Depiction of female heroes in Marvel comics?

[echostation]

Hey, just thought this was an interesting topic from a different angle. This has nothing to do with actual physical drawings/depictions of female heroes in marvel comics, but more to do with what light are they often portrayed in in terms of battle.

Most in general, seem to take the sort of mental or meta force type approach to a a fight as opposed to a direct physical one. Sure there are a couple such as Elektra that are directly physically confrontational... but it seems like that more of the female heroes in order to take out both male and female threats/villains/heroes use powers of mind force rather than direct physical confrontation.

I'm just curious as to see which Marvel comics fights have there been where a female villain/hero takes on a male hero/villain in particular, particularly in an actual scrap up... The only two I can think of are Spidey vs Stunner where she nearly killed him... and Elektra vs Daredevil and Elektra vs Bullseye. Was just wondering if anyone else could think of any other such scrap ups/hand to hand? thanks

 

[Artistsean]

Well I heard once that it was because that back then, when characters were first created for Marvel, they didn't want to show women fighting so they gave them non confrontational powers like Invisible Woman and Marvel Girl. But I have since heard that isn't exactly true, it might have been true in the very begginning but it is more of an opinion I guess.

But there is Ms. Marvel, there is Marrow versus Wolverine, I am sure Rogue has had some brutal fights.

 

[Dread]

Not sure if this is exactly what you mean, but Marvel is different from DC in that they never really had an iconic, solo heroine in the way that DC had Wonder Woman. True, WW easily plays third wheel to Batman and Superman, some could say her franchise had sometimes languished, and when she debuted, one could argue she relied on a lot of fetish appeal (lotsa bondage). But the fact is that having a heroine who didn't debut on some team, but on her own, probably effected how DC treated heroines.

Marvel did have some solo heroines in the Golden Age, MISS AMERICA comes off the top of my head. But they never really stuck like Wonder Woman. And the ones that have debuted in the Silver Age were mostly part of teams. Invisible Woman, Marvel Girl, the various X-women, various Avengers, etc. To some degree Ms. Marvel counts, although she's argueably remembered either for being an Avenger or being the source of Rogue's powers more than a heroine unto herself, but she is back to solo heroine status. And how about She-Hulk? X-23 (who, as much as I dislike her, is much cooler than Logan's OTHER kid who popped up in WOLVERINE: ORIGINS, IMO, and I just flipped through it)? Sabra's no pushover either. How about Valkyrie? There are a lot of powerful heroines in Marvel too. Maybe they can't beat Wonder Woman or Big Barda, but they are there. Just as DC had WW in "the trinity" and Marvel never had an equalivent heroine as much as Ms. Marvel tries, they may have different heroine dynamics.

But times have changed dramatically. Heroines aren't as "supportive" and passive as they used to be. Even if they can still be snuffed out if attached to a male hero in a romance, and perhaps more prone to violent death/depowerment than even male heroes. But heroines have been on the rise in the past 10 years. Call it the BUFFY/KIM POSSIBLE EFFECT.

As for male vs. female meta-brawls, that may be tricker. I try not to think about it that much.

 

[Tropico]

Actually, it seems to me that female leads began to rise during the 90's. It was mostly the "bad" girls, some of which are still going strong, but IMO don't think it had to do much with those 2 characters you mentioned.

As for female characters that "mix it up" there's Sharon Ventura/She-Thing, Thundra, Misty Knight, Colleen Wing, the new Tarantula, Polaris was a physical powerhouse for a while during the 90's, Psylocke also got redesigned as martial artist in that era, Shadowcat became a ninja even before her, Penance, Husk, Cargill (Acolytes); those are just a few.

 

[LouFerignoDemon]

She Hulk would be first and foremost one would guess.

But she's a ****e. ;-;


Either way, all I can say about comic book women, and it WAS going to happen one way or the next, so it might as well be from me.

Depictions of females in comics? Hawt.

 

[Red Mask]

Ms. Marvel trashed the Doomsday Man in issue #12. She's also slaughtered Brood aliens and kicked a crazy wizard in the crotch. Jessica Drew/Spider-Woman supposedly battered her HYDRA handler to death. Then she blew up the island base they were hiding in. In Civil War: the Initiative she was also beating the Grey Gargoyle until Ms. Marvel swooped in to finish him off.

 

[Venom.Symbiote]

I remember a fight between Spidey and Titania (I believe it was in the Acts of Vengeance storyline) where she was under some sort of mind control because she didn't want to fight him because she's afraid of spiders. Imagine that, someone who's strength level was listed at class 85 being afraid of spiders. Anyway, she was whooping him pretty badly when the control wore off and she got scared. She then said to Spidey that she couldn't fight him because she was afraid and in typical Spidey fashion (sometimes he needs to keep his mouth shut) he asks her that if she's so afraid then why was she beating him up just a few minutes ago. She thinks for a minute and realizes that what he says is true and that she has overcome her fear. She then continued beating him down. This was right before he gained the Uni-Power and became Cosmic Spidey.

 

[Zoken]

SQUIRREL GIRL!

and her girl squirrel Tippy Toe.

She beat Dr. Doom, she beat MODOK, She beat the Mandarin, she beat THANOS! and she did it with a chipper attitude and a big buck-toothed smile. ROCK ON DOREEN GREEN!