There's more than you think riding on 'Wonder Woman' film

When she was a girl, Jacki Hayes loved watching the 1970s TV series "Wonder Woman" starring Lynda Carter.

She used to spin circles, hoping she would transform into Wonder Woman the way Carter changed from Diana Prince into the hero in "satin tights fighting for your rights," as the show's campy theme song went.

Now, an adult Hayes is metaphorically spinning circles as her childhood hero takes the lead in the "Wonder Woman" film opening in theaters across the country Thursday evening.

"I bought my tickets online, and I wanted to text everyone I know," Hayes said. "I'm so excited. Every time there was a new teaser or trailer, I would stop everything and watch it."

Hayes works at Iowa State University, where she teaches an honors course: "From Buffy to Wonder Woman: Exploring the Heroic Women of Pop Culture."

For Hayes, as with many, there is more riding on the "Wonder Woman" film than yet another summer superhero blockbuster.

Comic book adaptations have raked in cash since "X-Men" cracked the $100 million mark in 2000.

The top 10 comic book adaptations of all time have collected $4.4 billion in ticket sales, per Box Office Mojo.

Yet none of those movies featured a female lead character.

"Wonder Woman" presents a test for American pop culture: Can a female superhero dominate the box office like male characters?

It's an answer Hollywood has been astoundingly reticent to seek despite the mountains of money superhero films generate.

Marvel Studios, the champions of comic book adaptations, won't attempt a female-led superhero film until 2019's "Captain Marvel," bringing to live action a character mostly known only in comic shops and on fan sites.

"Wonder Woman" is more iconic. The 76-year-old character first appeared in October 1941. Despite her longevity, she is less well-known than her two male predecessors, Superman and Batman, who both debuted a few years before her in what fans call the Golden Age of comics.

"She's the mother of all superheroes," Hayes said.

Yet, the collective cultural knowledge about Wonder Woman is limited compared with Superman and Batman.

Most people can tell you details about Superman, such as his identity as newspaper reporter Clark Kent, his relationship with Lois Lane, growing up on a farm in Kansas and escaping the destruction of his home planet.

People can talk about Batman's cave, his car, his wealth, the murder of his parents or his crime-fighting partner, Robin, and his loyal butler, Alfred.

But Wonder Woman lore seldom gets past a surface interaction: bullet-deflecting bracelets, a magic lasso that compels people to tell the truth and … Lynda Carter played her on TV.

Some of that is her publisher's fault.

While Wonder Woman has been in near-constant publication since 1941, her origin story has been rewritten scores of times by writers and artists and is undergoing another revision by Greg Rucka in DC's "Rebirth" series.

While Wonder Woman "has a loyal following," said Katie Manchester, comics manager for Mayhem Comics and Games in Clive, "I don't think there is such a thing as a typical Wonder Woman fan."

Some of Wonder Woman's cultural anonymity is about exposure. The "Wonder Woman" TV series spanned three seasons from 1975 to 1979 and continues in reruns on MeTV in Des Moines.

Carter's portrayal was earnest, but the show lacked the dramatic flair that "The Incredible Hulk," staring Bill Bixby and Lou Ferrigno as man and monster respectively, produced about the same time.

Except for a few failed TV pilots, Wonder Woman has not gotten the mass media attention of her superhero colleagues.

Batman has been the subject of 10 movies since 1943; 11 if you count sharing billing with Superman in 2016's abysmal "Batman v. Superman: Dawn of Justice."

Superman has eight films to his credit between 1951 and 2013.

Wonder Woman, as a character and now potential film franchise, does carry some political weight.

Feminist activist and writer Gloria Steinem put Wonder Wonder on the cover of the first Ms. Magazine in 1971. She protested when writers took away Wonder Woman's power and turned her into a secret agent in the style of Emma Peel from the British "The Avengers" series.

When the United Nations recently selected Wonder Woman as an honorary ambassador for "empowerment of women and girls," critics launched a petition that argued the character "is that of a large breasted, white woman of impossible proportion, scantily clad in a shimmery, thigh-baring body suit with an American flag motif."

The UN dropped its association with Wonder Woman in December 2016.

"Think of what kind of conversations we would be having about this movie if Hillary Clinton had won the presidential election last year," said Jeff Karnicky, a Drake University English professor who teaches a course on comic books and social change. "The narrative would likely have been about now we have our first female president and now we have female superhero movies.

"The narrative now is 'Will it succeed? Can a woman lead a superhero movie?'"

That judgment, Karnicky said, likely will be made less on the quality of the film than its box office numbers, and it may have to meet a higher standard than traditional male-led comic book adaptations.

"If it doesn't do as well financially as 'Batman v. Superman' or 'Man of Steel,' which were both terrible movies, some people say, 'Well, women just can't lead superhero franchises,'" Karnicky said.

To be fair, it isn't just women who are interested in the success of the "Wonder Woman" franchise.

When I was a boy, my elderly parents enrolled me in a child care center near the corner of Lynner Drive and what was then Harding Road.

Our neighborhood didn't have many youngsters around, so my folks thought it would be a good time for me to socialize with kids my own age.

I remember asking to stay at the center an extra half hour to watch "Wonder Woman" reruns on the old UHF station KCBR. I was only in third grade, but I had a massive crush on Lynda Carter.

My friend Joe, who I thought was the coolest kid who ever lived, teased me for liking a show for girls. I didn't care. I thought Wonder Woman was awesome.

I still do. And while I never spun around to try to turn into Wonder Woman, my girlfriend and I will be in the seats when the opening credits roll Thursday evening.

The film already has 92 percent rating on Rotten Tomatoes, the website that aggregates critics' reviews. And in the end, regardless of box office, reviews and politics, Hayes sums up the greatest expectation of all:

"I just want a good movie," she said.

Daniel P. Finney, the Register's Metro Voice columnist, is a Drake University alumnus who grew up in Winterset and east Des Moines. Reach him at 515-284-8144 or dafinney@dmreg.com. Twitter: @newsmanone.