Pappy's Golden Age Comics Blogzine

Number 39


The origin of Wonder Woman's invisible plane


I was not a regular Wonder Woman reader. When I was a kid I ignored it, with that ignorance that comes from boys dismissing anything that looks like it would be read by girls. (I would have been way ahead had I paid attenton in my younger days to what girls liked. I would have saved myself a lot of trouble later.) I may have come across some issues, because I knew about WW's invisible plane. Now, that was cool, at least.

Although this story from Wonder Woman #80 is bylined "Charles Moulton," he was by then nine years dead. Moulton, whose real name was William Moulton Marston, was a psychologist, and a firm believer in the superiority of women. He invented Wonder Woman shortly after the introductions of Superman and Batman, to give girls a role model. Marston led an alternative lifestyle, with a wife, a "mistress," and their children, all in one household. Marston also had a thing for chains and bondage. Wonder Woman was a huge success, and is still being published, although when Robert Kanigher (who wrote and edited the stories in this issue) took over he jettisoned many of Marston's more outrageous contributions.

Moulton contracted polio in 1945, and was confined to his bed. He died in 1947 from cancer.

The story is from 1956. It is drawn by longtime Wonder Woman artist Harry G. Peter.