Does Marvel Not Have Enough Good Female Villains?

[williamtheday]

Is Princess Python alive or dead? Then there's Black Knight V, Big Zero, Coat-Of_arms, Lilith(s).

[GodThor]

Clearly Marvel doesn't feel the same way as they have put the majority of effort in their male villains, which is why this thread exists. It may not matter to you, but it does to many others who want to see more diversity in all forms.

yeah, true.

[marhawkman]

Sure, but it's not like we were meant to side with Strobe. The narrative didn't portray her weight as a joke, or as a moral failing. Some characters did, but they would have made fun of her no matter what she looked like.

Speaking of villains it'd be nice to see again... Strobe is actually a good candidate for this list. Heck, if she's dead we can just say that Selene resurrected her (accidentally or otherwise) during Necrosha. Oohh... maybe have her as someone who knows she's a zombie and is like "ugh, I hate being a zombie"...

[WallStreeter]

Margali Szardos, Selene, Madelyne Pryor, and Miss Sinister all have great potential. Selene showed us a taste of what she could do during Necrosha. I love Madelyne Pryor and her Sisterhood of Evil Mutants.

In fact, that should bring back the sisterhood. It was Madelyne Pryor, Selene, Arkea, Enchantress, Lady Deathstrike, and Typhoid Mary, in it's last incarnation. Arkea's host Reiko is now the new body for Lady Deathstrike.

[chamber-music]

Selene and Morgan Le Fay operate on levels of power and ruthlessness that, IF written correctly, should near the top of the list of most powerful villains period, outside of Universal forces like Phoenix and Hell Gods. I always found it funny that Le Fay was written as a villain for Spider-Woman. I mean, the powersets are nowhere near equal. How in the hell did Spider-Woman manage to survive? Given their seemingly near immortal status and powerset I could easily both of them raised to A-level threats, and should have been long ago.

Umar is a incredibly powerful female villain as well. I think Umar might edge out Morgan Le Fay in the magical sorceress department

I would love to see Superia get pushed as a major villain but the super villain feminist element of her character means that would be unlikely under Marvel's current editorial direction.

[616MarvelYear is LeapYear]

Avengers #314 Feb 1990
"Along Came a Spider" Guest-starring Spider-Man.
What if the universe disappeared for just a split second? That would be frightening!
And what if the awesome weapon that could make that possible…fell into the hands of a sinister super-villainess?
That would be terrifying! Unfortunately for Earth's Mightiest Heroes…the former and the latter are now both reality!
At the Polydyne Industries laboratory in New Jersey, the genocidal Nebula
has seized control of Professor Harker's incredible compressor unit!

But even Nebula isn't exactly sure what the compressor unit can do!

The Avengers fear the worst and ask Sersi

and Spider-Man to help them!
With Cap, Thor, Sersi, Jarvis and the wall-crawler gathered in
the underground control room, the universe disappears again!
But the five heroes still remain! Now what?

Script by John Byrne. Art by Paul Ryan (breakdowns) and Tom Palmer (finishes).

[616MarvelYear is LeapYear]

Avengers #315 Mar 1990
"Doomsday Plus One!"
Nebula has destroyed the universe!

Only the Avengers,

Spider-Man and Nebula are left!

How can the Avengers force Nebula to restore the universe?

Script by John Byrne. Art by Paul Ryan (breakdowns) and Tom Palmer (finishes).

[Anthony W]

It would be nice to see Viper given more spotlight, or Superia, or Enchantress (who needs to stop flirting with the idea of reformation).

Enchantress isn't really a villain, she is just a goddess lol. Believe it or not she is representative of the average god or goddess. Sometimes petty and cruel, sometimes kind and fighting on the side of good. She works best as a grey character.

[your_name_here]

Star is a nice new addition. They need to keep on with the push though otherwise she will probably drift back into obscurity.

Lucia Bardas was a nice new addition to Latveria, I like what Brubaker did with her more than Bendis.
Sin is another good villain. Surprised she didn’t appear more often.
Whatever happened to Lady Bullseye?

[Anthony W]

I would love to see Superia get pushed as a major villain but the super villain feminist element of her character means that would be unlikely under Marvel's current editorial direction.

I see the writers having a bigger problem with Superia than Cebulski.

[Green Goblin of Sector 2814]

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. One could even argue that it has shades of the damsel-in-distress trope, given how common it is that a male character ends up "saving" the corrupted innocent woman from herself.

So, yeah, there are some female villains that I think buck these trends, but as I said, none of them are really household names.

[Steel Inquisitor]

Marvel's good female villains are: Moonstone, Monica Rappacini, Viper/Madam HYDRA, Morgan Le Faye, Lady Bullseye. They could give them more spotlight and add to their ranks. They're far behind compared to the men. I don't think they truly have someone on par with Magneto or Doom.

[Seren]

I'm intrigued to see how Octavia Vermis plays out in Spider-Woman. I hope she gives Viper a run for her money.

[JudicatorPrime]

While I am loathe to have Maddie resume her role as a villain, the Goblin Queen would make an excellent foe for just about anyone. She's certainly powerful enough. But alas, she's an X-Men character, which means that her villainy is almost exclusively motivated by personal dealings with other X-folks. She lacks the evil nature of someone like, say, Nyx.

[Snoop Dogg]

Beetle is the best.