I Need A Hero(ine)

With the recent success of Marvel (and to some extent DC) Comic Films, superheroes have once again captured the attention of a wide audience outside the usual fanbase. I've read only a few comics because the graphic novel and comic format has been hard for me to get into (weird, huh?) and because I've never known where to start, there are so many layers and reboots that it’s a daunting project to try. The comic genre had also never felt accessible to me and even now I still feel deterred from entering it. It wasn’t until Iron Man (2008) that I began to feel like it was something I could begin to involve myself in, and from there, the other Phase 1 (Iron Man - Avengers) and Phase 2 (Iron Man 3 - Avengers 2) movies and my first tentative steps into the comics themselves.

So what about my superheroines? There are plenty of female superheroes in both the Marvel and DC comics and yet, even in 2014, there is a resistance to the idea of making a female superhero movie; either from the belief that the movie wouldn’t make enough money, that women don’t watch comic book movies or there wouldn’t be an audience for it. We’ve had female superhero movies before in Elektra (2005) and Catwoman (2004), both of which did rather badly. They weren’t that great in many aspects. It’s been nearly ten years; a lot has changed since they were released, and there are many other ladies to choose from. It’s time that women finally get to see female superheros on the big screen who are the lead, rather than sidekicks or love interests.

An attempt was made to bring Wonder Woman to the small screen as comic book adaptations have become popular (e.g. Smallville, Arrow, and Marvel: Agents of SHIELD). Based on a remake of the previous Wonder Woman series, which ran from 1975-1979 starring Lynda Carter, the show (starring Adrianne Palicki) never made it past the pilot episode, nor has Wonder Woman ever gotten a movie; regardless of the continual reboots of Superman and Batman. It begs the question of whether companies are too afraid to leave their niche in the 1950s to explore different avenues and finally acknowledge that women can be a central character in her own right and become a best seller. There have been numerous male superhero movies that have been bad and reviewed critically such as some of the X-Men, Wolverine and Green Lantern movies and yet they continue to be made and rebooted and revived. What is the difference between the male and female superheroes that the latter won’t even get touched with a ten foot pole? They're women.

There have been rumours floating around the internet about a potential Black Widow movie (and IMDb even lists it as being in pre-production) which would make sense given that she’s a member of the Avengers and yet has not been considered important enough to receive her own origins movie like the other members of the team. So far, including the new Avengers: Age of Ultron movie currently filming, Scarlett Johansson has appeared in four movies set within the Marvel Cinematic Universe. Black Widow is hardly the most goody-two-shoes out of the leading ladies and doesn't fit into the conventional superhero mould but there is the potential with all her back story to make a decent enough movie that would silence the naysayers that claim that women don’t sell movies. Girls who enjoy comics or the movies would be able to have a role-model to look up to that isn’t one of the men, and might actually get to wear a superhero costume to conventions that isn’t made specifically for boys.

In addition to the Black Widow movies there was also a discussion of a new series based around Peggy Carter from Captain America. It’s supposed to be set post-WW2 and follow her involvement with starting up S.H.I.E.L.D. as well as the opposition she has to face as an agent. I love Peggy Carter and her character and was extremely excited to find out that this project was being discussed. Hayley Atwell absolutely sold her to me and I finally felt like there was a strong female I could watch who doesn’t seem to compromise her femininity in order to be accepted as “one of the boys”. She is definitely one of the highlights of the Captain America movie and to see her character and role expanded onto a series would be amazing. It was stated that if the project is indeed green lit for production that it could see the beginning of the female superhero movement.

There have been countless gifs and alternate universe ideas manips of what an all-female superhero team would look like and they’ve been amazing. There are countless women involved in these universes and yet they’re always made to be a background character, each with their own origin stories and back grounds that could easily be made into movies or series; Agent Maria Hill, Agent Melinda May, Black Widow, Peggy Carter, Sharon Carter, Jane Foster, Storm, Rogue, Wonder Woman, Cat Woman, Scarlet Witch… the list is endless with possibilities.

It’s about time that we are able to get our leading ladies, with or without super-powers, in both the cinematic and television universes. I want a role-model that both I and any future daughters can look to and think “Yeah, when I grow up I want to be able to do the things that __________ does.” I want to be able to go to conventions and buy a costume online, or hire one out, of a superheroine and have easy access to it instead of having to have it custom made (which is another can of worms I won’t go in to). I want to be able to sit down and enjoy a comic book movie starring a lady, in the same way I enjoy the ones currently being released, that do her justice and are made to be successful rather than the ones that we’ve had so far. It’s time the movie industry stepped up to the challenge because I need a heroine.