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Lillian Mount Mrs. Bell Language Arts, Period 2 August 29, 2013

The Making of Wonder Woman Introduction: Comic books seem to go way back. There lots of fun for kids and even adults. Over time they grow to become great collectors items. There are not very many superheroes that are women. That is why Wonder Woman had caught my eye. Reading about her and seeing her comics was actually pretty fun and it gave me a lot to write about, showing the strength of women and when it all started. History of Comics: The history of comic books goes way back. It first originated in the United States in the late 1800s. It contains everyday language with all of its colors and interplay in between text and image. Since the 1960s the comic book industry had two major publishers. The major publishers were Marvel and Detective Comics (DC). DC had their name for 50 years. Marvel was known as Timely Comics from 1939 to 1950, then came about as Atlas Comics for a lot of the 1950s. One of the first major comic books was acknowledged by Richard Felton Outcaults. It was called The yellow Kid. It came about in 1895 in Josephs Pulitzers The New York World and served to boost sales The Golden Age: From the 1930s-1950s they were in the Golden Age for comic books. Comic books really blossomed after 1938 when Jerome Siegal and Joseph Shuster created Superman. In 1939 DC

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comics had introduced Batman, and they had pushed out the stories about crime and detective. The popularity of the superhero in the 1930s had created a lot of other characters. Such as Wonder Woman, Captain America, The Flash, and the Green Lantern. Marvel had created characters such as the Human Torch and Captain America. World War II had been a boost for the comic book world. The DC superhero comics had stressed an interest in public welfare and strong federal government. Marvel had taken up the cause of WWII in the creation of Captain America, showing how Captain America was punching Hitler in the face. But after WWII had ended the Golden Age had fizzled and there was cancellation of Captain Marvel and Plastic Man effectively ended the Golden Age. The Silver Age: From 1956-1971 The Silver Age had come about now. After WWII comic books lost its readers and publishers due to lack of purpose, competition from television, and Senate investigations into the cultural influence of the comic book industry. Horror comics had been a very popular influence. One of the most damaging to the comic books was Dr. Fredric Werthmans book The Seduction of the Innocent, it had accused some comic books of corrupting the youth and showing violence. Because of all that they had created the Comic Codes Authority as a way to self-police the industry and win back their readers. At the start of the 1960s, the industry had finally showed signs of recovering. Just like the Golden Age, the Silver Age began with superhero comic books with the social ideology. The superhero genre was questioning Americas role as the worlds superpower. Marvel comics revolutionized the superhero by creating characters that had a weakness. Like the Incredible Hulk and Spiderman. DCs Justice League of America had then come out with

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fantastic four. The end of the silver age can be marked by Steve Rogers abandonment of the Captain America identity as a reaction to the Secret Empire story line. The Bronze Age: The Bronze Age had begun in 1971-1980. The Bronze Age is characterized by a shift form the social issues on stylistic ideas. Comic books no longer had looked through to the ideals, values, and conflicts of society. Comic book artist had begun to experiment with colors and the page display. The comic book industry had created the Academy Of Comic-Book arts (ACBA). Even though the sells had continued to drop, DC and Marvel had turned to licensing out their characters to television. Marvel had also bought the rights to the Star Wars comic books. The Iron Age: The iron age was from 1980-1987. In this age the heroes seemed to be the subject of comic books , than the means to tell a story. The Iron age had witnessed the death of a few superheroes. It had included Captain marvel, Batman, and Watchmens anti hero Rorschach. Superman had even died in the arms of Louise Lanes arms in 1992. During the Iron Age the comic book genre had turned on itself and nearly lost its own genre conventions. The Present Modern Age: At the end of the 1980s the comic book industry had seemed interested in reconstructing their genre. The comic book industry had had begun marketing new issues of comics, such as Spiderman and X-men. During the 1990s comics had become top collector items. The smaller audience of collectors were even willing to pay more. In 1991 Marvel had become the first comic book publisher on the New York stock exchange. Within six months 8.2 million copies of X-men had been sold. Marvel has been growing into a multimedia entertainment company. X-

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men (2000) had earned a whopping $150 million at the box office. Comic books have once again emerged as a major force. Wonder Woman: Wonder Woman had made her first appearance in 1941. She was created by William Marston. His wife had given him the idea of a female superhero and thus wonder woman was created. She was the very first female superhero to ever to created. She was part of the DC comic books. Wonder woman was an amazon. She was granted her powers from the greek gods. Aphrodite was the creator of all amazons, so there for wonder woman. She is princess Diana of the amazon island Themsycira. Daughter of queen Hippolyta. Shes many different types of powers. She can fly and is trained in hand to hand combat. Also has the great ability to talk to animals. She wears indestructible bracelets that can block bullets. She has her lasso of truth to make someone tell the truth. Also her tiara is used to projectile knocking enemies out or tripping them. Even though she may be able to fly she also has an invisible plane to fly into space. When wonder woman was made all her powers were granted by the Greek Gods. Demeter with strength. Aphrodite with beauty, and Artemis with animal communications. Atheena with wisdom and War-tactics, Hestia with lasso of truth, and Hermes with speed and flight. She has developed many enemies over time. Some are even the Greek gods, others had hurt the environment. Many of her enemies are women. Her arch enemy is Cheetah, as well as Circe, Dr. cyber, Giganta, and the Silver Swan. The major ones were, the Greek God of war Ares, Dr. psycho, egg fu, and angle man. There are many fun facts about wonder woman herself. From 1976-1979 there was a wonder woman show. The star of the show was Lynda Carter. The last episode that was ever

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aired was Phantom of the roller coaster. When wonder woman had first appeared she had shown up in DC comics. In 1972 she was the first woman superhero to be on the cover of Ms. Magazine. Even at one point in time she had given up her powers to live a normal life as a boutique owner. Later on though she had decided to gain back her powers. The Creator: The creator of wonder woman was William Marston. The idea had come from his family and they had created her together. The main idea was from his wife Elizabeth Marston. In 1940 is when they had started to create her. They wanted her name to be suprema, but instead they had decided on wonder woman. Marston had died in 1947 from cancer and later on in the years he was joined by his wife Elizabeth. He had made many accomplishments, but if I do say so myself wonder woman was a great one. William Marston had managed to combine interests several fields into an idea that has lasted for decades. Marston was born and raised in Massachusetts. He earned a law degree in 1918 and got a Ph.D in Psychology from Harvard University in 1921. Interested in finding a way to prove a person's innocence, Marston invented the systolic blood-pressure test, which is the polygraph machine. Marston was convinced from his studies that women were more honest and trustworthy than men. Marston became an early feminist because of his belief, and showed the idea that women represented peace in society. In 1940, Marston was invited by then DC Comics publisher Maxwell Charles Gaines to serve on an advisory board for DC. He was unhappy with the male superhero, and suggested to Gaines that there was a need for a female superhero. Gaines was happy, and encouraged him to develop a character. That character was Wonder Woman, appeared in 1941, credited to him.

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Wonder Woman was extremely popular, and starred in her own eponymous comic. Marston continued to work on his creation until he passed away. Wonder Woman lives on. The comic book: The comic book that I had read was an interesting one. It was the beginning of Wonder woman. She was on the Island where she had originated from. When a plane had crashed into the Island. The man who crashed was Steve Trevor. He was currently fighting in WWII against the Nazis. When he had saw her he thought she was the most beautiful angel he had ever seen. She decided to help him and started to nurse him back to health. When Steve Trevor had started to recover somewhat she decided that she wanted to help him. She could tell that they had needed help in the war. At the moment she had taken the name Wonder woman. She was gonna fight this war with them. When she had flown back with Steve Trevor she had taken him to the hospital to recover further. She was so fascinated by the different world that she was in. She never even heard the comments that people were making about her, calling her a hussy and what not. At the time she had heard a robbery going on and the first thing she had done was stop the men. People didnt understand what she was or were she had come from. They started to think she was fascinating. Then a play writer had an idea. He had chased her down in his car but she was so fast for him. Making his car go over 80 miles an hour just to catch her. When he finally did he proposed an idea to her. That if she would become an actor for him and make money. Everything had been about money to him. She had done it for a little while until she started to feel like a fool. She told him that she quits, he had tried to make a run with her money. Of course she had caught him. Then that was it for him no more. She had started to wonder about Steve Trevor and decided to pay him a visit.

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When she did however she had found that he had left and went back to fighting. When she was outside she had come across a woman who was crying. She wouldnt be able to see her husband because not having enough money. The funny thing was though that they had the same name Diana. From the moment wonder woman told her to take the money she had earned and go to her husband. Wonder woman was now a nurse and gained the identity of the woman Diana that she helped. She lived in the community and did all that she could. But she still wanted to find Steve. It seemed that they both had feeling for one another. So she flew had found him right before his plane had crashed. Again, he had said she was the most beautiful angel he had ever seen. From the point on Wonder woman had fought in the war and helped them defat the Nazis, and lived as a normal person. For a short while that is.

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Work Cited 1 Sensation Comics No. 1 .http:/www.comixology.com/ 1/1/1942-8/29/13 2.Wonder woman Facts http:/www.wonderwomanfordc.com/. 9/18/13-9-29-13 3.The History of wonder woman http:/.www.duckster.com//. 9/20/13-9/29/13 4. History Of comic books http:www.randomhistory.com/3/8/08-9/29/13

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