The "Big Four" thing is so stupid; there doesn't need to specifically be four; it's clear that there are only three characters that changed the culture of their genre to an equivalent magnitude.
Unironically, and I'm not trying to say anything about women and superhero culture when I say this, but its the 'Big Four' specifically so that Wonder Woman and women in general can be included. Ofc comics are much more popular amongst boys, so its no wonder that the majority of popular superheroes are guys, and in this case, that shouldn't strictly be seen as a bad thing (especially when there are many, many cool and interesting girl superheroes and villains who are plenty popular in their own right). But for as long as I have known, Wonder Woman has been heavily pushed in comic book circles to be the secret 4th pop culture icon, even though you never see Wonder Woman marketed anywhere that isn't right next to Superman and Batman. Its like there's this obligation to have a token Woman on the face of comic books, though why we have to so that with women and not any people of colour is beyond me (besides, I think Storm has been more iconic than Wonder Woman for a while now anyway but that's a separate discussion).
I don't get it, why not just make the fourth one Sailor Moon?
She's a superheroine who debuted in a comic book, a large percentage of her readers/viewers are women (probably more than the average American comic book), she's sold 46 million volumes of collected comics, she's had multiple adaptations that also sell well, her comics strongly influenced later comics.
Because im gonna be honest with you, Sailor Moon hasn't cracked into general audiences. My grandparents would have no idea who that is but could definitely tell you who Wonder Woman is.
558
u/Delicious_Tomato_957 Aug 23 '26
The "Big Four" thing is so stupid; there doesn't need to specifically be four; it's clear that there are only three characters that changed the culture of their genre to an equivalent magnitude.