Changes

The fifth book in the series, Noah Berlatsky’s <i>[https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/0813564182/ref=as_li_tl?ie=UTF8&camp=1789&creative=9325&creativeASIN=0813564182&linkCode=as2&tag=dailyh0c-20&linkId=53d9b49801ca38ab35ad1a1b2ac63868 Wonder Woman: Bondage and Feminism in the Marston/Peter Comics, 1941-1948]</i>, draws upon queer theory, performance theory, and gender theory in his analysis with comparisons to other examples of media targeted to women, such as Twilight and gothic literature, as Berlatsky argues, “Wonder Woman, the original comic, was much more interesting, beautiful, and worthwhile than Wonder Woman the popular icon.”<ref> Noah Berlatsky, Wonder Woman: Bondage and Feminism in the Marston/Peter Comics, 1941-1948 (New Brunswick, NJ: Rutgers University Press, 2015), 187. </ref>

The editor of comics and culture blog, The Hooded Utilitarian, and author of several articles on gender and comics, Berlatsky’s monograph offers a more critical assessment of the material that Jill Lepore likewise analyzed in her book, <i>[https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/0804173400/ref=as_li_tl?ie=UTF8&camp=1789&creative=9325&creativeASIN=0804173400&linkCode=as2&tag=dailyh0c-20&linkId=0c9dbe7b0d845e519cd242dbf528edc2 The Secret History of Wonder Woman]</i>. His passion leads him to argue that the iterations of Wonder Woman following Marston and Peter’s run are superfluous. While some of the storylines and interpretations were undoubtedly weak or flawed, each successive generation of readers and writers reworked the character to meet the demands of their time, much like the Greek myths on which Marston and Peter drew for the character. His goal that his book will encourage others to read Marston and Peter’s comics to discover a “work created in the spirit of feminism, of peace, of queerness, and of love” is noble, but his conclusions may alienate some readers.<ref> Berlatsky, Wonder Woman, 215. </ref> He does, however, show where future studies may apply queer theory in analyze Diana of Themyscira.