Individuality runs rampant in the illustrated pages of pulp fiction.
Clothes hug the curves of the body fantastic, both as a way to ignite sexual fires in adolescent readers and to signify a branding of the flesh. Like a tattoo, a skin-tight outfit confirms the hero's extraordinary status as a potential savior of humankind, as well as one of its flamboyant outcasts. Wonder Woman first put on her uniform in 1942, as millions of American men and women were donning theirs. Marston wasn't worried that a muscular female immortal would put off the traditional male comic readership. A golden eagle stretches its wings across a red bustier that improbably features a plunging backline.