Wonder Woman Series So Bad It's Already Cancelled

That title might sound a bit cruel (it is), but Wonder Woman can't seem to catch a break these days.  She's hasn't been able to get that live action movie going, despite the best efforts of Joss Whedon a few years back.  Her big costume change and shift in direction in the comics has been almost entirely abandoned.  And now, the latest attempt at a TV show has been brought to a screeching, hilarious halt.  The pilot was filmed, and much like the Aquaman series, was received poorly by test audiences and not picked up.  So don't expect to see Wonder Woman on NBC anytime soon, although I'm pretty sure most fans are praising the comic book deities for this one.


So what went wrong?  Oh, so very, very much.  We can start with the costume, for one.  Yes, the updated version looked significantly better than the over plastic, ludicrous original image.  But first impressions do mean everything, and the show started off on a terrible first note with fans.  It's like he weird kid from elementary school becoming a jock in college.  Sure he might be cooler now, but you'll always associate him with picking his nose in the first grade.  And in the end, Wonder Woman was essentially caught picking her nose.

Did that analogy actually work?  Well, neither did this costume.

But we can ultimately trace the failure of the show, and most Wonder Woman projects, back to the core concept.  Making Wonder Woman a corporate executive struggling to deal with the expectations of the business world with her own love life and crimefighting?  When has that ever been what Wonder Woman's about?  Actually don't answer that, because that character has been through dozens of incarnations.  Which is also part of the problem.  We know instinctively what Batman or Spider-Man are "about".  We know what purpose the X-Men are trying to serve, and how they represent minorities in the world.  There has yet to be strong take on Wonder Woman that explains who she is.  Because just being a feminist icon isn't enough.  Buffy Summers was a powerful female role model, but she was successful simply because she was a "strong" character.  Wonder Woman's claim to fame is ultimately that she was the first female hero, but her character is ever changing and frequently boring.  And throw in one of the most loosely defined origin stories and you have a character everyone knows but no one knows "about".  Ask anyone what Superman's origin and they will tell you without fail.  Ask a random, non-comic book fan what Wonder Woman's is and you'll get a blank stare.

Sooner or later, we can only hope Wonder Woman finds a definitive take on the character that will win the public over.  And this might happen soon, considering WB still has plans on making that movie.  Then again, they have for the past decade and a half.  Will we see Wonder Woman on screen any time soon?  Probably not, but we can still hope, eh?