Wonder Woman Unbound (24 page)

Ad for Gillette razors,
LIFE
magazine, October 24, 1938

Marston shows how the lie detector proves Gillette’s superiority. Though a Harvard-educated psychologist, Marston was a bit of a huckster as well.

Alice Marble. from
Wonder Woman
#1, All-American Comics, 1942

The former tennis star and associate editor of
Wonder Woman,
enjoying the series’ first issue. Marble worked on sixteen issues of the series and wrote the regular “Wonder Women of History” feature.

Sensation Comics
#13, cover by H. G. Peter, DC Comics, 1943

Wonder Woman strikes against Hitler, Hirohito, and Mussolini in this wartime issue.

Wonder Woman
#10, cover by H. G. Peter, DC Comics, 1944

Wonder Woman halts an alien invasion, ultimately ending the conflict by negotiating a trade agreement between Earth and Saturn.

Venus with Us
by William Moulton Marston, Sears Publishing, 1932

The classier, original cover for Marston’s sex romp novel about Julius Caesar. IMAGE COURTESY OF THE BOOK COLLECTOR’S LIBRARY (
WWW.TBCLRAREBOOKS.COM
)

The Private Life of Julius Caesar
by William Moulton Marston, Universal, 1952

Venus with Us
retitled and recovered as a pulp novel featuring scores of nude women to better reflect the lascivious story inside. IMAGE COURTESY OF HANG FIRE BOOKS (
WWW.HANGFIREBOOKS.COM
)

Wonder Woman
#103, cover by Ross Andru and Mike Espositio, DC Comics, 1959

New artists updated Wonder Woman’s look in the Silver Age, replacing Peter’s classic style with a more conventional aesthetic and a tweaked costume design.

Crime SuspenStories
#22, cover by Johnny Craig, EC Comics, 1954

The cover that doomed William Gaines’s testimony before the Senate Subcommittee on Juvenile Delinquency when he had to declare that it was “in good taste.”

The seal of the Comics Code Authority

The mark of the organization that monitored comic book content for decades.

Justice League of America
#1, cover by Murphy Anderson, DC Comics, 1960

For a decade, Wonder Woman was the only female member of DC’s superhero team—now a full member and not just the secretary.

Wonder Woman
#105, cover by Ross Andru and Mike Esposito, DC Comics, 1959

Robert Kanigher loved fantastical creatures, and giant birds were a common foe for Wonder Woman during the Silver Age.