Wonder Woman Unbound (44 page)

“
The title is from the Latin ‘Venus nobiscum’ …
” William Moulton Marston,
Venus with Us,
(New York: Sears Publishing Company, 1932), inside flap, via the Book Collector’s Library,
www.tbclrarebooks.com
.

“
Here is the whole panorama of Roman times …
” William Moulton Marston,
The Private Life of Julius Caesar (Venus with Us)
(New York: Universal, 1953), 1953, back cover.

“
Is it possible that you do not understand …
” Ibid., 65.

“
love without pleasure is a dreary occupation …
” Ibid., 66.

“
I have a notion it’s really rather good …
” Ibid., 39.

Ursula lost, and much tickling and spanking …
Ibid., 266–267.

“
I
love
to call you Mistress …
” Ibid., 135.

“
it was the girl who ruled …
” Ibid., 19.

“
She made him boast himself her slave …
” Ibid., 20.

Metala kept her as a slave …
Ibid., 76–82.

“
but Caesar, with a natural gift for psychology …
” Ibid., 15.

“
Julius glanced about the room and laughed …
” Ibid., 45.

“
the prettiest sight I have ever seen” …
Ibid., 231.

“
the most marvelous spectacle …
” Ibid., 242.

“
Caesar had not felt so well for twenty years …
” Ibid., 236.

William Moulton Marston, Bondage Connoisseur

“
This is the famous ‘brank’ …
”
Wonder Woman
#6 (Fall 1943).

In certain areas of Europe from the sixteenth …
See “The Brank,” Medieval Times & Castles,
www.medievality.com/brank.html
.

“
As the Fabulous French Women’s Prison Falls …
” Carl De Vidal Hunt, “As the Fabulous French Women’s Prison Falls After 14 Years, Comes the First Look-In on Its Million Secrets,”
Miami News,
June 19, 1932, and several other newspapers across the country, with further reports in the weeks that followed.

embedding Wonder Woman in a three-inch-thick statue …
Wonder Woman
#8 (Spring 1944).

freezing her in a block of ice …
Wonder Woman
#13 (Summer 1945).

turning her into a being of pure color …
Wonder Woman
#16 (March/April 1946).

The Interconnectedness of All Things

call Marston a quack or a pervert …
See David Hadju,
The Ten-Cent Plague: The Great Comic-Book Scare and How It Changed America
(New York: Farar, Straus, and Giroux, 2008), 77–78; and Douglas Wolk,
Reading Comics: How Graphic Novels Work and What They Mean
(Cambridge, MA: Da Capo Press, 2008), 98, for dismissive treatments of Marston.

pretend that the bondage is inconsequential …
See Robbins,
The Great Women Superheroes,
12–13.

Interlude 1:
Wonder Woman’s
Extra Features

The Golden Age

“
what a large part comics and comic books …
”
Wonder Woman
#1 (Summer 1942).

“
women still have many problems and have not yet …
” Alice Marble, letter to Miss Nila Frances Allen, July 23, 1942, available at
http://scoop.diamondgalleries.com//files/05/13/92/f051392/public/default.asp?t=1&m=1&c=34&s=259&ai=53962&ssd=9/16/2006&arch=y
.

In 1944, the newly married Marble suffered …
See Alice Marble and Dale Leatherman,
Courting Danger: My Adventures in World-Class Tennis, Golden-Age Hollywood, and High-Stakes Spying
(New York: St. Martin’s Press, 1991), 192–239.

The Interregnum

“
Race to the Top of the World” …
Wonder Woman
#30 (July/August 1948).

“
You Name It” …
Wonder Woman
#31 (September/October 1948).

the calendar …
“Our Amazing Calendar,” in
Wonder Woman
#32 (November/December 1948).

the Colossus of Rhodes …
“The Majestic Giant,” in
Wonder Woman
#33 (February 1949).

pineapples …
“The Friendly Fruit,” in
Wonder Woman
#37 (October 1949).

unique headdresses …
“Where’d You Get That Hat?” in
Wonder Woman
#41 (May/June 1950).

“
can wear her hair in bangs or a chignon …
” “Those Lovely Liberty Belles,” in
Wonder Woman
#58 (March/April 1953).

4. A Herculean Task

Wonder Woman comics from the Silver Age are collected in four black-and-white
Showcase Presents: Wonder Woman
volumes comprising
Wonder Woman
#98 through
Wonder Woman
#177. All other DC series mentioned are collected in either
Showcase
or
Archive
volumes, occasionally both, with varying degrees of completeness. Typically, the more well-known the character, the more collections there will be.

surveys showed that 80 percent of female wartime workers …
Maureen Honey,
Creating Rosie the Riveter: Class, Gender, and Propaganda During World War II
(Amherst: University of Massachusetts Press, 1984), 24.

Prelude to the Silver Age

For information on Wertham, the Senate hearings, and the Comics Code Authority, see Bart Beaty’s
Fredric Wertham and the Critique of Mass Culture;
David Hadju’s
The Ten-Cent Plague: The Great Comic-Book Scare and How It Changed America;
Amy Kiste Nyberg’s
Seal of Approval: The History of the Comics Code;
and pretty much every book written on the history of comics ever. Information about William Gaines came from Frank Jacobs’s
The Mad World of William M. Gaines.

He argued against Ethel Rosenberg’s solitary …
Bart Beaty,
Fredric Wertham and the Critique of Mass Culture
(Jackson: University Press of Mississippi, 2005), 85.

he gave testimony during the landmark …
Ibid., 95.

several articles about the dangers of comic books …
See Fredric Wertham, “The Comics … Very Funny,”
Saturday Review of Literature,
May 29, 1948, 6–7, 27–29; Wertham, “The Curse of Comic Books: The Value Patterns and Effects of Comic Books,”
Religious Education
49 (1954) : 394–406.

“
1) The comic-book format …
” Fredric Wertham,
Seduction of the Innocent
(New York: Rinehart & Company, 1954), 118.

“
Hitler was a beginner compared to …
” “Testimony of Dr. Fredric Wertham, Psychiatrist, Director, Lafargue Clinic, New York, N.Y.,” April 21, 1954, available at
www.thecomicbooks.com/wertham.html
.

“
My only limits are the bounds of good taste …
” “Testimony of William S. Gaines, Publisher, Entertaining Comics Group, New York, N.Y.,” April 21, 1954, available at
www.thecomicbooks.com/gaines.html
.

No H
ARM IN
H
ORROR
, C
OMICS
I
SSUE
S
AYS
…
Peter Khiss, “No Harm in Horror, Comics Issuer Says; Comics Publisher Sees No Harm in Horror, Discounts ‘Good Taste,’”
New York Times,
April 22, 1954.

“
in every instance shall good triumph …
” 1955 Comic Code, in Amy Kiste Nyberg,
Seal of Approval: The History of the Comics Code
(Jackson: University Press of Mississippi, 1998), 166.

“
terror” and “horror” …
Ibid., 167.

The Dawn of the Silver Age

For information concerning the Silver Age, see
Superhero: The Secret Origin of a Genre
by Peter Coogan,
Men of Tomorrow: Geeks, Gangsters and the Birth of the Comic Book
by Gerard Jones, and
Comic Book Nation: The Transformation of Youth Culture in America
by Bradford Wright, though again, any book on this period will cover similar ground.

Hal Jordan, who appeared as the new Green Lantern …
First appeared in
Showcase
#22 (October 1959), created by John Broome and Gil Kane.

The new Hawkman, Katar Hol …
First appeared in
The Brave and the Bold
#34 (February/March 1961), created by Gardner Fox and Joe Kubert.

Ray Palmer, was a physicist …
First appeared in
Showcase
#34 (September/October 1961), created by Gardner Fox and Gil Kane.

Martian Manhunter …
First appeared in
Detective Comics
#225 (November 1955), created by Joseph Samachson and Joe Certa.

Supergirl …
First appeared in
Action Comics
#252 (May 1959), created by Otto Binder and Curt Swan.

Fantastic Four gained superpowers …
First appeared in
The Fantastic Four
#1 (November 1961), created by Stan Lee and Jack Kirby.

Peter Parker became Spider-Man …
First appeared in
Amazing Fantasy
#15 (August 1962), created by Stan Lee and Steve Ditko.

Bruce Banner into the raging Hulk …
First appeared in
The Incredible Hulk
#1 (May 1962), created by Stan Lee and Jack Kirby.

Kathy Kane became Batwoman …
First appeared in
Detective Comics
#233 (July 1956), created by Bob Kane and Sheldon Moldoff.