I want to start off by saying that I fully acknowledge DC has a very strong roster of female characters, especially since they are the home of the most iconic one (Wonder Woman), but something I’ve noticed recently is that very few of them are the alpha or torch bearer of a franchise. Wonder Woman is basically the only one! Let’s take a look:

The most successful females when it comes to leading a solo comic series, outside of Diana, are Catwoman, Supergirl, Harley Quinn, Batgirl (both Barbara and Cassandra), and Power Girl. What do they all have in common? They’re all spin-offs of a far more popular male character and not the lead of their own franchise, merely supporting characters to a male led franchise. In other words, they wouldn’t exist without Batman and Superman and their stories depend on the world already established by Bruce and Clark. I wouldn’t consider any of these female characters their own franchise!

Next we have the females who gained popularity on teams: Hawkgirl, Black Canary, Zatanna, Vixen, Jessica Cruz, Starfire and Raven. Shayera and Jessica are extremely popular but they aren’t the leads of their respective franchise as their male counterparts tend to take center stage (Hawkman, Hal Jordan, John Stewart). I guess a case can be made that Hawkgirl is a co-lead of the Hawk franchise, but even then the titles are named Hawkman not the Hawks. In recent times Black Canary has been turned into a supporting character of the Arrow franchise instead of her own franchises, likewise with Zatanna and her being paired off with the Hellblazer and JLD franchises respectively, rather than building up her own world. Vixen has tremendous amounts of potential but DC refuses to build her up as a strong franchise. Then you have the most popular Lady Titans, Starfire and Raven, both have strong mythos but suffer from the same treatment as the X-Women... fans are conditioned to see them as team characters strictly.

Outside of Wonder Woman, the only other women who aren’t spin-offs/derivatives or who haven’t become supporting characters to a bigger franchise, to hold their own titles and lead their own franchise are Amethyst, Huntress, and Dove. None of them get very much attention sadly So my question is, how would you change this? Which female characters would you push and build up and how? My choices would be:

Amethyst Gemworld is a strong concept that deserves development
Black Orchid (Alba Garcia) with her connection to the Red, Green, and Rot plus Argus
Zatanna Expand on Mystic University, she’s more than Constantine love interest
Vixen Easy choice. Make her a princess of Zambesi and really expand on the Anazi mythology
Huntress Her darker vigilante way of thinking would be a good series. Take on mob bosses and cartels, take her out of Gotham too