Wonder Woman!

You know 1976 was a hell of a year for sexy, strong female women on TV. The Bionic Woman, Charlies Angels, Isis, Electra Woman and Dyna Girl and of course...Wonder Woman. If you were like me, a kid under the age of ten at that time you were probably exposed to Wonder Woman in 2 ways. First was the sat morning version on The Superfriends, but that version of Wonder Woman spent a great deal of time waiting around for Superman to rescue people. The writers seemed to forget she had any powers other than her lasso alot of the times. The second way you may have been introduced to The Amazing Amazon was on her very own prime time tv show starring Lynda Carter. This was the version of Wonder Woman that most kids of my generation remember. Here is her story.

On the hidden Paradise Island, queen Hippolyta queen of the amazons longed for a child. The island was filled with only women,powerful immortal amazon warriors and the gods decreed that no man was allowed. The queen made a clay statue of a little girl and prayed to the gods to give the statue life. To her amazement the statue came to life. The queen named her Diana, after Diana, goddess of the hunt. The other gods gave Diana great gifts upon her birth. She was given the strength of Hercules, the speed of Hermes, the wisdom of Athena among others. She would never age and be favored by the gods. As the years went on, the outside world became involved in WW2. The queen feared that if the Nazis won the war Paradise Island might be in danger. She decided to have a contest between all the amazons to pick the strongest who would travel to the outside world to aid the United States in the war. Diana won the contest and the right to the name Wonder Woman. She was given a magic lasso of truth, bullet proof bracelets and an invisible jet and sent out into to the world to fight for truth and justice and the American way.

That has pretty much been Wonder Woman's story for about 60 years and has been pretty consistent in her various comic book, animated and live action incarnations and I'm sure a lot of you reading this know this story. Or maybe when you hear "Wonder Woman" you think "oh yeah red white and blue bathing suit, big boobs, blocks bullets" yeah that's her. Well there is a lot about Wonder Woman you may not know, I know I didn't. What you ask? Well....

#1 Wonder Woman was created in 1941 by a psychologist named William Moulton Marston. He was the same man who created the lie detector test which inspired him to create Wonder Woman's magic lasso of truth.

#2 This William Moulton Marston guy? What a nut job! He was real into bondage and submission. He had dozens of scenes of people in his comic book being tied up, chained and bound together. If you look at a Wonder Woman comic from the 40's it will feature page after page of Wonder Woman being bound. this lead to problems with the publisher and dozens of scripts and pages of art were rejected because of all the s&m. marston went so far as to make Wonder Woman's weakness if her bracelets were chained together by a man, she was helpless.

#3 Staying on the freaky Dr Marston theme. His bizarre fetish's extended to his personal life. He lived with his wife, his children, his assistant/mistress a Ms Olive Byrne...her children. He made sure Olive wore two metal bracelets on each arm.I saw pics. The freaks come out at night......

# A big screen version of Wonder Woman seems cursed. Superman, Batman and Wonder Woman are three of the greatest superheroes ever created. Superman has so far had 5 big budget movies made about him, not to mention 4 live action tv shows and about 10 animated versions if you count the Superfirends. Batman too has had 5 movies, a slew of cartoons...but Wonder Woman? Besides appearing on the Superfriends, Justice League and her live action tv show she is mia. Not one single big screen version has ever been produced. I mean they made a freakin Electra movie but no Wonder Woman.

I love me some Wonder Woman. As a kid I had no idea about all the sexual subtext, i just liked it when she took off her Tiara and threw it at the bad guys like a Boomerang. I wish Hollywood would get their stuff together and give Wonder Woman her big screen due.