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While you often hear about Spider-Man, Superman and Batman, the world of comics is not without its fair share of super heroines.

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And still, as Neil Curry reports, their roles are often overlooked.

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Super heroine movies are few and far between.

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And the most prominent among them, Supergirl and Catwoman, have been closer to box office kryptonite than a soaraway success.

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They always talk about the trinity -- Superman, Batman and Wonder Woman -- and you still haven't seen a Wonder Woman movie, ever.

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And she's been around almost as long as Superman.

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Wonder Woman is still unique,

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because she is this female hero that isn't a sidekick, that saves the day, ultimately, and isn't saved herself.

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And we just don't have enough other female heroes like that out there.

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Kristy Guevara-Flanagan's mission for justice led her to produce a documentary on the sparsity of the super heroine.

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There were other women featured in comics. There were some female superheroes.

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But it wasn't until Wonder Woman that there was a really iconic character to capture people's imaginations.

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And she is one of the few to survive for almost 70 years now.

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Wonder Woman gained a new super power in the 1970s, the ability to reach a global TV audience with Linda Carter's hit show.

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They did not think that a woman could carry a show.

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And, well, we proved them wrong, and made a lot of money for the network. A lot of money.

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I don't think women literally need to hold up a bridge, but there's [there are] ways in our lives in which women are heroes all the time.

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And we need to recognize that and maybe even broaden what it means to be a hero.

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For people who prefer to confine their heroics to the weekends, the comic convention, once a bastion of boyhood fantasies, is now taking on a new look.

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When they originally started making characters, they were trying to appeal to the more male-dominated fanbase,

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whereas it's expanded a lot since then and it hasn't quite caught up.

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Well, I think people see a woman and think,

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"Oh, she's gonna go feminist on me." or "Oh, she's gonna be all whiny and like preachy and things."

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And I think that's quite a bad stereotype.

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No one seems to be able to get women quite right.

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They'll always either portray them as like completely evil or really ditzy.

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I predict you will see pretty much as many super heroines and superheroes as time goes by.

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In the meantime, girls are left to put their own spin on the few traditional super heroines.

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While viewers of an appropriate age can turn to a new breed of super heroine in the weeks ahead

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as the sequel to the hit movie Kick-Ass brings the return of Hit Girl to cinemas around the world.
