Of course Avengers: Endgame dominated and stormed out of the gate with the biggest weekend haul ever, but in the shadow of that movie, Captain Marvel became the all time box office champion for a female super hero movie. It now has generated a few million more than Wonder Woman, and it looks as if the inertia of Avengers might eventually get it to around 430 million in total box-office.
Captain Marvel did this. Fifteen years ago, if I would've said Captain Marvel would be the biggest female super hero movie of all time, you likely would've said "who?" But as I've mentioned before, everything Marvel studios does is gold, and what they've done for women's roles in comic book adaptions is a long overdue correction.
To understand the advancements Marvel has made in equalizing representation of women in action movies, it's probably best to compare them once again to their highly inferior box office challenger, DC.
But first, let me state the obvious. Both Marvel and DC have been VERY male centered on their lead roles in comic book movies. I think the success of Captain Marvel and Wonder Woman are great wake up calls, but to equalize the top of the marquee there needs to be more focus on developing female driven comic book movies. More on that in a second, but to appreciate how much Marvel has embraced female characters, let's make a list.
1) Sheer volume. DC comics has a fatal flaw. It's a comic book factory where only two characters really matter for most people, Superman and Batman. Taking it even further, the only thing most of DC's fans care about today is those two fighting each other. Wonder Woman is a great character, but a character who seems to be pushed to the back burner by her own comics. When Wonder Woman has been able to shine (Linda Carter and Gal Gadot, as well as a occasional story lines in the comics) she shines brightly, but even today there seems to be a reluctance to embrace Wonder Woman as the face of DC.
Beyond her, the DC universe lags dramatically in recognizable female leads. I asked four comics experts who they would peg as the second most popular DC female character, and I had a split between Harley Quinn and Supergirl. Margot Robbie's Harley Quinn helped drive up the popularity of the Suicide Squad movie, but she was mainly there as the Joker's girlfriend in revealing outfits. Even though a second Suicide Squad movie is coming out, DC is a long way from green lighting any other solo female movies in the near future.
Marvel on the other hand is deep with female characters, with their fans asking 'when is the (female character) movie coming out?' There's a moment in Avengers: Endgame when you realize the depth of the developed female characters in the Marvel universe, all of them with their own unique stories and perspectives, developed not as 'also ran' characters, but as intricate parts of the story. And there are multiple strong female super heroes from Marvel we haven't even seen in this current lineup.
2) Marvel doesn't tone down their own characters. I love the fact Captain Marvel is a wickedly powerful super hero. She's one of the strongest heroes in the Marvel catalog and the movie studio did not downplay her power, out of fear she might overwhelm some of the lesser powerful male characters.
In Batman v. Superman, there was an awesome moment when Wonder Woman shows up in all of her strength and power. Then there seemed to be a toning down of her power to make Superman the center of that movie's finale. Before comic book geek comes after me, I know Superman is more powerful than Wonder Woman in the comics, but I feel as good as her splashy and satisfying entrance into the DC universe was, she's been downplayed since whenever she shares the screen with Batman or Superman.
3) Marvel women punch a lot of guys, HARD! One of the worst cliches of a movie featuring a female super hero is the need for there to be a female super villain to prevent the female character from being 'too aggressive' with the guys. From the moment Black Widow started taking men down in Iron Man 2, the Marvel Universe has had no problem in having the women be the source of the strongest punches. Gamora, Okoye, The Wasp, Valkyrie, Wanda Maximoff, Shuri, The Ancient One...all of them have fought an won, pounding on dudes who deserved it, often with the male characters acknowledging and admiring their bad-assery. Even a meek character like Mantis fights and holds her own, having single handedly put Thanos into a deep sleep in Avengers: Infinity War. Equality means the women kick ass equally, and Marvel is not afraid to allow them to do just that.
4) Finally, these women are strong female characters, period. Marvel has tried to write these women as real as they can, offering them story arcs and motivations which are never contrived or filler. I can't see Marvel putting a character like Harley Quinn in one of their movies, unless they felt the characters development trajectory required them to do just that. Then it wouldn't be just to get young boys to watch, but to develop the character unapologetically.
My daughters (14 and 12) went with me to go see Avengers: Endgame on Sunday. I wish I could've taken them to this movie when they were 7 or 8. The Marvel lesson for young women (and young men) is the women are no longer background characters in these movies. It's an important message, one which will harvest many benefits as the women and men inspired by these female heroes grow older.
I guarantee Captain Marvel will get a sequel, and the Wasp is already a top billed character with Ant-Man. I'm not sure who the next solo Marvel movie with a female lead will be, but I guarantee it will inspire and entertain.
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