Elastigirl takes out a lot of henchmen in The Incredibles. True, she has a super power, but her super power is stretchiness, which I don’t suppose would increase her punching strength.
I am thinking particularly of the scene were she is caught in the sliding doors.
Miho (Devon Aoki) was pretty damn preternatural, if you ask me…TRM
I’d think it would somewhat. She’s highly resistant to things like broken bones and bruising; so she can use her full strength at all times with no fear of injury. Plus, her stretching ability essentially makes her into a single mass of stretchy muscle. If she throws a punch at you from 20 feet away, it’ll be gaining force the whole way. And when you are nearly immune to normal force or forms of restraint it’s hard to lose.
There are a lot of Hong Kong action movies that do this. My favorites usually have Michelle Yeoh in them. I especially like Police Story 3 and Wing Chun.
Kick ass, Miss Malaysia!
Either I’m misremembering, I missed it in the posts, or you guys don’t remember the classic cheesy “Girl Kicks Ass” movie: The Legend of Billie Jean.
“Fair is Fair!”
Silver Hawk! Michelle rides a motorbike in trenccoat and hotpants, beating up panda kidnappers and Luke Goss! Campy fun.
I thought it was pretty hot when she boffed that one guy 
I’m trying to remember if Charlie/Samantha ever took on multiple opponents at once in TLKG. I mean, she’s obviously a way over the top badass, but IIRC most of her fights are one-on-one and she takes some major damage. She and the first attacker wreck her kitchen before she takes him down (no Summer Glau-style punch to the face, instant KO). Daedalus almost takes her out, and she only survives because Nathan happened to have that gun in his pants. I think she does gun down some mooks rescuing Mitch and trying to get Caitlin back, but she’s captured and then thinks her way out of certain death rather than muscling her way out. Granted, Charlie/Samantha does blow Timothy away in a pretty spectacular scene.
Neither is Superman. Why is it A-OK for a dude with superpowers to beat up a thousand guys but “unrealistic” if it’s a woman with superpowers?
Batman would be a better comparison, since he has no paranormal abilities. But even he’s ridiculously unrealistic. There was the time when Bruce Wayne was being held without bail; and as Bruce Wayne, without a utility belt, advance preparation or the option of retreating, he took down an entire mess hall full of hardened criminals.
Miho (Devon Aoki) has nearly superhuman asskicking ability with a sword / throwing stars.
I guess the other girls just had badass attitudes.
I didn’t think **Xena **had superpowers. She was just supposed to be a really badass chick. Same with Elektra, unless “ninja powers” count (because they are really sweet).
And as far as characters like **River Tam **from Firefly, why would someone turn a waify 17 year old girl into a genetically enhanced super soldier?
Another example: Jessica Biels in Blade Trinity. She was a mere human but easily kicked the crap out of multiple supernatural vampires.
I for one am willing to suspend disbelief when it comes to ass-kicking chicks in film and TV. I’m not really interested in seeing an East German Olympic female powerlifter beating the crap out of ten guys.
I believe the idea was that she was predisposed due to some nascent mental abilities. Which is perfectly fine. In sf terms I can buy eidetic memory, lightning calculation, even “precognitive reflexes” - i.e. she can predict what/where someone is going to move and out-react them. The episode where she guns down four guards in as many seconds works just fine for me.
The problem is RickJay’s one of muscle mass - I guess it is easy enough to fanwank telekinesis or something to explain her dropping people with a tap to the face. But it really is the biggest and hardest stretch for her character. I guess in terms of my own entertainment value I’d prefer a River Tam that was less an axe-wielding bad-ass than a slightly more scaled down empath/brilliant/crazy/sharpshooting demi-bad-ass. That is to say not someone who can take down Jayne with a couple of punches, but someone who can put a gun to his temple before he can react, because she can predict what he is about to try.
Not that it seriously impacts my enjoyment. I still like Serenity just fine, bruiser River Tam and all. But that would be my preference.
Shrek.
The fun thing there is that Princess Fiona seems actually less capable of beating up mooks in ogre form (eg the fight at the wedding) than as a wispy little girl (Robin Hood’s men)
Of course, they are clearly milking it for every comic effect they can get too.
Nevermind that Shrek was a parody of other Disney and kiddie-related works, so that doesn’t really make it count anyways.
As a general rule, ass-kicking chicks tend to derive their ass-kicking ability from superior speed and agility, not brute strength. It doesn’t make sense that River Tam would be able to simply overpower Jayne, enhanced abilities or not. She’s still only 115 lbs. OTOH, female dancers and gymnists are pretty strong for their size. I imagine one could do a number on even a guy like Jayne if she managed to land a punch square in his face (or groin).
Well, as I understand it she was subjected to brain surgery/brainwashing. If she’s using some sort of induced hysterical strength she could beat a large man to a pulp, or throw him around easily ( or one with each arm, for that matter ); 115 pounds or not. Although in that case the unrealistic part is that she does so without damaging or crippling herself; the reason we don’t normally use that level of strength is that things tend to break and tear under the stress.
I do think that it makes a certain amount of sense to pick someone like her for a “super soldier” if you are actually thinking in terms of a super-assassin/agent. After all, some tiny woman is far more likely to get the drop on people who don’t think she’s dangerous that some huge guy with muscles on his muscles.
Plus it’s hard to look inconspicuous when you keep inadvertantly tearing your shirts to pieces when you have to flex even the smallest amount of upper body muscle.
Trust me, I know. I buy my shirts in bulk now. 
Totally disagree!
