76 years ago, the eighth issue of “All-Star Comics” introduced a new heroine who would become one of the most essential icons in comic books and feminist culture: Wonder Woman. Now, she has made her long-awaited arrival on movie screens around the world in a new film directed by Patty Jenkins and starring Gal Gadot. Here’s how the champion of the Amazons got here.
Wonder Woman was created in 1941 by psychologist William Moulton Marston in order to provide comic books with a superhero who didn’t embody the hyper-masculine qualities of Superman and Batman. Marston was in a polyamorous relationship with his wife, attorney and psychologist Elizabeth Holloway, and a former student, Olive Byrne.