A-List Superheroes

[rowyn]

Lut asked me the other day why there's specifically complaints about Wonder Woman not getting a movie, as opposed to any other female superheroes. My theory is that it's because Wonder Woman is the only female superhero with strong brand recognition outside of the fandom. At first I thought that the men heavily outweighed the women on the A-List, and then I realized: no, the A-list is really short. Really, really short.

This is the A-List:

Superman
Batman
Wonder Woman
Spider-man
The Hulk

Aaaand we're done.

Really, that's it. Marvel/Disney is working hard to change that, but Iron Man and Thor are not (yet) A-Listers. Even Wolverine, who's a huge fan favorite, is not an A-List superhero that everybody knows. I bet most Americans can't name three X-Men, and that includes Professor X. Until Guardians of the Galaxy came out, even I didn't know the names of any of its protagonists (though I did recognize Thanos).

There are a few others that might be borderline:

Captain America
Robin
Batgirl
Supergirl
She-Hulk
Catwoman

These are the sorts of characters that people outside the fandom know exist. But they don't care or know much about them. I didn't know Captain America's origin story until I saw the movie. Three of them are "the girl version of an A-lister", which as a reason for mattering is meh. Catwoman is known as a supervillain or at best an antihero.

Other candidates? Fantastic Four? They just don't have the kind of presence in the popular imagination that Superman or even Spider-Man does.

I kinda want to see market research on this, but asking my friends doesn't work as well on this one, because even most of you who never read superhero comics are still peripherally involved with the fandom. :) Still, I'm curious which heroes you think are on the A-List, or if anyone feels like the recent success of various Avengers films has moved any of those characters onto it.

Comments

[tuftears.livejournal.com]

*cheers Catwoman on* You go, grrl! Bring the meow-storm!

I do think Marvel's superhero movies have promoted their respective heroes. More people are probably aware of Thor and Captain America due to their movies now than ever before.

As far as A-list heroes go... Hmm, you left off the X-men, particularly Wolverine and the Professor Xavier/Magneto duo.

Deadpool might be a new cult favorite character to watch. The Watchmen probably bear an honorable mention due to their movie, though I suspect most people couldn't name any of them individually except maybe Rorschach. I bet most people think of Dr. Manhattan as 'the blue guy'.

[whitefangedwolf.livejournal.com]

Okay, I'm all over the board in this comment, so it may feel a bit disjointed.

Frankly, the challenge of making a Wonder Woman movie is that she's a super hero sex symbol. It feels like there's a group of people who love to complain about how Wonder Woman's too sexy and then turn around and complain that she never gets a movie. Now that there's a Justice League movie coming soon, it seems that DC is testing the waters to see if they can make a movie depiction of Wonder Woman that's generally acceptable enough to give her her own movie.

I'd take your borderline list and drop Captain America, Batgirl, Supergirl, and She-Hulk from it. They may be visually recognized somewhat widely but most people don't really know anything about them as characters. In that regard they are similar to Wolverine.

Robin's questionable since there's been a number of different characters who have worn the mantle of Robin and the average person would describe him just as Batman's kid sidekick.

Catwoman has the clear recognizability advantage with her iconic depictions and being somewhat well known as a master thief that's romantically entangled with Batman. I agree that she's not generally considered a superhero. I think of her as an anti-hero along with Wolverine.

My impression is that the Avengers movies has bumped Iron Man from being virtually unknown by the public to being somewhat recognizable. In fact, I expect that, before the movies, a lot of people would have though that Iron Man was a robot.

Thor's case is odd since his mythological source is iconic so he's been fairly identifiable visually but most people couldn't have said much about him as a superhero. Ironically, movie Thor is better known as a superhero but less visually distinctive.

[archangelbeth]

*names Storm and... um... Emma Frost? And... something Gray?*

>_>

I don't know if they're A-list at all, though. I think you're right: Wonder Woman and Catwoman are the ones with the most mindshare, and Catwoman's an anti-hero at best.

[sebkha.livejournal.com]

For some irrelevant reason I'm trying to think of the british counterpart to your A-list. Doctor Who and James Bond?

[sf-reader.livejournal.com]

Despite the amount of play he has had, it is hard for me to think of the Hulk as A List.

[terrycloth.livejournal.com]

I'd expect the B-list to include everyone from the old Saturday morning cartoons. Aquaman. Iceman or whatever he was called. Jan and Zana and Gleep. Apache Chief.

Also, I find it kind of odd to think of Wonder Woman as being on your A-list, because I only know about her the same way I know about Jan and Zana. Superman, Batman, Spider Man, yeah, they're big. Is she really, though?

[jordangreywolf.livejournal.com]

A few superheroines I think might be worthwhile as movie-grade material, but if I had to pick ONE that I think was the best contender, it would be Storm.

She's been portrayed in movies before, but only as part of the X-Men franchise. However, she's distinctive-looking, and sometimes has a costume that's not embarrassing (it depends upon the artist and the iteration) -- sometimes she'd be wearing something more dignified than "spandex" or "superheroine costume-scraps." Also, in any iteration, she has powers that I'd think of as quite dramatic.

If Wolverine can go solo, why not Storm? People may not name her if asked "Name the superheroes you know," but I think if there were a movie poster featuring her, it'd trigger some recognition.

As a kid, I remember occasionally flipping through comics and seeing different depictions of Storm. Sometimes, she was awesome. Sometimes, it was embarrassing. But the same could be said for any number of comicbook heroes and heroines, I think.

Incidentally, I could name quite a few other superheroines who are part of a TEAM that has made it to popular animated TV shows, or even to movies, but many of them I just don't think of as ready-made and distinctive enough to carry a story on their own. Storm, I think could manage it. Jean Grey's whole arc really seems heavily tied in with the X-Men as a whole; on her own, "psychic girl" just isn't that visually exciting, and the whole "phoenix" business is too inextricably tied to her clashes with former allies, I think.

Kitty Pryde ... can pass through solid objects. That's USEFUL, but it doesn't sound like something to build a whole story around. She really just belongs on a team. It was pretty awesome when she had her own "shoulder-dragon," though. :)

Rogue is distinctive, too, but her very power pretty much requires her to be in a world shared with other superheroes and superheroines, so she's practically doomed to be part of an ensemble.

Over in the realm of Teen Titans (noteworthy for having a reasonably popular TV cartoon for a while), there would be Raven and Starfire. Raven, I could possibly see as a stand-alone heroine, though a movie featuring her would venture more into supernatural territory. Starfire ... eh ... I think the problem is that while her TV cartoon version might be seen as a decent enough character, her portrayal in the comics, especially in the current DC incarnation (the "New 52" universe, last I checked) is downright offensive. (TV version = nice, naive superpowered space alien. Comics version = oversexed, cold creature with the attention span and emotional depth of a goldfish. Not nice.)

But this is not to counter your basic point: Superman, Batman, and Wonder Woman get the merch in the DC universe, OCCASIONALLY joined by other "Justice League" characters from time to time. But that's just it: I think the reason they're so "iconic" is because of how long we've been saturated with assorted products that feature them like some sort of triumvirate. Superman and Batman are the big draws, and Wonder Woman just sort of gets thrown in for a bit of variety.

[tapestry01.livejournal.com]

I remember reading an article years ago about what comic books would make good TV shows, and at the top of the list was "The Unknown Soldier." You could have a different star every week playing the Soldier, kicking Nazi butt-- and that never gets old. Hollywood must have warehouses full of Nazi uniforms ready for a show like that.

DC is making its mark with "Arrow" like it did with "Smallville," introducing superheroes quietly, almost under the radar. (Also, happy birthday!)