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
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).