Wednesday, November 11, 2015 15 As seen in: Buffy the As seen in: X-Men: First Vampire Slayer (1997– Class (2011), X-Men: 2003) Days of Future Past (2014) fter Hollywood turned Joss Whedon’s original dark Amovie script into a lighthearted, lthough theoretically Luke Perry–starring romp, the a villain, Jennifer Buffy creator went back to the Lawrence’sA performance as drawing board and emerged with Mystique in the most recent the most powerful superheroine X-Men movies has altered to ever grace our TV screens. the shape-shifter’s definition Sarah Michelle Gellar’s Buffy to, at the very least, Summers had a gift for snappy antihero. The prequel repartee — even when devoid films’ backstory about of her own voice — in addition Raven Darkholme to the Slayer’s prerequisites of allowed Lawrence to superhuman strength, agility, turn a previously and dexterity with a wooden one-dimensional stake. character into a complex individual who isn’t so much a baddie but a tragic figure who has As seen in: Wonder Woman never been accepted (1975-1979) for her true blue self, not even by orty years after she first donned Wonder Charles Xavier. FWoman’s tiara and bullet-deflecting As seen in: Batman Returns (1992) bracelets, Lynda Carter’s portrayal of the golden-lasso twirler remains a paradigm for ichelle Pfeiffer took the entrancing charisma of onscreen superheroines. Whether she was Julie Newmar and Eartha Kitt and channeled it fighting Nazis, chasing after an abducted intoM what remains to this day the most multi-layered Leif Garrett on a motorcycle (yep, that onscreen interpretation of Catwoman. Her Selina actually happened), or appealing to late- As seen in: Iron Man 2 (2010), The Kyle gave voice to timid women by encouraging them ’70s teenagers by going all skater-chick, Avengers (2012), Captain America: to embrace their playful inner cats as she was reborn Carter’s Diana Prince/Wonder Woman courtesy of a very strange-looking form of feline CPR. was the brilliant BFF of every girl. The Winter Soldier (2014), Unlike Halle Berry’s Catwoman, Pfeiffer’s version Avengers 2: Age of Ultron (2015) leaned more toward the human side — making her more relatable — as the only new power she acquired was nine lives (nothing to meow at). he 21st-century depictions of female superheroesT have made excellent strides in exploring more human elements, even if the characters aren’t actually human. Often, the superheroes without superpowers on this list are forced to stifle their emotions in order to be accepted by their male/nonhuman compatriots, and not to be seen as weak. But in this year’s Avengers 2: Age of Ultron, Scarlett Johansson turned out one of the strongest portrayals of a superhero’s humanity when her character, Natasha Romanoff, opened up to Mark Ruffalo’s Bruce Banner about her forced sterilization. (Source: vulture.com).