Superheroines, Fighters, And Why Isn't There A Wonder Woman Movie? : Monkey See : NPR

Any comics fan of any seriousness can rattle off female superheroes who have either had their own books or appeared in other or ensemble books.

But what about ordinary absorbers of culture?

The same people who don't actually read comics but can tell you that Superman is the idealized, square-jawed fighter for good, while Batman is the darker, more conflicted survivor of tragedy and Spider-Man is the scrapper barely concealing an ordinary kid — how many women can they name who have worn capes, particularly ones that aren't superhero derivatives like Supergirl or Batgirl?

In many cases, the answer will be one, and in many cases they might need a refresher to come up with it: Wonder Woman.

The documentary Wonder Women: The Untold Story Of American Superheroines airs beginning Monday night on PBS's Independent Lens (check local listings), where it tries to connect the dots not just between different iterations of Wonder Woman, but between Wonder Woman and Xena, Buffy Summers, Ellen Ripley, Thelma and Louise, and the riot grrrl movement of the '90s. At only an hour, it's impressively efficient at not just taking a tour of warrior women, but explaining how they've fit themselves to the times over and over again.

Superheroines, Fighters, And Why Isn't There A Wonder Woman Movie? : Monkey See : NPR