If I was a girl this would really piss me off.

Wonder Woman

You already sound pretty pissed off

Characters who are already tied to existing properties have a higher success rate, Marvel and DC know this through experience. Essentially the readership and fame is already there and the new title feeds off of the old one, getting something of a kickstart.

Starting in the 70s Marvel decided to try to grow a female readership, they made a double comic for their revamped character Black Widow called Amazing Adventures, which she shared with the Inhumans, she was taken out of the comic due to a lack of interest.

In 1972 Marvel launched The Cat, Shanna the She-Devil, and Night Nurse, they put Female writers on each title

These sold poorly and were cancelled after like 4 issues odd.

Marvel then tried again in the late 70s, early 80s, this time they based their new Female characters on existing properties

These ones did a lot better, with She-Hulk and Ms Marvel lasting for 20 odd issues, and Spider-Woman reaching 50 IIRC.

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Basically, during their experimentation Marvel just had more success with the "female versions of existing characters" tactic. Now, whether their lack of success with the 72 line was due to those titles just not catching readers imagination is up for debate, but they did at least try and there is a reason why they started to focus more on these kinds of characters and sales tactic.

Marvel also tried to create female solo series based on off-shoots of their popular titles, such as Dazzler in 1982 (from X-Men)

This one actually did reasonably well too (I think about 40 issues).

Same can be said for a lot of male characters too.

I get that this is a joke, but you seem to be trying to make a point. A point that is WRONG!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Many of our most iconic superheroes aren't human.

Many of them do not have pink legs or arms.

And many of them don't have faces.

So WRONG!!!

Least they look sexy doing what they do.

Wonder Woman. Red Sonja. Storm. Jean Grey. Dazzler. Big Barda. Raven. Starfire.

And so what if there are female versions of male characters, they are usually awesome.

And now you've got an idea as to why we complain so much about representation in comics.

I don't think that you actually do. SO CAPS AND EXCLAMATION MARKS!!! ^_^.

@sc: WRONG!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

@waynewilsonslade: Hey you already used that joke now.

@sc: Would it be too much irony for you to handle if I said WRONG!!!!!!!!!!!!! again?

@waynewilsonslade: Not so much irony, just putting the thread further of the rails, which isn't the best, so try not continue the gag too much or… try and contribute with more on topic posts. Thank you.

Anyway, having run through the reasons why I think there are a lot of Female counterpart characters -

I think these relatively famous ones are not based on Male characters, though I'm probably making glaring oversights (my knowledge of Legion of Superheroes is also very limited and I think there may be a lot of original female characters there).

(A lot are kind of copies of other female characters though)

1. Wonder Woman
2. Catwoman
3. Black Canary
4. Raven
5. Starfire
6. Lilith Clay
7. Donna Troy (derived from Wonder Woman)
8. Saturn Girl
9. Duplicate Girl
10. Phantom Girl
11. Dream Girl?
12. Big Barda?
13. Crazy Jane
14. Invisible Woman
15. Squirrel Girl
16. Jessica Jones
17. Black Cat (Influenced by Catwoman)
18. Black Widow (probably influenced by Modesty Blaise)
19. Elektra
20. Storm
21. Kitty Pryde
22. Jean Grey
23. Psylocke
24. Dazzler
25. Rogue
26. Emma Frost
27. Mystique
28. Magik
29. Jubilee
30. Meggan
31. Dagger
32. Nico Minoru
33. Molly Hayes
34. Tigra (probably influenced by Cheetah?)
35. Silver Sable
36. Scarlet Witch
37. Medusa
38. Mockingbird (probably influenced by Black Canary?)
39. Snowbird (influenced by Nelvana of the Northern Lights)
40. Looker
41. Katana
42. Halo

There are a lot of others but I'm really not sure about them.

Basically the team books (X-Men, Runaways, Legion of Superheroes, Teen Titans) tend to have original female characters.

Honestly, this is a non-issue. Just because female counterparts happen to exist that doesn't mean there is anything bad about it.

If it bothers you so much, can you at least come up with something original yourself since writers are so unimaginative?

Doesn't bother me tbh.

This used to bother me before I got into comics and learned that these women are actually really different than the men that they are ''copies'' of. There are actually many original female characters that aren't that well known but characters like She-Hulk, Batgirl and Supergirl will always get more recognition from non-comic fans because of the names and the relation that they have to other well known heroes.

Poison Ivy's pretty original... So are a few other Batman rouges... It's not just women. It's any popular character like many here have said.

If you want originality in comics, read manga. That usually works.

Aside from X-23 (who I like a lot), most of the women in the X-Men are either original or successors to other female characters (like Rachel). I'd also argue that, thanks to the Justice League series, Hawkgirl has become as popular as, if not more popular than, Hawkman. In general, I don't mind Mantle / Legacy characters; look at the multiple Flashes there are. While people want to cite Supergirl as unoriginal, what about Superboy? While there is no "Batboy," that's essentially what Robin has always been. DC really likes its Mantle / Legacy characters.

Really popular male superheroes always have a female counterpart, it's tradition. Also there's tons of original female characters.

@midnightdragon18: It would be weird if you didn't expect it to be a bait thread.