Wonder Woman is one of DC Comics “trinity;” she, Superman and Batman are the company’s most iconic characters. Yet she’s never received the full-scale cinematic treatment, and a recent attempt to put together a television show produced by former Ally McBeal producer David E. Kelley seems to have fallen apart. Kay Steiger is disappointed:
But the reason I’m bummed about the lack of of a Wonder Woman TV show has a lot to do with why it took me so long to come around to comics in the first place: The fact that female characters in comic books tend to be either an afterthought, a supporting character, or — if she is given her own title — generally seen as less good than the male superhero giants like Batman, Spider-Man, and Superman.
Wonder Woman, though not a perfect superhero, is the first female one. She also possesses strength that is on par with her male peers. And though her costume is certainly sexy, her powers aren’t sexual — she’s intelligent and powerful in her own right.
There seems to be a difficulty with executing Wonder Woman projects that other superhero projects don’t encounter. DC’s attempt at an animated Wonder Woman film boasted a cast of voice actors that would have suggested mild Oscar bait if it were a live action film–Keri Russell, Virginia Madsen, Rosario Dawson, Alfred Molina, Oliver Platt and Nathan Fillion were all in the movie–and yet it did poorly, scuttling plans for a similar film based around Batgirl. Of the several animated movies DC has released, it was also the best one, with the best action set pieces, the cleverest dialogue, and what Alyssa Rosenberg refers to as “challenging conceptual elements that would look absolutely absurd if they were done badly,” were handled really well. Animation offers some distinct advantages in that area. A live-action production faces the daunting challenge of putting a real person in an armored one-piece. There are other problems–everyone knows that Superman is an alien from the planet Krypton and Batman saw his parents murdered in front of him when he was a kid, but Wonder Woman’s origin–Amazon sculpted from clay and given power by the Greek gods–is less well known.
Anyway, my point is that even if a Wonder Woman story is really well done, that doesn’t it’s going to sell. Comic book characters are still mostly focused on delivering a fairly specific form of fantasy aimed at a rather gendered audience. If that audience senses it’s not going to get what it wants–a male-centric power trip–it’s going to hesitate. The most visible path to a successful Wonder Woman production probably lies in more women buying comic books, providing more solid demand for stories aimed at a broader audience.