Why are Marvel's Superheroines Less Popular overall than Dc's?

[Conch22]

I wouldn't necessarily fully agree with the premise, if we're putting this in the scope of media adaptations, basically anything that's not a comic, like the Netflix series with Elektra, Colleen Wing, Jessica Jones, Misty Knight and the Night Nurse, the primetime television audience with Agents of Shield with Melinda May, Mockingbird and Quake, the Animated side with White Tiger and She-Hulk.

Keeping that in mind, Marvels prominent cinematic universe is on the big screen. They set the stage for the Avengers with Ironman, Thor and Captain America and gave them love interests to act as a grounded counterbalance. Thors ethereal and full of himself, Jane is a determined theoretical physicist. Tony is Livewire, Pepper is that responsibile executive telling him no and struggling with the chaos that is Tony Stark. Cap is optimistic, Peggy is worldweary.

Switch it up to DC.
Arrow: Female combatants galore with Shado, Sara, Nyssa, Lyla, Thea & Laurel, all with varying arcs at different points. There was a female villain trio teamup this past season which was a natural progression of characters from past episodes.

The Flash has Jesse Quick and Killer Frost, but is generally more scientist based than cadre of fighters.

Supergirl has the title character obviously, as well as Miss Martian, as well as featuring a numb of powered villainess' like Silver Banshee, Indigo and LiveWire. And Alex Danvers as an obvious derivative of the MCUs Black Widow.

Gotham features the very iconic character of Selina Kyle. Has also featured Lee Tompkins in a very relevant to the threat of the week medical examiner role. Fish Mooney, distinctive character that stands out, irregardless of where she falls on the spectrum of fandom to hatedom. Barbara Kean as a proto Harley Quinn. Poison Ivy, another iconic villainess and Tabitha, given indications of forming the future Catwoman.
Then there's Lucifer, wherein Maze is an asskicker and her personality shines through.
IZombie, no inclination to see it soon given how far removed the announcements made it clear it would be from the source material, which I thoroughly enjoyed when it was being published.
Actress strongly resembles Gwen Dylan, the showrunners previous series Veronica Mars shows he has talent as a showrunner.
Preacher, they adapted Tulip. They heavily changed her, but in many ways its an extreme version, a leveling up on the Tarantino-meter, which works with Preacher, even if I would've preferred the writing stay somewhat closer to the source material with her character.

Legends expanded on Sara in the White Canary role, brought forth a Hawkgirl central to the season long arc and romantically entangled with one of the more established actors, notable for playing Superman. Season 2 brought a time displaced Vixen to act as a quasi audience member point of view character and also tie in to a generation of superheroes tied to one of the most popular era's in fantasy writing (WW2).

And Black Lightning will be bringing his daughters powers to bear as Thunder and Lightning if the trailer is anything to go by.

So, maybe it comes down to there's a human girlfriend formula with the Marvel films and the DC tv side isn't as defined. Arrow has street fighters of both genders, the Flash leans heavily on their scientists, Legends is anything the creators wanr it to be, Supergirl focuses on the female leads with viewership demographics in mind most likely.
Gotham has the biggest DC franchise to work with, with many iconic characters to adapt.

Lucifer intermingles metaphor, family drama, relationship hangups, action and suspense and comedy very well that even average scripts are a fun ride and the characters all have distinctive roles with both genders.
The television side allows DC to do more, so the comparison isn't entirely fair. Its comparing a little over a dozen 2 hour movies to hundreds of hours of television between all these shows.

[TheSeaDragon]

I'd say that people know who Black Widow, Gamora, Cap Marvel, Mantis and arguably Storm as much as Wonder Woman( more known from the tv show and merch far more than the comic for decades), Batman's female villains and Supergirl.

Folks just want to cherry pick "who knows about who for these specific reasons"

are yo for real? .

[Frontier]

They would probably pass on Lauren Faust and Rebecca Sugar for Craig Kyle and Christopher Yost since they already have really strong ties to their animation department, or Joe Casey and Joe Kelly and crew.

Well at least they weren't shy about writing strong, well-developed, female characters compared to some of the current creative teams of Marvel Animation.

Heck, Yost was writing and helping create strong takes on Carol Danvers and The Wasp long before they were movie characters, same with Scarlet Witch on Wolverine and the X-Men.

Spider-Man's cartoons and movies did bring a lot of focus to the civilian women in his supporting cast like Mary Jane, Aunt May and Gwen Stacy. MJ in particular had reached incredibly high public awareness in the 00's, as was apparent by the amount of attention the Zendaya news was given by media recently.

Black Cat, the most prominent costumed/superpowered female character in the franchise, unfortunately has to get over the obstacle of being labelled "bargain basement Catwoman". Maybe the Silver and Black will help her and Silver Sable's popularity, or they could go the way of Elektra.

Shame the same can't be said for the more modern Spider-Man cartoons (Mary Jane apparently isn't even in the upcoming one).

[Confuzzled]

Shame the same can't be said for the more modern Spider-Man cartoons (Mary Jane apparently isn't even in the upcoming one).

But she's kind of in the movie? Kevin Feige and co. may act sketchy about it but the larger audiences are just assuming it is her.

[Frontier]

But she's kind of in the movie? Kevin Feige and co. may act sketchy about it but the larger audiences are just assuming it is her.

Well, her without her actual name or much to actually identify her as herself .

I can only hope we don't end up with another Hope "It's about darn time" Van Dyne situation.

[Confuzzled]

Because many of those female characters are associated with frigging BATMAN and SUPERMAN!!!

Yeah but since they were given mass media exposure from so early (40's for Lois, 60's for Catwoman and Batgirl, 80's for Supergirl, 90's for Poison Ivy and Harley), they've been entrenched into pop-culture conciousness to such a level that their popularity through the public's high awareness of them can help support their own spin-offs or team-up series like Gotham City Sirens and Birds of Prey.

[Confuzzled]

Well, her without her actual name or much to actually identify her as herself .

I can only hope we don't end up with another Hope "It's about darn time" Van Dyne situation.

Well, outside of comics and a couple of cartoons, not many people were aware of Wasp before the movie, much less Janet in particular.

In MJ's case, she already was prominent in three of the most influential superhero movies of all time. So as soon as a character refers to herself as "MJ" in a Spider-Man film, people will instantly associate her with Mary Jane.

[Scott Taylor]

Marston was ahead of his time and the foundation he built has paid off for DC over the years. You practically can't have this conversation about the comparison between companies without the caveat "other than Wonder Woman."

Marvel initiated a revolution in the 1960s in the way comic characters were fleshed out, but it mainly featured male characters. Female characters were still mostly support characters in Marvel during the 1960s and in the MCU that remains true for whatever reason. The time has mostly passed for a Black Widow movie. Captain Marvel movie might be happening, but as of now that character is unknown. The X-Men are an ensemble and mostly so far has relied on big names like Hugh Jackman.

[Confuzzled]

Marston was ahead of his time and the foundation he built has paid off for DC over the years. You practically can't have this conversation about the comparison between companies without the caveat "other than Wonder Woman."

Marvel initiated a revolution in the 1960s in the way comic characters were fleshed out, but it mainly featured male characters. Female characters were still mostly support characters in Marvel during the 1960s and in the MCU that remains true for whatever reason. The time has mostly passed for a Black Widow movie. Captain Marvel movie might be happening, but as of now that character is unknown. The X-Men are an ensemble and mostly so far has relied on big names like Hugh Jackman.

This is true. And not just Marston and Wonder Woman, but Siegel and Shuster created an excellent superhero love interest in Lois Lane who was appealing and brazen in her own right. Bill Finger and his successors then created an incredibly charismatic female villain in Catwoman (Villainesses are actually Marvel's weakest area and where they suffer a resounding defeat to DC).

Funnily, I still think the most revolutionary female character for Marvel in the 60's was Mary Jane Watson, and her groundbreaking uniqueness made her the only one comparable to DC's female trinity of Wonder Woman/Lois Lane/Catwoman until the debut and subsequent development of Storm in the late 70's and 80's. The Dark Phoenix Saga storyline also boosted Jean Grey's significance by a high margin in those earlier years.

[RLAAMJR.]

You should check the number of appearances instead of solo numbers.

Marvel: https://comicvine.gamespot.com/marve...31/characters/

DC: https://comicvine.gamespot.com/dc-co...10/characters/

Marvel wins with Storm at number 1.

[WonderBoy]

You should check the number of appearances instead of solo numbers.

Marvel: https://comicvine.gamespot.com/marve...31/characters/

DC: https://comicvine.gamespot.com/dc-co...10/characters/

Marvel wins with Storm at number 1.

Not completely reliable when a lot of those appearances/issues on ComicVine are simply reprints in another language

[reni344]

I think DC has more recognizable female characters for many of the reasons listed above. Pop culture connections and name recognition chief among them. I still remember when Captain Marvel was announced me and my sister literally blurted out "Billy Watson Is getting a movie?" My mind did not even think that Carol Danvers getting movie was a possibility. Mostly because I thought if Marvel was going to do a female led movie they would have done Black Widow first. And at the time I still associated the name Captain Marvel with Bill Batson.

[El_Gato]

Unfortunately, Jessica Cruz doesn't count. It's not a solo, she shares Green Lanterns with Simon Baz.

I think it counts. The title is developing Jessica as a character and she's always on the covers. Plus let's be real here, Jessica is the main attraction of that book. She's definitely more popular than Simon and with her upcoming role on DC Superhero Girls I have no doubt she'll end up at Hal/John levels of popularity!

Have you counted the Sensational Comics iterations and Wonder Woman '77 etc. for Diana as well? If not, then that may bring her total closer to a thousand! She's unparalleled anyway.

I'm pretty sure Spider-Girl (Mayday Parker) is somewhere near 120, meaning she's above Spider-Woman and Captain Marvel just recently surpassed her.

I didn't know Lois's title was that long running. Pretty impressive.

Dazzler still being in the Top 15 after decades is pretty awesome too. It just shows how much forgotten and untapped potential that character has/had.

I didn't count the different iterations of Wonder Woman, only her solo title. But yes if you count all of that she's very close to 1000+.

I forgot about Spider-Girl! I'll add her to the list soon.

Lois had two very long titles! I wonder if DC would ever try giving her a solo again? It's been a while.

I was surprised at Dazzler making the list! However if I add Spider-Girl then she'll lose her spot since Ms Marvel currently has an ongoing and she doesn't.

You should check the number of appearances instead of solo numbers.

Marvel: https://comicvine.gamespot.com/marve...31/characters/

DC: https://comicvine.gamespot.com/dc-co...10/characters/

Marvel wins with Storm at number 1.

That doesn't really tell us anything considering Marvel publishes more comics than DC. Plus a lot of those numbers are inflated by reprints.

Solo issue comparisons work better because a solo title develops said character, gives them a rogues gallery,
and a support cast.

[JeanGreyForever]

Dazzler still being in the Top 15 after decades is pretty awesome too. It just shows how much forgotten and untapped potential that character has/had.

I don't think it's really a testament to Dazzler's longevity as much as it shows how underused Marvel's other heroines have been, considering that all those issues of Dazzler come from her one solo series back in the 1980s, yet few heroines since then in 2017 have been able to surpass her.

[El_Gato]

1. Wonder Woman ~ 700+
2. Supergirl ~ 245+
3. Catwoman ~ 232
4. She-Hulk ~ 169+
5. Lois Lane ~ 165
6. Spider-Girl ~ 145
7. Captain Marvel ~ 125+
8. Spider-Woman ~ 104
9. Harley Quinn ~ 96+
10. Batgirl (Cassandra Cain) ~ 73
11. Batgirl (Barbara Gordon) ~ 68+
12. Elektra ~ 66
13. Batwoman ~ 49+
14. X-23 ~ 46+
15. Dazzler ~ 42

Those are the top 15 females in terms of solo success (up to October solicts). As you can see Wonder Woman is in a league of her own! Anyway those marked with a plus sign (+) currently have solos so that number is rising.

Women with current ongoings that can potentially make the top 15 soon:

Ms Marvel ~ 41+
Jessica Cruz ~ 30+ (double ships)

Women with fair number of solo issues but no current title:

Black Widow ~ 40
Amethyst ~ 37

Edited the above with more accurate numbers (forgot about Spider-Girl). Pretty interesting list imo