Originally Posted by
Zeeguy91
This, I think is a problem that both Marvel and DC have. I mean, can anyone really name a female equivalent to Magneto, Dr. Doom, Galactus, or even Lex Luthor, Ra's al Ghul, or Darkseid, who is as famous as any of those guys are? The most notable female villains in comics I've noticed tend to be, well, Batman villains, and even though they're notable, they don't really share the intimidation that you get from some of their male counterparts. Not to mention that some of those female Bat-villains have been toeing the anti-heroine line for quite a while.
The female villains that do get attention from writers tend to be forced into a set series of tropes and/or archetypes that ultimately take away from their "evilness" (I guess that might be the best way to put it?). These archetypes, in a lot of ways, reflect how we see women or what we want women to be in our present society (or at least society as it was when these characters were created).
Most notable among these is the femme fatale stereotype, which a lot of writers tend to gravitate towards. However, this trope is in some ways harmful because it's all about foregrounding the character's sexuality and attractiveness to the point where that's the focus of the character (more so than it would be for any male character), as opposed to her actual threat as a villain. And in some cases, the threat she poses is through her sexual appeal. However, that serves only to make her an object of sexual desire for the male readers, who view her mostly through that lens as opposed to a threat to be taken seriously. Characters like Catwoman, Poison Ivy, Black Cat, Talia al Ghul, etc. tend to fall into this category. I mean, at least three of those examples I just listed have actually had sex (and in some cases relationships) with their respective male hero. And, before it's said that I hate the Batman/Catwoman relationship, let me assure you, I don't. I'm just pointing out a pattern.
There's also the trope of the corrupted innocent turned mad by some outside force that a lot of female villains fall into. For example, Jean Grey in the Dark Phoenix Saga kind of epitomizes this archetype in that she is a hero driven to do horrible things. However, that is only because the Phoenix Force drove her insane and forced her to do it. Raven from the "Terror of Trigon" arc from the New Teen Titans run and maybe even Cheetah from Wonder Woman's rogue's gallery fit this mold as well. In these cases, the character is in a sense robbed of her agency. She is turned into an object that is acted upon and forced into doing things instead of being the one who actually makes her own decisions. This trope reflects this inherent need in us apparently to attribute innocence and virtue onto women and female characters: "oh no, the poor innocent girl couldn't possibly have chosen to be evil; something must have made her do it." However, that again, fails to capture female characters as people in charge of their own fates/destinies or even as multifaceted individuals who can be two things at once.
So, yeah, there are some female villains that I think buck these trends, but as I said, none of them are really household names.