Review | Film review: Professor Marston and the Wonder Women is the best superhero origin story yet
The story of the man who created DC’s feminist icon and the women who inspired him – both in and out of bed – is a beautiful love story that’s enriched by the exceptional central performances
4.5/5 stars
Wonder Woman debuted in 1941, created by William Moulton Marston (Luke Evans), a psychology professor at Harvard University. Together with his wife Elizabeth (Rebecca Hall), Marston’s research into human courtship rituals led to his Disc Theory (Dominance, Inducement, Seduction, Compliance), as well as the invention of the lie detector.
The Marstons were assisted by a student, Olive Byrne (Bella Heathcote), who soon became their lover, and the trio lived together in a secret polyamorous relationship, that bore four children from both women, until Marston’s death in 1947.
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While unconventional to even today’s most liberal-minded, the Marstons’ private life was infinitely more scandalous back in the early 1940s. Struggling to get published or make an income, Marston channelled his frustrations and yearnings into a creation that embodied feminism and justice, but also contained strong undertones of violence, torture and sadomasochism.
