Written by Robin Hitchcock
In an interview with Toofab, Stan Lee talked about upcoming Marvel Studios projects and answered a question about a female Marvel superhero getting her own movie with: “The thing is, the women like these movies as much as the guys. So we don’t have to knock ourselves out finding a female.” He added, with all the convincing commitment I infuse into my promises to do the dishes next time, “But… we will.”
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| Stan Lee with Scarlett Johansson |
Stan Lee is 90, so I probably should cut him some slack on his grandpa-ly demeanor here. And he’s more of an historical figurehead than a creative power player at Marvel Studios, so maybe I shouldn’t put too much stock into what he says in an interview with a website I’ve never heard of.
But this quotation really melts my lipstick because it’s further proof there will always be excuses to not make movies about women. When women aren’t going to movies about dudes, the filmmakers say, “Oh, well, women aren’t really our target audience.” When women ARE going to movies about dudes, the filmmakers say, “Well, the women like it this way, so why change anything?” They’ve developed this convoluted system whereby the logical answer is always more movies about dudes, and they’ll never let it go.
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| Women of Marvel by ComfortLove on DeviantArt |
It also bothers me that Lee’s “knock ourselves out” phrasing makes finding a woman superhero to make a movie about sound like a Herculean task, even though Marvel has no shortage of female characters to work with. Lee himself just casually mentioned the Black Widow as a likely candidate for her own movie, and no one had to be knocked out by that search, because she was THE CENTRAL CHARACTER of a movie made LAST YEAR which made ONE AND A HALF BILLION DOLLARS. Maybe he got knocked out by Captain Obvious’s Clue Stick?
In happier news, The Mary Sue reports Marvel is working on a Peggy Carter TV Series. I hope they have plenty of neurologists on standby to help the television development staff monitor their concussions.
Robin Hitchcock is an American writer living in Cape Town who is not holding her breath for a movie about She-Hulk, but wouldn’t that be awesome?
Black Widow was the central character of The Avengers? Trust me, I’m as sick of that “women will watch A, so why bother with B?”-logic as anyone, but… huh?
I suppose you missed the part where Natasha Romanoff, badass secret agent and top tier S.H.I.E.L.D operative, was called directly out of an undercover assignment, where she was subtly retrieving vital information from a moronic Russian official who thought she was easy prey, to /come in/ because another operative was compromised then immediately assigned to go after someone S.H.I.E.L.D knew was not only a MAJOR threat but someone that had /killed/ before in his attempts to escape the military.
Or maybe you missed the part where Natasha Romanoff is the only female, currently, on a testosterone laden team of superheroes in which she basically leads the pack in ass kicking, getting up close and personal with the Chitarui, and the /only/ Agent, or person for that matter, to outsmart and drag pertinent information out of Loki. Possibly missing, as well, the part where after running for her LIFE from an enraged Hulk she pulled herself together and went to tackle a mind controlled Clint Barton to prevent even further destruction and death the man could cause.
I suppose you also missed the fact that Natasha has the third most on-screen time out of the ENTIRE cast; Steve Rogers/Cap 37mins, Tony Stark 37mins, Natasha Romanoff 33mins.
Maybe you missed how Natasha is in almost every important scene in the entire film. And do note I said “almost” because there’s just some scenes where she just couldn’t have shown up or would have made no sense in being shown in. But all the “team” scenes? She’s there. All the battle scenes? She’s there or having been sent off to do something majorly badass.
Oh…and did you miss the fact that it’s thanks to Natasha’s efforts that The Avengers are actually a TEAM?!
Yes, dear dschubba. Black Widow is THE CENTRAL CHARACTER in the Avengers movie.