Where are all of our female superheroes?

Today’s post was sparked by a stubby little article I read on Emily’s Facebook wall last week.  It was a bit of speculation concerning  an interview with Kevin Feige (President of Production at Marvel Studios) from moviepilot.com.  In the interview, Feige was asked about a movie with a female super-hero lead (Captain Marvel, maybe?).  His response was non-committal and mostly amounted to no.

I poked around a little more and keep finding rage-inducing pussyfooting from the studio execs.  They’ll be happy to acknowledge Thor 3, a Doctor Strange movie, and a re-vamp of Fantastic Four (which presents another interesting set of issues, which we won’t get into today), but heaven forbid we get a movie about a girl.  And one of the most irritating things is that we have an established girl-character (oh, btw, I use “boy” and “girl” for adults, “man” and “woman” feels weird in my head) in the current Marvel movies: Black Widow.  She’s been around for several movies, and has been in more Marvel movies than any other Avenger.  In fact, her and Hawkeye are the only two Avengers we’ve met so far WITHOUT their own movies.  So why don’t we get a Black Widow standalone?  Well, mostly because studio execs are afraid of girls (I mean, look at the track records: how many times was Buffy cancelled?, where is a Wonder Woman movie?, how about a DC girl-hero CW show?, anyone remember Young Justice getting cancelled because the viewership was primarily tween and teen girls?).

Of course, the reasons we’re given aren’t much better.  Taken from a slashfilm.com and a screenrant.com article: we’re unlikely to see a Black Widow solo for two reasons (both articles are allegedly quoting Feige).  The first is (paraphrased) “she does such a good job as an ensemble character!  It’s not fair to remove her from a proven formula!”  The second is pathetic: (verbatim) “I don’t think we’d get the quote unquote credit for it”.  Wait.  What?!  You don’t want to do a Black Widow standalone because you “won’t get credit for it”?  The only reason you’d consider a girl-lead flick is to “get credit for it”?  I am ashamed.  Fortunately, there’s plenty of buzz that Scarlet Johansson is poking the bear for her own movie.

Meanwhile, we’re still not seeing a Captain Marvel movie, or a Wonder Woman movie, or maybe Storm getting a solo story?  I know there aren’t a lot of solo girl-characters out there, but the X-MEN world is full of badass ladies.  Let’s pick one of them and give her a solo movie.  Anyone want to watch a movie about a telepathic ninja who can manifest psionic weapons?  How about a mutant sorceress who claims rulership over a dimension of hell?

I know that a few of you are trying to point out that we got a Cat Woman solo movie a few years back.  And that totally doesn’t count.  One, it wasn’t really the same character, it was Halle Berry in Bondage gear.  Two, that’s been forever ago!  Let’s get some current stuff happening!  Let’s get some awesome characters in a great storyline that can get new people interested in comic books!

And, just in case I haven’t convinced you that execs are afraid of girls, both as lead characters and as viewers, I’d like to point out that Marvel is super-excited to be giving us a new ensemble movie and have been promoting the crap out of two of the characters more than the others.  They are: a talking raccoon with a big gun, and a walking, talking (barely) tree.  That’s right, ladies and gentlemen!  It is easier to write and sell a talking raccoon and a mobile tree than it is to accept that women are just as awesome as men (or more so, if the ratio of my friends is any indicator).

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The articles mentioned above can be found at:

http://moviepilot.com/posts/2014/03/18/ms-marvel-no-female-lead-marvel-movies-yet-1280310?lt_source=external,manual,manual

http://www.slashfilm.com/captain-marvel-movie/

http://screenrant.com/avengers-2-black-widow/

Superman/Wonder Woman

I thought I’d start this blog talking about one of my favorite people: Superman.  I know there are a lot of haters out there who dislike my boy Kal for one reason or another.  And your arguments are irrelevant as far as this post is concerned.  I like him, it’s my blog, I’m writing about him.  So there.

[WARNING: THIS POST MAY CONTAIN SPOILERS]

Well, I’m not writing about JUST him, but also Diana, aka Wonder Woman.  They have a fairly recent team-up title and I thought we could take a look at that.  It’s four issues old, with the most recent issue having come out Wednesday 1/15.  When I first heard about the title, I was upset.  It took me a while to sort through my issues with the creation of this title.  Both stem from the fact that the main purpose for this title seems to be telling about the romantic relationship between Superman and Wonder Woman.

The first issue, the surface issue, was fanboy whining.  “BUT HE’S SUPPOSED TO BE WITH LOIS LANE!!”  Kind of a dumb reason to take umbrage (not Dolores, look it up) with a series.  But then I look at all my fellow Star Wars fans  and the paroxysms they’re going into over a new movie we know nothing about.  And now I feel better about myself.  Anyway, my first beef with the title was that I was upset that DC was moving away from a classic relationship.  Now, I have to admit here that even though I love the DC heroes, I’m not really current with them.  I haven’t read most of what the New 52 has to offer.  So, maybe there’s a good reason within the new continuity for Lois and Clark not being together.

My second issue arose from my disapproval of the kibosh on Batwoman’s wedding.  As some of you know, Batwoman is a lesbian.  Last year (February 2013, I think), Kathy Kane (Batwoman) proposed to her girlfriend.  And then DC decided to stop everything and not take this any further.  Not only could we not witness their union, but it is not allowed from even happening.  And their reasons, that I have heard, were two-fold: 1) Heroes shouldn’t have happy personal lives, and 2) Marriages are too much work.

Wait, what?  How does getting married equal a happy personal life?  Sure, they’ll be happy for a while.  And the marriage would be a time for celebration in the DC Universe, particularly for the Bat Family.  But just like Peter Parker, Reed Richards, Scott Summers, etc, etc, found out, having a successful and happy marriage is notoriously hard for superheroes.  Lame answer, my friends.  And too much work?  We just started a new title that is devoted to the romantic entanglement of the two most powerful beings on earth.  How is that less work? OK, let’s stop for a moment and pretend that DC is trying to be on the up-and-up (man, I can’t even type that with a straight face).  Let’s just look at this title.

I’ve read all four issues currently published, and I’ve started to get attached.  I was kind of against it during the first issue.  There was weird banter, some almost-hanky-panky, an awkward discussion about keeping the relationship secret, and then some interference by Doomsday.  In the first few pages, we get foreshadowing that the relationship won’t be secret for very long, so that could be interesting.  Wonder Woman is playful and Clark is a dope.  Which is fitting for both of them.  Aside from the issue being more or less an awkward Super-Date, the only thing I’m concerned about is Wonder Woman’s whining about keeping the relationship a secret.  I mean, I get it.  She doesn’t keep secrets, like Iron Man, she doesn’t have a secret identity.  But it kind of feels a little cliche, and I don’t want Wonder Woman to be a cliche.

In the second issue, we pick up where we left off, Wonder Woman getting pummeled by Doomsday.  Then he’s just gone.  Clark and Diana talk it over (apparently, we don’t know who Doomsday is yet, in this continuity) and go to the Fortress to do some research.  They get all worried, then go visit Hephaestus for some monster-bashing weapons.  At the Forge, we get to witness some of Diana’s family drama.  Apollo is a grade A asshole, throwing some derogatory words at Diana that make me want to slap him.  They make Clark want to slap him, too.  Which gets Clark slapped harder than Barney Stinson. Diana reacts strongly to the manhandling her brother metes out on her boyfriend.  And just before we get to see some excellent sibling squabbling, Clark emerges from Vulcan’s Volcano and intervenes.  Apollo sees fit to throw some sun-god magic at the solar-powered Kryptonian, with obvious ramifications.  After Clark’s beatdown of Apollo, he apologizes to Diana for his machismo and recognizes that she could have handled the situation.

Issue three shows us Clark hiding on the dark side of the moon, trying to bleed off his Apollo-steroids.  He’s being a bit emo and talking things out with his best buddy Batman (who is on the Watchtower).  Clark is being a little overly macho again, and worrying about his girlfriend’s safety.  If he were dating Lois, I’d be willing to go with it.  But his current girlfriend could probably kick his ass, so him worrying about protecting her seems lame.  It’s Superman, though, and he does tend to act like this about EVERYONE, so I’ll swallow the irritation and see where this goes.

Oh, it goes right on to Diana and her BFF Hessia, who are doing some Christmas shopping.  And Diana is whining about finding the perfect gift for Clark (what do you get the guy who has damn near everything hidden away in the Fortress of Solitude?).  I’m still not sure how I feel about this scene.  It’s their first Christmas together, and it’s important to Clark (farm-boy from Kansas), so she wants to make it important to her.  But she’s a Greek demi-goddess, she doesn’t have a lot of practice with this holiday.  If it were anyone else, it would be a cliche, the nervous girlfriend trying to make the perfect Christmas for her new beau.

Back to Clark and Bruce, where we find Bruce telling Clark not to be such an idiot.  Well, more he points out that if Clark is going to be in a relationship, then there’s going to be some give-and-take and to let Diana make her own decisions.

Then we’re in the desert, where Zod somehow escapes from the Phantom Zone and beats on Hawkman, Martian Manhunter, Steve Trevor (Wonder Woman’s ex), and Vibe.  Supes and WW show up and take him into custody, with Superman deciding to hold him at the Fortress until he can learn more about why this guy was in the Phantom Zone and how he got out.  The issue ends with Diana giving Clark his Christmas gift, just as the news goes out about their relationship (yay internet!).

I’ll leave off a synopsis of the latest issue.  These three give us some interesting things to consider.  Let’s start shallow: the art is fantastic.  Tony S. Daniel does an amazing job.  The story has it’s hilarious moments, so as far as dialogue is concerned, I think Charles Soule is doing a good job.  By the end of the third issue, I’m invested enough in the hero-story (Zod breaking out of the Phantom Zone, and Doomsday phasing halfway here) to be willing to continue with the series.  I’m even willing to forget about the fanboy complaint that Clark should be with Lois.  I’m willing to see where this leads.  I’m still irritated that this title exists and is half-dedicated to a romance, but Batwoman can’t get married.  I talked about the series with a couple of friends of mine, then re-read the issues.  And I realized I’m a little worried about the gender-balance here.  This is an excellent opportunity to see a relationship between two equals.  If done right, we could witness something great.  A relationship where neither partner falls into traditional gender roles.  Wonder Woman was raised in a female-only community and is independent, strong, and capable.  Clark was raised a little more traditionally on a farm in Kansas.  But aside from his hero-complex (even amongst other heroes), he tends to treat everyone with respect and as individuals.  Clark has stepped in to handle physical problems twice now.  He apologized for it once, recognizing he might have been behaving in a condescending manner. Diana has been “the girl” twice, once with the “Why can’t I tell people about us?” issue, and the other the Christmas present conundrum.  She has also been the “damsel in distress” once.

This title has potential, and I can’t wait to see where it goes.  I hope this doesn’t end up being a “boy’s story”, with the lately-typical DC bro-ness making Wonder Woman a submissive damsel to the extra-macho Superman.  I sincerely hope this title can serve as an example of how men and women can successfully have equal-status relationships.  Not just romantically, but in all things.