All of the shilling Captain Carol got in the comics and especially the MCU has been pointed out as being rather hollow, as it only came about due to film rights (that are thankfully no longer an issue). It's pointed out that the X-Women were far more celebrated and beloved than Carol, and were treated as such by Marvel until sometime in the '10s when the MCU took precedence over all else. This may have stemmed from Chris Claremont's iconic run, where he set out to include strong female characters like never before, to which he succeeded, and has since been the norm. Hell, even Carol owes a lot to Claremont. Make of that what you will.
Reading off the amount of strong female characters who come from X-Men is pretty long. It goes:
- Jean Grey
- Polaris
- Storm
- Kitty Pryde
- Mystique
- Rogue
- Emma Frost
- Dazzler
- Karma
- Magik
- Dani Moonstar
- Wolfsbane
- Magma
- Rachel Summers
- Psylocke
- Jubilee
- M
- Blink
- Domino
- Stepford Cuckoos
- X-23
- Armor
- Pixie
- Hope Summers
- Honey Badger/Scout
Just to name some.
It seems a combination of being a female mutant will make you a top-tier asskicker, and an awesome one at that. Coincidentally, another iconic heroine that isn't a mutant is another one that Marvel didn't have access to, that being the Invisible Woman.
I think the MCU has kinda suffered from this, and I know it's been complained about in the past that the movies were lacking great and memorable heroines people liked. In reality, I think it might have to do with the fact that the best ones were locked away from them by being part of the X-brand. It'll be interesting to see how the situation is when they come to the MCU. In fact, looking past the movies and into the game side, there's the Marvel vs. Capcom games, where all the female character representatives on the Marvel side before the crappy Infinite were X-Women barring the sole exception of She-Hulk.
So really, are the best Marvel female characters X-Women?
Discuss.