Ms Marvel or Sue Storm
Started reading Fantastic Four when I was a kid always loved Sue
but Ms marvel is more of a leader
Marvel
Formerly known by names including "Atlas" and "Timely", Marvel Entertainment is the publisher of comic books featuring iconic characters and teams such as the Fantastic Four, Spider-Man, the Avengers, the X-Men, Iron Man, the Hulk, Thor, Captain America and Daredevil. Currently owned by the Walt Disney Company, Marvel is one of the "Big Two" comic publishers along with DC Comics.
Who Do You Consider Marvel's First Lady?
Marvel doesn't really have a leading lady. :(
They do have female characters that are iconic and recognizable, however, there are issues with those characters that put them below the male characters in similar roles in terms of status.
- They have a number of female heroes who are iconic, but known for being a part of a team and almost never as solo characters (e.g., Storm, Rogue, Invisible Girl, Wasp).
- They have a number of female characters who are iconic, but who are not actually heroes, and are more often simply love interests for heroic characters (e.g., Mary Jane Watson, Pepper Potts).
- They have a number of female heroes who are iconic, but are actually just gender-swaps of male heroes (e.g., Ms. Marvel, She-Hulk, Spider-Woman).
- They have a number of female heroes who meet the above criteria, but simply are not iconic (e.g., Jessica Jones, Misty Knight)
Essentially, my argument is that while a number of the above heroes are iconic and recognizable (especially after appearances in film), Marvel has no version of Wonder Woman--a heroic female character that's incredibly iconic and has been for a long, long time. And who is unique and whose status is clearly on par with the flagship male characters.
Probably the most iconic ladies they have now are Storm, Rogue, Jean Grey, and Mystique because of the X-Men movies. They're also trying to pump up Black Widow in Avengers. In other films, it's all pretty much just been love interests. However, if the question is "what female Marvel characters have had their own films?" the answer is a disappointing "Only Elektra, and it sucked."
Black Widow is probably the closest they have to avoiding the above issues. She's not a gender swap, she was a team character but has since had a number of solo mini-series (Wolverine started as a villain, then on a team, but grew out of both), and once Avengers is released she'll have appeared in enough films to be recognizable to the average joes and josaphines.
As far as female Marvel heroes go who have had strong solo books (including mini-series), the options seem to be:
- Ms. Marvel
- Mystique
- Black Widow
- She-Hulk
- Elektra
As far as female Marvel heroes go who are broadly recognizable and have strong fan-bases, the options seem to be:
- Storm
- Jean Grey
- Rogue
- Mystique
Jesus is that it? That can't be. I mean, I can think of lots of female Marvel heroes that have strong followings within the comics fan community (e.g., Psylocke, Dazzler, X-23, Domino, Black Cat, Wasp, Mockingbird, Shadowcat, Scarlet Witch, Medusa, Magik, Princess Power, Banshee (II), Spider-Girl, M, Lilandra, Medusa, Sharon Carter, Polaris), but not many that are broadly recognizable to the uninitiated. This is why I hate this topic, it's just depressing.
I guess I could try to be optimistic and just say "Well, Marvel doesn't have a leading lady because they have so many options for leading lady!" but I just don't buy it. We really need a Marvel-produced film starring a female lead to give someone credibility. Marvel doesn't have a "big three," they have a big two, Spider-Man & Wolverine. And in the films they're trying to replace that with Iron Man and Captain America. There really should be some room for the fairer sex in that marketing strategy. You can't tell me there's no room for an X-Men Origins: Storm film. Too bad Marvel gave away the rights.
A Storm. Sue or Ororo, probably Sue. I feel bad saying Ororo over Marvel Girl(because Jean's been around since the beginning) but it just seems to me that Storm is vastly more recognizable and popular than Jean Grey. I remember back in the JLA/Avengers event is was Storm that marvel chose to pit against Wonder Woman. Sue and Storm have appeared in more film and television production than any other marvel heroines. Storm takes it for movies (unless we count unproduced ones ) and I want to say the Invisible Woman has had more animated appearances. Sue has the whole "being the original" thing going on for her over at marvel. However, after really thinking about it I'm gonna go with Monroe despite her "relative" newness. She strong, independent, powerful, vastly recognizable outside the realm of comics and seemingly popular in nearly all appearances. Yeah, Storm is Marvel's wonder woman
* Honorable mention though to Jessica Drew. Seems like she's been in fore of marvel comics lately for at least the last decade. She's had her own ongoing and as far as I know she's the only Marvel (perhaps any comicbook company) female character to have her own animated television series.
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