Waiting for our Female Super Heroes

It’s a common enough topic lately. And really it kind of should be. All these super hero movies – all these great super hero movies – and where are the female super heroes?

I’ve talked about this before here. Holly’s talked about this before here. But I thought I would go with a poll to see what you think, and not just what I think. However, some thoughts that got me thinking about this all over again and blog posts from others below!

Wonder Woman

First up is the news that broke about Wonder Woman being cast in the new Superman movie. The new Superman movie which has Wonder Woman, but no official title yet. Wonder Woman, who has been in development hell for both movies and TV for years now. I suppose we’ll believe it when we see it.

There’s a great post about this casting over on We Minored In Film, so I won’t rehash what has already been well said. Here’s a character who should have her own film, and honestly really should have had it sooner. TV might actually be wrong, as I feel like it might end up too campy. But maybe not.

Kitty Pryde and Days of Future Past

Another recent discussion, which I also read today and thus, with both, got me thinking about this post, is that Kitty Pryde was the protagonist of Days of Future Past, and yet in the movie they are going with Wolverine. Good discussion of that over on the Mary Sue.

I would say that, if they want to keep the type of Time Travel from the comics – that is, someone traveling back to the consciousness of their younger self – then Wolverine is indeed a perfect logical choice, and I get that.

However, they are changing the protagonist by doing this. So what about using a far simpler form of Time Travel – say, just sending someone bodily back – and keep your protagonist? Because honestly, Ellen Page could do a fantastic job trying to pull the X-Men together to save the world. Could even still pull Wolverine in.

They missed the opportunity to have a strong female lead in this movie, and the prominence of Wolverine may even overshadow the ensemble cast they are pulling together. Let’s hope not!

Other Options

So, other big news on female characters lately includes Scarlet Witch, for Avengers: Age of Ultron. There’s also talk of a Doctor Strange movie, which I had misgivings about until they added Scarlet Witch to the Avengers. But now, wait a minute.

Couldn’t they do a Scarlet Witch-led movie? Or even a twins duo movie with Quicksilver? And Doctor Strange, as a fellow magic user, could be a support character in it, but would he need to lead? I would anticipate Scarlet Witch to appear in a Doctor Strange movie if it came out after Age of Ultron, after all.

And there was talk of Katee Sackhoff as Captain Marvel, which would be amazing. And given the Guardians of the Galaxy are going to be fighting the Kree – who gave Captain Marvel her powers – the possibility to have a movie with her as the lead seems like it is RIGHT THERE. Someone make this happen, seriously.

And back to the X-Men, their next movie could totally be a mainly female cast. With characters like Storm, Rogue, and Shadowcat already a part of the comics… what about doing the origin of Jubilee story? Save her from Sentinels, add her to the team? Build something like the new female X-Men cast?

Or, to redeem Halle Berry from her Catwoman movie, what about a Storm solo movie? With a story set in Africa, with her as the goddess, or maybe with her leading up and taking over the Morlocks? Now if only they had the rights to Black Panther, too, you could have her as mutant, goddess, and queen. If that’s not a female powerhouse, who is?