We begin our dive of cinematic Wonder Woman with a look at the first attempt to adapt Diana Prince for any screen, starting with the original TV Movie that would (with a lot of changes) launch the coming TV series.
Wonder Woman (1975)
One year later, Wonder Woman was back, now played by Linda Carter for her three seasons of adventures. The show was campy, but fun in its own way.
Before the DC Animated Universe there was an attempt to make an animated Wondie adventure. We take a dive in to see how it fares against what came after.
This unaired pilot was supposed to launch a new Wonder Woman series. Instead it was so embarassingly bad that DC buried it, never to be see again. If we can ever track this down, we'll review it as well.
After the relative success of Man of Steel (a film that made good money but didn't seem to really have the backing of critics or fans), DC followed it up with a semi-sequel, semi-crossover, putting in the only character in comics arguably bigger than Superman: the Batman. Sadly, the results were just not good.
Staggering and bloody, the DCEU needed a win, and it finally got one with the World War I-set Wonder Woman. This film did everything the other movies in the cinematic universe, and, above all, was fun. DC would learn their lesson after this... eventually.
The production of Justice League was troubled, with original director Zack Snyder leaving part way in (for family reasons) and Joss Wheddon coming in to do extensive rewrites and re-edits. Although the final film is watchable, it's still not great in comparison to the filmic output of Marvel.
We flashback once more with Wonder Woman, this time in the day-glo 1980s as she deals with a megalomania who desires ultimate power, and a lost love back from the dead.
Before we get to the new universe, we have to reboot away the old one. Or, in this case, several old ones as the current "Prime" continuity for this film is really an amalgamation of various versions of DC continuity that's come before. And then Flash goes back in time and ruins everything.
Now in a fresh, New 52-inspired continuity, we pick up with our favorite, familiar heroes as they set off on their first adventure together, a battle against the evil supervillain, Darkseid. Earth is doomed.
Introducing another new hero for the league, this movie gives us Arthur Curry, aka Aquaman, four years before a similar adventure would come out on the big screen.
Damien Wayne doesn't play well with others, a trait his father would like to see changed. So he's put on a team with other supepr-powered teens to see if they can work together for once. Probably not, though.
When a movie has a title like this, I think we all know what's coming. Based on the comic series of the same name, this film is only going to end one way, and it won't go well for our titular character.
Superman suffers a terrible loss and suddenly decides its time to clean up the world, and the Justice League is split over what to do in this gory superhero tale.
While assisting Superman defend Metropolis, the Flash gets sucked into the past (he thinks), forced to help a team of heroes all the way back in World War II.
This Elseworlds tale (based on the comic of the same name) asks what would happen if Superman's ship had crashed into Mother Russia instead of the middle of Kansas.
Further Reading
Women of the New 52: We further discuss the New 52 initiative and discuss how some of the best characters to come out of it were the heroines of the DC universe.
