The 1940s may have been the Golden Age of comic books, but we are living in the Golden Age of geeks. In the last five years, we have seen 24 — 24! — superhero movies hit the big screen. And Marvel and DC have five more in production for release this year. When A-list actors are breaking in line for a shot to play Captain America, and fanboys and fangirls are getting, er, action everywhere you look, I think it’s finally time to ask the question: Where is our female superhero movie?
Some of you will hold up a Catwoman or Elektra DVD and say, “Here is your female superhero movie!”
To which I will say, “Get that crap out of my face before I Hulk right out on you!” (What? My last name is Hogan.)
Catwoman and Elektra are half the reason we don’t have more female superhero films. Both movies bombed at the box office in 2004 and 2005, respectively, which caused studio execs to draw the conclusion that women heroes won’t play with a paying audience.
But the problem with Catwoman and Elektra wasn’t that the stars were women; the problem with Catwoman and Elektra is that they were terrible movies.
Batman movies don’t sell because Batman is a man.
Chris Nolan’s Batman reboot is one of the most celebrated superhero franchises in history because it is the perfect storm of great acting and directing, neat gadgets, an energetic score, authentic themes, killer SFX, complex moral quandaries, and stellar scripts.
Again, I say: stellar scripts!
You can’t hang the failures of Catwoman and Elektra on Halle Berry or Jennifer Garner. They could only be as good as the material they were given — and the only material they were given was spandex.
And that brings us the other half of the reason we still don’t have a good female superhero movie: Apparently, no one knows what to do with breasts when they get anywhere near a cape.
In hero movies, women either embrace their sexuality, which makes them villains; or they are completely desexualized, so that they don’t accidentally scare any small children.
For an example of the former, see Michelle Feiffer’s Catwoman, Famke Janssen’s Jean Grey/Phoenix, Scarlett Johansson’s Silken Floss and Eva Mendes’ Sand Saref. In one case, a man’s brain actually exploded because of his proximity to the sexy.
Now, don’t get me wrong: I love a femme fatale as much as the next person (Jessica Rabbit, call me!), but does it have to happen every time a woman in a hero movie wants to get laid?
For the second thing, well, I’m looking at you, Sam Raimi, and your pitiful excuse for Mary Jane Watson. I get that she was supposed to be a hybrid Watson/Gwen Stacy, but Stacy was in the third movie. Even so, all Mary Jane managed to do was frown and shriek and remember that one good time she kissed Spider-Man upside-down in the rain.
You see the problem? Sexy women are scary! Unsexy women are boring! But none of that matters because Catwoman and Elektra only made ten dollars between the two of them!
Still, I think there’s hope. People continue to happily drop ten bucks a pop to watch superhero movies. So, I’ve got five tips for studio execs and screenwriters if they really want to make a good female superhero movie:
1) Call Gail Simone and Greg Rucka. What they have done with Wonder Woman and Batwoman is the best thing to happen to women in comics in, well, ever. Their heroines are strong and complicated and smart and lovable and sexy. Under Simone’s pen, even Wonder Woman has started exploring her sexual side.
2) Embrace the standalone heroine. Both Elektra and Catwoman were sidekicks. There are plenty of female comic book characters who have held their own titles successfully for decades. Read the books! You’ll see!
3) If you’re too scared to launch an entire movie dedicated to a woman, at least test the waters by writing a strong female character into an already successful franchise. The things a Nolan script could do with Talia al Ghul (or even Catwoman) make me shiver with delight.
4) Don’t stunt-cast. No Alicia Silverstone. No Uma Thurman. Find your Heath Ledger and your Christian Bale.
5) Fish Joss Whedon’s Wonder Woman script out of the trash. I hear he’s looking for a job. And no one writes empowered women like him.
Now, light the Catwoman and Elektra DVD bonfire, and let’s get this party started! It’s time for the female superhero movie!
Catwoman sucked because of the script, but also because of the actress (Halle Berry). She’s really, really bad in that movie. Michelle Pfeiffer (who was Catwoman in Batman returns) would’ve done it so much better! But I’m glad she chose not to do it, because the script would’ve made her look bad.
I agree, Tabrett Bethell would make a great female superhero!
It seems really a right time for female superhero!
I’m still wondering how we went from a world with characters like Buffy and Xena, or even a lesser extent The Charmed Ones to a world where characters like Bella are now fanatsy female role models.
As for comics I would like to see an Emma Frost movie, but not from the current X-Men movie franchise.
The two female superheroes I would be most excited about seeing in their own featured movies are … Catwoman and Elektra.
Sucks to be me, huh?
My favorite X-man is Jean Grey, and we all know how they worked the Phoenix storyline. Woe is Tim.
Any Scarlet Witch fans here? Would love to see that character featured in a movie, and finally given her due. The storylines in the comic, and even the actual nature of her power, had her vacilating wildly on the continuums of good/evil, powerful/powerless, mutant/magical. Mr. Whedon would be great at first grounding her character, and then making her fly.
Wonder Woman, please! I loved her when I was a kid. Who else can stop a jet with their hands and still look hair-flipping-tastic?
Great article. I can only hope that with the shake-up at DC, we will FINALLY get some true “devlopment” of the long-delayed Wonder Woman film.
My No. 1 pick is Alexa Davalos. But I’d happily see Bridget Regan (aka “Kahlan” from LOTS), “Annabeth” from the recently released “Percy Jackson” or “Sif” from the upcoming “Thor” in the role. Or even better, a completely unknown (but talented) actor.
As for Whedon’s WW script, precious few details about the script have been revealed, but I’m generally on the Whedon band-wagon, so I wouldn’t have been opposed to seeing his vision on the big screen (even if it would have starred the chick who isn’t “Willow” from that unfunny show with NPH). The WW2 spec-script that DC quickly snapped up certainly isn’t something that I would ever want to see on the big-screen. The animated WW film was way cool and I wouldn’t mind seeing similar story ideas play out in a live-action film.
Couldn’t agree more! We’re so long overdue it’s actually painful. Bring on Joss Whedon (he would guarantee a brilliant film)!! And as for who to cast as Wonder Woman, look no further than Bridget Regan.
What about the one in Firefly? Inara? I think her name is Morena Baccarin. There were rumors about she was the one Whedon liked.
I’d like to see Tabrett Bethell as Captain America. Who says he has to be a guy?
Funny - the story that popped into my head while I was reading this was “Sailor Moon”. Okay, forget the terrible English dub, forget that despite some of the “controversial” issues (lesbianism) it was really aimed at little girls, and consider that it was extremely popular at the time (’90s), opening up the way for more Japanese anime featuring strong female protagonists to come to North America. Revolutionary Girl Utena also comes to mind.
Shouldn’t be hard for a decent screenwriter to sit down with a pad of paper and a pen and find out where these ones went right.
Heather, I love you, but I’m going to debate with you now.
The only standalone female superhero that I can think of, who has actually carried her own title for any period of time, is Wonder Woman. Most, if not all, of the other female heroes out there that have been at all successful are female versions of male characters. Supergirl, Spider-Woman, Ms. Marvel, She-Hulk…the list goes on. I absolutely love what Greg Rucka is doing with Batwoman, and a Batwoman movie would be amazing, but there’s still no getting around the fact that she’s more or less a female version of Batman.
As for Joss Whedon’s Wonder Woman script, I’ve heard nothing but bad things about that. Like he was planning to throw out most of Wonder Woman canon or something, is what I’ve heard, and I can’t get behind that. If you want to make a great Wonder Woman movie, base it on a combination of the Perez reboot material and Greg Rucka’s run on the series. Heavy on the mythology, I say. Wonder Woman is an Amazon. That’s what makes her awesome.
I agree with you on your other points, especially spinning characters out of larger franchises. And that’s not just limited to female characters, either. A Flash movie would be awesome, but I don’t think it would work unless it spun out of a Justice League movie. People would need to know who he is first. My opinion, anyway.
Discuss!
It’s interesting to think about female heroines being male versions of the same character. I’ve actually never given it much thought. I confess that I’ve been so caught up in Rucka’s Batwoman since she took over Detective Comics that I’m having a hard time being objective about her. Certainly Batwoman’s backstory is the same as Batman’s. And she does have the Bruce Wayne dollars and the penchant for the macabre. It’ll be interesting to see her similarities and differences to The Dark Knight when we really get into the Cutter arc, where they’re working together. (I still think she’d make an excellent movie.
As far as Wheedon’s Wonder Woman script, all I can say about it is that Gail Simone said these exact words to me: “Wonder Woman in particular is ready for a great film. I was saddened when Joss’ film version fell through, and when I spoke to him a few months ago, I know it still bothered him, as well. Perhaps the animated film coming up will help get that ball rolling again. ”
I think Simone knows WW better than anyone and if she was sad about Wheedon’s version falling through, it had to be something worth *considering*, right?
(And I love you, too, Joe. Now, I’ll go debate you somewhere else about Gilmore Girls.) :)
It’s definitely true that the studio hated Whedon’s Wonder Woman script. But since it was a movie studio, I take that with a grain of salt.
That said, “the studio” hated Where the Wild Things Are, and, um, they were right about that. So movie studios are not ALWAYS wrong, I guess. :-)
I was very disappointed when the Whedon Wonder Woman thing fell through, mostly because I feel strongly that studios don’t understand Joss Whedon, and that the reason Serenity was such a fabulous movie is that because Firefly was an established thing already, and because it was a movie literally produced at the behest of the fans, they largely left him to do his thing. I also feel strongly that his Wonder Woman movie would have kicked fifty kinds of ass, because I trust him as a storyteller (especially a storyteller of awesome women).
Of course, you should take my opinion with a grain of salt because I own a “Joss Whedon is my Master Now” t-shirt, and in general, think that Joss Whedon poops roses. (Also because I know nothing about Wonder Woman except that she’s some kind of weirdo who drives an invisible vehicle.)
Batwoman was also in the latest three-issue arc of Batman & Robin, drawn by the fantastic Cameron Stewart. If you’re not reading that book, you should be. Batwoman is a total badass in that story. Are she and Batman actually working together in Cutter? I thought the Batman stuff, at least in the first issue, was all flashbacks to when Bruce was Batman.
I forget where I heard what I did about Whedon’s WW script, but I respect Gail Simone’s opinion on the subject. It would be really nice to see a well-done Wonder Woman movie. In the meantime, the animated feature will have to suffice, as it was brilliant (and, I think, easily the best of the DC Animated features so far). Nathan Fillion as Steve Trevor was an inspired casting choice, and one I could see working in live-action as well.