Dr. William Moulton Marston was a Harvard educated teacher with a Ph.D in Psychology. A creative man with many achievements to his name, one of his most famous is the lie detector, which utilized another invention of his: the systolic blood pressure test. The idea for the lie detector came when his wife noted that when she got mad or excited her blood pressure increased.
These inventions contributed to the medical industry and have helped millions, but they led to yet another creation. On October 25, 1940, he was interviewed by former student Olive Byrne for an article called "Don't Laugh at the Comics," in Family Circle magazine, where he spoke of the great potential he saw in comic books. The article caught the eye of comic publisher Max Gaines who hired Marston as an educational consultant for National Periodicals and All-American Publications. Those two companies would merge to become DC Comics.
He decided to create his own comic character, and with his wife's guidance decided that it would be a woman. In a 1943 episode of The American Scholar, Martson wrote about the character.
| Not even girls want to be girls so long as our feminine archetype lacks force, strength, and power. Not wanting to be girls, they don't want to be tender, submissive, peace-loving as good women are. Women's strong qualities have become despised because of their weakness. The obvious remedy is to create a feminine character with all the strength of Superman plus all the allure of a good and beautiful woman. |
Wonder Woman was born as that strong female hero. And her weapon of choice? The Lasso of Truth -- which is startlingly similar to his lie detector.
-Professor Walter
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