A couple days ago, I watched Professor Marston and the Wonder Women and I was thinking, what if he had lived to 100 like his wife, Elizabeth Holloway? How would his life and that of his comic book series have gone, during the Cold War decades? On one hand, if by the time he got cancer he was already being branded a degenerate and a subversive, I don't even want to know what they would've thought of him in the 1950s but, on the other hand, maybe he would've been able to prevent Wonder Woman's character assassination and - just like the Giussani sisters did with Diabolik - use her to push social reform in the coming decades.
WI: William Moulton Marston, author of Wonder Woman, lives to 100.
- Thread starter Neoteros
- Start date
Interesting...
Until his death, Marston seems to have been the only one who actually wrote Wonder Woman - I could be wrong but what would ultimately become DC didn’t seem to have anyone else doing stories for the character. Did he have creative control? Because given how passionate he was about the character, if he owned her I could see him walking from DC if they tried to edit him too much and publishing them through someone else. Don’t know how successful that would have been...but it could mean that by today Wonder Woman is public domain.
Whatever the case, if he kept writing I can see him keeping the strong female empowerment streak for her - no JL Secretary nonsense. And...I can also see him keeping the implied bi side of her in, along with the bondage, as much as possible
Until his death, Marston seems to have been the only one who actually wrote Wonder Woman - I could be wrong but what would ultimately become DC didn’t seem to have anyone else doing stories for the character. Did he have creative control? Because given how passionate he was about the character, if he owned her I could see him walking from DC if they tried to edit him too much and publishing them through someone else. Don’t know how successful that would have been...but it could mean that by today Wonder Woman is public domain.
Whatever the case, if he kept writing I can see him keeping the strong female empowerment streak for her - no JL Secretary nonsense. And...I can also see him keeping the implied bi side of her in, along with the bondage, as much as possible
Interesting...
Until his death, Marston seems to have been the only one who actually wrote Wonder Woman - I could be wrong but what would ultimately become DC didn’t seem to have anyone else doing stories for the character. Did he have creative control? Because given how passionate he was about the character, if he owned her I could see him walking from DC if they tried to edit him too much and publishing them through someone else. Don’t know how successful that would have been...but it could mean that by today Wonder Woman is public domain.
Whatever the case, if he kept writing I can see him keeping the strong female empowerment streak for her - no JL Secretary nonsense. And...I can also see him keeping the implied bi side of her in, along with the bondage, as much as possible
Actually I just read something that makes it clear that Wonder Woman's reduced role in the JSA was due to Marston's iron control. Had he survived odds are she would have never become a major player in the DCU as Marston was not going to be given control of other major titles and he would not allow anyone else to write a story with more than a Wonder Woman cameo. Wonder Woman would have been kept from being active with the JLA the same way she had been reduced to ONLY a secretary to the JSA during Marston's life in OTL.
I shudder to think of what would have happened when the Comic Code was applied to Marston's stories. Either as suggested he'd have taken the character away from DC and it wouldn't have returned until underground comics came along or his stories would have been censored into stuff that would make our 1950's Wonder Woman seem interesting in comparison.
He could try to take Wonder Woman in another country, maybe. Marston in the nascent manga industry of Japan would be an interesting tale, especially because of the parallels between Wonder Woman and the mahou shoujo archetype, that was born out of Japan's infatuation with the very American Bewitched anyway, but the cultural and linguistic divide between Marston and a hypothetical host country of Japan would be just too much, unless the Japanese warm up to him anyway like they did with some other gaijin; France would be a much more realistic option: due to the shared academic background of Marston himself, his wife and their companion, at least one of them probably knew French anyway, and there's much less of a cultural divide between America and France than there is between America and Japan - and given the penchant of French academics and artists for weird behaviour, they'd feel right at home, in the homeland of the Marquis de Sade.
He could try to take Wonder Woman in another country, maybe. Marston in the nascent manga industry of Japan would be an interesting tale, especially because of the parallels between Wonder Woman and the mahou shoujo archetype, that was born out of Japan's infatuation with the very American Bewitched anyway, but the cultural and linguistic divide between Marston and a hypothetical host country of Japan would be just too much, unless the Japanese warm up to him anyway like they did with some other gaijin; France would be a much more realistic option: due to the shared academic background of Marston himself, his wife and their companion, at least one of them probably knew French anyway, and there's much less of a cultural divide between America and France than there is between America and Japan - and given the penchant of French academics and artists for weird behaviour, they'd feel right at home, in the homeland of the Marquis de Sade.
I can definitely see France. I mean, I think old-school Wonder Woman would slot nicely into the bandes desinées scene - it might take him a while to get accepted as a foreigner, but I could totally imagine eventually Wonder Woman becoming a big thing again, at latest around the time Valerian became a thing. And maybe taking some pointers from that.
He could try to take Wonder Woman in another country, maybe. Marston in the nascent manga industry of Japan would be an interesting tale, especially because of the parallels between Wonder Woman and the mahou shoujo archetype, that was born out of Japan's infatuation with the very American Bewitched anyway, but the cultural and linguistic divide between Marston and a hypothetical host country of Japan would be just too much, unless the Japanese warm up to him anyway like they did with some other gaijin; France would be a much more realistic option: due to the shared academic background of Marston himself, his wife and their companion, at least one of them probably knew French anyway, and there's much less of a cultural divide between America and France than there is between America and Japan - and given the penchant of French academics and artists for weird behaviour, they'd feel right at home, in the homeland of the Marquis de Sade.
Actually... Hmmmm...
Potential for crossover shenanigans... Wondy accidentally travels back in time, and ends up teaming up with Barbe-Rouge and his crew. Or goes forward in time and has to work with Valerian and Laureline.*
*Given that it's Marston, this then spawns a meme in the 21st century, which consists of Laureline glaring at Wonder Woman going 'Why is it every time we crossover I get tied up?'.
A friend of mine's a huge Valerian and Laureline fan, he'd love it.
Edit: I showed him your post, are you on NationStates? Because if you are, you might know each other.
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