Can there only be one female lead?

[Crimz]

It's apparent that Marvel is pushing Captain Marvel as their lead female superhero. But why only her? Why is it with female characters there can only be one, while multiple male characters are fine?
We have Spiderman, Iron Man, Captain America, Hulk and Wolverine. But when it comes to possibility of making a female character on that level, there is only space for one. Will that attitude ever change? Is there space for multiple "lead females" in Marvel?

If not, who would put along with Captain Marvel as potential female leads?

[Realdealholy]

The more successful female characters, the better.

[Valamist]

I completely agree. There are so many great female characters in the lore that it would not be hard at all for Marvel to try and bump a few up to Spidy level characters. She-Hulk is slowly becoming my favorite character of all time in the MU, so I really hope the news of her solo series is a sign that Marvel are willing to do more with her. I actually always thought that Civil War II would have been much better if it was 'She-Hulk Vs Captain Marvel'.

[JediKage]

Carol wont be the only major women that is not what makes her useful to Marvel and the MCU. Carol is there to challenge Wonder Woman as a female character who is strong enough to get into fights against the Hulk, Thor, etc in melee range and not get instagibbed. Widow is an assassin and femme fatale archtype she cant trade blows with Thanos. Scarlet Witch is a classic wizard or mage sure she can do a lot of damage from range but she is not doing anything in melee range. Classic superhero fights invariably break down to trading punches and kicks face to face. Carol can do that. The other options so far Black Widow, Scarlet Witch, Wasp, Gamorra, etc really cant do that against the heavy hitters.

[Sutekh]

Marvel seems to be trying to put quite a few female characters out there. Spider-Woman, Silk, Squirrel Girl, She-Hulk, Captain Marvel, Scarlet Witch, Black Widow, etc. all have books either out now, or coming out soon, and while I'm not a huge fan of every single one of them, and would like to see some of the older leading ladies like Storm and Invisible Woman and Janet Van Dyne get books, Marvel's definitely pushing more than just Carol.

It does feel like Carol is getting pushed into being Marvel's 'Wonder Woman,' which I'm not in love with, since Marvel, IMO, doesn't *need* a 'Wonder Woman,' anymore than it *needs* a Superman or Batman.

Hopefully Carol can recover from the Civil War tarring-and-feathering as readily as Tony did from the first Civil War.

[somacula]

Marvel seems to be trying to put quite a few female characters out there. Spider-Woman, Silk, Squirrel Girl, She-Hulk, Captain Marvel, Scarlet Witch, Black Widow, etc. all have books either out now, or coming out soon, and while I'm not a huge fan of every single one of them, and would like to see some of the older leading ladies like Storm and Invisible Woman and Janet Van Dyne get books, Marvel's definitely pushing more than just Carol.

It does feel like Carol is getting pushed into being Marvel's 'Wonder Woman,' which I'm not in love with, since Marvel, IMO, doesn't *need* a 'Wonder Woman,' anymore than it *needs* a Superman or Batman.

Hopefully Carol can recover from the Civil War tarring-and-feathering as readily as Tony did from the first Civil War.

Juts for the record... DC wonder woman is Harley Quinn

[dragonmp93]

Well, because Sue and the X-girls are owned by FOX.

Besides, the female Spiders have a decent push too.

[Captain M]

In 3 years it's all gonna be about Widow-Wasp-Cap trio as far as female characters go.

Also I'm well aware Carol is being pushed to the lead female role but current lead is still Widow, let's not forget that

[Digifiend]

Juts for the record... DC wonder woman is Harley Quinn

Not sure what you mean by that, but Harley's Marvel counterpart is probably Gwenpool.

[MindofShadow]

It means Harly is top dog at DC, not WW

Carol is getting the push because she is the only female marvel has full movie right too that can stand next to thor, hilk, im, cap, bp, vision, ect and not look ridiculous

[Captain M]

It means Harly is top dog at DC, not WW

Carol is getting the push because she is the only female marvel has full movie right too that can stand next to thor, hilk, im, cap, bp, vision, ect and not look ridiculous

I wonder how much it would change if Scarlet Witch was Marvel Studios only.

[gurkle]

Obviously they'd love it if they had 10 female superstars, each more popular than the last. But it's superhero comics, where there aren't a lot of household-name superheroines aside from Wonder Woman. So they chose Carol as the heroine who would get more of their resources and promotion, just as they chose her to be their big solo superheroine for the '70s.

So it's not that they want to have multiple popular male heroes and only one popular female hero. It's that unlike DC, they don't have any solo female superhero characters who are as popular as the familiar male heroes, and they're trying to find a way to change that. It doesn't mean they would be upset if three or four of them suddenly got popular.

I wonder how much it would change if Scarlet Witch was Marvel Studios only.

Probably wouldn't help much. Some characters are team characters rather than solo stars. Most of the First Ladies of Marvel - Sue, Wanda, Jean and Jan - fit into that category, at least so far. It doesn't mean they can't ever carry their own stories, but it means that for them to become stars the writers would have to rethink them and their place in the Marvel universe.

I think that's one reason Black Widow and Carol Danvers have become so important to Marvel; they just seem to make more sense as stand-alone characters. Or at least, Black Widow was the first Marvel heroine of the '60s to get her own feature, and Carol was the first Marvel superheroine to run for more than a few issues.

[ed2962]

I don't think that Marvel is only pushing Carol Danvers. Up until very recently, she was probably getting the same treatment as Black Widow and She-Hulk, but some fans insist on seeing her as Marvel's Wonder Woman, so the think that automatically gives her the same statis as WW. But BW and Shulkie are still very active. Plus Marvel's taken chances on Ms Marvel and Squirrel Girl and it's paid off for them.

But I do agree with the larger point, the more high profile women heroes the better.

[Crimz]

I agree with posts saying that Marvel is pushing other female characters. But none of them are getting the treatment that Carol is getting, she is the only one being put forth as the Marvel female superhero.

I also wonder how much of this is down to comic readers. Many talk as if there can only be one female lead and no other, often vying for their favourites whilst devaluing others. I'm sure Marvel would be happy with multiple, but it feels like that's not their goal and once Carol is definitive then they won't push another the same way again.

I also wonder how things would be if Marvel had full rights to the Fox owned properties.

[gurkle]

I also wonder how much of this is down to comic readers. Many talk as if there can only be one female lead and no other, often vying for their favourites whilst devaluing others.

If some readers talk that way I think they're just being realistic: there are limited resources to put behind promoting any character, and any female Marvel character will need a big push to become as popular as Marvel's solo male stars.

There's not the same argument about most of the male solo stars because they don't need the promotion to become famous. It's not that there can be only one female lead, but there probably can be only one woman who gets that kind of all-out push, and that woman is Carol. If someone's favorite character is, say, She-Hulk, they might naturally prefer that it be She-Hulk who gets the promotional push and the movie. But it doesn't mean they would be sad if both Carol and She-Hulk were as famous as Hulk or Spider-Man.