Justice League Watchtower
The Watchtower is the name of various bases used by the Justice League of America in DC Comics and various media. It has been portrayed in DC Comics as a building nestled into a crater on Earth's moon. In the DCAU, it is depicted as a spacestation in orbit; the Watchtower debuted in JLA #4 during Grant Morrison's run on the title. It is constructed of promethium and uses advanced Martian, Thanagarian and Earth technologies; the arrival of Orion and Big Barda led to the addition of New Apokolips technologies. Areas of the Watchtower were shown in JLA # 16 when super-villain Prometheus made his debut and downloaded the Watchtower blueprints. Among them: "The Hall of Justice" - housed atop the Watchtowers' peak is the conference hall where the League meets and plots strategy, assigns duties and engages in open discussion. At its center is a round table, a nod to Camelot's Knights of the Round Table. There are 12 seats, 7 or 8 of which are reserved for the core members with their respective insignia.
The JLA symbol itself is prominently placed in the center of the table. Promenade - a large area devoted for ceremonies as well as a place to assemble a large contingent of superheroes in cases of extreme necessity. Monitor Womb - the heart of the Watchtower, stretching the entire center of the complex, it houses the Leagues' vast computer/communications/sensor network. All crisis points are detected through this circular chamber with multiple holographic displays. Although monitor duty is assigned in a revolving system, Martian Manhunter volunteers for this as his great telepathic powers are uniquely attuned to the Martian technology. Batman has been seen using this room to plan and strategize in private on several occasions. Trophy room - various memorabilia from the League's past cases as well as sculptures/tributes to fallen heroes; some notable memorabilia include Green Arrow's trick arrows, Booster Gold's armor, Kanjar Ro's Gamma Gong, various alien weapons/gadgets, a container of Kirby Dots, galleries of past League rosters.
Armory/Hangar - adjacent to one another, this area houses a variety of specialized equipment the League or its allies may need depending on the mission as well as space-worthy ships capable of intergalactic travel. Hydroponics - this area houses a variety of alien flora which has efficient photosynthesis compared to terran plants, serving as the Watchtower's source of oxygen. Aquarium - serves as Aquaman's private quarters as well as housing marine life from other worlds. Private quarters - each core member has a specific private quarters for extended stays. Individual quarters are personalized for the members' lifestyle. Additional guest quarters are available as well. Other areas: Power Core, recreation area, holographic training room, medical lab, technology/engineering workshops, containment cells. Getting to the Watchtower and around the various areas is facilitated by teleportation tubes placed for easy access in the event of an emergency; the Watchtower was destroyed by Superboy-Prime in JLA #120, superseded by The Hall, based on Earth, Satellite Watchtower in space.
Following the gathering of the new team as seen in Justice League of America # 7, a new satellite is presented as headquarters. The new satellite is an orbiting Watchtower working together with The Hall, a building located in Washington D. C. designed by Wonder Woman and John Stewart. Inside the Hall is an archway-type teleportation system, dubbed'Slideways' in which a person need to walk through the archway to be transported to the League's new orbiting satellite headquarter 22,300 miles above Earth. Jim Lee was called to design the new headquarters. Writer Brad Meltzer: "On the satellite, he did six different designs. We kind of took a little from Column A and B. I saw in one of his other designs, he had these drones and I loved those, I said,'Can we put those on there as well? I want to take that!'" The satellite has a Danger Room-like training room nicknamed The Kitchen because, extracting from the American idiom, "If you can't stand the heat, stay out of the kitchen". Meltzer explains that, for the first time, the satellite has defensive and offensive weaponry.
Despite the defense systems, the Watchtower was damaged by the Sinestro Corps. In addition to this, the satellite's teleportation system was hacked by Hardware after he infiltrated the Hall of Justice disguised as a tourist. In the season 6 episode 11, "Justice", of the television series, Smallville. Chloe Sullivan provides directions and schematics from Oliver Queen's loft, is given the codename "Watchtower". In the online multimedia Smallville parallel story and Doom, John Jones/The Martian Manhunter uses a Swann Communications orbital satellite as a base. In the season 8 episode 17, entitled "Hex", Chloe Sullivan is at the Isis Foundation and Oliver Queen arrives, he asks her if she's ready to give up her life as a reporter, she confidently answers yes. She takes one for herself; the Justice League members, Black Canary, Aquaman and Impulse, come online one by one on the monitors surrounding Chloe in the control room. Oliver announces "Arrow online", the shot com
John Stewart (comics)
John Stewart, one of the characters known as Green Lantern, is a fictional superhero appearing in American comic books published by DC Comics and was the first African-American superhero to appear in DC Comics. The character was created by Dennis O'Neil and Neal Adams, first appeared in Green Lantern #87. Stewart's original design was based on actor Sidney Poitier. John Stewart debuted in Green Lantern vol. 2 #87 when artist Neal Adams came up with the idea of a substitute Green Lantern. The decision to make the character black resulted from a conversation between Adams and editor Julius Schwartz, in which Adams recounts saying that given the racial makeup of the world's population, "we ought to have a black Green Lantern, not because we’re liberals, but because it just makes sense." The character was DC's first black superhero. John Stewart has become a major recurring character in the Green Lantern mythos within the DC Universe, he became the primary character of Green Lantern vol. 2 from issues #182 through #200, when Hal Jordan relinquished his place in the Green Lantern Corps.
He continued to star in the book when the title changed to The Green Lantern Corps from issue #201 to #224. He would continue to make key appearances in Action Comics Weekly after The Green Lantern Corps' cancellation, he starred in the comic Green Lantern: Mosaic. 3, with a four-part storyline titled "Mosaic". DC published 18 issues of the ongoing Green Lantern: Mosaic title between June 1992 and November 1993. John Stewart was featured as one of the lead characters on the television cartoon Justice League from 2001 until 2004, he continued to appear as a major character on the show's 2004–2006 sequel, Justice League Unlimited. In 2011, John Stewart starred in the New 52 relaunch of Green Lantern Corps alongside Guy Gardner, became the sole lead character of the title from 2013 until the series' conclusion in 2015. Green Lantern Corps was replaced by Green Lantern: The Lost Army, which stars John Stewart as the lead. John Stewart is an architect "retconned" into a veteran U. S. Marine from Detroit, selected by the Guardians as a backup Green Lantern to then-current Green Lantern Hal Jordan, after the previous backup, Guy Gardner, was injured after getting hit by a car while trying to save a civilian.
Although Jordan objected to the decision after seeing that Stewart had a belligerent attitude to authority figures, the Guardians stood by their decision, chided Jordan for his supposed bigoted outlook on the issue. Jordan explained that he just felt that though Stewart might have the integrity for the task, he "obviously would have a chip on his shoulder bigger than the rock of Gibraltar." Jordan's opinion was. His assignment was to protect a racist politician, Stewart, while averting an accident, took advantage of the situation to embarrass Jordan in the process; when an assassin shoots at the politician, Stewart does not intervene with Jordan in response to the attack, which makes Stewart seem suspect. However, it turns out Stewart had good reasons for this apparent dereliction of duty because he was stopping a gunman from killing a police officer in the outside parking lot at the event while Jordan was pursuing a decoy; when Jordan confronts Stewart about his actions, Stewart explains that the politician had staged the attack for political advantage.
Jordan concludes that Stewart was an excellent recruit and has proven his worth. For some time, Stewart filled in as Green Lantern when Jordan was unavailable, including some missions of the Justice League. After Jordan gave up being Green Lantern in the 1980s, the Guardians selected Stewart for full-time duty. Stewart filled that role for some years. During that period he worked as an architect at Ferris Aircraft Company, battled many Green Lantern villains, fought against the Anti-Monitor's forces during the Crisis on Infinite Earths. John was trained in usage of his power ring by the Green Lantern of the planet Korugar; the duo went on many adventures together and fell in love. Kat and John went on to serve within the Green Lantern Corps of Earth alongside Hal Jordan, Kilowog and other alien Green Lanterns, during which time they were married. After John's ring was rendered powerless through the schemes of Sinestro, Katma Tui was murdered at the hands of the insane Star Sapphire, Stewart's life began to unravel.
First, he was falsely accused of killing Carol Ferris, Star Sapphire's alter ego, falsely accused of theft by South Nambia. Jailed and tortured in South Nambia for weeks, John freed himself with his old ring, now re-powered thanks to the efforts of Hal Jordan. In his escape, John inadvertently frees both a terrorist; when Jordan confronts John over his actions, the two friends come to blows until John realizes the "revolutionaries" he had been aiding intended to murder innocent civilians. Afterwards, John left Earth for space, where he participated in the Cosmic Odyssey miniseries event, failed to prevent the destruction of the planet Xanshi by an avatar of the Anti-Life Equation; the incident earned him the ire of J’onn J’onzz the Martian Manhunter, with him at the time. This series of tragedies left John a shattered man on the brink of suicide and created the villainess known as Fatality. J'onn J'onzz has at least civilly, forgiven him. John forgave himself for his past mistakes and grew into a stronger, more complex hero when he became the caretaker of the "Mosaic World", a patchwork of communities fr
Justice Society of America
The Justice Society of America is a superhero team appearing in American comic books published by DC Comics. The Justice Society of America was conceived by writer Gardner Fox; the JSA first appeared in All Star Comics #3, making it the first team of superheroes in comic books. The team was popular, but in the late 1940s, the popularity of superhero comics waned, the JSA's adventures ceased with issue #57 of the title. JSA members remained absent from comics until ten years when the original Flash appeared alongside a new character by that name in The Flash #123. During the Silver Age of Comic Books, DC Comics reinvented several Justice Society members and banded many of them together in the Justice League of America; the Justice Society was established as existing on "Earth-Two" and the Justice League on "Earth-One". This allowed for annual cross-dimensional team-ups of the teams between 1963 and 1985. New series, such as All-Star Squadron, Inc. and a new All-Star Comics featured the JSA, their children and their heirs.
These series explored the issues of aging, generational differences, contrasts between the Golden Age and subsequent eras. The 1985 Crisis on Infinite Earths limited series merged all of the company's various alternate realities into one, placing the JSA as World War II-era predecessors to the company's modern characters. A JSA series was published from 1999 to 2006, a Justice Society of America series ran from 2007 to 2011; as part of DC Comics' 2011 relaunch of its entire line of monthly books an unnamed version of the team appears in the Earth 2 Vol 1, Earth 2 World's End, Earth 2: Society. The Justice Society of America first appeared in All Star Comics #3 written by Gardner Fox and edited by Sheldon Mayer during the Golden Age of Comic Books; the team included: Doctor Fate, Hour-Man, the Spectre, the Sandman, the Atom, the Flash, Green Lantern, Hawkman. Because some of these characters were published by All-American Publications rather than DC Comics, All-Star Comics #3 is the first inter-company superhero title, as well as the first team-up title.
Comics' historian Les Daniels noted that: "This was a great notion, since it offered readers a lot of headliners for a dime, the fun of watching fan favorites interact."The JSA's adventures were written by Gardner Fox as well as by John Broome and Robert Kanigher. The series was illustrated by a legion of artists including: Martin Nodell, Joe Kubert, Jack Kirby, Harry Lampert, Joe Simon, Alex Toth, Sheldon Moldoff, Carmine Infantino, Joe Giella, Win Mortimer, Bernard Baily, Frank Giacoia, H. G. Peter, Jack Burnley, Lee Elias, Irwin Hasen, Bob Oksner, Paul Reinman, Everett E. Hibbard, Bernard Sachs; the first JSA story featured the team's first meeting, with a framing sequence for each member telling a story of an individual exploit. In the next issue, the team worked together on a common case, but each story from there on still featured the members individually on a mission involving part of the case, banding together in the end to wrap things up. An in-house rule explicitly laid out on the last page of All Star Comics #5, reprinted on page 206 of All Star Comics Archives Vol. 1, required that whenever a member received his or her own title, that character would leave All Star Comics, becoming an "honorary member" of the JSA.
Thus, the Flash was replaced by Johnny Thunder after #6, Green Lantern left shortly thereafter for the same reason. For this reason and Batman were established as being "honorary" members prior to All Star Comics #3. How these two heroes helped found the JSA before becoming honorary members was not explained until DC Special #29 in 1977. Hawkman is the only member to appear in every JSA adventure in the original run of All Star Comics. All Star Comics #8 featured the first appearance of Wonder Woman. Unlike the other characters who had their own titles, she was allowed to appear in the series, but only as the JSA's secretary from #11 onward, did not take part in most adventures until much in the series, she was excluded from the title because of the same rules that had excluded the Flash, Green Lantern and Batman from the title, though in #13 it was claimed she had become an active member. A fan club for the team called the "Junior Justice Society of America" was introduced in All Star Comics #14.
The membership kit included a welcome letter, a badge, a decoder, a four-page comic book, a membership certificate. By All Star Comics #24, a real-world schism between National Comics and All-American Publications—a nominally independent company run by Max Gaines and Jack Liebowitz—had occurred, which resulted in the Detective Comics, Inc. heroes being removed from the title. As a result, the Flash and Green Lantern returned to the team. With issue #27, National Comics bought out Max Gaines' share of All-American and the two companies merged to form Detective Comics, Inc; the JSA roster remained the same for the rest of the series. Gardner Fox left the series with issue #34 with a story that introduced a new super-villain, the Wizard; the Injustice Society first battled the JSA in issue #37 in a tale written by Robert Kanigher. The team's second female member, Black Canary, first helped the group in All Star Comics #38 and became a full member in #41. All Star Comics and the JSA's Golden Age adventures ended with issue #57, the title becoming All-Star Western, with no superheroes.
A good amount of artwork has survived from an unpublishe
Legion of Doom
The Legion of Doom is a group of supervillains that originated in Challenge of the Super Friends, an animated series from Hanna-Barbera based on DC Comics' Justice League. The Legion of Doom has since been incorporated into the main DC Universe, appearing in comics, as well as further animated and live-action adaptations. In each episode of Challenge of the Super Friends that they appeared, the Legion of Doom would enact a plot against the Super Friends and a plot to take over the world only to be met with defeat by the end of the story. In some episodes, they would escape capture through a last-minute escape plan contrived by Luthor. Other times, the Legion of Doom would end up apprehended; the episode "History of Doom" showed that Lex Luthor assembled 12 supervillains in order to form the most powerful and sinister group the world has seen. When the Challenge of the Super Friends season was conceived, it was named Battle of the Superheroes and featured the introduction of Captain Marvel to the Super Friends.
The group that challenged the heroes was to be called the "League of Evil", led by Captain Marvel's nemesis Doctor Sivana. However, Filmation was producing Shazam! and The New Adventures of Batman which prevented the use of characters such as Mister Atom, King Kull, Beautia Sivana, Penguin, Mr. Freeze, Catwoman. Early conceptual art drawn by Alex Toth included Heat Wave, Poison Ivy, Abra Kadabra; the Legion of Doom's headquarters was the Hall of Doom, located in Slaughter Swamp. The facility, which has a close resemblance to Darth Vader's helmet, could be lowered or raised above the swamp water's surface, it could enter space using rockets. The Hall of Doom's mobility could be controlled through remote control helping the Legion to escape on several occasions, its defenses included the ability to time travel. In "Doomsday" after Sinestro, Black Manta and Cheetah are abandoned by the rest of the Legion after they take control of a mental device, they use it to create another Hall of Doom, which attacks the original one and enables the Legion to be captured.
In "History of Doom", the Hall is shown being constructed in a barn. Black Manta proposed that they have it in the ocean, Captain Cold proposes to have underneath the polar ice caps, Gorilla Grodd proposes that they have it in the jungle; as a compromise, Lex Luthor decides to have it within the waters of Slaughter Swamp as it is flown to that location. There were thirteen members of the Legion of Doom: Despite the opening sequence for Challenge of the Super Friends claiming that the Legion's members had "banded together from remote galaxies", Eleven out of the thirteen are native to Earth; the episode "Super Friends: Rest In Peace" makes a reference to a former unseen member of the Legion of Doom, the only time such a reference has been made. This was Doctor Natas, the inventor of the Noxium crystal that had the power to destroy all of the Super Friends like mimicking Kryptonite for Superman and mimicking a yellow energy for Green Lantern; the Super Friends knew of this crystal and tricked the Legion of Doom into thinking that it had killed all of them using android doubles of the Super Friends while the real ones hid in their space station.
They anticipated. The crystal was launched into deep space, it was not explained. Prior to the first televised appearance of the Legion of Doom, a group called the Super Foes appeared in the first issue of the Super Friends comic book, its membership featured Toyman, the Penguin, Poison Ivy, the Cheetah, the "Human Flying Fish" and their protégés Toyboy, Honeysuckle and Sardine in keeping with the theme of trainees ala Wendy and Marvin. While Challenge of the Super Friends was the series spotlighting the Legion of Doom, they appear in a few Super Friends shorts; the Krypton Syndrome: After Superman saves Krypton in the past, he returns to an alternate present. Robin mentions. Two Gleeks are Deadlier Than One: Though only Giganta and Gorilla Grodd appear, the Legion of Doom is mentioned where the Super Friends investigate rumors that the Legion of Doom are getting back together. Like in "Super Friends: Rest in Peace", the Super Friends used androids to trick Giganta and Gorilla Grodd into thinking they were destroyed.
The Revenge of Doom: All 13 members of the Legion of Doom appear after getting back together, but only Lex Luthor and Solomon Grundy have dialogue. In this appearance, they salvaged the Hall of Doom disguised as construction workers with the cover-up that they were going to turn it into a museum. Batman and Robin came upon the "construction workers" and demanded to see their permit which they did having been obtained by the Department of Parks; when there was a mentioning that the Ion Engines were removed by the Super Friends which would've made it the first flying museum, the Dynamic Duo gets suspicious about the construction workers learning about the top secret operation as the lead construction worker claims that the info of that might've been leaked to the news. With the plot exposed, Lex Luthor and the Legion of Doom shed their disguises and capture Batman and Robin. After refurbishing the Legion of Doom and equipping it with new weapons, they have developed a crystallizing ray to immobilize Superman and Wonder Woman.
Batman and Robin escape, reverse the effects of the crystallizing ray on Superman and Wonder Woman, apprehend the Legion
Satellite
In the context of spaceflight, a satellite is an artificial object, intentionally placed into orbit. Such objects are sometimes called artificial satellites to distinguish them from natural satellites such as Earth's Moon. On 4 October 1957 the Soviet Union launched the world's first artificial satellite, Sputnik 1. Since about 8,100 satellites from more than 40 countries have been launched. According to a 2018 estimate, some 4,900 remain in orbit, of those about 1,900. 500 operational satellites are in low-Earth orbit, 50 are in medium-Earth orbit, the rest are in geostationary orbit. A few large satellites have been assembled in orbit. Over a dozen space probes have been placed into orbit around other bodies and become artificial satellites to the Moon, Venus, Jupiter, Saturn, a few asteroids, a comet and the Sun. Satellites are used for many purposes. Among several other applications, they can be used to make star maps and maps of planetary surfaces, take pictures of planets they are launched into.
Common types include military and civilian Earth observation satellites, communications satellites, navigation satellites, weather satellites, space telescopes. Space stations and human spacecraft in orbit are satellites. Satellite orbits vary depending on the purpose of the satellite, are classified in a number of ways. Well-known classes include low Earth orbit, polar orbit, geostationary orbit. A launch vehicle is a rocket, it lifts off from a launch pad on land. Some are launched at sea aboard a plane. Satellites are semi-independent computer-controlled systems. Satellite subsystems attend many tasks, such as power generation, thermal control, attitude control and orbit control. "Newton's cannonball", presented as a "thought experiment" in A Treatise of the System of the World, by Isaac Newton was the first published mathematical study of the possibility of an artificial satellite. The first fictional depiction of a satellite being launched into orbit was a short story by Edward Everett Hale, The Brick Moon.
The idea surfaced again in Jules Verne's The Begum's Fortune. In 1903, Konstantin Tsiolkovsky published Exploring Space Using Jet Propulsion Devices, the first academic treatise on the use of rocketry to launch spacecraft, he calculated the orbital speed required for a minimal orbit, that a multi-stage rocket fuelled by liquid propellants could achieve this. In 1928, Herman Potočnik published The Problem of Space Travel -- The Rocket Motor, he described the use of orbiting spacecraft for observation of the ground and described how the special conditions of space could be useful for scientific experiments. In a 1945 Wireless World article, the English science fiction writer Arthur C. Clarke described in detail the possible use of communications satellites for mass communications, he suggested. The US military studied the idea of what was referred to as the "earth satellite vehicle" when Secretary of Defense James Forrestal made a public announcement on 29 December 1948, that his office was coordinating that project between the various services.
The first artificial satellite was Sputnik 1, launched by the Soviet Union on 4 October 1957, initiating the Soviet Sputnik program, with Sergei Korolev as chief designer. This in turn triggered the Space Race between the United States. Sputnik 1 helped to identify the density of high atmospheric layers through measurement of its orbital change and provided data on radio-signal distribution in the ionosphere; the unanticipated announcement of Sputnik 1's success precipitated the Sputnik crisis in the United States and ignited the so-called Space Race within the Cold War. Sputnik 2 was launched on 3 November 1957 and carried the first living passenger into orbit, a dog named Laika. In May, 1946, Project RAND had released the Preliminary Design of an Experimental World-Circling Spaceship, which stated, "A satellite vehicle with appropriate instrumentation can be expected to be one of the most potent scientific tools of the Twentieth Century." The United States had been considering launching orbital satellites since 1945 under the Bureau of Aeronautics of the United States Navy.
The United States Air Force's Project RAND released the report, but considered the satellite to be a tool for science and propaganda, rather than a potential military weapon. In 1954, the Secretary of Defense stated, "I know of no American satellite program." In February 1954 Project RAND released "Scientific Uses for a Satellite Vehicle," written by R. R. Carhart; this expanded on potential scientific uses for satellite vehicles and was followed in June 1955 with "The Scientific Use of an Artificial Satellite," by H. K. Kallmann and W. W. Kellogg. In the context of activities planned for the International Geophysical Year, the White House announced on 29 July 1955 that the U. S. intended to launch satellites by the spring of 1958. This became known as Project Vanguard. On 31 July, the Soviets announced that they intended to launch a satellite by the fall of 1957. Following pressure by the American Rocket Society, the National Science Foundation, the International Geophysical Year, military interest picked up and in early 1955 the Army and Navy were worki
Wonder Woman
Wonder Woman is a fictional superhero appearing in American comic books published by DC Comics. The character is a founding member of the Justice League; the character first appeared in All Star Comics #8 in October 1941 with her first feature in Sensation Comics #1, January 1942. The Wonder Woman title has been published by DC Comics continuously except for a brief hiatus in 1986. In her homeland, the island nation of Themyscira, her official title is Princess Diana of Themyscira, Daughter of Hippolyta; when blending into the society outside of her homeland, she adopts her civilian identity Diana Prince. Wonder Woman was created by the American psychologist and writer William Moulton Marston, artist Harry G. Peter. Marston's wife and their life partner, Olive Byrne, are credited as being his inspiration for the character's appearance. Marston's comics featured his ideas on DISC theory, the character drew a great deal of inspiration from early feminists, from birth control pioneer Margaret Sanger.
Wonder Woman's origin story relates that she was sculpted from clay by her mother Queen Hippolyta and was given a life to live as an Amazon, along with superhuman powers as gifts by the Greek gods. In recent years, DC changed her background with the revelation that she is the daughter of Zeus and Hippolyta, jointly raised by her mother and her aunts Antiope and Menalippe; the character has changed in depiction over the decades, including losing her powers in the 1970s. She possesses an arsenal of advanced technology, including the Lasso of Truth, a pair of indestructible bracelets, a tiara which serves as a projectile, and, in older stories, a range of devices based on Amazon technology. Wonder Woman's character was created during World War II. Many stories depicted Wonder Woman rescuing herself from bondage, which defeated the "damsels in distress" trope, common in comics during the 1940s. In the decades since her debut, Wonder Woman has gained a cast of enemies bent on eliminating the Amazon, including classic villains such as Ares, Doctor Poison, Doctor Psycho, Giganta, along with more recent adversaries such as Veronica Cale and the First Born.
Wonder Woman has regularly appeared in comic books featuring the superhero teams Justice Society and Justice League. The character is a well-known figure in popular culture, adapted to various media. June 3 is Wonder Woman Day. Wonder Woman is part of the DC Comics trinity of flagship characters alongside Superman. Modern historians divide 20th century history of American superhero comics into "ages," The Golden Age being the first. In an October 25, 1940, interview with the Family Circle magazine, William Moulton Marston discussed the unfulfilled potential of the comic book medium; 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 DC Comics. At that time, Marston wanted to create his own new superhero. "Fine," said Elizabeth. "But make her a woman." Marston introduced the idea to Gaines. Given the go-ahead, Marston developed Wonder Woman, whom he believed to be a model of that era's unconventional, liberated woman.
Marston drew inspiration from the bracelets worn by Olive Byrne, who lived with the couple in a polyamorous relationship. Wonder Woman debuted in All Star Comics #8, scripted by Marston. Marston was the creator of a systolic-blood-pressure-measuring apparatus, crucial to the development of the polygraph. Marston's experience with polygraphs convinced him that women were more honest than men in certain situations and could work more efficiently. Marston designed Wonder Woman to be an allegory for the ideal love leader. "Wonder Woman is psychological propaganda for the new type of woman who should, I believe, rule the world", Marston wrote. In a 1943 issue of The American Scholar, Marston wrote: Not girls want to be girls so long as our feminine archetype lacks force and power. Not wanting to be girls, they don't want to be tender, peace-loving as good women are. Women's strong qualities have become despised because of their weakness; the obvious remedy is to create a feminine character with all the strength of Superman plus all the allure of a good and beautiful woman.
Marston was an outspoken feminist and firm believer in the superiority of women. He described bondage and submission as a "respectable and noble practice". Marston wrote in a weakness for Wonder Woman, attached to a fictional stipulation that he dubbed "Aphrodite's Law", that made the chaining of her "Bracelets of Submission" together by a man take away her Amazonian super strength. Wonder Woman ended up in chains before breaking free; this not only represented Marston's affinity for bondage, but women's subjugation, which he roundly rejected. However, not everything a
Art Deco
Art Deco, sometimes referred to as Deco, is a style of visual arts and design that first appeared in France just before World War I. Art Deco influenced the design of buildings, jewelry, cars, movie theatres, ocean liners, everyday objects such as radios and vacuum cleaners, it took its name, short for Arts Décoratifs, from the Exposition internationale des arts décoratifs et industriels modernes held in Paris in 1925. It combined modern styles with rich materials. During its heyday, Art Deco represented luxury, glamour and faith in social and technological progress. Art Deco was a pastiche of many different styles, sometimes contradictory, united by a desire to be modern. From its outset, Art Deco was influenced by the bold geometric forms of Cubism, it featured rare and expensive materials, such as ebony and ivory, exquisite craftsmanship. The Chrysler Building and other skyscrapers of New York built during the 1920s and 1930s are monuments of the Art Deco style. In the 1930s, during the Great Depression, the Art Deco style became more subdued.
New materials arrived, including chrome plating, stainless steel, plastic. A sleeker form of the style, called Streamline Moderne, appeared in the 1930s. Art Deco is one of the first international styles, but its dominance ended with the beginning of World War II and the rise of the functional and unadorned styles of modern architecture and the International Style of architecture that followed. Art Deco took its name, short for Arts Décoratifs, from the Exposition Internationale des Arts Décoratifs et Industriels Modernes held in Paris in 1925, though the diverse styles that characterize Art Deco had appeared in Paris and Brussels before World War I; the term arts décoratifs was first used in France in 1858. In 1868, Le Figaro newspaper used the term objets d'art décoratifs with respect to objects for stage scenery created for the Théâtre de l'Opéra. In 1875, furniture designers, textile and glass designers, other craftsmen were given the status of artists by the French government. In response to this, the École royale gratuite de dessin founded in 1766 under King Louis XVI to train artists and artisans in crafts relating to the fine arts, was renamed the National School of Decorative Arts.
It took its present name of ENSAD in 1927. During the 1925 Exposition the architect Le Corbusier wrote a series of articles about the exhibition for his magazine L'Esprit Nouveau under the title, "1925 EXPO. ARTS. DÉCO." which were combined into a book, "L'art décoratif d'aujourd'hui". The book was a spirited attack on the excesses of the lavish objects at the Exposition; the actual phrase "Art déco" did not appear in print until 1966, when it featured in the title of the first modern exhibit on the subject, called Les Années 25: Art déco, Stijl, Esprit nouveau, which covered the variety of major styles in the 1920s and 1930s. The term Art déco was used in a 1966 newspaper article by Hillary Gelson in the Times, describing the different styles at the exhibit. Art Deco gained currency as a broadly applied stylistic label in 1968 when historian Bevis Hillier published the first major academic book on the style: Art Deco of the 20s and 30s. Hillier noted that the term was being used by art dealers and cites The Times and an essay named "Les Arts Déco" in Elle magazine as examples of prior usage.
In 1971, Hillier organized an exhibition at the Minneapolis Institute of Arts, which he details in his book about it, The World of Art Deco. The emergence of Art Deco was connected with the rise in status of decorative artists, who until late in the 19th century had been considered as artisans; the term "arts décoratifs" had been invented in 1875, giving the designers of furniture and other decoration official status. The Société des artistes décorateurs, or SAD, was founded in 1901, decorative artists were given the same rights of authorship as painters and sculptors. A similar movement developed in Italy; the first international exhibition devoted to the decorative arts, the Esposizione international d'Arte decorative moderna, was held in Turin in 1902. Several new magazines devoted to decorative arts were founded in Paris, including Arts et décoration and L'Art décoratif moderne. Decorative arts sections were introduced into the annual salons of the Sociéte des artistes français, in the Salon d'automne.
French nationalism played a part in the resurgence of decorative arts. In 1911, the SAD proposed the holding of a major new international exposition of decorative arts in 1912. No copies of old styles were to be permitted; the exhibit was postponed until 1914 because of the war, postponed until 1925, when it gave its name to the whole family of styles known as Déco. Parisian department stores and fashion designers played an important
