This preview for Wonder Woman #41 shows the Female Furies, some of the deadliest women in the galaxy, getting defeated by a handful of human soldiers. That got me thinking... why can't female villains be taken seriously in comic book lore?
The Furies are literal gods from Apokolips, considered Darkseid's elite, and have been semi-successful in their 40-ish year comic history for the most part. In animation, they've been even more successful, defeating both Superman and Supergirl in their first appearance on Superman: TAS, as well as having one of the best animated battles with Wonder Woman and Big Barda in Superman/Batman: Apocalypse. Yet, three of them were defeated single-handedly by Lois Lane after being depicted as staunch feminazis in the recent Superman arc, and now five of them were decimated by Steve Trevor and his merry men which resulted in Lashina and Mad Harriet being captured.
And this isn't limited to just the Furies. Cheetah is one of Wonder Woman's top villains yet has been cursed with unforgivable depictions getting defeated by Batman, Catwoman, and Green Arrow (to name a few), despite being empowered by a god in ways similar to Diana herself.
DC's biggest female villains (Catwoman, Harley Quinn, and Poison Ivy) have all crossed over to being antiheroes or just straight up heroes. Killer Frost, while not a huge name at DC, also recently crossed over to antihero.
When there's a big crossover event, rarely does a female villain shine. Circe is the closest thing to a global-scale villainess that could stand with Brainiac or Darkseid, but she's rarely used outside of the Wonder Woman comics and has also faced a number of embarrassing defeats (usually by Batman of course).
Marvel has virtually no A-List female villains, so there's also that. I guess Hela's popularity/awareness is rising, but it hasn't really been reflected in the comics.
So, what I'm getting at...
- Are female villains treated differently from male ones?
- Why does it seem that the majority of powerful villains at a global scale are men?
- Why are female villains often relegated to femme fatale roles of lesser importance?
- What female villains do you think could be elevated to a higher standing in the DC Universe?