I'd argue Catwoman is up there in popularity as well but instead of trying to understand why people like the character, the just casted Halle Berry as a character who was not like the comics and made her wear nothing while she did nothing. Tim Burton didn't have that problem, and he tried 15 years earlier.

Does your generational age gap explain why James Cameron was able to make hardcore female characters (Sarah Connor, improving Ripley in Aliens) appeal to male audiences and have them be successful. You see Sarah Connor nude in the first Terminator, and you see Ripley in her underwear, but those are far from those…