduced the idea to Max Gaines, co-founder with [[Jack Liebowitz]] of All-American Publications. Given the go-ahead, Marston developed Wonder Woman, basing her character on the unconventional, liberated, powerful modern women of his day.<ref name="NYT-20141023" />{{sfn|Daniels|2000|pp=28–30}} Marston's pseudonym, Charles Moulton, combined his own and Gaines's middle names.<ref>{{cite web |url=https://www.cbr.com/suffering-sappho-a-look-at-the-creator-creation-of-wonder-woman/ |title=Suffering Sappho! A Look At The Creator & Creation of Wonder Woman |last=Lyons |first=Charles |date=August 23, 2006 |website=[[Comic Book Resources]] |access-date=April 28, 2017}}</ref>

In a 1943 issue of [[The American Scholar (magazine)|''The American Scholar'']], Marston wrote: "Not even girls want to be girls so long as our feminine archetype lacks force, strength, and power. Not wanting to be girls, they don't want to be tender, submissive, peace-loving as good women are. Women's strong qualities have become despised because of their weakness. The obvious remedy is to create a feminine character with all the strength of Superman plus all the allure of a good and beautiful woman."<ref>Marston, William Moulton. ''[https://theamericanscholar.org/wonder-woman/ Why 100,000,000 Americans Read Comics],'' The American Scholar Vol. 13, No. 1 (Winter 1943–44). pp. 35–44.</ref>

In 2017, a majority of Marston's personal papers arrived at the [[Schlesinger Library]] at the [[Radcliffe Institute for Advanced Study at Harvard University]]; this collection helps to tell the backstory of "Wonder Woman", including his unorthodox personal life with two idealistic and strong women, Olive Byrne and Elizabeth Marston, with a connection to [[Margaret Sanger]], one of the most influential feminists of the twentieth century.<ref name="THG">{{cite web |url=https://news.harvard.edu/gazette/story/2017/09/harvard-receives-personal-papers-of-wonder-womans-complex-creator/ |title=The life behind Wonder Woman |last=Walsh |first=Colleen |date=September 7, 2017 |website=[[The Harvard Gazette]] |access-date=December 16, 2017}}</ref>

===Development===
Marston's character was a native of an all-female [[utopia]] of Amazons who became a crime-fighting U.S. government agent, using her superhuman strength and agility, and her ability to force villains to submit and tell the truth by binding them with her magic [[lasso]].{{sfn|Lepore|2014|pp=183–209}} Her appearance was believed by some to be based somewhat on [[Olive Byrne]], and her heavy bronze bracelets (which she used to deflect bullets) were inspired by bracelets worn by Byrne.<ref>[http://www.mediafire.com/file/0qcag8bb0x8cjgo/WhoIsWonderWoman+PDF--manuscript.pdf ''Jett, Brett. Who Is Wonder Woman?'']</ref>

After her name "Suprema, the Wonder Woman" was replaced with simply "[[Wonder Woman]]", which was a popular term at the time that described women who were exceptionally gifted, the character made her debut in ''[[All Star Comics]]'' [[All Star Comics 8|#8]] in December 1941. Wonder Woman next appeared in ''[[Sensation Comics]]'' #1 (January 1942), and six months later, ''Wonder Woman'' #1 debuted.{{sfn|Lepore|2014|pp=183–209}} Except for four months in 1986, the series has been in print ever since. The stories were initially written by Marston and illustrated by newspaper artist [[H. G. Peter|Harry Peter]]. During his life Marston had written many articles and books on various psychological topics, but his last six years of writing were devoted to his comics creation.<ref>{{cite magazine |last=Joyce |first=Nick |date=December 2008 |title=Wonder Woman: A psychologist's creation |url=https://www.apa.org/monitor/2008/12/wonder-woman |publisher=[[American Psychological Association]] |volume=39 |issue=11 |page=20}}</ref>