Wonder Woman Unbound: The Curious History of the World's Most Famous Heroine

by Tim Hanley

With her golden lasso and her bullet-deflecting bracelets, Wonder Woman is a beloved icon of female strength in a world of male superheroes. But this close look at her history portrays a complicated heroine who is more than just a female Superman. The original Wonder Woman was ahead of her time, advocating female superiority and the benefits of matriarchy in the 1940s. At the same time, her creator filled the comics with titillating bondage imagery, and Wonder Woman was tied up as often as she saved the world. In the 1950s, Wonder Woman begrudgingly continued her superheroic mission, wishing she could settle down with her boyfriend instead, all while continually hinting at hidden lesbian leanings. While other female characters stepped forward as women’s lib took off in the late 1960s, Wonder Woman fell backwards, losing her superpowers and flitting from man to man. Ms. magazine and Lynda Carter restored Wonder Woman’s feminist strength in the 1970s, turning her into a powerful symbol as her checkered past was quickly forgotten. Exploring this lost history as well as her modern incarnations adds new dimensions to the world’s most beloved female character, and Wonder Woman Unbound delves into her comic book and its spin-offs as well as the myriad motivations of her creators to showcase the peculiar journey that led to Wonder Woman’s iconic status.

2015 Amelia Bloomer Project List This close look at Wonder Woman’s history portrays a complicated heroine who is more than just a female Superman with a golden lasso and bullet-deflecting bracelets. The original Wonder Woman was ahead of her time, advocating female superiority and the benefits of matriarchy in the 1940s. At the same time, her creator filled the comics with titillating bondage imagery, and Wonder Woman was tied up as often as she saved the world. In the 1950s, Wonder Woman begrudgingly continued her superheroic mission, wishing she could settle down with her boyfriend instead, all while continually hinting at hidden lesbian leanings. While other female characters stepped forward as women’s lib took off in the late 1960s, Wonder Woman fell backwards, losing her superpowers and flitting from man to man. Ms. magazine and Lynda Carter restored Wonder Woman’s feminist strength in the 1970s, turning her into a powerful symbol as her checkered past was quickly forgotten. Exploring this lost history adds new dimensions to the world’s most beloved female character, and Wonder Woman Unbound delves into her comic book and its spin-offs as well as the myriad motivations of her creators to showcase the peculiar journey that led to Wonder Woman’s iconic status.

Genres: Nonfiction, History, Comics, Superheroes, Wonder Woman, Feminism, Audiobook

320 pages, Kindle Edition

First published April 1, 2014

About the author

Tim Hanley is the author of Wonder Woman Unbound and Investigating Lois Lane. He is also a comic book historian. His blog, Straitened Circumstances, discusses Wonder Woman and women in comics, and his column "Gendercrunching" runs monthly on Bleeding Cool. He has contributed to several comic book sites, including DC Women Kicking Ass and Women Write About Comics.

Reviews

[CS · Rating 5 out of 5]

Bullet Review:

Absolutely WONDERful!! The highest praise imaginable!!!

Let's go to DC and Hollywood and start demanding a Wonder Woman movie NOW!!!

Full Review:

Wonder Woman. I can just say the name and boom, Lynda Carter is in your mind, lassoing bad guys and cruising in the Invisible Plane.


You're welcome.

But who is Wonder Woman? Where did she come from? Unlike Batman and Superman, whose backstories are second nature (both fictional and nonfictional), Wonder Woman, despite being the premiere female superhero, turns up a blank.

Before I go much further, I must make a shout-out to the amazing, Nenia Campbell. Her stellar review put this book on my radar and instant "to buy" list.

As a new Wonder Woman fan (losing a lot of weight, choosing to cosplay her at Halloween and a local comic con, as well as being a feminist has drawn me to WW), I've grown more and more interested in her, from checking out her New 52 series to checking out Straczynski's take. But I'm ashamed to say, I barely knew/know anything about her. (I also felt that being a WW fan was a bit cliche - she's one of the oldest superheroines, of COURSE a woman would be a fan!)

I certainly couldn't tell you who her creator was. (William Moulton Marston)

I didn't know which comic she debuted in. (All Star Comics #8)

I certainly couldn't tell you her origin story. (Formed from clay to the Amazons on Paradise Island)

I didn't know who her sometimes love interest was. (Steve Trevor)

And I definitely didn't know how much she changed from Golden Age to Silver Age to Bronze Age.

Wonder Woman has an amazing history, and this book does a superb job of detailing it. The author doesn't just recite events from WW's history; he goes BACK, establishes the history, the surrounding times and then weaves Wonder Woman's story into that fabric. He takes the time to analyze the subtext and bondage; he takes time to critique the Silver Age "I wanna settle down" Wonder Woman along with not sparing anything when critiquing the 70's women's liberation movement for painting the Wonder Woman THEY wanted instead of the real Wonder Woman of the Golden Age (without, of course, being insulting or derogatory or insinuating that because the feminists got one part wrong, their whole movement was crap).

Maybe I should stop gushing about how awesome this book was (and how I kept reading this over Book Club book or my other books), and just say this: if you love comics, if you LIKE comics, if you love Wonder Woman, do yourself a favor, hunt this book down and read!!

HIGHEST recommendation!

P.S. Seriously, Wonder Woman STILL DOES NOT HAVE A MOVIE. THIS IS UNACCEPTABLE. I don't know how to do it, but we need to start campaigning people to GET A WONDER WOMAN MOVIE. I know there are tons of people probably already campaigning (have been for years, since I'm new to the party here), but really, I'm dead serious, how the flying f@#$ can we have ANOTHER F@#$ING REVAMP OF BATMAN and not one GORRAM Wonder Woman movie???

P.S. #2 OK, I'm not going to comment on content, as I haven't read, but Wonder Woman is Superman's armcandy? As much as I like to see more of her in comics, WHY DOES SHE HAVE TO BE SUPERMAN'S GIRLFRIEND to get more presence? Wonder Woman doesn't need a f@#$ing man!!

#endnerdrant

[Wanda Pedersen · Rating 3 out of 5]

Another 3.5 star read.

I have hazy recollections of reading Wonder Woman comics as a kid. I'm now wishing that I had hung on to them! I'm curious as to which of three waves of stories I was mostly reading.

The original author, William Marston, was a very intriguing individual and I would be interested in reading more about him if I can track anything down. He was of the firm opinion that women were the superior gender and that women would soon be running the world. He wrote the Wonder Woman comics to prepare young men to welcome their female overlords submissively when that time arrived. He also lived in a polyamorous household (one legal wife and one common law wife and several children, all in one home) and appears to have a bit of a thing for bondage. Hence Wonder Woman and her lasso, which she seemed to end up tied up with almost as often as she bound bad guys with it.

There seem to have been a lot of forgettable comics starring Wonder Woman. There was a brief revival when she was championed by Ms. Magazine and Gloria Steinem, which was quickly over and the Amazonian heroine returned to obscurity. The TV series, which I remember somewhat better than the comics, also lifted her profile briefly.

But as the author points out, better obscurity than being treated poorly by comic writers who don't know what to do with Wonder Woman. Perhaps there will be a female writer who will take up the cause one day and write an adventure worthy of our Amazon Warrior Princess--plots that don't reduce her to Superman's love interest or portray her as desperate to marry Steve Whats-his-name.

This book is a revised thesis, and although it is very readable for a thesis, you can still see its bone structure peeking through.

[Sasha · Rating 2 out of 5]

Wonder Woman's creator, William Moulton Marston, is a super interesting dude. The polyamorous inventor of the polygraph test and a respected psychologist, he believed that we would live in a utopia as soon as we accepted that women should be in charge of the world. He created Wonder Woman specifically in order to sneak this idea into the minds of children, and also in order to indulge his massive bondage fetish.



Yes, in case you didn't know: those early Wonder Woman comics were basically just everyone - male and female, Wonder Woman and her hopelessly incompetent male love interest - getting tied up all the time. In Wonder Woman Unbound Tim Hanley does a nice job of making graphs showing how, sure, people get tied up in all comics, but Wonder Woman had like twenty times more of it. You know that golden lasso of hers? And the bracelets? Yeah.


Wonder Woman vs. the next most bondage-y comic book - Captain Marvel was a little boy who turned into a superhero by yelling SHAZAM, so people gagged him a lot.

So this is the interesting part, and the book covers Marston passably well. Unfortunately that's only the first third or so; the rest of it is about Wonder Woman after the Marston era, and since frankly Wonder Woman has always been a deeply lame superhero - sorry, we all wish this wasn't true but it is - this was less interesting to me. I hung on for a while, but gave up once I realized he was spending an entire chapter academically ripping off the website Superman Is A Dick.



I've been thinking about how maybe we can divide nonfiction books into three categories:

1) Actual books, like The Black Count: Glory, Revolution, Betrayal, and the Real Count of Monte Cristo, which btw is awesome
2) Very long New Yorker articles, which are often well-written and about fascinating things, but also often feel padded. Like, say, The Wild Trees, which is a pretty cool book.
3) Expanded dissertations, which feel like category 2 but less well-written. Pleasure Bound: Victorian Sex Rebels and the New Eroticism is one of the better examples of this.

Wonder Woman Unbound feels like category three to me, and not one of the better examples. (And in fact I just confirmed that this was his Masters thesis. Nailed it!)



Bottom line: I just told you everything you need to know about William Marston, so you can skip this book.

[Nadia · Rating 4 out of 5]

[Kate Beaton drew this I own nothing.]

This book does what it tells you it was going to do. It is not an uncritical look at Wonder Woman. If anything a lot of it is about how we have projected different ideas onto her while editors and writers neglected her actual books and other media.

So we learn a lot about William Marston and his theories on S&M and his views on female superiority, about his intention to write a feminist book....for young boys that just happened to find a female audience. While the upshot of WW was about female domination and independence, Marston wrote erotic books for adults that really...weren't that. Then following Marston's death we're taken through the various levels of neglect and decline in quality of the writing of her book in the 50s 60s and 70s, to Ms Magazine and liberal feminists' idealization and somewhat revisionist revival of her, their reprinting and her tv show, George Perez' revival of her in print and what's happened since in the modern age.

WW's treatment is looked at in context of what was going on with other DC characters: in the golden age when the only women given strong personalities were villains; in the silver age in comparison to how she, Superman and Batman adapted to the imposition of the comics code as well as other female characters; through the bronze age and the rise of Marvel and realism in comics, and how Wonder Woman's characterization regressed while other female heroes and Lois Lane were finally getting decent treatment.

I wouldn't have minded if the comparative sections were even longer. The significance of the comics code's adoption was given a good chunk of attention and it focuses primarily on homophobic criticism of superheroes, gore and how "family friendly" standards affected the major superhero titles. Neglected by many writers who talk about the negative changes the CCA brought was its negative impact on diversity in comics also. That there were also a lot of independent female protagonists in lesser known titles outside the world of DC in the golden age that disappeared from newsstands in this time, and it's a shame that that couldn't get a mention also. Hanley notes that Wertham, the man who initially caused the moral panic that led to the creation of the CCA, while known for his sexism and homophobia and widely known as the guy who ruined comics, also criticized comics for their racism and xenophobia. However, when the CC was implemented though it forbid racism on paper, in practice it led to the removal of virtually all depictions of people of colour from newsstands, including positive ones.

The book is pretty accessible overall. There is very little theorizing and no academic jargon, and it's not a dry read. The only thing that gave away that this book started out as a thesis was the unnecessary statistics. TBH using statistics in academic literature writing isn't a great idea to begin with but in a book intended for a mass audience it's even worse. It's all good to crunch the numbers for the number of comics titles, movies and tv shows Superheroes have, but quantifying things like specific word usage and imagery gets dry fast. If they were just quantified and then the narrative moved on that would be one thing but the analysis was pretty drawn out. That said it doesn't take up enough space for it to be a major irritant, but it was still frustrating to have this much stats analysis where I think the book would have benefited a lot more from more visuals or more about the larger comics world outside of superhero comics. I wasn't really expecting a lot of feminist theory work in this kind of book so while that was a little lacking it's not a huge complaint. If you are spoiler phobic, you might want to skip the modern age section though, it spoils Killing Joke and other things.

[Mahlon · Rating 3 out of 5]

Any book that starts with the word "Weee" Will quickly find a way to my discard pile. Read Jill Lepore's Book on Wonder Woman for a much more serious discussion of the heroine and her unconventional creator.

[Kat · Rating 5 out of 5]

This was a very well researched history of Wonder Woman that I thoroughly enjoyed making my way through. This is basically a research paper but it doesn't read like one - it's much more engaging and interesting to read. I certainly feel very informed about the history of Wonder Woman now. I have read a few of her comics but and I knew a bit of her back story but I was not fully versed of any of it. I knew of Wonder Woman as an icon and this book really helped me understand her complicated history and somewhat neglected storylines. I was very excited about the new Wonder Woman movie and now I feel like I have the necessary knowledge to truly enjoy the story. I own Tim Hanley's other two novels and I may jump into the nest one which is about Lois Lane right away!

[Starlight Kid · Rating 3 out of 5]

Not bad a majority of this I knew already but there were some interesting facts about Wonder Woman.

Where this book is sort of misleading is that the primary focus of this book dosent stay with Wonder Woman it tends to focus more on how women were portrayed in the comic books back in the Golden, Bronze and Modern Age. It does talk about how Wonder Woman broke the mould not being the damsal in distress, however it tends to then switch focus to characters such as Lois Lane and goes into alot more about Superman and his attitude towards women. I did learn how awful Supermans attitude was towards Lois Lane in the Golden Age which was both interesting and shocking.

I did also like the fact that the book goes into details about how people were against the comic books and some did make sense for example having an age rating on comic books others were abit ludacris and were based on opinion with very little to no facts backing their statements. Its sort of like how the anti-video game people are right now.

The only problem I really had with this book is that the title is misleading, although Wonder Woman is the most discussed character in this book it is more of a history of how women are portrayed in comics, how characters like Wonder Woman were created in order to portray women more positivley in comic books and how although Wonder Woman was targeted towards women and girls the comic book industry did very little to market Wonder Woman to that auidence.

I have recently ordered this authors book on Lois Lane as going off what the author included in this book it comes across that he is very passioante about Lois and her history so that might make a better read.

I would recommend this for someone who perhaps wants to learn about the basic history of Wonder Woman and the comic industry as a whole. It is very light and easy too read although at times the author does go off in tangeants.

[Readersaurus · Rating 2 out of 5]

Originally written as an undergraduate essay, Wonder Woman Unbound, definitely still reads as a college paper. While there are some interesting parts about the history of comic books in North America and the evolution of superheroes, the book could have been improved with editing. There are sections which are repetitious, some of the footnotes are just side jokes that the author thought were cute, and the writing style didn't hold my attention. I found myself reading faster and faster just to finish.

[Lulu248 · Rating 2 out of 5]

While it was informative, the book was rather poorly edited with too many repetitions and some sketchy statistics. Moreover, oftentimes it was not very clear what the author is trying to say because his conclusion was lost in his less than appropriate judgmental tone.

[narmada · Rating 4 out of 5]

Ugh thank you Mr Hanley this was delicious. This was EXACTLY what I was looking for: a history of Wonder Wooman with insightful commentary. Enough of G*l G*dot... we need someone who can do this icon justice

[Jared Millet · Rating 4 out of 5]

This was an utterly fascinating deep-dive into Wonder Woman's long, tortured history and all the contradictions she's embodied over the years. She began as a revolutionary feminist icon, was tamed and defanged by post-WWII domesticity (and the death of her creator, William Moulton Marston), fell behind many of her contemporary female characters in terms of representing women's empowerment, then was revitalized for a time by the "women's lib" movement of the 70s (not to mention Lynda Carter).

Marston himself was a complicated character. He was far ahead of his time in feminist thought, but was also into some serious kink that went on full display of the Wonder Woman comic in its heyday. Hanley devotes most of the book to the work of Marston and his successor, Robert Kanigher. Once anti-comics spokesman Fredric Wertham comes on the scene (as he always does in the history of comic books), Hanley portrays him in a surprisingly sympathetic light - except when it comes to his hatchet job on Wonder Woman. The "mod version" of WW gets the derision it deserves, before the focus turns to Gloria Steinem and how she made Princess Diana an icon of women's liberation.

After that, Wonder Woman's popularity fades again. As a fan, I'd have personally wished for more love to be directed at George Perez's revival of the character, but Hanley correctly points out that by the time the Modern Age of comics began, comic books themselves had faded from the public scene into a niche market for hobbyists and fans. Today, as good as comic books are, they're mainly sustained as properties from which TV and movie franchises can be built.

It's a shame that this book came out before Gal Gadot's performance as the character, as well as the film Professor Marston and the Wonder Women. I'd have loved to have read Hanley's take on that.

[Samantha · Rating 3 out of 5]

A quite enjoyable and interesting discussion of the origins and treatments of the character of Wonder Woman across her incarnations in comic books and television (the book predates her recent movie appearances, so doesn't comment on those). The poor character has been rewritten and reinterpreted more times than Madonna has recreated herself.

The main feeling I walked away with is that Wonder Woman must indeed be a superhero to survive all the crap writers and producers have done to her over the years and still persist as an iconic character. It certainly doesn't make me want to go back and read old comics about her; I think they'd just piss me off. But it did make me want to read a lot of other things (I'm checking out that bibliography for my TBR, for sure).

Since I've never been that intense of a fan of the character, a lot of the stories were new to me, so that was fun. I felt like the book rambled a bit, not always keeping a tight focus on Wonder Woman herself, but wandering off into other comic characters for long sections. Ostensibly this was for comparison and contrast, but it felt to me like Wonder Woman herself disappeared too completely when the analysis turned to Batman or Superman or Lois Lane. Interesting digressions, but digressions all the same.

[Steven "Steve" · Rating 5 out of 5]

A fun and quick look at the history of Wonder Woman, with an emphasis on the Golden Age and quite a bit of the Silver Age. It was published just before Gal Gadot appeared in Batman Vs. Superman, but the book doesn’t lose relevance for being a representation before the movie appearances of the amazing Amazon.

[szara · Rating 4 out of 5]

4.5/5
I enjoyed it immensely. It was well-researched and conveyed all the facts in an interesting way while presenting everything in perspective. I was afraid if the "tone" would be okay with me but the author praised and criticized the same parts I would so I didn't experience any cringes because of that. The audiobook's narrator was excellent. I only wish the more modern series were described/analyzed more thoroughly but it's not like they were ignored – I think I just wished this was longer overall. I highly recommend it!

[Alana · Rating 4 out of 5]

I enjoyed this book and how it talked about the general evolution of comics, Wonder Woman & other female characters. It added to the historical context of her development. I’d love to see an update since the Wonder Woman movie came out.

[John · Rating 3 out of 5]

INCREDIBLY DETAILED history of Wonder Woman (and all comics, especially DC Comics for that matter). I listened to this on Audible; otherwise, I doubt I would have read it. No stone left unturned; if you are a comics fan, you will like this book. If not, you may find the level of detail a bit much.

[Stephanie · Rating 5 out of 5]

This book is amazing! It gives you the history of Wonder Woman and how she affected women's rights, as well as the DC Comic universe. I would recommend this book to anyone who loves comics or is a feminist. It's a little out of date though because it came out before the first Wonder Woman movie.

[Fran · Rating 4 out of 5]

This book is an expanded masters thesis. It provides one of the only comprehensive overviews of this character in comics studies, but it doesn’t dive very deep. A great place to start, but not where you should finish your reading.

[Literary Lusts · Rating 3 out of 5]

Interesting history regarding Wonder Woman focusing on her in the actual DC/comic book universe.

[Julie Dawson · Rating 4 out of 5]

“She isn’t a great character despite her contradictions but because of them. Wonder Woman has so many facets and incarnations, and within them lies a character who is both bizarre and brilliant. To forget her past is to miss what makes Wonder Woman such a great hero.”
From Wonder Woman Unbound.

I grew up on Lynda Carter’s Wonder Woman. The Wonder Woman of my youth was strong, confident, smart, beautiful, and kind. She was, in truth, the role model my generation needed. She encouraged us to take care of ourselves, but also to take care of each other. And like many of my generation, I’ve lamented Hollywood’s inability to produce a Wonder Woman movie (or, to be honest, any decent female superhero movie.)

Wonder Woman Unbound: The Curious History of the World’s Most Famous Heroine is an entertaining and thoughtful history of the creation and evolution of the most iconic female character is comics. The author begins where all good comic book stories begin: the origin story. In 1941, psychologist and inventor William Moulton Marston (the creator of the systolic blood pressure test, the precursor of the polygraph test) set out to create a comic book heroine that not only would appeal to women, but also prepare young men for a feminist future. Marston’s philosophy was strongly rooted in the belief of female superiority, and he believed that one day women would take their place as the leaders of the world. Wonder Woman, then, was originally meant as a guide to teach boys to submit to female authority.

Author Tim Hanley does a marvelous job of digging not only into the history of Wonder Woman, but the mindset of her creator. If it hard to truly understand the Golden Age era of Wonder Woman without understanding Marston’s own views on feminism, sexuality, and gender relations. Marston’s worldview was complex, nuanced, and reflected his own sexual fetishes. It is no wonder future creators would so horribly convolute and diminish the original intent of the comics.

After an extensive discussion of Marston’s complicated philosophy and how it related to the stories depicted in the comics, Hanley turns his attention to those who took over the task of breathing life into our heroine in later incarnations. Oddly, as the women’s movement began to catch on and women began fighting for their rights and gaining new opportunities, the Princess of the Amazon’s began a strange descent into compliance that ended with her abandoning her powers in favor of traditionally female activities. The heroine who was supposed to serve as an equal alongside Batman and Superman was reduced to a minor figure of no consequence.

Fortunately, Wonder Woman experienced a revival in the ’70s. Again, Hanley does a great job of providing social context to the changes our heroine underwent during the time period. Then finally we glimpse into the modern era and wonder together where Woman Woman will end up in this new comic age.

Wonder Woman Unbound is a great read even if you aren’t a die-hard comic book fan. Her influence in pop culture is unquestioned. Understanding her history highlights how extraordinary she truly is.



Reviewer Note: I was given a complimentary copy of this title for review purposes.

[Mouse · Rating 4 out of 5]

It's sort of a shame that this book had to give Wonder Woman her due but her own comics couldn't truly accomplish that for decades. Until recently we haven't had a decent Wonder Woman in a movie and yet she's considered one of DC's big 3, right behind Batman and Superman.

Wonder Woman has an amazing history and she's gone through lots of changes over the decades (Golden, Silver, Modern, New 52, Rebirth) and this book covers a lot of that. It also covers her creation at the hands of a very interesting person-William Moulton Marston. He truly believed that women were the superior gender and that they would soon be running the world and his reason for writing the Wonder Woman comics was to prepare young men for just that event. No joke! He also lived a polyamorous lifestyle in a household with one legal wife and one common law wife... and multiple children. They were sort of like a cult!

By the way, the title of this book 'Wonder Woman Unbound' is sort of a play on words because there was quite a bit of bondage in the early years of Wonder Woman. Her lasso was more than just a weapon to catch bad guys and mostly a device for her to be tied up with. It's all very kinky stuff actually.

Nerd rant: In the more recent comics of DC (New 52, Rebirth) Wonder Woman and Superman are having a relationship. They fly around smooching and she's very much downplayed in his shadow. Simply put, she's sort of his trophy girl, or arm candy. Personally I don't like that and I feel it takes away from her.

[Shelley · Rating 3 out of 5]

A look at Wonder Woman's history from Golden Age to Silver, Bronze and Modern. This is a good companion to Secret History of Wonder Woman, as it does go in depth into Wonder Woman's story with less on her creator. But I also found myself thinking that this author oversimplified things after reading so much in depth about WMM, ha. This was originally a dissertation, and it felt like it. It was interesting to read about what different authors did, and how Wonder Woman ran opposite to pretty much every comic - when comics girls were just damsels in distress, Wonder Woman was saving the day; when comics girls were gaining independence, Wonder Woman was losing powers and obsessing over marriage.

When the comics started, each issue had 4 pages devoted to a biography about female heroes in the real world - well known people like Amelia Earhart, Clara Barton, etc, as well as female laywers, soliders, scientists and more. I had to look up a lot of names that were unfamiliar to me. It was brilliant. By the 50s, those biographies were replaced with Marriage A la Mode, all about wedding details. Depressing.

[Tiamatty · Rating 4 out of 5]

I don't actually read any DC comics. I just don't particularly care about them. Still, I respect Wonder Woman as a feminist icon. So I found this book's exploration of exactly what that means to be really interesting. It details the rather complex relationship she's had with feminism - often moving backwards as women pushed forward. It makes for an occasionally depressing read - she's an iconic character who's often treated as an afterthought by DC, and who has a history of problematic presentations. Hanley doesn't speculate on what the future might hold for Wonder Woman, but he doesn't really need to, as there's little reason to believe things will get any better for her any time soon. Still, it's an interesting look through her history, well-written, and with some occasional humour. If you're interested in Wonder Woman, this is definitely worth reading.

[Stewart Tame · Rating 4 out of 5]

Excellent book! Hanley has an impressively deep knowledge of his subject, including many details of the life of William Marston, Wonder Woman's creator, that were new to me. The book gives an overview of the entire comic book series from the beginning, touching on both the highs and lows, with digressions on general comics history from the various time periods where cultural context is wanted. He also goes into supportive detail on the women's movement from the various eras. While there have been some excellent Wonder Woman stories over the years, in general the character has rarely realized her full potential. Hopefully we will see that change in the near future. For now, we have this excellent look at a well-known, but underutilized, character.

[Ayanna Dozier · Rating 2 out of 5]

This book offers, perhaps, the most comprehensive research on Wonder Woman (in comics) than any other book out there. However, Tim Hanley lacks the vocabulary to thoroughly engage with Wonder Woman on a critical level. This is most evident when Hanley tries to engage feminist theory and or feminist historiography with Wonder Woman; Hanley ends up failing on multiple levels. This book would work best as an extended blog article on bondage fetishism and Wonder Woman, as this is the one area of the book that not only succeeds but offers a new perspective/information on Wonder Woman's bondage heritage.

[Heidi · Rating 4 out of 5]

This was a fascinating and thoroughly researched look at the most iconic super-heroine in comics. Hanley clearly knows his comic book history and did a great job highlighting the contradictions and author agendas that have made Wonder Woman the character is today (as well as all the characters that she has been). There are times when the book is a bit more academic than many readers will appreciate (it has its roots in the author's college thesis), but if you appreciate academic writing and/or comic book history then you will enjoy it.

[Bree · Rating 4 out of 5]

I would like to know how he feels about the recent Wonder Woman (the new 52 series by Azzarello). As well as her more Barbie like incarnation in the newest issue by the Finch's. Or her new look (my personal favorite) in the most recent Justice League issues. Does he think she might becoming more popular or will she continue to be relegated to side stories.

Does he plan on doing a more in depth look at Batgirl, Ms. Marvel or Thor? Especially considering their new reboots.

[Kari · Rating 3 out of 5]

The beginning and the end were strong but the middle read mostly as a discussion of female characters and feminism in comic books rather than specifically being about Wonder Woman. I think I would have enjoyed a long piece just about Wonder Woman more. I did enjoy it! just wished it hadn't digressed so much in the middle.

[Eric · Rating 5 out of 5]

Author Tim Hanley and I are united in our hatred of Wonder Woman silver age comic books.Those Robert Kanigher issues were lousy! Fact: "When Rosa Parks refused to give up her seat on a bus in December 1955, Wonder Woman was playing baseball with a gorilla and fighting a robot octopus in Wonder Woman No. 78.

Full review here: http://superheronovels.com/2014/06/20...

[Rebecca · Rating 3 out of 5]

I burned through reading this on a flight. But even if I wasn't stuck in an enclosed area with no entertainment, I think I would have finished this fairly quickly. The writing was engaging, and it never felt repetitive despite covering over 70 years of history of one character. Adding the context of how other characters were written made the development of Wonder Woman easier to follow.