Celebrating 4 Eras of the Iconic Superhero
Posted by ICv2 on July 21, 2016 @ 6:20 pm CT
The U.S. Postal Service, in partnership with Warner Bros. Consumer Products and DC Entertainment, has produced a sheet of four to commemorate the 75th Anniversary of Wonder Woman, the first proto-feminist superhero, who was created by psychologist William Moulton Marston and first appeared in All-Star Comics #8 in 1941. Though Wonder Woman was not the first female superhero (Black Widow and Bulletgirl debuted earlier), she was the first with a feminist mission—as Marston put it, “Wonder Woman is psychological propaganda for the new type of woman who should, I believe, rule the world.”
It is Marston’s original Wonder Woman, who made her first cover appearance in Sensation Comics #1 dated January 1942, who represents the comics’ Golden Age (1941) on the sheet, which also includes images of the Silver Age (1956-72) Amazon, as well as her Bronze Age (1973-1986), and Modern Age (1987-The Present) incarnations. The selvage, or text outside of the stamp images, features the current block-letter Wonder Woman logo in white against a comic book style power burst rendered in shades of blue.
The Wonder Woman stamps will be previewed at Comic-Con, and issued on October 7, 2016 as Forever stamps and always be equal in value to the current First-Class Mail one-ounce price.
Though this is not the first time that Wonder Woman has graced American postage—there were two Wonder Woman stamps issued in 2006 as part of the first pane of superhero stamps from the U.S.P.S., but this is the first time she has the stage all to herself. The stamps are part of Wonder Woman’s 75th Anniversary and DC has ambitious plans that include special exhibits at Comic-Con, a box set of “Greatest Stories” in this month and a 75th Anniversary Hardcover that is due in October (see “Celebrating 75 Years of Wonder Woman”).
The anniversary celebrations will culminate in the release of the first Wonder Woman movie next year, and DC is holding a special Wonder Woman panel at Comic-Con that will include two key figures from the upcoming Wonder Woman movie, actress Gail Gadot and director Patty Jenkins.