So far, though, I have to admit being pretty frustrated with the way superheroines in film have been handled in general. Even Black Widow, the most prominent superheroine on the big screen these days, hasn’t reached her full potential, although she’s had some great moments in The Avengers, Captain America: The Winter Soldier and the Iron Man films. Scarlett Johansson is a bit of a hit or miss actress for me, but getting a starring role in a Black Widow film could bring out the best in her.

As far as the X-Men are concerned, I have always been a huge fan. Like most others of our generation I suspect, I got my start in the early 1990’s when I would wake up at the crack of dawn to watch Saturday morning cartoons. My adoration of Gambit (shocker, right?) lead me to seek out any X-Men comic I could get my hands on, and there was no turning back shortly after. I absolutely fell in love with The Scarlet Witch (yay, Avengers 2!), Psylocke and Domino and yet when the atrocity that is X3 was released not only did we get the worst Phoenix adaptation ever, we were stripped of one of the most intriguing and powerful female characters in the X-World when Ratner chose to defile Rogue by making her take the cure. Do I support the idea that Mystique should get her stand-alone? Sure, if that’s the only way we’ll get a female hero as the title character. But I’d be lying if I said she deserves it more than another character might. You’re 100% correct in that it would be a money-play to have J-Law wearing nothing but blue body paint for 120 minutes.

I completely agree that Marvel Studios is going to suffer by not owning the rights to X-Men, and I can only hope that one day soon those rights will be bought or sorted out in some way so that there can be crossover between the films without having to avoid to word “mutant.” I mean, how exactly are they planning on explaining Quicksilver and The Scarlet Witch in Avengers 2? While I’m incredibly bitter that it’s taken so long to get the Black Widow by herself, I am very excited to see what they’re going to throw at her – especially after Cap’n ‘Murrica 2. As for Miss Marvel, she would appeal to general audiences but again I think there are much more deserving heroines to introduce first.

Zatanna movie? NOW. I had honestly forgotten all about her. But I’m sure that the studios will find her backstory problematic, too. Though it’s not complicated per say it would require most studios to put forth effort into making “magic” believable instead of mutant abilities or science gone wrong. Black Canary has never been that interesting to me, so her split into two characters on Arrow wasn’t disappointing nor that surprising, really. Although, it sure doesn’t help that Katie Cassidy and Caity Lotz are the worlds most annoying actresses.

I can only hope that with the huge success and attention comic book movies are drawing in, the studios will move in a direction toward taking chances with female characters without reducing them to ridiculous sexual playthings or single-minded villainous weapons.

I first got into comics because of the X-Men, and what’s always been striking to me about that group is the sheer number of awesome heroines in it, especially reading Chris Claremont’s original run. Jean Grey, Storm, Kitty Pryde, Emma Frost, Rogue, Rachel Summers, Psylocke. The cool factor of the X-Women is off the charts. Yet only Jean has ever gotten to play any significant role in the movies (I suppose Rogue too, but they took away her coolness). Now there’s talk of Fox wanting to do a Mystique solo movie, which I support, but it’s transparent that their real goal is just to take advantage of Jennifer Lawrence’s star power. But if that’s what it takes, I’m on board.

Without owning the cinematic rights to the X-Men, Marvel Studios lost a lot of its strongest heroines. But now it’s built up Black Widow, who had a great run leading the Avengers in the 80s. Taking advantage of ScarJo’s appeal and the depth we saw in the character in Cap 2 is a must; give her a solo movie pronto. I’m hopeful that when we finally see Wasp, she’s more than just Hank Pym’s love interest and a follow-on hero; I much prefer Kurt Busiek’s run where she was the main character in that relationship. I’m not as high on Carol Danvers as many fans, but a Ms. Marvel/Captain Marvel movie is another option.

DC needs to do Wonder Woman right before anything else, but there are some great ways they could go too. I think a Zatanna movie could be an intriguing option, especially if they could get to it before Marvel can do Dr. Strange. Kind of a pity that Black Canary has been split into two less-awesome women on Arrow.