Wonder Woman in pop culture over the years

You may not know him by name, but William Moulton Marston was a big name back in his day -- a psychologist by trade, he invented the polygraph machine and had made a bit of a name for himself. He found himself sick of heroes who triumph with brute force, and wanted to create one who instead solves problems diplomatically, with love. His wife suggested that he make the character female, and thus, Wonder Woman was born.

Once you know the history of Marston (pictured) as a psychologist, Wonder Woman's powers make a lot more sense. The Lasso of Truth was obviously inspired by Dr. Marston's own involvement in developing the polygraph, and her defense-and-protection focused powers tie into his drive to create an incredibly strong hero that does not pursue peace through war.

Wonder Woman created to be a role model for everyone, but especially for young girls who didn't really have any female superheroes to look up to. That's why it was so disappointing that in the 1950's and 60's, Wonder Woman comics were stuffed full of scenes in which her love of Steve Trevor regularly rendered her stereotypically lovesick, helpless, and submissive -- she also lost her signature superpowers.

Believe it or not, we have Gloria Steinem to thank for the return of Wonder Woman's abilities. In the first issue of her magazine Ms., she put Wonder Woman on the cover and wrote an impassioned essay about what the character meant to her and other women around the world, decrying the fact that Wonder Woman had all but become a damsel in distress in the comics. Soon after, DC Comics gave Wonder Woman her powers back.

Wonder Woman's first TV appearance as a regular character came on the animated show "Superfriends." Interestingly enough, her first TV appearance actually came a bit before "Superfriends" aired -- she had a guest spot with Superman on the animated "Brady Bunch" spinoff "The Brady Kids."

In 1975, ABC launched a serial television show starring Lynda Carter as Wonder Woman. The show ran for three seasons and was incredibly popular, despite the show switching networks to CBS between seasons 1 and 2 -- and despite the ill-advised use of a talking robot named Rover. That said, it was one of America's first female-led serial TV shows where the lead character was consistently depicted as strong and powerful.

In 2001, Wonder Woman made her debut in the DC Animated Universe (a series of shows from the '90s and '00s including "Justice League", "Batman: The Animated Series," and others). Her first appearance came in "Justice League", and she then appeared in "Justice League Unlimited" as well. Unfortunately, rights issues precluded her from being featured in cameos on other DC cartoons.

Wonder Woman's theatrical debut would come oddly late, with her appearance in 2014's "The Lego Movie", as voiced by Cobie Smulders of "How I Met Your Mother" fame. Since then, she has appeared in multiple Lego films and video games -- most recently 2017's "The Lego Batman Movie."

It's a shame that not only did Gal Gadot make her debut as Wonder Woman in the hugely disappointing "Batman v. Superman: Dawn of Justice," but that the movie was also Wonder Woman's first appearance in a major market, non-animated motion picture. Fortunately, it seems like they did a better job with her second outing.

Early signs are good for the Wonder Woman movie -- the first-ever superhero movie driven by a single female hero -- which appears to be a palate-cleanser after the supremely disappointing "Batman v. Superman: Dawn of Justice." Hopefully, this is a sign of even better things to come both for Wonder Woman, and representation of female superheroes in general.