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Edited by Mrph1 on Jul 29th 2024 at 3:09:00 PM
At this point, I'll believe it when I see it, not just when it's claimed. Marvel has a terrible track record in this regard: out of about 20 movies released so far, 0 have female leads and 0 have female directors. In all the movies, men outnumber women by a very wide margins. Out of the female characters they do have, every single one is/was the love interest of a male character, even when it's entirely unnecessary and weakens a character (Gamora, Wasp, Black Widow). It's rare for a Marvel movie to have a genuine plot arc or character arc for a female character.
edited 14th Jun '18 4:20:27 AM by Galadriel
Captain Marvel will be directed by Anna Boden and Ryan Fleck and they have talked to female directors before. Since Perlmutter is out of the picture they have gone noticeable more diverse in the movies, in front of the screen and behind the scenes, and in TV they have always encouraged female directors and taken care of their female characters.
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Overall I agree, however:
Black Widow has no love interest until Age of Ultron (which Yikes). The Extremis lady in Iron Man 3 has no love interest. Darcy has no love interest in Thor (Thor 2... ehhh). Valkyrie has no love interest in Ragnarok (besides her dead girlfriend, but that’s not the point you were making). Scarlet Witch has no love interest in Age of Ultron (Civil War though... sigh). Shuri has no love interest in Black Panther or Infinity War.
Yes, the vast majority of the female characters have love interests, and I agree that has occasionally been to their detriment (Black Widow and Scarlet Witch are both saddled with crappy romances; Black Widow’s is far worse in my opinion)
Everyone else is fine.
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Whoa, I am not awake yet. How’d I forget that many people?
Oh, and Glenn Close’s Nova Prime.
edited 14th Jun '18 5:14:43 AM by wisewillow
Repost from Avengers 4 thread:
Hey guys, looks like we got a hint of what could be the title of the next Avengers film. A preview shown in Cine Europe stated that the title will have two words which are currently obscured but shows the initials which are these ones: F H. What could it stand for though? Forever Heroes? Final Hope? Or Finest Hour? The Russos said that the mostly assumed one of Forever is a close one.
The only good fanboy, is a redeemed fanboy.I can definitely agree there's still plenty of work to be done in improving female (and for that matter minority) representation and characterization. At the same time I think the MCU's been doing a good enough job at addressing faults of past movies that I have some faith. Here's hoping Captain Marvel is good for a start.
edited 14th Jun '18 5:18:20 AM by XJTordecai
On my wave, passing oooooooonIn fairness it's more that Vision is Scarlet Witch's love interest than vice versa
Forever liveblogging the Avengers![]()
Yeah. This is very evidence in Infinity War. Vision spent most of his screen time injured, offer emotional support and be the MacGuffin while Wanda has more action scenes and is the one that made the sacrifice to destroy the Stone. Let's be honest: Scarlet Witch and Black Widows are two of the more unpopular female Avengers in the comics and are tricky to write for (as evidence by the lack of solo titles). It's a wonder they turned out as well as they did in the MCU.
edited 14th Jun '18 10:46:37 AM by shatterstar
Didn't Black Widow have a solo run for a while?
Anyway, I look forward to see Captain Marvel and her various off-shots. I am curious if they manage to salvage something good out of the mess which is her story.
In a way it is good that she enters the frame so late, though. She would have been too OP before Marvel went truly cosmic.
"Too OP" didn't stop Thor or the Hulk from showing up in Phase 1.
Thor can go toe-to-toe with Galactus, the Devourer of Worlds.
My Tumblr. Currently side-by-side liveblogging Digimon Adventure, sub vs dub.To be fair, both Hulk and Thor are noticeably weaker than their comics counterparts. I don't think Thor really started to approach his comics equivalent until post-Ragnarok.
Generally speaking, the MCU toned down its stronger characters in the first couple phases - not so much that they aren't clearly the biggest guns around, but enough that they don't come off as broken (though there's a case to be made that Marvel Studios was also playing the safe side and being a bit uncreative in bringing new ideas to their heroes and heroines). You also see it in GOTG, where basically everybody (particualrly Drax and Gamora) is far weaker than in the comics.
But now we're starting to get more and more outrageous concepts and, thus, more and more of the cooler, most insanely powerful comic book goodness incorporated into the verse. I tend to agree that if Marvel had adapted Carol earlier, they probably would've nerfed her too much.
edited 14th Jun '18 12:04:30 PM by KnownUnknown
That only really makes sense if power scaling is a result of continual plot progression, which generally speaking they aren't in superhero comics. Superman isn't as strong as he is because he's been continually improving over the course of his eighty year history, which would thus make adapting him at his current strength level disingenuous. He's as strong as he is because every once in a while a writer decides to reevaluate part or sometimes even all of his abilities for the story they were trying to write, making him stronger or weaker, followed by other writers at the time not disagreeing.
Similarly, superhero films generally pick feats and strength levels from all across a characters' long history: some from early on, some from very recently, and composite them together to best match the kind of story that particular film is trying to tell - as well as, in the MCU's case, the general direction the universe is trying to flow in.
edited 14th Jun '18 12:21:23 PM by KnownUnknown
Okay, when I said all the MCU's female characters were love interests at some point, I was thinking of protagonists. You all are right Shuri is an exception, as are several female antagonists lile Hela and Nebula.
For that matter, so is Okoye - her role and character arc are at least as important as W'Kabi's, so I would not consider her a love interest; I do see a distinction between having a romantic relationship and being a love interest. With Gamora and Wasp, though, it feels like the male lead "getting the girl" rather than the relationship being a meaningful part of their own story.
Everyone wants to be Aunt May's love interest but she doesn't have time for their nonsense
Forever liveblogging the AvengersI'd say Gamora still qualifies as a love interest (in as much as Guardians goes out of its way to sidestep the standard cliches of what a love interest is supposed to be). The criticism isn't about whether or not they have more than just being a love interest, it's the sheer number of female characters who are the love interest. For example, I wouldn't say that Wanda, Okoye, or Black Widow even in Age of Ultron are love interests since they have more screentime and development than their significant other.
Male characters can be a love interest, too. I'd say Vision qualifies.

https://www.themarysue.com/marvel-phase-4-female-directors/
Seems Marvel's actually taking real steps to improve.
In general they've been a mixed bag. Dr Strange was mixed since to be brutally honest someone was gonna be pissed off no matter what they did, and the director DID actually address the criticisms with a great deal of courtesy (he admitted that the asian community was right to be pissed and that despite his best efforts he was somewhat insensitive). He also turned the character of Wong from "Strange's butler" to someone who while not on the same level as a protagonist WAS ultimately more equal (he's strange's teacher, or one of them, he has a full-time job as a record keeper and he directly talks back to strange and calls him out on his bullshit. Servile he is not.)