Does Marvel Not Have Enough Good Female Villains?

[ed2962]

DC is guilty of this too (if not moreso).

The Gotham City Sirens have been steadily moving towards being Anti-Heroes more and more over the years, especially Catwoman and Harley Quinn.

The recent revamp of Cheetah by Greg Rucka is probably the most sympathetic she's ever been.

Half the cast of DC Super Hero Girls is villains being portrayed as heroes because many popular DC women also just happen to be villains (Harley, Ivy, Catwoman, Killer Frost, etc.)

Heck, this week there was a negative fan response to Poison Ivy being depicted as killing a bunch of thugs in her way as if that was all that out-of-character for her.

True. I can't argue against that.

[chamber-music]

I think women supervillains don't get promoted as often as their male counterparts but there's a lot of potential there

I agree. They should be having more female villains as big bads in their major events.

It does seem like female villains are given more reform storylines as well.

[Nyssane]

I agree. They should be having more female villains as big bads in their major events.

It is troubling that we almost *never* get a big female baddie in any events.

Even more troubling is the amount of femme fatales the top female villains for Marvel are. DC definitely has a more prevalent and diverse cast of female villains, but this might be largely in part due to DC having Wonder Woman, who has a massive amount of female enemies.

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

[JudicatorPrime]

Bring back Dark Phoenix, albeit as a separate entity from adult Jean Grey. And take the shackles off of her, as well as the nonsensical plot elements which obviate mass scale destruction. Then send her to our sun to feed. Let's see what the Avengers, X-Men, Champions, Ultimates, Defenders and anyone else who wants a piece of that action does about it.

[marhawkman]

Aww... no mention of Dragoness? :/

[Sutekh]

Aww... no mention of Dragoness? :/

Pshaw, Dragoness is one of the coolest members of the MLFs, right after Tempo, but sadly these Liefield creations did not take off quite like Deadpool and Cable. At least she remains exponentially cooler than Blindsyde, Reaper, Forearm and Thumbelina!

Tempo, taking off the gold armor and working as a 'speed broker' to give regular crooks temporary super-speed so that they could go on crime sprees, would be an interesting twist on a Power Broker setup. She'd be off the hook for any crimes committed by the people she's empowered, so long as she isn't receiving stolen goods in payment. "You're honor, I assure you that it's not illegal to give someone temporary super-speed. My lawyer checked. And, going by the precedent of firearm sellers not being responsible for people getting shot by the guns they sell, I'm also covered by precedent even if you wanted to hold me liable for the alleged criminal actions of some of my alleged customers."

That's a neat twist that I like, a villainess who has the ability to create threats, like the Enchantress (who can equip boytoys with magic axes, or use magic to empower or transform flunkies), or Selene (who can turn other people into quasi-vampires).

It is annoying that whenever a group like the Illuminati or Intelligencia or whatever forms, it's all dudes, all the time. Emma managed to get a foot in the door of one of the groups, but it's generally Richards, Stark, Xavier, Namor, T'Challa, Blackagar, Strange, etc. on one side, and Doom, Osbourne, Loki, the Hood, Leader, Namor (c'mon guy, pick a side!), etc. on the other. Moonstone, sadly, tends to get the 'slept her way to the top' storyline, tagging along with Zemo, Osbourne or even Graviton as the '+1,' but never really taking charge on her own.

It is true as well that a lot of quality villainesses get redemption arcs, which is a bit annoying, since it perpetuates the silly notion that bad girls need to be 'saved' from their own bad choices by the power of hero-peen (while bad guys just need to be punched in the face and sent to the Raft).

Diamondback's always been on the fence. Tilda 'Nightshade' Johnson, a sorely underrated villainess, is bouncing over the line as we speak. Emma's currently in a bad place, but seems likely to float back to the good-guy side soon-ish. Mystique fights on the side of the grittier good-guys as often as against them, these days (even if her comic book character is nothing like as 'redeemed' as her movie version!). Frenzy's also been an X-person, despite having started out working for Apocalypse. Deathbird was a very sympathetic character in some of X-Men appearances a decade or so ago, teamed up with Bishop, and seemed positively heroic in contrast to the throne-usurpers they were fighting.

[marhawkman]

Deathbird is interesting in that her motives for being part of the story regularly change in-universe. At one point she wanted to take over Lilandra's seat as Empress, then later decided that being Empress was too much work, and that she no longer wanted it.

[Shinglepants]

Marvel have got some great female villains but it does often seem they are overlooked. I think Moonstone, Madame Masque, Titania and Cassandra Nova are pretty great. June Covington and Exterminatrix both have a lot of potential and I'd like to see more of them.

As others have said I get why, it's uncomfortable seeing a man hit a woman under any circumstance even if she is a villain.

What? No! The whole reason I read comics is to see bad guys get punched in the face, even when the bad guys are women.

Superia, June Covington, Madame Masque, Viper, and Monica Rappaccini are all waiting for their time to shine. Emma Frost is currently in the lead (imo).

Y'know, perhaps I don't read enough comics but for the longest time I thought Superia and Monica Rappaccini were one and the same. Same with Viper and Madame Hydra too, these ladies confuse me, haha.

[Shinglepants]

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Shiklah has the potential to be a great villain. I guess it depends on how they want things to play of with Deadpool in the long run but she has potential.

[Iron Maiden]

Marvel have got some great female villains but it does often seem they are overlooked. I think Moonstone, Madame Masque, Titania and Cassandra Nova are pretty great. June Covington and Exterminatrix both have a lot of potential and I'd like to see more of them.

Let me add here that they need to stop making Madame Masque look incompetent whenever she encounters Kate Bishop. Not sure what happened to her after Victor von Doom (the on that was walking about in civilian attire) had to give her an exorcism when she got possessed by some supernatural forces. BTW That is one dangling plot thread that Bendis never revisited in Invincible Iron Man...the reason why duplicates of powerful mystical relics like the Wand of Watoomb were entering the MU from alternate universes.

[mr_crisp]

Oh please. We all know that only white males can be villains.

[Marvel Forever]

I pushed Marvel for decades to come up with a female rival powerful enough to challenge Susan Storm of Fantastic Four, but they never listened to me. I was able to influence them on numerous other points, but on this one item, my efforts fell on deaf ears.

[murderousjohnny]

Not for lack of trying. Pretty sure there are tons of villains just lost to time.

[murderousjohnny]

Selene, Hela, Moonstone, Morgan Le Fey... those are a few good ones not listed. Really though, it's a bit awkward having a muscular guy hitting a woman while being the hero.

Vegetables from db super does it. It not as as bad as you imagine lol.

[Nyssane]

Selene, Hela, Moonstone, Morgan Le Fey... those are a few good ones not listed. Really though, it's a bit awkward having a muscular guy hitting a woman while being the hero.

I really don't get this mindset.

80's Gruenwald Cap beat the crap out of a lot of evil women. The male X-Men also don't discriminate when it comes to battling female villains. But then you have heroes like Spider-Man, who has virtually zero high-profile female villains.

But I do think Marvel just has a female problem in general. Once they are able to elevate female heroes, I think female villains will be close behind. I've always found the best female villains to be ones that face off against female heroes, anyway. They don't have to pretend to be femme fatales and seduce the male heroes. Titania is a good example of this, but she's been such a mess recently.