What's Wrong With Wonder Woman

I noticed some chatter on the web recently asking why Wonder Woman is the only one of DC's so-called "Trinity" (Superman and Batman being the other two) not to have a movie adaptation. Sure, there have been rumblings from time to time, but it always seems to fall apart fairly early on in the process.

Why is that? She's as iconic as Superman or Batman; ask a few non-comics readers to name a female super-hero and the only one most would be able to come up with would be Wonder Woman. So, what's the problem? It can't be the ties to Greek mythology. Hollywood's been mining the ancient world for story ideas for decades. Is it because the main character of a Wonder Woman movie would be a woman? True, unless I'm forgetting something, I don't think there's been a successful superhero movie with a female lead, but there are certainly other types of movies with women as the heroes.

No, I think the real obstacle may be that the comics don't provide enough of a blueprint to build a movie from. Her origin, molded from clay and given life by the gods, while interesting, lacks the inherent drama of an exploding planet or murdered parents. Her mission is a bit vague. Honestly, I'm not exactly sure I could clearly state her reason for being. She needs something catchy like, "Truth, Justice, and the American Way." Further, Wonder Woman doesn't really have any iconic stories, like Batman's The Dark Knight Returns or The Killing Joke to draw from. Then there's her villains. Honestly, they kind of suck. There's not a Lex Luthor or a Joker in the bunch. Wonder Woman's movie prospects have suffered from decades of comics writers having no idea what to do with the character.

So, is Wonder Woman an unfilmable property? I don't think so. As with anything, with the right combination of talent it could be a big hit. She's just a bit harder to get a handle on the boys in capes.