Twilight: Eclipse, eclipsed on Twitter by Harry Potter and The Deathly Hallows

Twilight: Eclipse, the third installment in the hit movie series based on the book series by Stephanie Meyer, sold $68.5 million tickets Wednesday to mark the second largest movie opening in history. But with all that, Twilight: Eclipse can't beat Harry Potter and The Deathly Hallows on Twitter.

As this is written at 2:08 EDT, "Deathly Hallows" is the second top trend on Twitter; it was number one an hour ago. "Twilight Eclipse" or "Eclipse" are no where to be seen. The reason for this, I speculate, is connected to the difference in Worldwide popularity for both series.

Using Google Insights for Search, I typed in the words "Twilight" and "Harry Potter" for today, July 1, 2010. Google Insight for Search is an online tool that allows you to learn how keywords associated with your online content are doing in a city, region, and the World. It has an "intensity of search" rating that goes from zero to 100.

Today, while "Twilight" as a term has a higher intensity of search, 87 to 63, respectively, and "Twilight Eclipse" is at 79 versus 63 for "Harry Potter," Harry Potter has a higher level of search intensity in the United States than is true for either "Twilight Eclipse" or "Twilight."

Believe it or not, but both "Twilight Eclipse" and "Twilight" have the most search popularity in the Philippines, followed by Romania, then the United States. In the United States, the level is at 52 versus 100 for the Philippines.

By contrast, Harry Potter scores a 100 and a 83 in the United States and the United Kingdom respectively as the two highest regions in the list on Google Insight for Search for "Harry Potter."

Because Harry Potter's enjoying such search intensity for the USA and the UK after the release of the movie trailer for Harry Potter and The Deathly Hallows, that translates into a much higher topic rank on Twitter for "Deathly Hallows" than for "Twilight Eclipse."

The problem for "Twilight Eclipse" is that it's just not as popular in the UK as "Harry Potter." Where Harry Potter has an 83 in the UK, Twilight Eclipse chimes in at just 32. So what does this mean?

It means that if Harry Potter and The Deathly Hallows can stir up this much buzz with the release of a trailer, and months before its November 19th release, it will set box office records when it's released. I will go so far as to say it will break Twilight Eclipse' opening day mark of $68 million.

Stay tuned.

Wonder Woman, bring back the legs and the flag, please

The Original Wonder Woman I prefer

Wonder Woman has always been my favorite comic book hero, or more appropriate to this message, heroine. It wasn't until the age of seven in 1969 that this blogger started reading comic books, but the first one was Wonder Woman, circa 1950 (or around that time).

What attracted this small boy at that time was seeing an image that the World did not present: of this obviously strong and yet (and in retrospect it's easier to see this) attractive woman doing things like lifting cars and throwing men. And she did it while putting on a costume that said "I represent America!" So it should come as no surprise that I'm not in favor of the newest look for Wonder Woman.

Not surprisingly, reading Wonder Woman circa 1950, my image of the ideal woman was formed a very long time ago. Whatever woman I was with, and regardless of color, had to look something like that and have at least near-Wonder Woman level of confidence. Lifting cars wasn't a real consideration.

When the Wonder Woman TV show was introduced in 1975, I was excited, but eventually deeply disappointed. I expected Diana Prince on TV to look like the Diana Prince of the 1950s comics: with curves and muscle. Instead, I got the lovely but not at all muscular Linda Carter.

And while I liked Linda Carter as Wonder Woman, it was more because I had no choice. No where else could you see Wonder Woman on TV. It was at that point, I became aware that Wonder Woman was a slave to male fears of women as expressed in how she was drawn.

William Moulton Marston, who created Wonder Woman and drew her, was not afraid of an obviously strong woman, or he would not have created one. But that's not true for the men who've drawn and written Diana Prince since then.

 From the failed 1974 Cathy Lee Crosby Wonder Woman who was not strong at all, to the newest creation released this week, men have dared to give us the real, undoubtedly strong, Wonder Woman of the 1950s.

What does that say about American Men, of which I'm one?  Not much that's good. It says we're afraid of strong women so we take that away from them every chance we get. Take the new Wonder Woman. She looks like a lean female athlete who might run for exercise but can't lift a car, let alone throw it. She looks vulnerable, and like she's neurotic. And she's not really into America because the flag-themed costume is gone. That bothers me too.

The New Wonder Woman of 2010

There's nothing wrong with flying the American flag for good purposes, like showing a strong woman helping people, which is what Wonder Woman does. Why does Superman get to keep his same look, and the red, white, and blue colors, and tights that he's got no business wearing in public? Why not give Superman a makeover? Do the men who draw Superman like that look? I have to ask, because I don't like it. I was never into Superman; Wonder Woman for always for me.

I can see where DC Comics J. Michael Straczynski as writer and Jim Lee as artist are prepping Wonder Woman for the movies, and for Comic-Con in San Diego later this month.  It will make for an interesting Comic-Con, for sure, as Wonder Woman purists like myself butt heads with the, well, lovers of the new, weak Wonder Woman.  (Just have her throw a car, or an airplane.  Something to make me happy.)

But man, I want the Wonder Woman of the 1950s, much as we're going to get the Captain America of World War II in that upcoming movie.

Maybe I should write my own Wonder Woman Movie and make her the strong woman she was in the 50s, because it's clear to me that since then, too many of her artists and writers fear a really strong female image.

Not me.