How the Bondage in Wonder Woman Caused a DC Advisory Board Member to Pull Her Support

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Welcome to the 951st installment of Comic Book Legends Revealed, a column where we examine three comic book myths, rumors and legends and confirm or debunk them. In this second legend of an all-“William Moulton Marston’s time on Wonder Woman” installment of Comic Book Legends Revealed, we learn how the bondage in Wonder Woman caused a DC advisory board member to pull her name from issues of Wonder Woman.

As I have written about a number of times over the years, a major pet peeve (I guess if it’s “major,” it’s no longer a “pet peeve,” right?) I have is when historical fiction is unfair to historical figures for the sake of needing an easy “villain” or “victim.” The example I often use is Angelica Schuyler in Hamilton. Lin Manuel Miranda wanted a character to talk about the sexism of the era, and that’s totally fair, but Angelica Schuyler didn’t quite fit the role that Miranda wanted her to play, so he just made up stuff to make her fit better.

As just one example (just go to the link to get the whole bit), she sings:

“Number one

I’m a girl in a world in which my only job is to marry rich

My father has no sons so I’m the one who has to social climb for one

So I’m the oldest and the wittiest and the gossip in New York City is insidious

And Alexander is penniless

Ha! That doesn’t mean I want him any less”

Her father DID have sons, and she specifically married a guy in real life who WASN’T rich! So, yeah, just one example of how creators often change historical figures to fit the story they want. Angelica is a bit disappointing, but it’s nothing like the hatchet job Josette Frank got done to her in the film Professor Marstson and the Wonder Women…

In the film, Josette Frank (played by the great Connie Britton) is a moralistic very Christian woman who is basically the villain of the film, as she haranges the poor William Marston and his Wonder Woman comic book with her outdated theories about sex and gender.

Obviously, as you might imagine, things weren’t really like that.

Who was Josette Frank?

Josette Frank was a JEWISH woman who was so progressive that she kept her last name when she got married in the 1920s! Not only did she not take her husband’s name, but, as her granddaughter noted, “she felt compelled, when mail was sent to her in her husband’s name, to return it unopened with scrawled notations saying something like: ‘No such person at this address.’”

She was an education advocate who wrote the book, What Books For Children?, in 1937, about children’s reading. She began to support kids reading comics, and in the updated version of her book in 1941, she mentioned comics. She took an approach of basically, “Kids are GOING to read comics, we should embrace their interest, and support them reading good comics.”

She noted:

Perhaps it is precisely because they are so carefully protected that they crave this type of reading. In most children’s lives today there is all too little opportunity for any real adventuring. Each day is painfully like the last—and home is a place whose daily routine leaves little room for the unexpected. How else can these protected children experience the thrill of danger so vicariously? Where can they find adventure so swift, so daring, so breath-taking—and so unhampered by the limits of probability—as in the comics or in movie and radio thrillers. And what safer was to enjoy the thrills of danger than knowing, with deep certainty, good will triumph over evil—by no matter what improbable means. For the children know full well in these tales their hero will survive whatever threats and trials beset his path, and the villain will be thoroughly punished for his evil-doing, often perishing to the very trick which he had prepared to destroy the hero. Here, surely is the most soul-satisfying justice!

At the time, if you ever said anything good about comics at all, the comic book companies would be thrilled to get your support made official.

In 1941, National Comics (including Charles Gaines associated All-American Publications) started having an Editorial Advisory Board, and Frank was on the panel, along with William Moulton Marston…

The problem, though, is that Frank did NOT like the Wonder Woman strip, especially all of its use of bondage, which, well, we all know was PLENTIFUL…

Why did Josette Frank pull her name from Wonder Woman?

In 1943. Frank wrote to All-American Publications’ Charles Gaines to complain about Marston’s Wonder Woman, and what she felt were “sadistic bits showing women chained, tortured, etc.”

Marston ignored her complaints, and Gaines asked other members of the board, and they backed Marston, so Gaines just told Frank that his hands were tied (pun certainly unintended).

In 1944, Frank had enough, and actually took her name off of Wonder Woman’s advisory board for Wonder Woman #9 and 10 (it was a quarterly book at the time, so this would mean she was gone for about half a year)…

while pointedly remaining on the board in other issues those same months, like Detective Comics…

Frank returned her name to Wonder Woman an issue later…

She similarly went missing from Wonder Woman’s monthly comic book, Sensation Comics, from #31-36, but was back for Sensation Comics #37. Amusingly, though, she had a recurring feature in those opening pages where she would share books worth reading for kids, and THOSE continued, even with her name removed from Wonder Woman’s two comic book series…

However, Gaines was about to split All-American Publications into its own comic book company, and once he did, Frank was let go of her position at All-American PERIOD, so Gaines clearly chose Marston over Frank.

Frank continued on National’s Advisory Board during this period…

and when Gaines sold All-American Publications back to National less than a year later, Frank was back to being part of the board on Wonder Woman issues, as I suppose she felt it wasn’t worth it with Gaines now out of the picture (plus, Marston was barely writing Wonder Woman’s comic books by this point, so the stories had MUCH less bondage in them).

Check Out a Movie Legends Revealed

In the latest Movie Legends Revealed – Was Sean Connery seriously offered the role of Tarzan in the Paramount Tarzan film series right before he started doing the James Bond films?

That’s it for Comic Book Legends Revealed #951! Come back soon for the next installment! Be sure to check out my Entertainment Legends Revealed for more urban legends about the world of film and TV. Plus, Pop Culture References also has some brand-new Entertainment and Sports Legends Revealeds!

Feel free to send suggestions for future comic legends to me at either cronb01@aol.com or brianc@cbr.com.

“}]] In a brand-new Comic Book Legends Revealed, learn how the bondage in Wonder Woman caused a DC advisory board member to pull her name from Wonder Woman  Read More