Wonder Woman

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Cosplayer as Wonder Woman

Wonder Woman is one of the oldest superheroes (and the first female superhero) at DC Comics . It was created by William Moulton Marston and his wife, Elizabeth Holloway Marston ( Sadie ), and made its first appearance in All Star Comics # 8 in 1941 .

history

1940s

With the introduction of Superman (1938) in Action Comics # 1, the era of superhero comics began. Soon, many publishers published their own superhero comics, so that this period was later called the “Golden Age” of comics. In the early 1940s, the psychologist and comic book fan William Moulton Marston, known as a feminist , made the observation that there were virtually no female characters to be found in the world of US comics. Marston, who was convinced of the "moral superiority" of women, found this a great mistake. He hooked up with Max Gaines, head of All-American Comics (which later became part of DC Comics), and came up with a woman who should be as strong as Superman, but "with feminine charm" ("all the strength of a Superman plus all the allure of a good and beautiful woman "). As the first classic superhero, Wonder Woman is carefully considered within the framework of gender sociology and feminism . Author Tim Hanley wrote about Wonder Woman in his book Wonder Woman Unbound.

Marston came up with a black-haired, strong and attractive Amazon princess named Diana, who was superhumanly strong and could fight well. As a superhero uniform, she wore a tiara, a red corsage with a golden eagle with outstretched wings on the hem, and a blue mini skirt with white stars: the latter were allusions to the US national flag. As equipment, she had a magical lasso that forced a captured victim to tell the truth. In addition, the Amazon had two silver bracelets with which she can ward off bullets. Just as Superman had a weakness against kryptonite, so was her weakness that she lost all of her strength when a man chained her bracelets together or handcuffed her. Initially, the Amazon's superhero name was Suprema , but the name was changed from Gaines to Wonder Woman .

Many of Marston's ideas can be traced back to contemporary and personal influences. The main inspiration came from his colleague Olive Byrne, a black-haired, very intelligent and emancipated woman who liked to wear large bracelets. Byrne later became the joint lover of Marston and his wife Sadie Marston . The magical lasso was Marston's other great invention, the lie detector . He saw in Wonder Woman both the expression of unconscious male desires to be bound and tamed by a woman, as well as a role model for young people who, in his opinion, appreciate submission to a loving authority through the comic and thus could learn a peaceful coexistence: “ Only when the control of the self by others is more pleasant than the unbound assertion of the self in interpersonal relationships can we hope for a stable, peaceful society. […] Giving to others, to be controlled by them, to submit to other people, cannot possibly be enjoyable without a strong erotic element. “When Marston introduced the idea of ​​Wonder Woman to Byrne, Byrne was convinced that the mostly male comic readers would never accept such an emancipated woman. The sales of magazines with Wonder Woman were above average: Marston correctly deduced that the readers liked Wonder Woman, not although , but because she was an atypically strong woman.

In 1941, Wonder Woman first appeared in All-Star Comics # 8, which told Wonder Woman's backstory. In this adventure, a US pilot named Steve Trevor crashes on Queen Hippolyta's "paradise island" Themyscira of the Amazons during the Second World War. Her daughter Princess Diana wins the right to lead him back into the "world of men", secretly follows him in her secret identity as Army Secretary Diana Prince and devotes herself to the fight against the Nazis . The comic inspired tennis star Alice Marble , so she accepted Max Gaines' invitation to join the newly planned Wonder Woman series as a co-author . The new series debuted the next year ( Wonder Woman # 1, May 1942). The soldier Etta Candy, who was introduced in the same year and becomes Diana's good friend, became an important supporting character. A running gag of the stories at the time was that Nazi hunter Trevor always wants to protect the supposedly weak Diana, but he himself is always saved by Wonder Woman. Moulton and Marble collaborated on the first 20 issues of Wonder Woman , with Marble writing four-page short stories about "historical wonder women" (e.g. Florence Nightingale , Clara Barton or Dorothea Dix ).

Lead author Marston soon ran into problems. He was an avid bondage fan and wrote many stories in which both men and women were tied up, flogged, or found themselves in humiliating positions. Wonder Woman was regularly tied up or seen without strength by chaining her bracelets. Although the scenes in the comics were more infantile than sexual, the bondage innuendos were clear. This led Max Gaines to send a memo to Marston advising him to "reduce the scenes in which Wonder Woman is seen in chains by 50 to 75 percent".

1950s

In the 1950s, the United States of America was in the grip of Senator Joseph McCarthy , under whom an anti-communist witch hunt for allegedly un-American and youth-endangering elements took place. In 1954, Fredric Wertham published his infamous book Seduction of the Innocent , in which he accused the staunch bachelor Batman as homosexual and the emancipated Wonder Woman as a lesbian and pleaded for the end of these comics. DC Comics was hit hard by this campaign and responded to the drop in sales by suspending or discontinuing many smaller comic series. The series Superman , Batman and Wonder Woman remained, which is why these three characters are still called "the big three" of DC Comics.

1960s

After this crisis began the "Silver Age" (German: silver age) of comics, in which superheroes were portrayed as more human and no longer as invulnerable. In addition, Wonder Woman's prehistory was rewritten and anchored more firmly in Greek mythology. Her powers and weapons were now seen as gifts from the gods: the bracelets were from Zeus , her lasso from Gaia , and she was literally "as beautiful as Aphrodite , as wise as Athena , stronger than Hercules and faster than Hermes " ( "beautiful as Aphrodite, wise as Athena, stronger than Hercules, and swifter than Hermes " ). Her red, blue and gold dress has now been explained in such a way that the design was inspired by Steve Trevor's US flag. Also, her sidekick Wonder Girl was invented (1965), a young girl named Donna Troy. During this time Wonder Woman temporarily lost her strength and, as a mortal woman, felt the effects of war and suffering much more strongly. Under her mentor, the blind Asian martial arts genius I Ching , who was introduced in 1968 , Diana learned Far Eastern hand-to-hand combat and was interpreted more as an adventurer than a superhero.

1970s

In the 1970s the " Bronze Age " (German: Bronzenes Zeitalter ) of comics began, which on the one hand was strongly influenced by socially critical and on the other hand by pop elements. Inspired by agent series such as James Bond or Mit Schirm, Charme und Melone , Wonder Woman, who had been influenced by the 1940s style until then, became a hip agent who looked more like Emma Peel from Mit Schirm, Charme und Melone than a Greek warrior. Visually, this meant a big change for the readers: While Wonder Woman had always worn a gold tiara, a red and gold corsage and a blue mini skirt with white stars since Marston's days, she now wore a mod that was based on the fashion of the 1970s -Dress. This change lasted for several years until the draftsmen drew it with a modernized version of the old costume: in this version the corsage and mini skirt were replaced by a one-piece. In addition, Wonder Woman was given superpowers again in 1973, partly because feminists interpreted the years of weakening of the most prominent superhero from DC Comics as sexist.

In the 70s, the very popular TV series Wonder Woman with Lynda Carter was filmed, which ran from 1975 to 1979 and still enjoys cult status today . In Germany, Wonder Woman comics were distributed by Ehapa Verlag from 1976 to 1983 . The "Germanized" name for the superhero was "Wundergirl". Later Wonder Woman editions were distributed either by Dino Verlag or Panini and used the original English title.

1980s

In the mid-80s, DC Comics decided the storyline Crisis on Infinite Earths , with which the DC Comics multiverse, overloaded with parallel dimensions, was cleaned up. (For example, the "normal" Earth was Earth-1; in Earth-2, all heroes were in the version before Wertham; in Earth-A, all heroes of Earth-1 were villains and vice versa.) In March 1986, Wonder Woman and Steve Trevor ( Wonder Woman # 329), but this was reversed after Crisis on Infinite Earths , as Steve Trevor had never met Diana in the modernized historiography. Instead of Steve, it was his (newly invented) mother Diana Trevor who flew over the Amazon Island during World War II and heroically sacrificed herself to banish a demon. Diana got her name from her and her red-blue-gold colors from her US flag. Trevor was also made older, and the romance between Diana / Wonder Woman and himself that had existed since the 1930s was changed so that he and Etta Candy are a couple instead.

This started the still-lasting "Modern Age" (German: the modern era ) of the comics. For Wonder Woman this meant that she was now being reinterpreted as the ambassador of the Amazon people who had the mission to bring peace and wisdom to the world of men. It was no longer written as omniscient and wise, but as a laborious beginner who learned only Greek and first had to learn English and how to use modern technology.

In addition, the gold edge of the Wonder Womans costume has been changed. If draftsmen had previously drawn an eagle with outspread wings, it has now been replaced by a stylized double W (for Wonder Woman). Since, in contrast to the eagle, this WW symbol could be patented, it became the new trademark of Wonder Woman products. Income from comics, characters, lunch boxes and so on could be increased, and the "WW" is still today an unmistakable symbol of Wonder Woman articles.

1990s

In the early 1990s, author William Messner-Loebs described Wonder Woman as a penniless woman traumatized by many strokes of fate. Diana had to struggle to get back into everyday life and worked, among other things, as a fast food saleswoman. Messner-Loebs had her temporarily (1994) lose her Wonder Woman role to a fellow Amazon parrot named Artemis. Mike Deodato's drawings, which were permeated by fanservice , polarized, but (or rather because of it) the editions sold very well. His successor, John Byrne, established that Wonder Woman's mother, Hippolyte, had also been a Wonder Woman before her. In addition, the ancient element was emphasized again, so that the Wonder Women often had to compete against classic Greek villains, especially against the evil god of war Ares and the devious sorceress Circe . In the course of time, Diana was re-established as the only Wonder Woman. She also won a new sidekick: When the DC writers made Donna Troy a "full-fledged" superhero named Troia , a young girl named Cassandra Sandsmark became the new Wonder Girl (1996).

2000s

In the new millennium, the DC Comics universe has been changed several times. In the Infinite Crisis storyline (2005) Wonder Woman is forced to kill the super villain Maxwell Lord , so that she is ostracized as a murderer in the DC Comics world. She goes into hiding and begins a relationship with her colleague Nemesis , which is later ended. In the DC-wide storyline One Year Later (2006) it was established that Donna Troy was in fact Diana's / Wonder Woman's magically created twin. In 2009, Wonder Woman's costume was changed again: on top she still wore a gold, blue and red body, but over it she wore a black leather jacket and black leggings (both a homage to the 1960s agent look), and the red boots disappeared.

2010s

Wonder Woman was drastically overtaken as part of the DC-wide storyline The New 52 (2011). The center of the new Wonder Woman story is the battle of the Greek gods against each other for supremacy on Mount Olympus. Author Brian Azzarello rewrote her backstory so that Diana is now a child of Hippolyte and the Greek father of gods Zeus . This makes Diana and especially Hippolyta the target of Zeus' betrayed wife Hera . Diana is instructed in the arts of war by Ares, but since she can feel grace, she is considered weak in his eyes. Nevertheless, she becomes the main character in this divine conflict. In addition, her relationship with Steve Trevor fails early on, so she begins a romance with Superman. It was told in its own DC series ( Superman / Wonder Woman ) since the fall of 2013 and ended with the fact that they separated in friendship.

In 2016, author Greg Rucka established that Wonder Woman was bisexual . This was received positively by the former Wonder Woman writer Gail Simone as well as by Wonder Woman actress Gal Gadot . As part of the DC-wide storyline Rebirth , Wonder Woman's backstory was updated to include Steve Trevor a member of the United States Navy SEALs , Etta Candy a lesbian African American, and her longtime archenemy Dr. Barbara Minerva (Cheetah) is more of a tragic character than a villain. In addition, updated versions of the classic Wonder Woman villains Dr. Poison, Dr. Cyber ​​and Circe introduced. The new main enemy was established as the unscrupulous entrepreneur Veronica Cale, whose daughter Izzy was kidnapped by Ares, who has since blackmailed her into pursuing Wonder Woman.

It was during this decade that Wonder Woman first appeared in real-life films, first as a supporting character in Batman v Superman: Dawn of Justice (2016), then as the main character in Wonder Woman (2017). In both films she was played by the Israeli actress Gal Gadot . In addition, the life story of its inventors William Marston, Sadie Marston and Olive Byrne was filmed in Professor Marston & The Wonder Women (2017), with the Wonder Woman comics being the main story .

Fictional biography

In the Golden Age version (from 1941) Wonder Woman is the Amazon princess Diana, who was created from clay by her mother Hippolyte and animated by the Greek gods. The base of their operations is the fictional Amazon island Themyscira, which is ruled by its mother Queen Hippolyta. Themyscira is also the seat of the purple beam , the fatal wounds can heal. During the Second World War, US pilot and Nazi hunter Steve Trevor crashes on the Amazon island of Themyscira. Diana heals him with the purple ray and acquires the right to fight against the Nazis as a "Wonder Woman" in the "World of Men" in a competition against her fellow amazons. Her secret civil identity at the time was Diana Prince . Wonder Womans superpowers are superhuman strength, speed and the ability to fly (since 1960). She received her superpowers as a gift from the Greek gods, so she is faster than Hermes and stronger than Hercules . Her equipment includes the Golden Lasso of Truth, which forces everyone who touches it to tell the truth and with which she can also create illusions. She wears silver bracelets around her wrists, with which she can catch bullets (thanks to her super speed). Her golden browband also serves as a weapon, and she also has an invisible jet. In this early version, Diana still loses her Amazonian strength whenever she was tied up by a man, as the Amazons generally saw themselves as superior to men.

In the 1960s, the Silver Age , their story was reinterpreted. It was established that not Steve Trevor, but his mother Diana Trevor, made an emergency landing on the island of Themyscira during World War II and died a heroic death when she helped the Amazons in a fight against demons. In addition, Ares, the god of war, was identified as the main enemy. Diana's competition for the role as "Wonder Woman" was reinterpreted so that Wonder Woman was an ambassador who should spread the peaceful teachings of the Amazons in the "world of men". During this time, Diana often switched between her superhero role as Wonder Woman and her civilian identity as Diana Prince. This interpretation lasted throughout the Bronze Age , but in 2011 (in the storyline The New 52 ) Wonder Woman's backstory was radically changed. She was no longer a clay figure created for life by divine grace, but a demigoddess. She was now the biological daughter of the Amazon queen Hippolyte and the god Zeus. This interpretation was essentially retained as part of the DC-wide storyline Rebirth (2016), but it was established that with the departure from Themyscira, Wonder Woman is an exile who has forfeited her immortality and any possibility of return.

In the real- life film Wonder Woman , which takes place in the DC Extended Universe during the First World War, Diana is introduced as the only child of the paradise island Themyscira, which, according to legend, was created from clay by Queen Hippolyta and brought to life by Zeus, but in fact her own Daughter is. After rescuing the crashed pilot Steve Trevor, she is convinced that Ares was behind the First World War. As Wonder Woman she accompanies him back to the Belgian war front and fights against the German General Erich Ludendorff , the poison gas expert Dr. Isabel Maru and finally Ares herself. In this interpretation she experienced a culture shock when she first reached Europe in 1918 and is extremely gifted with languages, especially in ancient languages.

Similar to Superman , who uses a telephone booth to change from his civilian identity to his superhero identity , Wonder Woman either uses her lasso, the loop of which she twirls around her and magically changes her costume, or a super-fast pirouette . The latter was often seen in the TV series.

Wonder Woman literally stands for divine truth, justice, courage and pride in the DC universe . Their goal of world peace it combines with other heroes like Superman and Batman, with whom they also together in the Justice League (also: Justice League , in the original English: Justice League of America ) fights evil in any form.

Friends and enemies

Cosplayer as Donna Troy, the first Wonder Girl

Within the DC universe, Wonder Woman has a close mother-daughter relationship with Queen Hippolyta , and she also maintains close ties to her sidekicks Donna Troy (since 1965) and Cassandra Sandsmark (since 1996) and her fellow amazons on the paradise island of Themyscira. Her colleague Artemis (since 1994) was initially her biggest competitor, but developed into her loyal colleague. Traditionally, Wonder Woman and Superman share a deep connection that remained platonic in the mainstream universe for a long time until they were described as lovers in 2013 (in US Superman / Wonder Woman ). In DC comics in alternative universes (e.g. Kingdom Come or JLA: Act of God ) they start a family.

Wonder Woman also has good connections with soldier Etta Candy and her boss, Colonel Steve Trevor . Trevor's role has changed many times over the decades. After she got to know him from her first appearance in All Star Comics # 8 (1941), she followed him under the secret identity "Diana Prince" and accompanied him back to the "world of men" against the Nazis. Under Marston it was established that Wonder Woman loved Trevor and Trevor also developed feelings for her alter ego Diana Prince, and that the two married in 1986. This version has not existed since the relaunch ( Crisis on Infinite Earths ), because since then not Steve Trevor, but his mother Diana crashed on Paradise Island. Steve Trevor himself has only been Wonder Woman's colleague since then, and there are no longer any romantic connections. The somewhat plump soldier Etta Candy has also existed since the 1940s. She was Diana and Wonder Woman's best friend in early Wonder Woman stories without realizing they were one and the same person. Since the relaunch in 1985, Candy and Steve Trevor were briefly written as a married couple; later ( The New 52 , 2011) Trevor became the boss of Candy. In this reinterpretation, Wonder Woman and Trevor were briefly a couple until they ended the relationship - they have been reconciled since the DC-wide DC Rebirth (2016).

Wonder Woman's arch enemies are the god of war Ares , the sorceress Circe , the scientist / wascat Cheetah (who has existed in various incarnations since 1943) and the staunch Nazi princess Baroness Paula von Günther . Other enemies from the early Wonder Woman comics are the slave driver Eviless , the poison gas terrorist Dr. Poison , the giant Giganta and the hacker Dr. Cyber , some of whom fought together in the villainy Inc. super villain group against Wonder Woman, and the misogynistic telepath Dr. Psycho . Even Hercules is viewed critically in the Wonder Woman comic books. This is a homage to the ninth of the twelve legendary deeds , in which Heracles stole the armor from the Amazon queen Hippolyte. In the DC Comics version, Heracles wanted to enslave the entire Amazon people, but this failed. Since the relaunch in 2011, in which Wonder Woman was interpreted as a demigoddess, the deities Hera , Apollo , Artemis (not to be confused with the Amazon of the same name), Eris and Hermes are her enemies. Hera hates Wonder Woman for being a bastard of her husband Zeus, Apollo was predicted to die by "a child of Zeus," and they are aided in their campaign by Apollo's sister Artemis, Ares' sister Eris, and the devious Hermes.

comics

So far there have been five series of Wonder Woman:

  • First series (Vol. 1): 329 issues, 1942–1986
  • Second series (Vol. 2): 228 issues (incl. # 0 and # 1,000,000), plus eight annuals , 1987-2006
  • Third series (Vol. 3): 60 issues, plus an annual, 2006–2011
  • Fourth series (Vol. 4): 55 issues (incl. # 0, # 23.1 and # 23.2), plus an annual, 2011–2016
  • Fifth series (Vol. 5): 23 issues, plus an Annual and a One Shot , since 2016 (as of July 2017)

Comics from the series appeared in the German-speaking countries , in particular with Ehapa , Dino , Panini and Eaglemoss .

TV Shows

From 1975 a television series Wonder Woman with Lynda Carter in the leading role was broadcast by the US television station American Broadcasting Company . After 3 seasons with 61 episodes (including two long episodes) the series was discontinued.

Wonder Woman is also a regular character in the US animated series Justice League and Justice League Unlimited .

In March 2011, filming began for a new edition of the real series. The television broadcast was supposed to start in the fall, but was eventually dropped by NBC. Adrianne Palicki took on the role of Wonder Woman .

A new adaptation of the material as a television series is currently being developed for the station The CW under the title Amazon . The aim is to show the character's life as a young Amazon before she became a superhero. The broadcaster was originally supposed to order a pilot film in the course of 2013, but the broadcaster was not satisfied with the script and put production on hold for the time being.

Movies

Wonder Woman actress Gal Gadot (2014)

As early as 1974, a television film entitled Wonder Woman had been broadcast on ABC . The title character was played by former tennis professional Cathy Lee Crosby , her mother, Amazon queen Hippolyte, played by Charlene Holt .

In 2009, a cartoon titled Wonder Woman was made, directed by Lauren Montgomery and scripted by Michael Jelenic . The essential genesis of Wonder Woman follows the Golden Age version very loosely, including the character Steve Trevor as Diana's romance, but is set in more modern times.

In 2017, a new film , Wonder Woman, directed by Patty Jenkins , was released as part of the DC Extended Universe . The role of the main character was taken over by the Israeli actress Gal Gadot . This embodiment of Wonder Woman had her first appearance in 2016 in the film Batman v Superman: Dawn of Justice , another later in Justice League .

Also in 2017 was the biographical film Professor Marston & The Wonder Women , which describes the meeting of Wonder Woman inventor William Moulton Marston and his wife Sadie Marston with their future lover Olive Byrne. The invention of Wonder Woman comics is an important subplot in this film .

Award

In 2017 he was inducted into the Science Fiction Hall of Fame

literature

  • Lukas Etter / Thomas Nehrlich / Joanna Nowotny (eds.): Reader superheroes. Theory - History - Media . Bielefeld: transcript 2018. ISBN 978-3-8376-3869-1
  • Jill Lepore: The Secret History of Wonder Woman . New York: Alfred A. Knopf, 2014, ISBN 978-0-385-35404-2

Web links

Commons : Wonder Woman and her cast  - collection of pictures, videos and audio files

Individual evidence

  1. a b c Wonder Woman: Love and Murder by Jodi Picoult. Jodi Picoult, accessed April 17, 2019 (British English).
  2. a b Suffering Sappho! A Look At The Creator & Creation of Wonder Woman. Retrieved April 17, 2019 .
  3. ^ A b Hanley, Tim: Wonder Woman Unbound: The Curious History of the World's Most Famous Heroine , 2014, Chicago Press
  4. Charles Lyons: Suffering Sappho! A Look at the creator & creation of Wonder Woman , Comic Book Resources , August 23, 2006
  5. In memory of William Moulton Marston ( Memento from May 27, 2012 in the Internet Archive )
  6. a b Comic Book Legends Revealed # 333 , Comic Book Resources
  7. Comic Book Legends Revealed # 407 , Comic Book Resources
  8. DC Retroactive: Wonder Woman - The '90s # 1 , Comic Book Resources
  9. The Contest , carolastrickland.com
  10. Wonder Woman Throughout The Years , Comic Book Resources
  11. Wonder Woman is 'obviously' bisexual, DC comic writer Greg Rucka confirms , abc.net.au
  12. ^ Gal Gadot Addresses the Idea That Wonder Woman Is Bisexual , time.com
  13. About the beginning of the shooting of the new Wonder Woman series. (English); Retrieved March 15, 2011
  14. cinema.de
  15. Nellie Andreeva: Wonder Woman CW Drama 'Amazon' Rolled. In: Deadline.com. January 28, 2013, accessed January 31, 2013 .
  16. Nellie Andreeva: UPDATE: CW Eyes' Flash 'Series With' Arrow's Greg Berlanti, Andrew Kreisberg & David Nutter. In: Deadline.com. July 30, 2013, accessed December 2, 2013 .
  17. Wonder Woman. The Actresses ( Memento of May 2, 2005 in the Internet Archive ), on: community-2.webtv.net
  18. Science Fiction Hall of Fame 2017 . Retrieved November 25, 2017.