Mod Post - New Theme Week - World of Wonder!

[icon_uk]

As you will hopefully have noticed, there's a movie opening at the end of the week, and it's something of a big deal.

It's the first big screen female led superhero movie (Important addendum: following the first couple of posts below, let me amend that to "the first big screen female led superhero movie of the modern age" as I had overlooked a couple) and the first one devoted to one of the first female superheroes. I refer of course, to Wonder Woman, starring Gal Gadot.

The reviews have been universally positive, and those of you following her various creators on social media will have noticed that they all LOVED it.

Scans_Daily owes a lot to Diana of Themyscira, and this, we feel should be appropriate to reflect that, but honouring her with... well, it was originally going to be a "Week of Wonder", but nah, Diana deserves more so we're having a "World of Wonder instead

We're interested in seeing ALL the Amazon's who have contributed, so Diana is a given of course, but also Donna, Cassie, Hippolyta and Artemis, heck if you have an Io, Nubia or Phillipus scene that you want to showcase, bring it on!

Mortal associates like Steve Trevor, Cyndi Meyer and Etta Candy or scenes with her villains like the Cheetah, Dr Cyber or even these delightful scamps from Villainy Incorporated



So let's see lots of posts folks, Diana deserves it and we don't want to disappoint her, do we?

Comments

[ozaline]

Oh hey Catwoman and Elektra were on the big screen right? This is just the first one that's likely to to be financially successful. Anyway I have got my tickets for the Thursday Night preview, and will be going dressed up, can't wait!

[q99]

Supergirl too.

Basically this is the first change for a high-budget Superheroine blockbuster.

[icon_uk]

Supergirl I am embarassed I forgot.... Sorry Kara.

[ozaline]

Wow I am embarrased I left it off as well. Especially as I really like that movie (European cut) I feel it has a lot of good things going for it. It was also a modest success that was torpedoed by bad cuts to the US release and by Crisis.

[icon_uk]

Supergirl is sort of fun (Though I never felt it quite right that Nigel gets off more or less scot-free and Bianca gets sucked into the hell dimension with Selena).

[icon_uk]

Somehow I had managed to block any memory of Catwoman and Elektra... wonder why?

I will amend the post though...

[lieut_kettch]

There was a Catwoman movie? That's crazy talk. There's never been a Catwoman movie.

But if there ever were a Catwoman movie, you'd need someone with serious acting chops to tackle the role. Say, an Academy Award-winner like Halle Berry.

[bradygirl_12]

Great idea! It's a grand time to be a Wonder Woman fan! :)

[beyondthefringe]

There was also Barb Wire (1996) starring Pamela Anderson.
Ow! Ow! Why are you all hitting me? I'm sorry!

And of course Tank Girl (1995) with Lori Petty, and Sheena (1984) with Tanya Roberts.

These were all comic book adaptations, though whether or not you can classify them as superheroes is open to interpretation. They were also miserable box office flops, and apart from Tank Girl, I don't think any of them even come close to being considered cult classics even in the bad sense, :)

It really is interesting, then, that such obscure properties made it to the big screen -decades- before Wonder Woman. :)

[icon_uk]

I have a soft spot for the Tank Girl movie, but forgot there was a comic book version.

And I think that, outside of Supergirl, and possibly Catwoman, the others got made first because the film rights were probably dirt cheap.

[ozaline]

There is also "My Super Ex-Girlfriend," for a lady superhero... buthe she wasn't exactly the lead, and yeeeeeeeaah.

[ozaline]

Also there were attempts to make Wonder Woman before... Joss Whedon's version sounded like a disaster from what I heard. Also there was that TV pilot from a few years ago that was also not good.

There was actually that Gail Simone comic that had Diana consulting on a movie and deciding at the end it is better to wait for the right movie than a crappy one today.

[icon_uk]

If anyone can post from that, that would be singularly awesome! :)

[ozaline]

If no one beats me to it I will after work.

[ozaline]

Or I guess I won't tonight. been re-arranging my comics andI seem to have misplaced the Gail Simone WW books at the moment, but I'll try to dig those up before Thursday, again if no one beats me to it.

[q99]

-Also there was that TV pilot from a few years ago that was also not good. -

Pants to be darkened!

The Pilot had multiple weird threads going. In it, Wonder Woman was a company-owning CEO normal down to earth everywoman heroic icon down and dirty punisher type.

Like, she had a civilian ID hidden from her CEOness, as CEO she's publicly WW and they sell dolls, and also she tortures people to get info out of them (and if you ask, 'does she not have the lasso here?'. No, she does).

[locuatico]

I love Sf Debris whole review of that pilot
"That's not a life, that's a F**** Treehouse".

Seriosuly though, the Pilot is fascinating to look at.
Like, the casting wasn't bad (and I am glad Palicki managed to get a spot in Agents of Shield 3 years later, she is NOT a bad actress) and the people behind it had a decent background.

I think It was on the right place at the wrong time.

One year later we would have Arrow, which would do everything WW tried to do, but with a much better result.

Then Flash would embrace the sillier superhero stuff and give us the Speed Force, Gorilla Grodd, a dude who kills people with a freeze gun and basically cement Superhero shows as CW's new cashcow.

Like... what if they had began production on a Wonder Woman TV Show after Flash had aired? would we have had something closer to Supergirl?

[philippos42]

I am convinced that that Wonder Woman pilot was a case of shooting several contradictory takes while trying to decide what to use and what to lose.

And then someone edited it all together, and of course it didn't make sense.

[q99]

I am convinced you're right. Several people *must* have put their own angles in the script, there's no way that one person thought all that in one was a good idea... well, unless the head script writer was really all over the place in influences and couldn't help but pick up half a dozen unrelated elements.

[q99]

Yea. The actress wasn't bad. The costume... wasn't great, but there's worse. A number of the basic concepts weren't bad (though pain-inflicting vigilante fits far between with Green Arrow). The mix was horrible.

[ozaline]

Does Red Sonja count?

There is also a low budget Vampirella movie but don't think it got a theatrical release.

[full_metal_ox]

Just a reminder that the world's a lot bigger than the U.S.; there've been numerous films headlining the iconic Filipina superheroine Darna, the first of which came out in 1951:

http://www.spot.ph/entertainment/movies-music-tv/69678/the-many-faces-of-darna-a00001-20170325-lfrm

[icon_uk]

Very true, I could also have pointed to the UK's comic strip Jane which though not quite a superheroim, became "Jane and the Lost City" in 1987.

At the other end of the titillation scale, we'd have "Annie", I suppose...

[ozaline]

Then, of course, Japan has quite a few comic book heroines (either animated like the three Sailor Moon movies) or live action (like the Hideaki Anno directed Cutie Honey) on the big screen.

[commodus]

I am so happy for Wonder Woman fans. It must feel great to not only get a movie, but for the critical response to be so positive!
It's certainly been a long time coming, hasn't it?

[cygnia]

One of the books I used to pour over constantly at the library growing up was an encyclopedia on Golden Age Wonder Woman. So it'd have entries on Clea and Dr. Psycho and the Von Gunthers...

[icon_uk]

I still have my copy! :)

[starwolf_oakley]

Giganta was a female gorilla? I'm not sure if that is better or worse than her "Super Friends" origin. There, she saw Apache Chief's origin and stole the magic dust, thus getting his growth powers as well.

[q99]

Yea, it's weird. A scientist, Dr. Zool, 'evolves' an ape, reverts the world to an earlier state (and Giganta leads a tribe to attack WW), and when everything gets returned to normal, she stays as-is.

Her more modern retelling is that of a brain-swapping scientist, Dr. Zeul, who went human with blood disease > ape > super-powered human (the original mind was comatose, so). Plan 'A' was actually Wonder Woman's body (which was also pretty empty at the time, long story), but once she got a superpowered body it seems like Dr. Zeul decided that was a good play to call it quits.

This post hits 'em all:
https://scans-daily.dreamwidth.org/907901.html

[stubbleupdate]

If might dig out the BKV issues of Wonder Woman. They're pretty good.

Until then, enjoy the Wonder Woman theme on electric cello

[philippos42]

BKV?

Oh, I didn't remember that he wrote that wacky Clayface story! That was fun.

[stubbleupdate]

And The Nib on what does Wonder Woman represent?