The Progression of female heroic representation in Marvel and dc cinematic universes
Last edited December 2019
Originally written for Independent Study course in Women’s and Gender Studies at the University of Oklahoma
Adapting comic book heroes from the page to screen has been happening for decades. Because these heroes come with many backstories and preconceived ideas of what makes them heroic, translating them into coherent filmic representations that resonate with audiences is no small feat. In the decades that the genre has existed, female heroic representation in superhero films has come a long way, especially given the issues both comics and film have had with representing women as heroes that can be taken seriously. This era of superhero films has given rise to the connected cinematic universe where films don’t just tell stories in 1-3 films but instead over as many as 23 films (and counting) with varying levels of connectivity. Both Marvel Studios and Warner Brothers/DC Comics have attempted a shared universe of connected films with differing levels of success. They have also had differing success in terms of representation of their female heroes, especially with both series releasing the first successful female-led films in Wonder Woman (Patty Jenkins, 2017) and Captain Marvel (Anna Boden and Ryan Fleck, 2019) In this essay, I will analyze how Wonder Woman and Captain Marvel are portrayed in their solo films as well as in films that feature them in a team oriented setting - Justice League (Joss Whedon and Zack Snyder, 2017) and Avengers: Endgame (Joe and Anthony Russo, 2019) respectively- in order to show differences in female heroic representation between Marvel and DC as well as between female and male directed projects. I will then use my analysis to argue that Wonder Woman and Captain Marvel have paved the way for future films in a way that’s different from previous representations of the female hero in these universes. And while a more broad study of female heroic characters in this genre across all DC and Marvel properties could and should be done, this essay will primarily focus on more recent representations in the Marvel Cinematic Universe (MCU) and DC’s attempt at a DC Extended Universe (DCEU) that have been released in the last 10 years.
Precursors to the Extended Cinematic Universe
Before looking at gender representation in the MCU and DCEU, it’s important to acknowledge the films before this era and why they don’t fit into this study. Because the primary purpose of this paper is to argue the progression of the MCU and DCEU, the films that came before these series are important to mention, but are too extensive to analyze in depth along with the films in question. Jeffrey Brown claims that the current wave of superhero films started with X-Men (Bryan Singer) in 2000, and while the MCU likely would not have been able to be what it is today without that film and its subsequent sequels, I would argue that these films and the extended universe franchises present differing models of female heroism (Brown 2, 2017). The early 2000s model of heroism for women in the superhero genre was based heavily in the “action babe” trend of the time which emphasizes the beauty and body of a woman in action (O’day, 2004). The action performed by the “action babe” involves extensive use of martial arts and wirework and is heavily influenced by Hong Kong action films (O’day 207-215, 2004). This trend is not only present in the early 2000’s X-Men trilogy, but also in the female-led films Catwoman (Pitof, 2004) and Elektra (Rob Bowman, 2005).
The MCU and DCEU on the other hand are beginning to present many different kinds of female heroism in their respective series. It could be argued that Black Widow’s early depictions in Iron Man 2 (Jon Favreau, 2010) and The Avengers (Joss Whedon, 2012) could position her as an “action babe” given the emphasis these films place on her beauty in relation to her skill, as well as her athleticism and the fitness of her body in combat (O’day, 2004). However, even though her costuming tends to be tight and form-fitting, her actions are more rough and violent than other “action babes”. She’s coded as more ‘masculine’ than feminine in her actions despite the emphasis on her body which is where she differs from other “action babes” (O’day, 2004).
History of the MCU as both Genre Disruptor and Genre Solidifier
While the adaptation of comic book characters from page to screen has been happening for decades, the frequency and popularity of these adaptations has significantly grown within the last 10-20 years, arguably with the start of the Marvel Cinematic Universe. The Marvel Cinematic Universe (MCU) is the name of a series of films released by Marvel Studios that are all connected through characters and story to form one long-form narrative. This universe began in 2008 with Iron Man (Jon Favreau) and recently ended it’s latest chapter, termed Phase 3, with Spider-Man: Far From Home (Jon Watts, 2019). The MCU has existed for over a decade now and its films continue to grow in popularity and reach with the latest reaching over $1billion in box-office revenue world-wide (box office mojo). The MCU has changed how stories are told through film in an unprecedented way. Despite their progress in developing the superhero genre beyond what has been seen previously, the series still has improvements to make in terms of whose stories they tell and how they tell them.
History of the DCEU: Why the Remarkability of Wonder Woman finally gave them an edge over Marvel
After Marvel seemingly pulled off Phase 1 of their connected film universe with the release of The Avengers (Joss Whedon) in 2012, Warner Brothers and DC Comics sought to create a similar connected universe starting with Man of Steel (Zack Snyder, 2013) and Batman vs. Superman: Dawn of Justice (Zack Snyder, 2016). Given that Man of Steel was released five years after Iron Man and post Phase 1, DC should have had plenty to look back on when beginning to craft their own cinematic universe. However, these first two films, Batman vs. Superman especially, seem rushed in an effort to compete with Marvel and get their team-up film Justice League released as soon as they can. Instead of introducing several of the main heroic core group in individual films first, like Marvel did with Iron Man, Captain America: The First Avenger (Joe Johnston, 2011) and Thor (Kenneth Branagh, 2011), DC tried to use Batman vs. Superman to introduce the versions of Aquaman, The Flash, Cyborg, Batman, and Wonder Woman that exist in their universe alongside Henry Cavill’s Superman. This is where Wonder Woman exists as an outlier in both the DCEU and the genre as a whole.
The road to getting a screen adaptation of Wonder Woman in any form has been a long one. Female-led projects are typically seen as riskier than male-led ones, even when male-led films underperform, so the fact that DC went forward with Wonder Woman after the mixed reviews from their previous films is groundbreaking, even though it shouldn’t be (Donoghue 9, 2019). Wonder Woman was not only the first female-led film in either extended universe, it was also the first to have a female director, Patty Jenkins. By having the first female-led superhero film directed by a woman, DC was able to set a precedent for how women could be presented heroically outside of the male-gaze (Mulvey, 1975). Wonder Woman is by no means a perfect film, but it is still able to present a model of female heroism beyond what has been presented previously.
Wonder Woman depicts the journey of Diana Prince from young warrior-in-training to a war-ending hero who has the power to defeat Gods. By showing Diana growing up and training on the women-only island of Themyscira, the film introduces her power and ability as inherently feminine. The film implies that the Greek God Zeus is her father, but is merely a passing phrase in her heroic journey, only being brought up a couple times in the film signifying a break from the tradition of female action heroes being driven and motivated by a paternal connection (Tasker 69, 1998). Diana further demonstrates the connection of her powers to femininity rather than masculinity through her ability to embrace her compassion and love for others rather than allowing anger or vengeance to drive her. The two sequences that demonstrate this most clearly in Wonder Woman are ‘No Man’s Land’ and her final fight with Ares.
No Man’s Land is the first turning point for Diana. She hasn’t been in the world of man long, but is already weary of how much suffering mankind has gone through. As Diana and her companions- Steve Trevor, Charlie, Sameer, and ‘The Chief’ - make their way to the front of World War I in an attempt to prevent German forces from releasing chemical weapons that could kill hundreds at a time, they stumble across ordinary civilians, displaced and running from the fight. Diana knows she could help them, and wants to try, but Steve insists that they don’t have time to help everyone stating “it’s not what we came here to do”. Diana then proceeds to ignore him and cross the ‘uncrossable’ front, deflecting enemy fire and allowing troops to cross and save a village trapped by the conflict. It’s Diana’s desire to help people that pushes her to do what no man could and proves that there is strength in compassion.
This strength is proven further in her final battle against the God of War, Ares, who has been influencing mankind’s wars for centuries. During their fight, Steve Trevor sacrifices himself by blowing up a plane full of chemical weapons set for London, while he’s still on it. Diana witnesses this and becomes enraged, unleashing even more power than she did previously on German soldiers nearby. She almost completely gives into her anger and hatred and crushes Dr. Maru with a tank, but then she remembers what Steve told her before he got on the plane and even though she is still devastated from losing him, she is also flooded with love and compassion again. Drawing from this power instead of her anger is ultimately what gives her the strength to defeat Ares and restores her hope for mankind.
While the film ultimately empowers Diana and portrays her in a positive way, it still manages to fall short in some ways that are important to critique. Even though the beginning of the film shows Diana surrounded by strong, powerful women, as soon as she enters the world of man, she becomes an outlier. Because the majority of the film takes place during World War I, the remarkability of Diana is emphasized by the fact that she is constantly the only woman in areas surrounded by men. Until the ‘No Man’s Land’ sequence, even Steve questions her desire and ability to help everyone, even though she saved his life on Themyscira. This is representative of how the film itself exists in the genre. Like Diana, the film has to be remarkable to prove itself despite the fact that there are many mediocre men that occupy the same space. Luckily the film did succeed, achieving a gross of approximately $821 million world-wide and becoming DC’s most successful film in their extended universe.
Another issue that Diana has had in the DCEU is her appearance in the film Justice League. Instead of portraying Diana’s emotionality as a strength, the film positions it as a weakness. Until Superman’s resurrection, and arguably even after, Diana is the strongest member of the team. Despite this, she is constantly diminished to emphasize Bruce Wayne as the leader of the team. He is the one that calls her out for her emotions, causing her to retaliate in a way that paints her as the ‘emotional woman’ of the team. However, when Superman is resurrected and becomes disoriented, they bring his girlfriend, Lois Lane, to him to appeal to his emotional side and get him to remember who he is. Later on, Diana also provides emotional support to Bruce proving that, in this film, women can only be emotional when it benefits the men. This demonstrates one difference between the male and female gaze when telling these stories. Female emotion is taken more seriously when told from the female perspective, which is why it’s important to have women involved behind the scenes. In Wonder Woman, Diana was strong enough to defeat a Greek God, but in Justice League she has to be diminished to let the men be in control.
Captain Marvel and the Future of the MCU
Before looking at Captain Marvel and how it is both similar to and different from the heroic model presented in Wonder Woman, it is important to note that given the scarcity of female-led films of this caliber, one should not compare these films too harshly against each other. Both characters should be allowed to exist without constant arguments over who is more feminist. While there are some similarities in their character, which will be analyzed further in this section, they are still very different women and that shouldn’t be a bad thing. Male heroes such as Tony Stark and Steve Rogers are able to represent different models of heroism without one being called more valid than the other, so why can’t Diana and Carol be allowed to exist similarly without constantly being pitted against each other? We shouldn’t be allowed only one example of exceptional female heroism when so many examples of ‘exceptional’ male heroism exist.
Unlike Diana Prince, Carol Danvers is not the first female hero to be introduced in the MCU. Natasha Romanoff [Black Widow] first appeared in Iron Man 2 (Jon Favreau, 2010) and was the second of the original six Avengers to be introduced in the series. It could be argued that she is the third given the debate many fans have of whether to consider 2008’s The Incredible Hulk (Louis Leterrier) as part of the series given that the character of Bruce Banner [The Incredible Hulk] was recast between the film and The Avengers as well as the fact that the film is barely referenced at all in the rest of the connected films.
Other female heroes such as Scarlet Witch, Gamora, Mantis, Valkyrie, and The Wasp were introduced in ensemble films throughout the series after Black Widow, with The Wasp actually being the first female hero to have their name in the title of a film with Ant-Man and The Wasp (Peyton Reed, 2018). Even though she wasn’t the first to be introduced, Captain Marvel is still the first film in the series to be entirely focused on the female hero and her backstory.
Captain Marvel tells the story of Carol Danvers, a former air force pilot who wakes up as a Kree soldier with no memory of her past life. This film is about Carol regaining control over her memory, her powers, and her body from the Kree after an explosion causes Carol to absorb an enormous amount of energy. As Jenna Benchetrict argues, this film allows for an exploration of how a woman’s body can be manipulated and used outside of an overtly sexual context (2019). Even though Wonder Woman does a good job of focusing the film on Diana’s abilities rather than her appearance, there are still multiple scenes where her beauty is mentioned. This does not overtly objectify her, but this along with her romance with Steve manage to reaffirm norms of traditional beauty and heterosexual relationship expectations associated with the genre. Captain Marvel manages to avoid this while still emphasizing Carol’s connection to her emotions and her humanity.
Like Diana, emotions are an important part of Carol’s heroic journey. Her Kree mentor, Yon-Rogg is constantly telling her to keep her emotions in check and to not let them affect her judgment. She is forced to wear a power dampener that allow the Kree to control how powerful she is. It’s not until she crashes on Earth and starts to reconnect to her human emotions that she is able to gain complete control of her abilities. One of the most powerful scenes in the film occurs after Carol listens to the black box recording of the plane crash that ultimately gave her powers. She discovers that Yon-Rogg had been gaslighting her and lying to her the entire time, and was only interested in using her powers to further the Kree agenda. She starts to panic, unsure of who she is anymore, when her best friend from her life on Earth, Maria Rambeau, reminds her of the Carol she knew. The one who supported Maria as a single mother, the one who risked her life to help their mentor Mar-Vell save the refugee Skrulls. This talk is reminiscent of what Steve tells Diana before he boards the plane, convincing her that she represents hope for humanity. However, what is different about this scene is the inherently female bond it represents. Carol doesn’t have any explicit romantic interests in the film, choosing instead to emphasize the importance of her friendship and emotional connection to Maria.
Another scene that emphasizes the importance of Carol’s connection to her humanity occurs toward the end of the film. Carol, Maria, and a young Nick Fury have reached Mar-Vell’s hidden base, where many Skrulls have been in hiding for years. Unfortunately, Yon-Rogg and the other Kree soldiers of Carol’s former team have found them as well. Rendered incapacitated by the power dampener, Carol is subjected to an invasion of her mind by the Kree leader, an artificial intelligence system called ‘supreme intelligence’. In the simulation she is greeted by the Intelligence’s version of Mar-Vell, who tries to convince Carol that her humanity is her weakness. The Intelligence shows Carol memories from her life that involve her falling and getting hurt, trying to show how humans are weak, flawed, and helpless, eventually knocking down the present version of Carol in the process and saying “without us, you’re only human”. This starts a montage of past versions of Carol standing up with a look of determination, almost directly into the camera. It’s an act of determination, proving that when she gets knocked down, she’ll get right back up. This embrace and acknowledgement of her humanity ultimately leads to her being able to overpower the Supreme Intelligence and her power dampener, unlocking the full range of her powers. Like Diana, Carol’s emotions are her strength and even though Captain Marvel was co-directed by Anna Boden and Ryan Fleck, female influence is still present throughout the film. Carol’s story in this film is overtly female, which is incredibly important for the future of the MCU.
Even though it has taken the MCU a long time to reach this point in female representation in their films, it seems as though they are finally starting to move in the right direction. In Avengers: Endgame, there was a scene where all of the female heroes teamed up, sparking interest for an entire film with them in the future. For the next phase of films, Phase 4, they have announced a Black Widow (Cate Shortland, 2020) film, Thor: Love and Thunder (Taika Waititi, 2021) featuring the return of Natalie Portman as Jane Foster and the adaptation of the Mighty Thor story line that features Jane taking up the mantle of Thor, as well as The Eternals (Chloe Zhao, 2020) which will feature Angelina Jolie, Salma Hayek, and Lauren Ridloff as the first black, female, deaf hero in the MCU. There are also television series in the works that will be connected to the MCU that will feature the introductions of She-Hulk, Ms. Marvel, Kate Bishop [Hawkeye], and an adult Monica Rambeau, Maria’s daughter. With the financial success of their most recent films, including Captain Marvel, the MCU has the power and ability to shape what heroic stories are told for the next decade at least.
The MCU isn’t the only universe finally exploring the potential of their female characters through a female lens. DC is releasing both Birds of Prey: The Fantabulous Emancipation of One Harley Quinn (Cathy Yan, 2020) and Wonder Woman 1984 (Patty Jenkins, 2020) next year. Birds of Prey features the introduction of Black Canary, Huntress, Renee Montoya, and Cassandra Cain into the DCEU and also reintroduces Harley Quinn outside of the male gaze and her relationship with The Joker. While Wonder Woman 1984 has already disclosed the reintroduction of Steve Trevor into the series, potentially continuing the trope of Diana’s romantic involvement, the film is also introducing Kristin Wiig as Barbara Minerva [Cheetah] who appears to be friendly with Diana in the newly released trailer.
The future of female heroic representation looks promising, as does the inclusion of women behind the scenes of these films. It’s hard to say for sure until this next wave of films is released, but there is hope. Wonder Woman and Captain Marvel have paved the way for how seriously women can be taken in this genre. They are emotional and strong, compassionate and capable. They prove that traditionally feminine qualities can be powerful and aren’t inherently weaker. There is no doubt now that the MCU and DCEU have the power to show what women can do. Will they use it?
References
Brown, Jeffrey A. The Modern Superhero in Film and Television: Popular Genre and American Culture. Routledge, 2017. 1-15
Benchetrit, J (2019) ‘The Empowering Message of “Captain Marvel” ’Film School Rejects. 13 March 2019. Available at https://filmschoolrejects.com/captain-marvel-empowering-message/
Donoghue, Courtney Brannon. “Gendered Expectations for Female-Driven Films: Risk and Rescue Narratives around Warner Bros.’ Wonder Woman.” Feminist Media Studies, 2019, pp. 1–17., doi:10.1080/14680777.2019.1636111.
“Home.” Box Office Mojo, www.boxofficemojo.com/.
Mulvey, Laura. “Visual Pleasure and Narrative Cinema.” The Routledge Reader in Gender and Performance, edited by Lizbeth Goodman, et al., Routledge, 1998. 270-275
O'Day, Marc. “Beauty in Motion: Gender, Spectacle, and Action Babe Cinema.” Action and Adventure Cinema, by Yvonne Tasker, Routledge, 2004, pp. 201–216.
Tasker, Yvonne. “Action Women: Muscles, Mothers and Others.” Working Girls: Gender and Sexuality in Popular Cinema, Routledge, 2002. 65-88