D.C. has recently announced its plans to make a movie about one of their most popular villains, Harley Quinn. Not only will this movie feature Joker's number one fan, but it will also include a whole bunch of other hard-hitting females from the D.C. Universe, such as the Birds of Prey and Batman's female counterpart, Batgirl. This announcement adds to D.C.'s (hopefully) growing list of female superhero movies that are due to come out within the next few years. So far they've only announced a movie centered around Wonder Woman, played by newcomer Gal Gadot, and the potential Harley Quinn movie.
While D.C. seems to be on a roll when it comes to including its female superheroes in not only movies, but also T.V. shows, Marvel seems to be having a hard time realizing that having a female superhero centered movie may not be a bad thing. D.C. is moving forward on a Wonder Woman movie months after "Batman v. Superman" made its debut, but Marvel is still on the fence about making a Black Widow movie. Granted, D.C. is no saint; they've pushed the Captain Marvel movie back more times than I can count. But why does it matter? What's with all the hype about not including strong females in superhero movies? What's wrong exactly?
We need representation. We need female characters that young women and girls can look up to and dream of being. Instead of seeing women in supporting roles for the male superheros while the guys save the day, we need to see some more women saving the day. Seeing female superheroes working with male superheroes in order to help them save the world isn't enough. That's furthering the trope that female characters are only put in place to help to male characters along on their own journeys -- that they are nothing more than a helping hand.
While this trope may be show a positive example for male audiences, showing them that there is nothing wrong with asking for help. The fact that it is so common is harmful to women. Writers can easily get their point across without bringing in a flat and otherwise useless female character to help out for a few minutes in an hour-long film. I'm looking at you, D.C.
Another thing stopping Marvel from making movies about female superheros: their assumption that female superheros don't sell well. In a leaked email written in 2015 by former Marvel CEO Ike Perlmutter to former Sony CEO Michael Lynton, Perlmutter stated that female superhero movies were potentially a bad idea. He then listed three movies, Marvel's "Electra," D.C.'s "Catwoman," and D.C.'s 1984 movie, "Supergirl." All of these movies flopped in the box office, but what he failed to mention was that there were male superhero movies that flopped as well, like "Daredevil" and "Superman Returns."
Recently Marvel even dropped the idea to have a female villain in "Iron Man 3," fearing that female action figures would not sell well. Obviously they did not stop to think about Disney's mistake when it came to manufacturing Rey action figures. While D.C. basks in its glory over setting up television shows and movies focusing on female superheros, Marvel continues to twiddle their thumbs and worry about whether or not they would sell well.
Disney has already proven that a female hero does in fact sell well, so Marvel, my one question for you is this: Where's my Black Widow movie?
