While it never should have been up for debate in the first place, Wonder Woman‘s astounding 100 million dollar opening finally puts to rest the idea that women cannot star in their own blockbuster superhero franchises: that there simply isn’t a market for them. Men, women and children came out in droves to watch the Amazon princess kick buts and take names across the war-torn trenches of WWI Europe.
The thing is, though, that the party doesn’t end with Wonder Woman. There’s the better half of a century’s worth of female superheroes to choose from to find the next breakout hero, and every studio head worth his salt is going to scour through their character roster to find one to fit the bill. I just so happen to have a few ladies in mind for the big screen myself.
Black Widow — Natasha Romanov is the first female superhero of the modern summer blockbuster. While she might not have the branding of Wonder Woman nor have the raw power of Supergirl, she got there first and stood toe to toe with Marvel’s A-list powerhouses as a founding member of the Avengers.
Calls for her own movie began after her memorable turn in 2012’s The Avengers. And although she’s played a strong supporting role in the Marvel franchises to date, she’s never quite manage to stand apart from her male coworkers. She has proven to be an incredibly dynamic character with a game-changing skill-set and an enduring public appeal: everything she’d need to be the star of her own movie.
Iron Heart — Although the money is certainly unparalleled, nobody wants to wear spandex forever. Even Wolverine got his Logan. And unless Marvel wants to start replacing actors like 007, the torch has to eventually be passed to a new generation of young actors taking up a new roster of characters.
When it comes to legacy heroes, Marvel has a lot to choose from, including a badass, female Thor, a biracial Captain America and a Korean Hulk. Given how the Marvel movies began with Iron Man, however, it only seems fitting that the next generation of Avengers would start with his successor.
Riri Williams, genius black girl who reverse-engineered Tony Stark’s armor while attending MIT at the age of fifteen. Resigning herself to help the world, she became the superhero Ironheart and fought crime alongside the likes of Hulk, Spider-Man and Cyclops.
Ms. Marvel — Not to be confused with Carol Danvers — Captain Marvel — who will debut in 2019 in Marvel’s first female-lead superhero movie, Ms. Marvel is Kamalah Khan: the Pakistani-American equivalent of Mr. Fantastic. Her Inhuman powers allow her to stretch, deform, expand or compress her body into whatever shape or size she sees fit.
I absolutely fell in love with this character the second I read about her. She is an Avenger fan-girl who spends her downtime writing Avengers fanfiction (and continues to do so even when she joins the team). She’s an endearing character with a refreshingly strong attachment to her community (constantly chiding Nova about the collateral damage his juvenile antics cause) and a colorful supporting cast of characters to liven up her out-of-costume antics.
Starfire — Although they get flack for their monochromatic and monosexual lineup of heroes compared to the more multi-cultural Marvel Comics, DC has a deep and storied history of strong, dynamic heroines. Wonder Woman is the obvious first-choice among them, but there’s also Supergirl, Power Girl, Batgirl and the magical Zatanna. But as every good boy and girl who watched Teen Titans growing up knows, Starfire is where it’s at.
An alien princess with an eye-catching color-pallet, Koriand’r sports the full, marketable package of superhero powers — flight, strength, durability — as well as firing energy blasts from her hands. Her powers are directly tied to her emotions, which makes her an especially expressive and dynamic character. Her arch nemesis, Blackfire, is her own sister, whose dark ambitions will see her do whatever it takes to rule over their planet, including dispatching her little sister.
Storm — Perhaps the most iconic X-Men outside of the original five and Wolverine, Ororo Munroe is probably the most compelling character Marvel has access to of any gender. Fox, who owns the film rights to the X-Men, actually planned on making a solo-movie for her when the plan was for a whole slew of X-Men Origins movies. But Wolverine bombed, Magneto’s became X-Men: First Class and the whole franchise rebooted with Days of Future Past.
Ororo grew up as a thief on the streets of Cairo working for the Shadow King, a psychic mutant whose powers rival Xavier himself. Her mutant powers to control the weather saw her worshipped as a Goddess in Africa and her strong personality saw her wed to Wakanda’s Black Panther. She defeated Cyclops in a fight over control of the X-Men at a time when she didn’t have access to her powers and currently serves as the team’s leader in the comics.
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One vote for Black Widow! Please let me know what happened in Budapest :))