What is the most Important and Impactful Marvel Female Story Arc

[Castle]

I feel it is down to 3 stories.

The Dark Phoenix Saga

The Death of Gwen Stacy

Rogue Steals Mrs Marvel Powers



If other please list.

[Oberon]

The storyline that changed Invisible Girl to Invisible Woman,

[K7P5V]

Definitely, a personal favorite would be Mary Jane Watson from "All My Pasts Remembered!" (Amazing Spider-Man #259):

[Relugus]

To be brutally honest, none, really.

Pretty much without exception, all the most iconic and critically lauded comic book stories have been focused on male characters

[Revolutionary_Jack]

In terms of being centered and led by a female superhero, it has to be the Phoenix Saga and the Dark Phoenix Saga since it singlehandedly made X-Men the leader of the industry and the top Marvel title after just coming out of cancellation/reprints. Nothing else quite shatters the glass-ceiling or that women can't be major superheroes. Jean Grey became the biggest female superhero in comics for a few short years, bigger than anyone at Marvel before (Invisible Woman, Wasp) and Wonder Woman.

"The Death of Gwen Stacy" was maybe more influential in terms of inspiring writers to fridge female characters but in sales terms and industry-wide terms it wasn't as impactful compared to Claremont's Jean.

As for Rogue and Captain Marvel, that's basically a footnote for comics. For the longest time Rogue was far more famous and well-known than Carol Danvers, and even then Rogue hijacking Carol's powers wasn't that well-known (and only featured in the 90s Fox Cartoon) certainly from the '80s to the 2000s. The last decade has seen a reversal.

Definitely, a personal favorite would be Mary Jane Watson from "All My Pasts Remembered!" (Amazing Spider-Man #259):

True. Of course the seeds for that were set down in the final epilogue of The Night Gwen Stacy Died. It's funny but Mary Jane Watson is the most important female character in that story whereas Gwen is barely in that story before she gets whacked.

[davetvs]

The [Dark] Phoenix Saga by a considerable margin. I'd also add House of M.

[Agent Z]

Kamala Khan's entire original run by G. Willow Wilson.

In terms of being centered and led by a female superhero, it has to be the Phoenix Saga and the Dark Phoenix Saga since it singlehandedly made X-Men the leader of the industry and the top Marvel title after just coming out of cancellation/reprints. Nothing else quite shatters the glass-ceiling or that women can't be major superheroes. Jean Grey became the biggest female superhero in comics for a few short years, bigger than anyone at Marvel before (Invisible Woman, Wasp) and Wonder Woman.

"The Death of Gwen Stacy" was maybe more influential in terms of inspiring writers to fridge female characters but in sales terms and industry-wide terms it wasn't as impactful compared to Claremont's Jean.

As for Rogue and Captain Marvel, that's basically a footnote for comics. For the longest time Rogue was far more famous and well-known than Carol Danvers, and even then Rogue hijacking Carol's powers wasn't that well-known (and only featured in the 90s Fox Cartoon) certainly from the '80s to the 2000s. The last decade has seen a reversal.



True. Of course the seeds for that were set down in the final epilogue of The Night Gwen Stacy Died. It's funny but Mary Jane Watson is the most important female character in that story whereas Gwen is barely in that story before she gets whacked.

I'd say having your own solo run or movie beats one event which was about a female character going out of control and dying.

Dark Phoenix was a landmark moment for the X-Men but for women superheroes as a whole? Highly questionable.

[Revolutionary_Jack]

To be brutally honest, none, really.

Pretty much without exception, all the most iconic and critically lauded comic book stories have been focused on male characters

The Phoenix Saga and the Dark Phoenix Saga were among the biggest, most commercially successful and critically lauded comics of the 70s and it's centered and led by a woman.

Also Storm was the leader of the X-Men for most of the 80s when X-Men were so big that if they were siloed into their publication would be the third biggest comics label after DC and Marvel.

There are other examples of stories centered on women, like
-- HOUSE OF M,
-- and female characters like Nebula certainly played a notable part in stories like THE INFINITY GAUNTLEY (where personified female Death is also a major character).

In the case of Spider-Man, the first time any comics story crossed over into the wider media when it was announced that he would marry Mary Jane Watson in the 1980s resulting in prime-time coverage and media interest. And that entire story happened because fans at a convention Shooter and Lee attended asked specifically for Spider-Man to marry her, not married in general.

I'd say having your own solo run or movie beats one event which was about a female character going out of control and dying.

The OP's first option says "The Phoenix and The Dark Phoenix Saga", which is an entire 40issues+ story arc that covers virtually Claremont's full original run. It wasn't just "one event".

The Phoenix Saga begins when Jean saves the X-Men when the rocket crashes into Jamaica Bay and she becomes a cosmic superhero who in her first major act saves the universe from D'Ken and the M'Krann Crystal.

[Castle]

Kamala Khan's entire original run by G. Willow Wilson.




I'd say having your own solo run or movie beats one event which was about a female character going out of control and dying.

Dark Phoenix was a landmark moment for the X-Men but for women superheroes as a whole? Highly questionable.

I will say for women in comics as a whole. DARK Phoenix has had the most impact. As a single piece comic story centred around a female. it is probably the most impactful and I say this as a person who was and is kind of still into Marvel and DC comics. Although not my personal favourite story line. I did not even vote for that here, I went for Rogue absorbing Carol.

there was just something about that story line that has never really been settled nor ever will be. Rogue absorbing Carol's powers is a very infamous storyline, the infamous aspect overshadows the classic status. However Dark Phoenix and even the death of Gwen Stacy are more of a pure classic.

In terms of other I will say

The wedding of Peter Parker and Mary Jane Watson

House of M.

[616MarvelYear is LeapYear]

Not surprised in the least that Phoenix and DP Saga are in the lead...

The Phoenix Saga began in Uncanny X-Men #101 which featured the first appearance
of the Phoenix-Entity who usurped Marvel Girl's civilian identity, Jean Grey.

The Dark Phoenix Saga depicted the Phoenix-Entity devastating a planet. Thanks to MG's copied humanity,
the Phoenix-Entity, in horror, destroyed its mortal shell in Uncanny X-Men #137 Witness was Cyclops
and tried to revive Marvel Girl from suspended animation. However, MG rejected it.
Thanks to MG's rejection the Phoenix-Entity found MG's clone Madelyne Pryor

and gave her life.
Very CLEVER of the writer Louise Simonson to have Marvel Girl absorb the memories of both the Phoenix-Entity AND Madelyne Pryor

so that in future comics it can be explained how come Marvel Girl remembers everything of what
happened in Uncanny X-Men#101-137 which featured the Phoenix-Entity who usurped MG's civilian identity, Jean Grey.

MG also remembers everything that Madelyne Pryor experienced in all
the X-Men comics and every other marvel comics that Madelyne Pryor has been in.

[Relugus]

The Phoenix Saga and the Dark Phoenix Saga were among the biggest, most commercially successful and critically lauded comics of the 70s and it's centered and led by a woman.

Also Storm was the leader of the X-Men for most of the 80s when X-Men were so big that if they were siloed into their publication would be the third biggest comics label after DC and Marvel.

There are other examples of stories centered on women, like
-- HOUSE OF M,
-- and female characters like Nebula certainly played a notable part in stories like THE INFINITY GAUNTLEY (where personified female Death is also a major character).

In the case of Spider-Man, the first time any comics story crossed over into the wider media when it was announced that he would marry Mary Jane Watson in the 1980s resulting in prime-time coverage and media interest. And that entire story happened because fans at a convention Shooter and Lee attended asked specifically for Spider-Man to marry her, not married in general.



The OP's first option says "The Phoenix and The Dark Phoenix Saga", which is an entire 40issues+ story arc that covers virtually Claremont's full original run. It wasn't just "one event".

The Phoenix Saga begins when Jean saves the X-Men when the rocket crashes into Jamaica Bay and she becomes a cosmic superhero who in her first major act saves the universe from D'Ken and the M'Krann Crystal.

House of M was entirely focused on male characters. The narrative is entirely focused on Wolverine, Magneto, and Spiderman. HoM Is entirely about the male characters above anything else.

It's telling that the theme of male writers projecting their fear of women having power is repeated in almost every one of these stories, again and again again. With the same outcome. The only time the women are portrayed with any nuance is when they are powerless normies like Gwen Stacey or MJ.

[chicago_bastard]

The Night Gwen Stacy Died is hardly a female story arc, Peter is front and center, even Osborn's characterizaton gets more focus than Gwen's.

[Revolutionary_Jack]

The Night Gwen Stacy Died is hardly a female story arc, Peter is front and center, even Osborn's characterizaton gets more focus than Gwen's.

True. Mary Jane is the most important female character in that story, but she gets all of one page but then that one page is one of the best scenes in comics. Gwen Stacy's death was a great manipulative stunt that fooled a generation of readers into having a bigger emotional impact than was actually indicated on page.

And while the comics was popular and controversial it hardly made the impact that people assume. The fact is the biggest Spider-Man comics of the 1970s was Superman versus the Amazing Spider-Man, that comic (also written by Gerry Conway) was a far bigger deal than any 616 story with Spider-Man in the 1970s, which is not a knock on Spider-Man comics of the 1970s (it had great comics then) and alsp some mediocre ones after Conway stepped away.

Whereas Claremont's X-Men run that took the least liked of Lee-Kirby's Marvel Age and made them into the biggest comics on the market was the real revolution.

House of M was entirely focused on male characters. The narrative is entirely focused on Wolverine, Magneto, and Spiderman. HoM Is entirely about the male characters above anything else.

Are we talking about the main House of M event or the tie-ins? Because Spider-Man's contribution to HoM was a tie-in written by Mark Waid and he didn't feature much in the main even, nor was his participation in HoM followed up in his own comics after that.

The main HoM event was entirely centered on Wanda Maximoff.

It's telling that the theme of male writers projecting their fear of women having power is repeated in almost every one of these stories, again and again again.

That question is separate from and independent from the question whether there are "important and impactful Marvel Female Story Arcs". The main question is quantitative not evaluative.

The only time the women are portrayed with any nuance is when they are powerless normies like Gwen Stacey or MJ.

In Spider-Man story arcs yes, because his corner is more civilian-centric than others.

If we bring Daredevil, we can talk about The Elektra Saga or BORN AGAIN which certainly have major roles by female characters in the narrative, or Ann Nocenti's original Typhoid Mary Arc.

[JudicatorPrime]

It was easily the Dark Phoenix Saga...until they retconned it.

Now, I have no clue.

I just want a compelling story where the character doesn't get absolute power only to muck things up, or die.

[CosmiComic]

Can there really be only one?