# Why have several B list superheroes gotten movies, but Wonder Woman is ignored? **URL:** \ **Category:** Cafe Society\ **Created:** [October 6, 2010, 11:18am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-have-several-b-list-superheroes-gotten-movies-but-wonder-woman-is-ignored/556234 "2010-10-06T11:18:26Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 20\ **Page:** 2
**Author:** ![Sailboat](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/sailboat/32/461_2.png) [@Sailboat](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Sailboat)\ **Post date:** [October 6, 2010, 3:03pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-have-several-b-list-superheroes-gotten-movies-but-wonder-woman-is-ignored/556234/21 "2010-10-06T15:03:45Z")
She’s a D-list superhero. Maybe a double D. ---
**Author:** ![foolsguinea](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/foolsguinea/32/14751_2.png) [@foolsguinea](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/foolsguinea)\ **Post date:** [October 6, 2010, 3:10pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-have-several-b-list-superheroes-gotten-movies-but-wonder-woman-is-ignored/556234/22 "2010-10-06T15:10:04Z")
It’s really the responsibility of those who want a strong female character to make one up. There’s nothing intrinsic in Marston’s Wonder Woman that makes her “the one.” Heck, of DC characters, I would argue that Nightshade, Vixen (well, unfortunate name), Katana, & (Joe Kelly’s) Faith have as much\* intrinsic\* value as Wondy for compelling stories. They lack the name recognition, &, well, the iconic name. I love Looker too, but she’s creepy & hard to do well. And Black Canary is a victim of long-form continuity snarls at this point–which one are we doing? Arguably that issue of repeated revision over decades is Wondy’s problem too: Are we doing a Marstonesque? A riff on the TV series, & if so, more like Ben Stiller’s _Starsky & Hutch_ or Tom Cruise’s _Mission: Impossible_? A Pérezesque? Something goofy & campy fun like Kanigher used to do? An adaptation of a non-Marston, non-Pérez story? Something like whatever the current take is (weirder now considering Straczynski is doing an “altered timeline” story)? Something new & different? ---
**Author:** ![Alessan](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/alessan/32/465_2.png) [@Alessan](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Alessan)\ **Post date:** [October 6, 2010, 3:12pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-have-several-b-list-superheroes-gotten-movies-but-wonder-woman-is-ignored/556234/23 "2010-10-06T15:12:51Z")
What are her powers, anyway? I mean, she’s strong, and… wears bracelets? If she were a man she’d be the most boring superhero ever. ---
**Author:** ![foolsguinea](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/foolsguinea/32/14751_2.png) [@foolsguinea](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/foolsguinea)\ **Post date:** [October 6, 2010, 3:19pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-have-several-b-list-superheroes-gotten-movies-but-wonder-woman-is-ignored/556234/24 "2010-10-06T15:19:25Z")
Super-speed, super-strength, super-intelligence. The version introduced in the mid-1980’s can both fly & levitate. Some writers add fire immunity & animal empathy. Some also make the point that she’s really tough–tolerant of high or low temperatures, tolerant of extreme pain & fatigue, etc. Also she has a lasso which can compel those caught in it to tell the truth (since 1986 or so; the earlier version of the lasso could compel one caught in it to do anything the holder of the other end commanded, but after 45 years they finally realized that was too creepy). ---
**Author:** ![KneadToKnow](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/kneadtoknow/32/3999_2.png) [@KneadToKnow](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/KneadToKnow)\ **Post date:** [October 6, 2010, 3:20pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-have-several-b-list-superheroes-gotten-movies-but-wonder-woman-is-ignored/556234/25 "2010-10-06T15:20:51Z")
> [@joebuck20](#): > > It’s quite telling that most people’s knowledge of the character comes from the Linda Carter series in the 70s, which wasn’t even that faithful to the comics. Nitpick: L **y** nda Carter. ---
**Author:** ![BMalion](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/e274bd/32.png) [@BMalion](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/BMalion)\ **Post date:** [October 6, 2010, 3:22pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-have-several-b-list-superheroes-gotten-movies-but-wonder-woman-is-ignored/556234/26 "2010-10-06T15:22:45Z")
The charactor and entire concept suck. I wish they would write a script where she foils the bad guys with Hostess Fruit Pies. But seriously, _Aliens_, is an action film with a strong female lead and it’s one of my favorites. ---
**Author:** ![davidw](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/c4cdca/32.png) [@davidw](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/davidw)\ **Post date:** [October 6, 2010, 3:33pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-have-several-b-list-superheroes-gotten-movies-but-wonder-woman-is-ignored/556234/27 "2010-10-06T15:33:32Z")
The animated Wonder Woman movie from 2009 was really good. ---
**Author:** ![Exapno\_Mapcase](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/exapno_mapcase/32/1051_2.png) [@Exapno\_Mapcase](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Exapno_Mapcase)\ **Post date:** [October 6, 2010, 3:40pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-have-several-b-list-superheroes-gotten-movies-but-wonder-woman-is-ignored/556234/28 "2010-10-06T15:40:12Z")
Here’s how much of a problem Wonder Woman is. The article about her that the OP linked to didn’t even bother to picture her in her current costume. [Here it is](http://benlundy.blogspot.com/2010/07/more-on-wonder-woman-costume-feminism.html), along wth a long history of her previous outfits. Notice that it is not a bustier. Superman is always Superman. Batman is always Batman. Wonder Woman is… The problem is solvable. The question is whether it’s $200 million solvable. Without a fixed identity, and not even a fixed public image, making an A-list movie becomes very hard. A simple action movie punch up works with a female lead, but that’s not a Wonder Woman movie. She has baggage and the movie has to reflect that. ---
**Author:** ![Little\_Nemo](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/little_nemo/32/3120_2.png) [@Little\_Nemo](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Little_Nemo)\ **Post date:** [October 6, 2010, 4:20pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-have-several-b-list-superheroes-gotten-movies-but-wonder-woman-is-ignored/556234/29 "2010-10-06T16:20:55Z")
Another issue is that character is only half of the marketing equation as far as Hollywood is concerned. They also want to sell the actor: Christopher Reeve is Superman, Christian Bale is Batman, Hugh Jackman is Wolverine, Robert Downey Jr is Iron Man, etc. So in addition to believing that female characters are not as marketable as male characters, there’s also a belief that actresses are not as marketable as actors. ---
**Author:** ![Really\_Not\_All\_That\_Bright](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/r/e8c25b/32.png) [@Really\_Not\_All\_That\_Bright](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Really_Not_All_That_Bright)\ **Post date:** [October 6, 2010, 4:26pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-have-several-b-list-superheroes-gotten-movies-but-wonder-woman-is-ignored/556234/30 "2010-10-06T16:26:59Z")
I think it could work with a dark, _Watchmen_-style take (and screenplay). Not as a typical Marvel film, though. ---
**Author:** ![Anaamika](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/5f9b8f/32.png) [@Anaamika](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Anaamika)\ **Post date:** [October 6, 2010, 4:32pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-have-several-b-list-superheroes-gotten-movies-but-wonder-woman-is-ignored/556234/31 "2010-10-06T16:32:40Z")
First, about WW- Ok…so what’s wrong with her new outfift? I kind of like it. And I googled “female superheroes” and came up with an extensive list from Wikipedia: > **[List of female superheroes](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_superheroines)** > > The following is a list of female superheroes in comic books, television, film, and other media. Each character's name is followed by the publisher's name in parentheses; those from television or movies have their program listed in square brackets, and those in both comic books and other media appear in parentheses. > Top - A B C D E F G H I J K L M N O P Q R S T U V W X Y Z > See also – External links I hardly recognize a one. That list is daunting and way too much to go through. But it is my opinion that clean cut, pretty superheroes don’t cut it anymore. Superman is old news. DATED. We seem to like our superheroes flawed with some human elements - Batman, Cyclops, Wolverine, Iron Man, all of them in their latest iterations have had flaws. Superman is just an empty, pretty boy. So, out of the superheroines I too would prefer someone a bit more flawed, a bit more human and less shiny than WW. A movie with Elasti-Girl might have been kind of cool, but they went with Mr. Incredible as the star of that movie. What I, personally, would most like to see in a superheroine would be something akin to Scully from the X-Files. Bear with me! I mean, a modern, intelligent woman, who still has to deal with some archaic holdovers from an age where women were not considered as equal, and endeavors to make herself as tough and non-nonsense as possible. During her journey she would/could learn it is OK and wonderful to be feminine, that she can still be feminine and kick ass. Let us leave the fucking pregnancy plots out of it, is all I ask. Let her learn to be a powerful warrior _and_ a woman. You know what would be an awesome movie? Mass Effect, with Shephard as a woman. Now that is a tough woman who if you run her Paragon, can still be utterly feminine. Extrapolate that into a superheroine. Oh, and most important, even if I am saying it last, she must NOT be a mere copy of some other action hero. That is, no Batgirl, no Supergirl, no Spidergirl, none of that shit please. Ooo! An awesome idea positively springs to mind. Violet Incredible, all growed up. That is a superheroine movie I would most definitely watch. I think Buffy was a nice idea but I didn’t like Buffy mainly because she was a high school student. As an adult, I really don’t care much about high school kids. ---
**Author:** ![Really\_Not\_All\_That\_Bright](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/r/e8c25b/32.png) [@Really\_Not\_All\_That\_Bright](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Really_Not_All_That_Bright)\ **Post date:** [October 6, 2010, 4:42pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-have-several-b-list-superheroes-gotten-movies-but-wonder-woman-is-ignored/556234/32 "2010-10-06T16:42:58Z")
> [@Anaamika](#): > > First, about WW- Ok…so what’s wrong with her new outfift? I kind of like it. I’m not sure what the pants are supposed to be, but they appear to be leggings. Lycra on superheroes hasn’t been cool since, like, 1976. ---
**Author:** ![Lumpy](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/lumpy/32/446_2.png) [@Lumpy](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Lumpy)\ **Post date:** [October 6, 2010, 4:43pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-have-several-b-list-superheroes-gotten-movies-but-wonder-woman-is-ignored/556234/33 "2010-10-06T16:43:23Z")
These days, for a film to be a big sucess it has to appeal to a world market, not just the US; and selling a character who wears a costume derived from the American flag is a hurdle. (The Captain America movie bombed). In fact, WW’s costume is so dated that I could only see it working if they had Diana choose it to be deliberately outré. The lack of a standard rogue’s gallery is a big problem. I spent several minutes trying to think of who could even be a good antagonist for a WW movie, and the only one I could think of was one that they would never dare touch with a twenty-foot pole: the repressively anti-female [del]muslim[/del] traditional societies of the Third World. ---
**Author:** ![Really\_Not\_All\_That\_Bright](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/r/e8c25b/32.png) [@Really\_Not\_All\_That\_Bright](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Really_Not_All_That_Bright)\ **Post date:** [October 6, 2010, 4:51pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-have-several-b-list-superheroes-gotten-movies-but-wonder-woman-is-ignored/556234/34 "2010-10-06T16:51:17Z")
> [@Lumpy](#): > > These days, for a film to be a big sucess it has to appeal to a world market, not just the US; and selling a character who wears a costume derived from the American flag is a hurdle. (The Captain America movie bombed). I didn’t even know there _was_ a Captain America movie. Then I realized I was only 8 when it came out. Then I realized nobody has ever heard of anyone who was in it, directed it or produced it. Then I realized it went straight to video. So saying it bombed is like saying _Carnosaur_ bombed so people won’t watch dinosaur movies. We’ll soon see if a [proper Captain America movie](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Captain_America:_The_First_Avenger)will bomb. ---
**Author:** ![Anaamika](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/5f9b8f/32.png) [@Anaamika](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Anaamika)\ **Post date:** [October 6, 2010, 4:53pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-have-several-b-list-superheroes-gotten-movies-but-wonder-woman-is-ignored/556234/35 "2010-10-06T16:53:32Z")
> [@Really\_Not\_All\_That\_Bright](#): > > > [@Anaamika](#): > > > > First, about WW- Ok…so what’s wrong with her new outfift? I kind of like it. > > I’m not sure what the pants are supposed to be, but they appear to be leggings. Lycra on superheroes hasn’t been cool since, like, 1976. We can change the leggings. I mean, I don’t care, I just think she looks hot and good in that outfit. And it’s better than her standard fare. And I don’t see how a Captain America wouldn’t bomb, to be honest. The very name “Captain America” sets my teeth on edge and I am American. We’re not exactly super popular in the world arena, and CA sounds like someone that would go around kicking brown ass because he can. He sounds, in point of fact, like a sanctimonious jerk. ---
**Author:** ![Really\_Not\_All\_That\_Bright](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/r/e8c25b/32.png) [@Really\_Not\_All\_That\_Bright](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Really_Not_All_That_Bright)\ **Post date:** [October 6, 2010, 5:01pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-have-several-b-list-superheroes-gotten-movies-but-wonder-woman-is-ignored/556234/36 "2010-10-06T17:01:29Z")
That’s a bit much. I’m half-not-American, and brown, and if there are any assumptions I’d make about Captain America they’d be that he’s going to kick commie ass or Nazi ass, or possibly terrorist ass (if they set the film in the present day). Okay, so if they’re terrorists they probably _will_ be brown, but they could just as easily be white supremacists in Montana or something. Remember, though, they don’t do superhero movies the way they used to; they do them like comics. Villains are depicted just as sympathetically as the heroes, and sometimes more so. In any event, _that’s his name_. They could come up with a new, more globalized name, but Captain Earth sounds lame and Captain Planet is already taken. ---
**Author:** ![Bryan\_Ekers](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/bryan_ekers/32/183_2.png) [@Bryan\_Ekers](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Bryan_Ekers)\ **Post date:** [October 6, 2010, 5:35pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-have-several-b-list-superheroes-gotten-movies-but-wonder-woman-is-ignored/556234/37 "2010-10-06T17:35:39Z")
I gotta figure she’d be put to better use as a supporting character, at least as a test project. Put her in a future Superman movie as a possible romantic rival to Lois Lane, and see if that builds enough interest for a solo film. ---
**Author:** ![Bryan\_Ekers](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/bryan_ekers/32/183_2.png) [@Bryan\_Ekers](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Bryan_Ekers)\ **Post date:** [October 6, 2010, 5:42pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-have-several-b-list-superheroes-gotten-movies-but-wonder-woman-is-ignored/556234/38 "2010-10-06T17:42:59Z")
> [@Anaamika](#): > > And I don’t see how a Captain America wouldn’t bomb, to be honest. The very name “Captain America” sets my teeth on edge and I am American. We’re not exactly super popular in the world arena, and CA sounds like someone that would go around kicking brown ass because he can. He sounds, in point of fact, like a sanctimonious jerk. Heck, make the bad guys aliens, slather on the patriotism and it might do as well as _Independence Day_, which ain’t half bad at all, money-wise. ---
**Author:** ![Anaamika](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/5f9b8f/32.png) [@Anaamika](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Anaamika)\ **Post date:** [October 6, 2010, 5:46pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-have-several-b-list-superheroes-gotten-movies-but-wonder-woman-is-ignored/556234/39 "2010-10-06T17:46:56Z")
> [@Really\_Not\_All\_That\_Bright](#): > > That’s a bit much. I’m half-not-American, and brown, and if there are any assumptions I’d make about Captain America they’d be that he’s going to kick commie ass or Nazi ass, or possibly terrorist ass (if they set the film in the present day). Okay, so if they’re terrorists they probably _will_ be brown, but they could just as easily be white supremacists in Montana or something. > > Remember, though, they don’t do superhero movies the way they used to; they do them like comics. Villains are depicted just as sympathetically as the heroes, and sometimes more so. > > In any event, _that’s his name_. They could come up with a new, more globalized name, but Captain Earth sounds lame and Captain Planet is already taken. He’s Captain _America_. I can only say how the name makes me feel, and it puts me on edge. ---
**Author:** ![Really\_Not\_All\_That\_Bright](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/r/e8c25b/32.png) [@Really\_Not\_All\_That\_Bright](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Really_Not_All_That_Bright)\ **Post date:** [October 6, 2010, 5:51pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-have-several-b-list-superheroes-gotten-movies-but-wonder-woman-is-ignored/556234/40 "2010-10-06T17:51:24Z")
Why do you hate America? 😉 [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-have-several-b-list-superheroes-gotten-movies-but-wonder-woman-is-ignored/556234.md?page=1) [Next page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-have-several-b-list-superheroes-gotten-movies-but-wonder-woman-is-ignored/556234.md?page=3)