Marvel's Most Iconic Woman Character Is...

[Iron Maiden]

I agree, both Lois Lane and Mary Jane are two names that transcend comic book culture and deserve their place in the realm of iconic characters PERIOD. You could probably say "Louis Lane" damn near anywhere in the world and people young and old would know exactly who you are talking about, that's a level of prominence that really cant be overstated.

Promenince? Yeah, I can give you that. But let me tell you as a female reader Lois Lane, the unfulfilled eternal GF is not a woman I want to read about. She's more like a joke to me. Mary Jane fares a little better but there were far too many times in comics in the 1990s were she's mostly shown in skimpy nighties. I did like her in JMSs run but then they had to go and make OMD to nullify her as a married woman of some substance. No thanks.

[leokearon]

Probably for the General Public, it would be the Black Widow, given she's everywhere (except in the comics where she's dead). But with the fans, given that Marvel have a lot of great and iconic ladies, it would be hard to pick just one

[Calaigah]

Their most iconic women are Storm, Jean and Sue Storm.

However, Marvel refuses to use them due to FOX. The non-FOX Marvel women are pretty bland.

[MajorHoy]

Probably for the General Public, it would be the Black Widow, given she's everywhere (except in the comics where she's dead).

And sometimes not even in the toys!

[daBronzeBomma]

Promenince? Yeah, I can give you that. But let me tell you as a female reader Lois Lane, the unfulfilled eternal GF is not a woman I want to read about. She's more like a joke to me.

Just going to point out that Lois hasn't been the unfulfilled GF of Superman since 1991 (at the latest, when Clark told her his secret ID for realsies once they got engaged).

As far as a civilian supporting character can go, she has always had the career ( Pulitzer winning journalist, outright better than Clark in that department), she knows the secret, she is married to Superman, and is a working mom to their son Jon.

Lois Lane is the farthest thing from a joke.

As far as Marvel 's most iconic female character (non - civilian edition) ... it's no one at the moment. There is Wonder Woman equivalent at Marvel right now.

In 2 years time (when her movie comes out), it will unquestionably be Captain Marvel Carol Danvers.

[MajorHoy]

. . . As far as a civilian supporting character can go, she has always had the career (Pulitzer winning journalist, outright better than Clark in that department) . . .

I don't know if that's quite right / fair.
After all, Clark has his . . . distractions . . . to deal with.

[Iron Maiden]

Just going to point out that Lois hasn't been the unfulfilled GF of Superman since 1991 (at the latest, when Clark told her his secret ID for realsies once they got engaged).

As far as a civilian supporting character can go, she has always had the career ( Pulitzer winning journalist, outright better than Clark in that department), she knows the secret, she is married to Superman, and is a working mom to their son Jon.

Lois Lane is the farthest thing from a joke.

As far as Marvel 's most iconic female character (non - civilian edition) ... it's no one at the moment. There is Wonder Woman equivalent at Marvel right now.

In 2 years time (when her movie comes out), it will unquestionably be Captain Marvel Carol Danvers.

Re: Lois Lane

I was reading a bit of DC in the times when the writing on Superman to be lacking particularly with Lois Lane and never bothered with it since. Imaginary Tales seemed to rule with Lois marrying Superman,etc, finding out his secret but no, it was a dream... and many panels with Lois going *sob* But you're right at least she had a job. Stan was vague about how Sue supported herself and her brother prior to meeting Reed.

[daBronzeBomma]

I don't know if that's quite right / fair.
After all, Clark has his . . . distractions . . . to deal with.

Clark also made his career by duplicitously reporting on himself. Highly unethical for a journalist. Lois gets the win here.

[daBronzeBomma]

Re: Lois Lane

I was reading a bit of DC in the times when the writing on Superman to be lacking particularly with Lois Lane and never bothered with it since. Imaginary Tales seemed to rule with Lois marrying Superman,etc, finding out his secret but no, it was a dream... and many panels with Lois going *sob*

The last 30 years have been largely phenomenal for Lois Lane, starting in 1986 when John Byrne revamped the entire Superverse. Easily the best female civilian character in superhero comics, IMHO.

But you're right at least she had a job. Stan was vague about how Sue supported herself and her brother prior to meeting Reed.

Sue is the opposite. Completely defined by the men in her life, no noteworthy career that sticks.

[nandes]

Voyager, duh.

[Captain M]

Voyager, duh.

I think that could be argued.

See for sure back in silver age she was pretty much one of the most popular characters marvel had. Her short lived cartoon in 80s sure helped her keep that up. However she was noticably absent from Busiek's Avengers run and her solo ended in early 2000s before Hickman killed her just to revive her later on. She's still prominent but I don't know if she's Widow level prominent. I think I don't really like her ANAD look. Plus, can we all admit the whole "I want to kill your son" thing is better not acknowledged? Voyager deserved better treatement than that.

Wait what

[Haquim]

Back in the 80s and 90s the answer was clearly STORM (she was more popular than even WW, so much that she won a fan contest vote and ended up defeating WW in a crossover).
Right now Marvel would like to sell us Carol Danvers but the ploy is so blatant and forced and the character written so unsymphatetically (?) that they actually got the opposite. Carol has constantly been presented as a borderline fascist with rage management problems and on top of that for some reason she's widely idolized by the marvel public.
In short, currently Marvel has no "female lead character".

[Skedatz]

Marvel is featuring Captain Marvel as their "premiere female hero," and had been trying to really push her prominence in the books for over a decade now. She might become closer to a household name with a movie, but we have to wait and see how that works out.

[Captain M]

Back in the 80s and 90s the answer was clearly STORM (she was more popular than even WW, so much that she won a fan contest vote and ended up defeating WW in a crossover).
Right now Marvel would like to sell us Carol Danvers but the ploy is so blatant and forced and the character written so unsymphatetically (?) that they actually got the opposite. Carol has constantly been presented as a borderline fascist with rage management problems and on top of that for some reason she's widely idolized by the marvel public.
In short, currently Marvel has no "female lead character".

Well, Storm still is more popular than Wonder Woman here where I live and I'm sure other places like here. (Turkey)

People know X-Men. And everyone who knows X-Men, knows storm. X-Men movies aired a thousand times on tv.

Wonder Woman is very very new here. Unlike you guys we never had the WW show air here. There was no way people could know of her. Her movie did help her but I mean no one knows "Wonder Woman" still. They can identify her by her looks but they don't know her name. People know "Storm"

[Astroman]

I'd love to see them give Sue Storm the TLC needed for her to really be THE Marvel superheroine.

Both Johnny and Ben were able to have significant presences outside of the FF so that's not a valid reason for Sue not to have a life outside of the FF.

Give her a strong motivation, interesting focus, build her character up to be something other than just mom, older sister, and wife.

Her power set is crazy powerful so she could easily do it.