Portrayal of women in American comics
The first known female superhero is writer-artist Fletcher Hanks's minor character Fantomah, an ageless, ancient Egyptian woman in the modern day who could transform into a skull-faced creature with superpowers to fight evil; she debuted in Fiction House's "Jungle Comics" #2 (Feb. 1940), credited to the pseudonymous "Barclay Flagg". The first widely recognizable female superhero is "Wonder Woman", from All-American Publications, one of three companies that would merge to form DC Comics. In an October 25, 1940, interview conducted by former student Olive Byrne (under the pseudonym 'Olive Richard') and published in "Family Circle", titled "Don't Laugh at the Comics", William Moulton Marston described what he saw as the great educational potential of comic books (a follow up article was published two years later in 1942.) This article caught the attention of comics publisher Max Gaines, who hired Marston as an educational consultant for National Periodicals and All-American Publications, two of the companies that would merge to form the future DC Comics. At that time, Marston decided to develop a new superhero. In the early 1940s the DC line was dominated by superpowered male characters such as the Green Lantern, Batman, and its flagship character, Superman. According to the Fall 2001 issue of the Boston University alumni magazine, it was his wife Elizabeth Hollowy's idea to create a female superhero. Marston introduced the idea to Max Gaines, cofounder (along with Jack Liebowitz) of All-American Publications. Given the go-ahead, Marston developed "Wonder Woman" with Elizabeth (whom Marston believed to be a model of that era's unconventional, liberated woman). In creating Wonder Woman, Marston was also inspired by Olive Byrne, who lived with the couple in a polygamous/polyamorous relationship. In a 1943 issue of "The American Scholar", Marston wrote:
Barbara Gordon
Since her debut in DC Comics publication, and fueled by her adaptation into the "Batman" television series in 1967, Barbara Gordon has been listed among fictional characters that are regarded as cultural icons. Author Brian Cronin, in "Was Superman A Spy?: And Other Comic Book Legends Revealed" (2009) notes that following her 1967 debut, "Batgirl was soon popular enough to appear regularly over the next two decades and Yvonne Craig certainly made an impression on many viewers with her one season portraying young Ms. Gordon." Similarly, Cronin states that following the publication of "The Killing Joke", Barbara Gordon—in her new persona as Oracle—became "more popular, in fact, than she was when she was Batgirl. She even gained her own title, Birds of Prey, about her and a group of superhero operatives she organizes[.]" The character has been the subject of analysis in academia, regarding the portrayal of women, librarians, and disabled people in mainstream media. Throughout the course of the character's history, Barbara Gordon's intelligence has been one of her defining attributes. According to "BusinessWeek", she is listed as one of the top ten most intelligent fictional superheroes appearing in American comics, and is the only female character to appear on the list. In 2011, Barbara Gordon was ranked 17th in both IGN's "Top 100 Comic Book Heroes" and "Comics Buyer's Guide's" "100 Sexiest Women in Comics".