Comic book creation inspired by scientist’s two lovers

WONDER Woman was created by the renowned psychologist and inventor William Moulton Marston.

Marston believed Superman and Batman were sexist, so when he was asked by comic book creator Max Gaines to consult on a new character, he decided it should be a female superhero. He asked to write it himself and the result was Wonder Woman, which first appeared in 1941.

Marston had two inspirations for Diana Prince. The first was his feminist wife Elizabeth Holloway Marston, a lawyer and fellow psychologist who collaborated with him on his inventions. The second was his mistress Olive Byrne, who actually lived with him and his wife in a bizarre love triangle.

She agreed to stay home and raise Elizabeth’s two children while she went to work – and also had two of her own with Marston. As Olive had no wedding ring, she wore large bronze bracelets instead – just like Wonder Woman’s. He also pioneered the systolic blood pressure test used in the first polygraph lie detector and echoed in Wonder Woman’s lasso of truth.

After Marston died at the age of 54, the two women lived together in New York for the rest of their lives.