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    Wonder Woman Unbound: The Curious History of the World's Most Famous Heroine
    Wonder Woman Unbound: The Curious History of the World's Most Famous Heroine
    Wonder Woman Unbound: The Curious History of the World's Most Famous Heroine
    Ebook403 pages5 hours

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

    By Tim Hanley

    4/5

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    About this ebook

    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.

    Editor's Note

    Comic Con…

    How, exactly, did Wonder Woman go from feminist icon to languishing counterpart to the center of one of the few acclaimed movies in the DC Extended Universe? (Okay, this book came out before the movie, but you’ll still get the history leading up to that!) Those looking for more inclusivity in comics need to read about the duality and lasting appeal of Wonder Woman with this book.

    LanguageEnglish
    PublisherChicago Review Press
    Release dateApr 1, 2014
    ISBN9781613749128
    Wonder Woman Unbound: The Curious History of the World's Most Famous Heroine

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    Reviews for Wonder Woman Unbound

    4/5

    28 ratings6 reviews

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    • 4/5
      I read The Secret History of Wonder Woman by Jill Lepore some years ago, so I was familiar with the creator of Wonder Woman, William Moulton Marston, and his proclivities and motivations, but this book goes beyond the creation of Wonder Woman and brings us a full history of her legacy. It dives deeper into the way that Wonder Woman has been received by the masses and talks about each of her writers, in comics and on screen. Except, of course, for the new movie that is still out in theaters.

      I'd been wanting to read this book for a while and had been waiting on hold for it. I've also been a follower of Tim Hanley here on Wordpress and his blog, Straightened Circumstances, which was how I came to be familiar with this book in the first place. He's actually written on Lois Lane and recently published a book on Catwoman as well. In this book, and I imagine the others, he takes a really deep look into the feminism that Wonder Woman has had and that she hasn't had. He looks at the way her character has been idealized at times and turned into a role model at other times and what exactly she's modeling.

      There's a lot to love here. First of all, Hanley goes into the evolution of Wonder Woman, which means that he starts at the beginning and works through each writer and artist and discusses them and their growth as writers of Wonder Woman. Second, in order to do this he also displays some great feminist terminology and herstory. I get that Wonder Woman's compatibility with feminism isn't always the greatest but I like to think of her as a Bad Feminist in much the same way so many of us are. Imperfect at what we do but always striving toward progress, even when we hit a few snags. There's also the way he paints the contrasts with other characters throughout the years to give context to what was happening with Wonder Woman and why it was or wasn't the most palatable thing for audiences. I love the delineation of the Ages of Comics, which was not something I was well versed in and would have been lost without. Also, the many changing origins are annoying and seem to have digressed, especially having watched the movie and seen what they did there. I like the original better.

      Overall, a great book about a great character. I look forward to reading the other two and probably whatever else he puts out. Hanley does post reviews for new Wonder Woman comics as they come out on his earlier mentioned blog and if you read this and get curious about his take on the movie, he's got a review up there too. For a preview of his writing, he has been posting about the new Catwoman book, but here's a link to the movie review.
    • 4/5
      Informative, insightful, sensational; the "curious history" of Wonder Woman unravels flawlessly here to expose the character's rich complexity.
    • 5/5
      So awarding and omg it was kinda not eventful yay
    • 4/5
      I?m not a comic book fan by any stretch of the imagination, but I?ve enjoyed enough superhero television shows and feature films in my days to appreciate a laidback history of the most famous superheroine of all time, Wonder Woman. My childhood included the occasional coloring book and Lynda Carter rerun, but other than that, I was completely unfamiliar with the character. Despite being an American cultural icon, she doesn?t have a movie that would familiarize the general public with her story. Nor did she really have much of a following after her ?Golden Age.? Comic book historian and blogger Tim Hanley explains why in Wonder Woman Unbound: The Curious History of the World?s Most Famous Heroine (Chicago Review Press, 2014).While many people think of DC Comic?s Wonder Woman as just a female Superman ? I even called her ?Superwoman? the first time I saw her! ? the origin story of her comic book series is a lot more complicated than that. Creator William Moulton Marston saw an opportunity to brainwash?er, educate the young male population on his particular views about female superiority, sexual bondage, and submission. Later, under new supervision, the Amazonian morphed in and out of pitiful female stereotypes: emotional, vindictive, shallow, and ? ironic of all ? someone obsessed with pleasing the man in her life. Despite a short-lived revival as an icon for the 1970s feminist movement, Wonder Woman never regained popularity, and has all but faded from popular memory save the occasional t-shirt.The author has clearly made a valuable contribution to comic book historical research, yet I found that Wonder Woman Unbound is best enjoyed if it?s not treated like a scholarly tome. While I?ve watched enough old movies to notice on film the trends Hanley mentioned in how women were portrayed and treated, he really needed to document this more carefully. In addition, his discussion about Gloria Steinem, Ms. magazine, and the 1970s feminist movement was seriously lacking. And the graphs were very sloppy. On the plus side though, I thought he made a very good case against the popular belief that Wonder Woman, more so than other female comic book stars, was a vanguard of modern feminism. In addition, he gave a very balanced and insightful presentation on psychologist Fredric Wertham and his infamous Seduction of the Innocent. Hanley shows that many of the psychologist?s criticisms of comic books were well-founded, even if many fans and historians haven?t been accepting of them.If Wonder Woman Unbound ends up on the required reading list for a college course on gender studies, popular culture, or freshman composition, I wouldn?t be surprised. It?s the kind of book that can get conversations going, and no professor is going to miss this opportunity to push sex into the forefront of the discussion. Yes, the book made me uncomfortable at times, I?d have to concur. It would?ve been nicer to continue with a sanitized imagine of Wonder Woman, as she?s generally know. Yet in the end I thought the enlightenment ? and corresponding disillusionment ? was probably for the best.
    • 5/5
      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!
    • 4/5
      ARC provided by NetGalleyWonder Woman. One of the big three heroes of DC comics and one of the more prominent female heroines. But who is she really? In this book Hanley lets readers in on Wonder Woman’s complicated history, as more than just a female Superman, but a heroine who was ahead of her time in advocating for female rights and matriarchy. Throughout the years she has has been many things including being involved with bondage, expressing hidden lesbian desires, and a powerful advocate for women’s rights. In addition, Hanley grounds Wonder Woman in her creator’s life, William Moulton Marston, who believed that women would one day take their rightful place alongside the leaders of the world and that young men needed to know how to deal with that. While future writers lost that idea and diminished Wonder Woman’s powers, she persisted and was brought back to life by Lynda Carter and others to continue on today. Hanley exposes it all in this well researched and readable book that brings Wonder Woman to life.

    Book preview

    Wonder Woman Unbound - Tim Hanley

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