Les Daniels: Wonder Woman - The Complete History

Chronicle Books

$89.95

Review: Gilbert Wong*

Superman, Batman and Wonder Woman. DC Comics has long regarded the trinity of characters as bedrock in the pop-culture mythology of superheroes.

Not to get too pointy-headed, but they do represent archetypes. Superman is our virtue, the good and the just. Batman embodies our darker drives and flawed potential. And Wonder Woman is all that is good about her gender.

Feminists have, in turn, rejected and adopted the character, but it seems her creator had only the best intentions.

Dr William Moulton Marston created her as "psychological propaganda for the new type of woman who should rule the world" in 1941. So instead of Adam's rib, she was born of the magic clay of the Island of the Amazons, imbued with godlike powers that reflected the goddesses of classical antiquity: the beauty of Aphrodite, the wisdom of Hera, the agility and strength of Diana.

Marston, a psychologist, best known for his championing of the lie detector during the First World War, gave his creation a golden lasso: anyone caught in its coils was compelled to tell the truth. She was a product of her times. America had sent its men to war, women were working at male occupations. So what better role model than a superhero who was beautiful, independent and strong?

Daniels, a comic-book historian, does a workmanlike job, tracing her history and that of Marston. Like the other two in the trinity, changing times have forced a series of remodellings for the Amazon princess with what seems like an obvious outcome in the series Kingdom Come which presented a possible future for the DC universe of superheroes. Here a future Wonder Woman is shown as pregnant, carrying Superman's child, seeking Batman as the godfather. A match and fate made in comic-book heaven.

* Gilbert Wong is the Herald books editor.