The Marvel Cinematic Universe (MCU) is huge. Colossal, even. Since 2008’s Iron Man starring up-and-comer Robert Downey, Jr., the 13 films have grossed more than any other film franchise in history at over $10 billion, not to mention the litany of television series and Netflix original series it has spawned. The point is: The MCU is really, really massive and shows no signs of slowing down. Despite this, it has a big, glaring problem: its female characters.
Essentially, the women of the MCU are dramatically underserved. For the past eight years, Marvel films have been regularly in the theaters and have revitalized characters such as Captain America, Iron Man, Thor and Hulk that were largely forgotten by those of us who don’t regularly read comics, turning them into household names. It’s done incredible things for its male characters, but has done barely anything for its female characters. Despite being eight years and 13 movies into the MCU, we have yet to have one led by a woman. That’s not to say that there haven’t been women in them or even decent roles for those women, but they haven’t been in charge. Marvel hasn’t made a female-led movie yet, and it’s absurd. Two are on the way – “Ant-Man and the Wasp”comes out in July 2018 (the woman who becomes the Wasp is played by Evangelline Lily of “Lost” fame who appeared in a decent role 2015’s “Ant-Man”) and “Captain Marvel” comes out in March 2019 starring Brie Larson as the titular hero before she appears in the currently-untitled fourth “Avengers,” also in 2019. Having said that, these two films will be Marvel’s 20th and 21st movies. I don’t have to point out how ridiculous this is, especially because Marvel already has awesome female characters and hasn’t done much with them.
The first such character is Black Widow, played by Scarlett Johansson. She has appeared in five MCU movies since 2010’s “Iron Man 2” – that one, “The Avengers, “Captain America: The Winder Solider,” “Avengers: Age of Ultron,” and “Captain America: Civil War.” She’s a bad*ss spy capable of wisecracking while kicking butt with some interesting morals: essentially, an awesome, popular character. Despite this, she has yet to have her own solo film, something all the more ridiculous when you consider that a movie featuring a gun-toting raccoon whose best friend is a magic space tree got made first. All the more baffling is that Johansson is a bona fide, bankable movie star in her own right. Apparently, a Black Widow film is in development but won’t be coming out before the end of the decade, not to mention the fact that it’s been in development for over two years. Basically, Marvel has this really cool female character that people want to see more of.
I should also mention the controversy over Black Widows portrayal in 2015’s “Age of Ultron.” Essentially, the character gets taken hostage at one point (damsel in distress), has a love interest in the form of Bruce Banner/The Hulk, and also reveals, in a scene designed to bond her and Banner, that her spy training rendered her incapable of having children and feels like a “monster” because of it (the biggest point of contention). I personally felt that the scene was designed to evince Black Widow’s lack of feeling human – this thing so many other humans can do, she can’t do, just like Banner can’t get angry without turning into a pants-less green monster. Was sterility the best way to communicate that? Maybe not, but maybe I can feel this way because I’m a dude. Point is: She’s a pretty cool character and deserves better, more equal treatment, regardless of how one feels about “Age of Ultron.”
Beyond Black Widow, 2011’s “Captain America: The First Avenger” produced us Hayley Atwell’s Peggy Carter, a clever British intelligence officer from WWII who also knows how to kick butt. Peggy Carter proved so popular she got her own TV series, “Agent Carter,” set in the late 1940s and featured Peggy brilliantly navigating the male-dominated world of espionage. You’ll never guess what happened to it: It got canceled after two seasons. The show had problems, certainly, but it was a good, important show that had meaning, a meaning that meant we could forgive it for its faults. Instead, it got cancelled. As if that weren’t bad enough, Marvel has a pre-established relationship with this little thing called Netflix; however, a genuinely stupid reason was provided for why “Agent Carter” didn’t continue on Netflix.
What is especially frustrating about the MCU’s difficulty with women is that, excluding the films, it handles its women with aplomb. The ABC series “Agents of SHIELD” has a racially and in-gender diverse series that allows its women to be in distress less often than it does its men and also kick more butt than the men, all of which is awesome. The same can be said for “Jessica Jones,” the MCU’s first anything led by a woman, that premiered on Netflix last November – the show earned rave reviews for its handling of complicated gender issues, along with also just being a really good show. So, the MCU is clearly capable of having strong, unproblematic female characters but, for whatever reason, the films haven’t gotten that memo. It certainly isn’t because women can’t lead franchise movies – “Star Wars” now is led by the enigmatic but totally awesome Rey, Wonder Woman has already had an excellent turn in one superhero movie and is going to be in three(!) more in the next three years, and Katniss Everdeen already made about $3 billion. The world is ready for women leading movies; why Marvel hasn’t figured that out, I don’t know. I do know, though, that they’re hurting not only themselves but every little girl who loves superheroes in the meantime.
