Where are all the female and minority superhero movies?

Is there a place on the big screen for female and minority superheroes, or will they continue to be relegated to mostly supporting roles? As Hollywood's obsession with superhero movies centered almost exclusively on white males continues, that's a question that many are starting to ask.

“We have been doing a lot of thinking for years about how to best use all those characters,” Warner Bros. president Greg Silverman recently told Variety when asked about the possibility of DC superheroes like Green Lantern or Wonder Woman popping up on the big screen. “Wonder Woman is an amazing character. I think it’s a great opportunity both for box office success, but also to have an amazingly powerful female superhero.”

As far as "powerful" female superheroes go, Warner Bros. doesn't have the best track record. Batman frenemy Catwoman is pretty much the only female "superhero" that has been depicted on-screen with any regularity ("Batman Returns," "Catwoman," and "The Dark Knight Rises"), but her cat-burglarizing ways and morally grey motives hardly make her an out-and-out superhero. Alicia Silverstone did play Batgirl in the nearly unwatchable 1997 disaster "Batman & Robin" (which also featured Uma Thurman as villain Poison Ivy), but it's probably best to relegate that movie to the cinematic trash heap where it belongs.

So, why haven't we seen Wonder Woman on the big screen?

The superheroine, one of the oldest and most iconic female characters in DC or any comics canon, has nearly made it to screens twice in recent years, only to have both those efforts scrapped at the last minute. She was to have been played by Australian actress Megan Gale in director George Miller's aborted 2008 "Justice League" movie, and was played by "Friday Night Lights" star Adrianne Palicki in producer David E. Kelley's failed "Wonder Woman" TV pilot. Now rumours are swirling that the character will make an appearance of some kind in Zack Snyder's untitled "Man of Steel" sequel featuring Superman and Batman.

“We are taking it all very seriously and are trying to do a plan that’s respectful to those characters and maximizes the stories as best they can,” Silverman said when pressed about Wonder Woman's inclusion in the film or in a standalone movie of her own. “Everything that has been speculated are things that we’ve thought about.”

In terms of diversity, movies based on Marvel's comics have fared much better than DC on the big screen. Scarlett Johansson's super agent character Black Widow features prominently in "Iron Man 2," "The Avengers," and the upcoming "Captain America: The Winter Soldier," Jaimie Alexander's warrior demi-godess Sif played a key role in "Thor" and has an expanded role in its sequel, "Thor: The Dark World," and a briefly armoured-then-superpowered Pepper Potts (Gwyneth Paltrow) saves Tony Stark's butt a few times in "Iron Man 3." There has been talk of a solo Black Widow movie since 2010's "Iron Man 2," but so far nothing has materialized.

Though it's clear that there's still a long way to go, Marvel Comics properties that exist outside of the company's "Marvel Cinematic Universe" (MCU) are even better when it comes to representing women. Female superheroes like Storm (Halle Berry), Jean Grey (Famke Janssen), Mystique (Jennifer Lawrence), and Kitty Pryde (Ellen Page) have always been central to Fox's "X-Men" franchise, even though Hugh Jackman's Wolverine usually stole the show. Similarly, Jessica Alba's Sue Storm (a.k.a. the Invisible Woman) was a big part of the two "Fantastic Four" movies. The only Marvel movie to focus exclusively on a female character, the "Daredevil" spin-off "Elektra" starring Jennifer Garner, was a critical and financial failure. (That unfortunate result probably had more to with the film being a sequel to "Daredevil," but hey, at least the film got made.)

Though women have better represented in Marvel properties than DC ones, given the depth and diversity present on Marvel's superhero bench, it's a little disheartening that only two black superheroes have ever made the leap to the big screen: Iron Man pal James "War Machine" Rhodes (Don Cheadle) and S.H.I.E.L.D. overseer Nick Fury (Samuel L. Jackson). Both characters are storied comic superheroes in their own right, but their respective depictions on film have left much to be desired. Rhodes has been little more than Tony Stark's sidekick for three movies, and Fury is a stern authority figure who mostly just yells at the Avengers to do their jobs. There's been a lot of talk of both War Machine and Nick Fury getting their own solo movies at some point, but that's all it's been for years: a lot of talk.

And what about other black superheroes from the Marvel universe? Characters like Luke Cage and Black Panther. Any chance we'll see them on the big screen any time soon? According to Marvel movie producer Kevin Feige, the answer is yes, but the timeframe is vague.

"It's absolutely in development," Feige recently told BlackTree TV when asked about the possiblity of a Black Panther movie. "When you have something as rich as Wakanda and his backstory - and clearly vibranium has been introduced in the universe already - I don't know when it will be exactly but we certainly have plans to bring him to life some day."

Black Panther was the first black superhero in mainstream comics and continues to be an important player in Marvel's comics. Of all the potential characters for Marvel to include in their upcoming cinematic efforts somehow, Black Panther sticks out, but for now it's still a lot of talking, thinking, planning, developing, and not much real action.

DC also has several high profile black superheroes -- Green Lantern John Stewart and Justice League member Cyborg immediately spring to mind -- but given how piecemeal their big screen superhero projects seem to be, it might be a very long time before they ever make it to a theatre near you. A Wonder Woman movie has a better chance of being made before then!

It seems that not even superpowers can stop women and African-Americans from getting the short end of the stick, not to mention countless other minorities being left out of the comic book fold. Where are the Latino heroes? Or the Asian heroes? They exist on the comic book page, so why not on the big screen as well?

Marvel and DC both say movie projects featuring characters like Wonder Woman and Black Panther are in development, but both are noncommittal beyond saying that there are plans in the works. In the meantime, countless projects centered on white, male superheroes are going forward. We'll never get bored of that, right?