"Without fail, comic book movies pull in swarms of invested comic enthusiasts--a large percentage of whom are female, to the disbelief of many male fans."- Gabriela Shaffer
Without fail, comic book movies pull in swarms of invested comic enthusiasts--a large percentage of whom are female, to the disbelief of many male fans. Which begs the question, why haven’t there been any recent comic movie releases with female leads? It can’t be that companies are busy working on more important movies when Spiderman just announced that it will release its third film version in the near future and Batman has seen many screen adaptations. Nor can it be argued that there is a lack of female heroes with large enough existing fanbases to draw in audiences with heroes such as Black Widow, Storm, Raven, Starfire, Batgirl, Squirrelgirl, and many others. So then, what is the excuse that comic book industries are using to defend their lack of superheroine films? The three reasons that I have seen argued many times are that female superheroes always have a better male counterpart to make a movie out of, superheroine films won’t make as much money, and comic book companies don’t know how to make movies with female leads.
With Wonder Woman scheduled to be released in June of 2017, I will address the first possibility that came to mind. Comic book industries and male fans believe that when a female hero exists, there is always a male hero that is more impressive and worthy of a movie adaptation. This excuse is flimsy and flat-out false. Wonder Woman is an Amazonian princess who is expertly trained in many forms of combat and has enhanced senses that include but are not limited to: strength, hearing, and healing. She also has a lasso that forces people to tell the truth and metal bracelets that are impenetrable.
Many people claim that she is the lesser female counterpart of Superman, a kryptonian with enhanced hearing, x-ray vision, super strength, the ability to fly, and many other abilities, due to their similar appearance and powers. The two are not as similar as many seem to believe. Superman is an alien, Wonder Woman is from Earth. Superman gained his powers due to the environmental differences between Krypton and Earth and Wonder Woman was blessed by a goddess and trained extensively to become the powerhouse that she is today. Wonder Woman’s backstory stands out as more impressive because she had to work to obtain her powers whereas Superman was just lucky.
They also differ in their weaknesses. Wonder Woman’s weaknesses have shifted throughout her existence. At first, if a man managed to tie her bracelets together, she would become powerless. This shifted so that if Wonder Woman ever lost her bracelets, she would become engulfed in an extreme rage, a weakness that some feminist fans have accused of being a joke about PMS. Modern era Wonder Woman has no specific weaknesses though Aphrodite will revoke her powers if she ever falls in love, which I think helps enforce Wonder Woman’s image as a feminist icon who will never be reduced to a man’s sidekick, and can’t really be considered a weakness. Superman on the other hand is allergic to a rock. When exposed to Kryptonite, he becomes practically useless.
They also differ in their weaknesses. Wonder Woman’s weaknesses have shifted throughout her existence. At first, if a man managed to tie her bracelets together, she would become powerless. This shifted so that if Wonder Woman ever lost her bracelets, she would become engulfed in an extreme rage, a weakness that some feminist fans have accused of being a joke about PMS. Modern era Wonder Woman has no specific weaknesses though Aphrodite will revoke her powers if she ever falls in love, which I think helps enforce Wonder Woman’s image as a feminist icon who will never be reduced to a man’s sidekick, and can’t really be considered a weakness. Superman on the other hand is allergic to a rock. When exposed to Kryptonite, he becomes practically useless.
The argument people have as to why Black Widow doesn’t have her own movie is because she doesn’t have any powers which would make the movie boring. Know who else is lacking superpowers? Batman, and yet he has featured in many films! Black Widow was raised in Russia where she was trained to be a spy and assassin. She is efficient in many different forms of combat and practices ballet, which keeps her nimble and flexible. She is powerful and intelligent and because she lacks super powers, she doesn’t have any silly weaknesses. Batman’s superpower is the fact that he is a billionaire with a freaking butler and multiple side kicks! Again, this parallel shows that the female heroes had to actually try hard to become who they are today while Superman and Batman just got lucky.
The second argument I’ve seen is that superheroine movies wouldn’t make as much money because they feature a female lead. Again, an untrue statement! Feminist fans would come flocking to theaters in order to support powerful women and casual fans would come for entertainment or because they enjoy the character and comics the movie is based off of. Feminists and comic enthusiasts aren’t the only one’s who would come to view movies focusing on a superheroine though. Men who just want to see curvaceous women in revealing spandex costumes perform acrobatics which leads to another reason why Wonder Woman is the first female hero to be a lead in recent years. Comic book industries will not know how to handle a superheroine movie.
| Many fear that if a superheroine film were to be made, it would be more of a RomCom than a comic book movie. Even SNL did a skit of how they imagined a Black Widow movie unfolding and it is scary how accurate some of their details may turn out to be. Marvel really wants to give Black Widow a boyfriend but their attempts have not been well received by the fanbase. This is because many fans see that the desperate struggle to force a love life on the Russian assassin will remove her credit as a hero. She will no longer be known purely as Black Widow, a powerful Russian spy trained in many forms of combat who could easily kill John Cena. Instead she would be known as Black Widow, girlfriend of _______. | |
So why haven’t Wonder Woman, Black Widow, or any of the other awesome superheroines that exist featured in a film earlier? Comic book industry’s were built off of misogyny and they have been too ignorant to attempt to reform this up until recently.
