Does Marvel Only Care About Male Superheroes?

Marvel Cinematic Universe and the representation of female superheroes.

Since the release of Iron Man in 2008, Marvel Cinematic Universe kept on expanding, gaining millions of fans all around the world with numerous superhero movies like Thor, Captain America, Spiderman and so on but the one thing that caught my attention is that the first solo female superhero movie by Marvel was released in 2019, Captain Marvel. Even though the first appearance of a female superhero was in 2010, it took Marvel eleven years to give a female superhero a solo movie. The black widow, one of the original six avengers, didn't get her own movie till 2021! And that too was a prequel and totally a stand alone movie.

Now, Marvel's intentions behind female superheroes have always been questionable, fans also play a major role in this. Everyone knows that Marvel fans consists of all the age groups who are comic book readers and love to see their favourite comic characters come alive in live action movies and shows and even if they are not comic book enthusiasts, they most definitely love how Marvel uses these larger than life characters in the most creative way and make them go through the same difficulties as common people. Naturally, women and girls enjoy these contents too, but everyone loves to stick to the perception that they only watch avengers or spiderman because they find Captain America, Winter Soldier or Peter Parker “hot” and are sexually attracted to them, which is a very sexist and misogynistic take on how media sees women as audience. While male fans are considered geeky or nerdy, female fans are considered rather hysterical for rooting for their favourite actors. So undoubtedly, they pay attention towards their “real” fans and focus on delivering their wishes rather than “immature fangirls”

When Captain Marvel was released in 2019, just before the most anticipated movie of all time, Avengers Endgame, fans disliked Carol Denvers, and surprisingly they still do. Even after her exceptional showcase of power during the last fight sequence with Thanos and nearly defeating him, fans never seem to hype Captain Marvel the same way they did other male superheroes, even the MCU spiderman, who is by the way, considered as the weakest spiderman in comparison to his predecessor spidermen. You may ask why? The reason is that they find Carol Denvers arrogant and self- obsessed but which other avenger has the same character traits as her? Yes. Iron man. Tony Stark is the most flawed character, with anxiety issues, arrogance, self obsession and no control over his emotions whatsoever. Now don’t get me wrong, there is nothing wrong with superheroes being flawed but instead, this is the best thing about MCU characters,imperfections, emotions and other normal human characteristics are the traits that makes them so relatable and omnipresent but the problematic part is the double standards by the audience. Carol is hated for the same attributes that Tony is loved for and even interestingly, he is the most loved MCU character, because apparently, ‘these flaws make him real and interesting’.

Photo Credit - People

Coming back to black widow, Scarlett Johannson has been playing Natasha Romanoff aka black widow since 2010 and is massively loved and adored by the fans but she has always been a supporting character. Johannson has even stated that her character was used merely to satisfy male gaze and was over- sexualized by the director of Iron Man 1 and 2, Jon Favreau. Natasha, who was a bold, strong and ‘sexy’ SHIELD agent, won the hearts of millions of fans over the years.

It is clear how important Marvel deemed her character when they ended it in such an abrupt way in Endgame. Even though Avengers Endgame was very Natasha focused, and by that we don’t mean it in Natasha- fighting- Thanos way but in Natasha- being- strong and- emotional- to keep Avengers together- because it is her family type of way. Not to forget they also pushed a romantic angle by putting her in a romantic relationship with Bruce Banner aka Hulk in Avengers Age Of Ultron, but that ended in a disaster because apparently, fans wanted her to romance with the most handsome superhero i.e. Captain America aka Steve Rogers and Marvel could not do it due to their future plans with the character. Hence, when I mentioned earlier Marvel’s intentions with female superheroes being questionable, I meant exactly this.

Let’s just not talk about Wanda Maximoff aka Scarlet Witch, Okoye, Shuri and Gamora because : First, they are late entries in the Marvel Cinematic Universe and second, they are meant to be supportive characters except Wanda because she got her own show but I am sure she won’t be getting her stand alone movie even when her show Wanda- Vision was a massive hit critically as well as commercially and she is a supporting character in the upcoming Doctor Strange movie.

While we're at it, let’s look at how this feud between Disney and Scrlett Johannson comes to this narrative. In simple and easy terms, Disney promised Scarlett that Black Widow movie will only get a theatrical release and based on that, she will get her salary. Which makes sense and it’s all good and sweet but disney did a somersault and breached the contract and released it on Disney+ Hotstar as well with additional charges for viewers. Now they are earning millions from the movie streams because many countries like India (which have one of the biggest marvel fandoms in the world). Now technically,this is a fraud, which is why she sued Disney creating havoc in the entertainment industry.

Now, you know the most shocking and ironic part here? The fact that in 2017, Robert Downey Jr. was paid fifteen million dollars for a fifteen minute cameo in Spiderman Homecoming by Disney. While he was being heavily paid, Scarlett is fighting a court case to get them to pay her salary! Could it be because Scarlett Johannson is a female actor and Robert is a male actor? Most probably yes because the pay gap and the difference in professional treatment in female and male actors is not a secret nor is the sexism in the industry.

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Yours Truly.