No, the Adventures of Superman show in the '50s did a step-by-step origin story in the first episode: a scientist in Flash-Gordon-style garb on the doomed planet Krypton rockets his child to Earth, where the kindly Kents raise that kid on the farm before he heads off to the big city and gets hired as a newspaper reporter by typing up the breaking story of what he just now did with his powers while in costume.
(For bonus points, remember that the opening narration is built to cover the basics: he’s faster than a speeding bullet – and more powerful than a locomotive, as well as able to leap tall buildings in a single bound – because he’s a strange visitor from another planet, who came to Earth with powers and abilities beyond those of mortal men; speaking of which, he’s often disguised as Clark Kent: mild-mannered reporter for a great metropolitan newspaper. And on tonight’s episode…)
Shooting eye lasers and other superpowers make perfect sense but magic is somehow hard to accept?
You know, the Batman movies that everyone is far more familiar with didn’t use any superpowers. Maybe Superman should just be powered by technology from his suit, like Iron Man. He could have thrusters in his boots and hydraulic muscles. In fact, dump Superman all together and bring in John Henry Irons instead. That would be SO much better.
Oh, I hardly think that’s something that would fit in the D.C. universe.
Science fiction is generally easier to accept, though, because science is real. Advanced science is conceivable. The universe is huge so aliens are conceivable. It takes a leap of imagination, but not a huge leap of imagination.
Magic and miracles and gods? Only the most devout believe those exist.
If the world of the movie is a magical world, fine. People buy into that. But these superhero movies all take place in the ‘real’ world. It takes a bigger leap to accept, ‘Oh and there’s magic, too,’ without some pseudoscience-y explanation.
Not saying it can’t be done. But it’s gonna take some convincing.
Magic makes a lot more sense than Superman does. An alien race that evolves superpowers despite those powers literally being useless until they come to Earth? It’s like if we discovered that humans had X-ray vision, but only when in microgravity.
Well, the suggestion that she is the BEST KNOWN superhero is asinine. There is absolutely no chance whatsoever that that is true. She’s not close to Superman and Batman.
And while she might once have been a solid #3, there’s no way that is true anymore, and I’d bet good money on it. Yeah, she had a show 35 years ago. (the show wasn’t in the 80s; it was cancelled in 1979.) That was 35 years ago. Spider-Man is most definitely far more famous now. Arguments could be made for Iron Man.
Most people get their superhero fix from movies. The total revenue from all comic book sales in North America in 2014 will be substantially less than the box office take of “The Avengers,” and Wonder Woman is a small part of the comic book industry. As recently as 2011, monthly sales of Wonder Woman were around 31,000, meaning that fewer people buy Wonder Woman comics in a month than watch one of the “Iron Man” movies on Blu-Ray or on-demand in a week. Wonder Woman’s been off the screen for almost two generations; half the market has never seen her and knows next to nothing about her.
But the 1951 big screen movie, “Superman and the Mole-Men” that the series was based on never had an origin storiy, it jumped directly into action. The film was released into theaters and later edited into a two part episode of the series.
Well, here’s the opening; judge for yourself whether it jumps directly into the action or instead spends time at the start making sure everyone is up to speed on how Clark Kent appears to be a regular guy but is actually a mighty superman sent here from outer space in general and Krypton in particular.
I think adding Magic would work just fine. If anything it would help differentiate the DC and Marvel Movie universes as Marvel to date seems to be turning any Magic they have shown so far into advanced technology (specifically Thor and Asgard).
Saying audiences won’t accept Magic is hard to believe given Lord of the Rings and Harry Potter have literally made tens of Billions of dollars.
I just had an idea that may collapse when examined closely, but here 'tis anyway:
Six months or a year before a JLA movie (with Wonder Woman) comes out, do a Wonder Woman TV movie or mini-series. The purpose of this is to introduce WW to the world-at-large today. It would be basically her origin story, and end in modern times with her in Man’s World. The end could have Batman approach her, asking for help because he knows she’ll be useful in fighting the upcoming (but not yet shown) Big Bad of the JLA movie. It should be Batman asking her, with his mindset being that he’d use her as a tool.
I can think of several things wrong or unworkable with my own idea. One, wouldn’t a TV movie or mini-series cost enough that you might as well go straight to the silver screen anyway? Two, how would Time-Warner get it shown? Negotiate with one of the mains (ABC, CBS, NBC, whoever) to air it on their channel? Three, my proposed ending might need to have Ben Affleck cameo in costume, and my given reason for Batman to approach her might be counter to what DC might try to do, relationships-between-heroes-wise. I’m sure there are other strikes against my idea that don’t immediately spring to mind.
The gist of my idea is to (re)introduce modern audiences to Wonder Woman so that a stand-alone in-theaters movie for her before she shows up in JLA won’t be necessary, and then her appearance in the aforementioned JLA film won’t have movie-goers scratching their collective heads, saying to themselves and each other, “What was her deal, again?”
Superman and the Mole Men also followed closely on the heels of the Kirk Alyn serials in 1948 and 1950. So Superman’s origin story was still fresh in the public’s memories.
For a Wonder Woman movie, I would give an origin story, but try to keep it brief, 20 or 30 minutes, then have her fight Ares for the rest of the film.
That’s the way they did it with the Batman movie from the 80s. Batman’s around for awhile and it jumps into the middle of an adventure and Vickie Vale in her investigations winds up revealing more of his backstory, but it doesn’t take up much of the movie.
The new one started in Boston, Byrne took her to Gateway City (I think that’s the equivalent of San Francisco) and last time I think Rucka took her to NY, closer to the UN headquarters.
You know… in looking at all these responses it kind strikes me that despite the call from some quarters to have a Wonder Woman movie made per my OP I’m not sure there is really a compelling rationale to spend a few hundred million dollars doing a stand alone movie based on her character.
She is an interesting character but in looking at the posters here struggle to put together an interesting and commercially successful storyline I’m beginning to appreciate why WB is struggling with how to approach having her character carry a movie that has wide appeal. Episodic TV might be the best solution for her after all.
I think you could use magic and leave it undefined, and have the characters themselves react to the undefined-ness of the magic. For example, if Batman were there, demanding to know how she did X and she said magic and he was scoffing at the existence of magic, etc. It can be a thing which is never completely explained/resolved but that they obviously show as being in tension with “reality.”
And the scientific explanation for Odin putting the ‘Only he who is worthy can lift this hammer’ bit? Or for Mjoliner (sic) at all? A hammer that can pull a 250 pound man by throwing attached to your wrist?