For a Film Noir course in the American Studies department, I performed original research on the publication history of Wonder Woman. For this project, I looked at scholarly articles, the newest Wonder Woman film, and looked at the original comics. (2019)
The World War II era was a peak time for comic books. Due to the widespread accessibility of comic books, “almost every kid in the United States was reading comic books” in 1939 (Lepore 198). Since they were so cheap, children could buy them with their own money
from a variety of drugstores and grocery stores. Although these books centered around fantastical elements of superheroes flying around in flowing capes and lifting buildings with super strength, according to William Moulton Marston, the creator of DC Comics’ Wonder Woman, there was “no better form of psychological propaganda than a comic book” (Lepore 51).
These books reflected the present-day world, meaning that the atmospheres and storylines
had to change and adapt along with present-day ideals and events. For example, when the ever-famous Batman debuted in Detective Comics in May 1939, a major U.S. Supreme Court case regarding gun-control, United States v. Miller, was taking place (Lepore 201). Because of this atmosphere where guns were so discussed, the writers of Batman allowed the character to use the controversial weapon in the stories. However, late in 1939, with World War II blooming in Europe, there was “a cherished American idea about the division between civilian and military life” (Lepore 201). Since superheroes were private citizens, Batman was given the new famous storyline that he was against all guns, due to the death of his parents (Lepore 201). Due to changing times, the entire story of Batman was changed. Even after World War II, comic books had to adapt to the changing world with “Marvel comics revis[ing] superheroes so they reacted to real world events such as poverty, radiation poisoning, crime, and the perceived threat of communism” (Ormrod 53).
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