She is due to debut on the big screen for the first time in next year’s Batman v Superman: Dawn of Justice. But the celebrated comics writer Grant Morrison has questioned whether fans will be getting the real Wonder Woman or a violent imposter who goes against the traditions of the peace-loving superhero.

Morrison, who is writing the forthcoming graphic novel Wonder Woman: Earth One, told the website Nerdist that the trailer for Zack Snyder’s film showed a snarling, pugilistic take on the Amazonian princess which failed to honour the vision of her creator, the American psychologist William Moulton Marston. He said his new comic book would present a more peaceful Wonder Woman – in line with Marston’s idea that female superheroes should represent woman’s more conciliatory nature, rather than the antagonistic bent of 1940s male contemporaries such as Batman and Superman.

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“I sat down and I thought, ‘I don’t want to do this warrior woman thing,’” Morrison said. “I can understand why they’re doing it, I get all that, but that’s not what William Marston wanted, that’s not what he wanted at all!”

The Scottish writer, who is known for his acclaimed work on Batman, Superman and Justice League comic books, said Wonder Woman had originally been posited as “a doctor, a healer, a scientist”, and lamented that Snyder’s approach seemed to be “all sword and shield and her snarling at the camera”.

Marston, who invented the systolic blood pressure test that led to the creation of the polygraph, conceived of Wonder Woman as a superhero who would triumph through love rather than fighting ability – though his vision of a feminist crimefighter might appear somewhat patronising to 21st-century proponents of gender equality.

“Not even girls want to be girls so long as our feminine archetype lacks force, strength, and power,” wrote the psychologist in a 1943 article about his creation in the magazine The American Scholar. “Not wanting to be girls, they don’t want to be tender, submissive, 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.”

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Wonder Woman will feature in Batman v Superman: Dawn of Justice, which centres on a battle between Henry Cavill’s man of steel and Ben Affleck’s caped crusader, before getting her own solo outing in 2017. Israeli actor Gal Gadot will play the superhero, who is also expected to return in the ensemble movies Justice League parts one and two in 2017 and 2019.

Morrison said he was determined to adopt a more peace-oriented approach and aesthetic in Wonder Woman: Earth One. “Halfway through the book, we’re building up to this big fight, and then I thought, ‘No … this book isn’t about fights, there’s not going to be any fights,” he said.

“[I thought,] what would a society of immortal women that’s been around for 7,000 years have done? They wouldn’t still be chopping men’s heads off; they’ve got art and architecture and philosophy and poetry and it’s got nothing to do with men.

“So [artist] Yanick Paquette did this amazing design job, where there are no phallic objects … It’s all based on shells and natural stuff. He’s created this entire newly designed world for the Amazons.”