Thoughts on the misogyny behind limiting female characters' power levels?

[Havok83]

I'm litteraly talking percentage not absolute number.
Although I will grant that we're lucky we X-men we have TONS more female characters than other pop references (thanks Claremont)

I get that but I trying to gauge percentage bc it doesnt feel like thats really the case

[Gray Lensman]

The big 'hero goes mad with power' stories that I can think for male characters are Hal Jordan becoming Parallax and Xavier becoming Onslaught. Hal was eventually retconned to be possessed by a giant space monster, but for about a decade it was all him and he literally destroyed the DC universe. Stories where Superman goes evil have become common in recent years like Injustice, but those aren't main-universe DC.

But in general, going mad with power is a typical villain origin story. Like Green Goblin or Dr. Octopus, men who were not evil before their accidents, at least according to the original versions.

Writers tend not to understand what characters like Superman are - a case study in the idea that "Power Reveals." You want to know who someone truly is? Give them enough power that they no longer have to deal with consequences. Most will show their inner darkness, but a few will suddenly be freed from the idea that no good deed goes unpunished - Superman, Captain America, and other paragon characters fit this bill. Jean Grey should fit in here - I always felt that the Dark Phoenix story involved not only the outside influence of the Phoenix, but the force being corrupted by outside influence as well. Jean sacrificed herself to stop what it was becoming - and claims that she and the Phoenix are one and the same remove her from that nigh-incorruptible paragon that she is at her core. There's a reason why she is the best one to contain such power.

[Agent Z]

Exactly. Which, for the simpletons, is how the media brainwashes you into believing certain things about certain people.

IIRC, Joss Whedon was inspired by Dark Phoenix for Willow's character arc so you can see how all of these things feed each other. To Nicoclaws' point, it's really only a problem when there is not enough representation to provide counter-balance, and/or not enough nuance in the way the story is portrayed.

One character directly compares Dark Willow to Dark Phoenix in the show. X3 also gives Jean the black eyes and black veins effect to complete the circle.

[Nicoclaws]

I get that but I trying to gauge percentage bc it doesnt feel like thats really the case

Do you want to count with me how many male characters and female characters there are in comics ?

[MythicalChicken]

In terms of misogyny, Oh, you're not wrong, but it's really old news and I think bringing this up, intentionally or no, is just to inflict some bad-faith feminist outrage. Supposedly giving Jean and Ororo solos solves this conundrum in the reboot, or having the cosmic/astral plane-y threats we do in Fall of X (Orchis is mostly an afterthought to all the sinister/phoenix/Moira stuff).

It's also why the modern trend of bashing Claremont irritates me, because beyond the story themselves he set the groundwork for so much of the social inclusion element in X-men, and pop culture in general, to the point it'd be equally valid to use x-men as a critique of yas queen social domination/overcompensation for the past's assholery, only dooming the cycle to repeat.

As to power levels in general, I thought Excalibur handled this well enough -- including at the end having Rachel set some self-imposed limits totally in character -- but in a large team book, the power arms race gets very boring to read about or forces the scale of the story to change so powerful characters aren't getting Spectre'd (as in a major DC crossover happens, and the spectre prevents it from being an insta-kill for the universe but leaves everyone else to have something to do for the story proper)