The first widely recognizable female superhero is Wonder Woman, from All-American Publications, which was one of the three companies that merged to form DC Comics. Wonder Woman was introduced in a manner typical of most women in comics, although her character portrays a strong and independent heroine; the comic series however caters to the promiscuous fantasies of young male readers. Wonder Woman is depicted as hypersexualized and a commodity for males. Recurring scenes of Wonder Women in skimpy outfits that accentuate her melon-sized breasts and small waist highlight the idealized female body and how it was used to attract male gazes in visual media. Wonder Woman serves as an example of many of the major changes in representations. of women in comics from the early 20th century to today. Wonder Woman is an ideal example of one of the main themes of comics, namely American feminism. Although Wonder Woman is a dominant female character with a lot of power and independence, her character has storylines that focus on fitting into the mainstream gender. roles regarding romance, and is also consistently presented as a sexualized object for a male audience. While notable exceptions exist, women in mainstream comics are often portrayed equally. According to Kelli E. Stanley, Wonder Woman emerged at a time when women were encouraged to join the workforce as part of the war effort (149). Early comic book publications of Wonder Woman present her as strong, powerful, and independent of men. In the post-war era, however, Wonder Woman plots focused more on domestic virtues and romance, as women were urged to leave the… middle of paper… equally when they are on the bright side of things.” The beauty of comics is their strength as a medium. directly following that shared culture with political cartoons, is that you can let your work speak for you. When comic book series choose to depict women with J-Lo butts, undistorted sized hips, and include scenes where women don't take their clothes off to fight crime, it will be a real breakthrough in the comic book industry. That day will be the deciding factor on sexism, not characters with "normal" bodies, but characters who break the mold of cookie-cutter female bodies that male comic artists obsessively use to depict so-called powerful women. Bottom line, the day this boys' club mentality loosens its grip on the comics industry and starts letting women do whatever they want, will be the day the comics industry is considerably more balanced..