He originally wanted to call her
“Suprema, the Wonder Woman,” a name only one letter removed from “Superman.”
Reacting against the
“bloodcurdling masculinity” of Superman and friends in 1941, psychologist William
Moulton Marston — who sat on DC Comics’ editorial board — decided to create a
philosophical counterweight under his pen name of Charles Moulton.
A direct challenge to DC’s
flagship hero, his Wonder Woman espoused the virtues of love, not war, and
argued for the equality — and frequently, even the superiority — of women.
Debuting in All-Star Comics in December 1941, Wonder Woman had the lead feature
in Sensation Comics and her own title
the next year.
Wonder Woman’s bullet-repelling
bracelets are the remnants of shackles worn by the Amazons after their conquest
by Hercules, designated by the Greek goddesses as both a check on Amazon power
and a necessary condition of it.
If the bracelets are chained
together by a man, an Amazon loses her superhuman strength. But if they’re
broken or removed, she becomes drunk with power, losing her feminine capacity
for the just, compassionate use of force.
Domination and submission are
therefore symbolically represented as inescapable elements of human nature.
Michael Fraley weote, "Acknowledging that often the message of love and peace was at times lost in the middle of all of the fights and bondage, but you know, these days I just grit my teeth any time I see WW with a sword. It pushes her visual just that much closer to the god of war - anathema to the concept."
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