Skip to main content

Marston and Wonder Woman

I found the background of Marston to be quiet interesting.  I loved that he was a famous psychologist who kind of randomly took up the idea of working on comic books.  I found his earlier history to be extremely cool, in that he came up with the idea for the lie detector.  Loved the random stories pertaining to this concept, such as that of the two friends who loved each other but were already engaged to other people whom the lie detector found they did not love.  Marston was extremely accomplished in his field, teaching at Radcliffe, Tuts, Columbia, NYU and the University of Southern California, it is shocking to me that he would leave this field to work in creating comic books.  Marston however made the correct decision as he ended up creating the first true super herione, or rather the first successful super herione as the book states another one named Olga Mesmer, the girl with the x-ray eyes was the first, but she did not achieve popularity.  

Marston did not abandon his psychological concepts as stated in the book "Marston believed women were less susceptible than men to the negative traits of aggression and acquisitiveness, and could come to control the comparatively unruly male sex by alluring them"(Wonder Woman, the Complete History, pg 19).    Thus, Marston was targeting a male audience, and having female characters who were often bonded and tied up the male readers flocked to the wonder woman comics.  Many of the villains in the Wonder Woman comic books were quiet twisted and wonderful, such as Dr. Poison who was originally portrayed as a man but turned out to be a woman.  The wonder woman comic books and their creator truly have interested me, hopefully the rest of the book will continue to hold my interest.

Comments

philippos42 said…
You're reading Les Daniels's Wonder Woman: the Complete History? That's a good book.

As for Marston's career change, I got the impression he'd been fired from instructing for moral turpitude (i.e., his long extramarital relationship with Olive Byrne) & discovered comics as a way to have a more stable income. Unlike many comic book writers & artists, he kept ultimate control of his character, which helped him stay nearly his own boss (though of course he had an editor).
February 27, 2008 at 4:24 PM
Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

Why blame comics for societal failure?

Why blame comics for societal failure? Society blamed comics for the societal failures because it was a fairly new industry, and as things seemed to go “wrong” they figured it must be comic books. When a child grew up during the war, his father was probably killing people and the military and his mother was probably making things in factories to help kill the opposition. The only things kids had to “babysit” them was comic books, and they read many different kinds. So when kids starting acting differently in this new generation the figured it must be the comic books. Society didn’t want to believe it may have been the internal and external scars war causes on the soldiers and their families. Also the fact that young unattended children are reading these comics may not be able to differentiate between fantasy and reality. When society fails it always needs a scapegoat then it was comic books next it was rock and roll. Society naturally resist change.
2 comments
Read more

The 1950s are often portrayed as a period of social cohesion. Why is this misleading?

When we think of the 1950's, most people think of similar things such as "Leave it to Beaver", very conservative and cliched pop music, and high patriotism. Our view of that time is one of social conformity to conservative values, with a traditional nuclear family where the father worked and the mother stayed home, where a majority of people attended church, where crime was relatively low, where a majority of American citizens were extremely patriotic, and where entertainment media emphasized these same conservative values and were subjected to censorship if they did not conform. This is misleading because while these things were all true to a certain extent, the world was obviously not perfect and not everyone was conforming or upholding traditional values, even if it seemed like they were. The 1950's were actually a very tumultuous time period, with the end of World War II leaving Europe war torn and in debt, the outbreak of the Korean War and the clashes of opinion...
1 comment
Read more

Were comics at the forefront of social transformation or lagging behind in the 1960’s?

Throughout the 60’s, comics were at the forefront of social transformation. Possibly the best example of this is through comics reflection of the public’s view of the Vietnam War. At the beginning of the war a majority of Americans fully supported the cause. The idea that communism, the most evil idea conceived, could spread first through South-East Asia and eventually to the US lead Americans to accept the need to occupy Vietnam. However as the war progressed it became more obvious that it was less to defend democracy and actually just a proxy war against Russia. As support for the war diminished, comics greatly altered their position on the war to question the causes of the war, and whether the US should actually be there. The comic Iron Man accurately represented this shift in support as he stopped dealing arms, and took a moral stand against their use. As well as Vietnam War culture, comics also accurately portrayed youth culture in the US throughout the 60’s. Comics suc...
Post a Comment
Read more