50 Greatest Super Heroes In Comic Book History

5. Wonder Woman

(Write-up by Nick Tylwalk, Bam Smack Pow Editor)

If we’re playing word association, and someone says “female super hero,” Wonder Woman is going to pop into your head 99 percent of the time. She’s simply that iconic, a deserving status considering that she alone is a peer to Superman and Batman in the pantheon of DC Comics characters.

Yet somehow Princess Diana still seems underrated at times. It might be due to the fact that no one has ever figured out a way to turn her into a motion picture success, though part of the reason is that no one has really tried — something Warner Bros. is at last setting out to rectify. Undoubtedly, it’s also because when she’s poorly written, Wonder Woman comes off like a female Superman clone, albeit one sans cape and with a magic lasso.

In the hands of creators who really understand her, Wonder Woman shows off multiple attributes that might at first seem contradictory. She’s tough but compassionate, beautiful without becoming overtly sexual, and a warrior serving the cause of peace. And what other character (besides Marvel’s Thor) is as home in a story with gods and deities as she is in the modern world fighting alongside the Justice League?

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That’s why it never really made sense to me when anyone says Wonder Woman won’t work as the star of her own movie, or that she’s somehow become less relevant over the decades. There’s absolutely nothing that has changed her status as the premiere heroine in comics, and someday, hopefully soon, she’ll get her time to shine on the big screen as well.

Oh, and if someone could just work in that sweet 70s theme music from the Lynda Carter TV show, that’d be great.

Next: No. 4: Man out of time, hero for all time