Superheroines and Supervillanesses of Marvel

The average person could probably name a few female superheroes, or super villains even if they are just from the movies: Batgirl, Black Widow, Wonder Woman, Poison Ivy, Catwoman, Harley Quinn... But are they more than just eye candy service for fanboys?

 

 Well, I guess that would depend on what you look at. As a fan of some of these females, I can tell you that some of their costumes will totally show the eye candy service. Some are easy to nod your head and say yup there's not much reason for this character other than making the male readers drool; while others have been well thought out to have a big fan base of females behind them. I'm going to give you a look at my opinion on some of these Superheroines and Supervillainesses:

Natasha Romanova (or Romanoff), aka Black Widow, has become well known in the world due to her cinematic portrayal by Scarlett Johansson in the Marvel Cinematic Universe. Created by Stan Lee, Don Rico, & Don Heck in 1964 as a villain for Iron Man as a Russian Spy and was originally had black hair. Later in 1970 she gained her more signature red hair and her recognizable costume. Depending on the artist and story, Natasha has been modest with her black spandex/leather or she shows quite a bit of cleavage. With this look it's easy to see why she was ranked 31st in Comics Buyer's Guide's 100 Sexiest Women in Comics list.  Black Widow has also ranked 176th greatest comic book character by Wizard magazine, 74th greatest comic book character by IGN, and 42nd in IGN's top 50 Avengers list.

 She-Hulk, Jennifer Walters, gained her abilities from a blood transfusion from her cousin, Bruce Banner (the Hulk). Originally, Jennifer was able to change back and forth from She-Hulk and her human form, and unlike her cousin she is able to retain her personality, intelligence, and emotional control in her Hulk form. While preventing a radiation leak in the downed SHIELD helicarrier, the radiation effected She-Hulk's ability to change back and forth. This appeared to be an agreeable turn of events for Jennifer since she preferred to be She-Hulk over Jennifer Walters. Despite what you might think, She-Hulk is not a model but a highly skilled Lawyer and has served as a legal counsel to many Marvel superheroes over her time.
 Marvel writer, Peter David, has stated: She-Hulk has the potential to be our Wonder Woman. A powerful female with strong moral center and a determination to do what's right. She's also a unique combination of brains and brawn.
She-Hulk has ranked in several lists:
18th Greatest Marvel Character by Comic Book Resources
104th greatest comic book character of all time by Wizard magazine
88th greatest comic book hero of all time by IGN 
18th the top 50 Avengers by IGN
11th in Comics Buyer's Guide's 100 Sexiest Women in Comics

Another comic book Avenger who is becoming known to the world outside of the comics via the Marvel Cinematic Universe (MCU) by actress Elizabeth Olsen, Scarlet Witch (Wanda Maximoff). This mutant superheroine created by Stan Lee and Jack Kirby in 1964 with the ability to alter reality in unspecific ways. Originally introduced as the daughter of Golden Age superhero, Whizzer, Wanda was soon retconned with her twin brother, Quicksilver (Pietro Maximoff), were the children of X-Men villain, Magento. This was later retconned to match her and Quicksilver's intro into the MCU as two non-mutants that were kidnapped and experimented on giving them their abilities and then misled to believe that Magento was their father. Scarlett Witch has never been an X-Men, she is a member of the Avengers and is married to fellow Avenger, Vision. Due to Wanda's want of children and her lack of memories of ever having children, she seeks aid from villain, Doctor Doom, this leads to the deaths of Vision and Hawkeye (Clint Barton). These events cause the Avengers and the X-Men to consider killing Wanda because her powers are too unstable, which leads Quicksilver to convince her to create a world where everyone's hearts desires are fulfilled. However, this backfires as some of the heroes retain their memories leading into the events of House of M. After this world is shattered, Magento learns that Pietro is truly behind this and kills him causing Wanda to lash out and destroy 90% of the mutant population. This is later fixed in the events of A vs X when Hope Summers combines her Phoenix force powers with Scarlet Witch's in order to restore the mutant population. Despite her sorceress outfits over the years, I have found Scarlet Witch to be an interesting character. Scarlet Witch was ranked 97th in Wizard's 200 greatest comic book characters of all time, 12th in IGN's top 50 Avengers, and 14th in Comics Buyer's Guide's 100 sexiest women of comics list.

Jean Grey/Jean Grey-Summers, has been known by many names: Marvel Girl, Phoenix, and Dark Phoenix. Written as a founding member of Marvel's X-Men by Stan Lee and Jack Kirby. She is an Omega level mutant with telepathic and telekinetic powers. She is also a favored host to the Marvel cosmic entity, the Phoenix Force. As Phoenix, Jean mind was manipulated by fellow telepathic mutants, Mastermind and the White Queen (Emma Frost). This caused her to become overwhelmed and corrupted gaining new god-like powers as the Dark Phoenix, which leads to Jean committing suicide in order to free herself from the Phoenix Force. After the events of Phoenix: Warsong and Phoenix: End Song, Jean is dead for sure at that point until her return in Marvel Now's All New X-Men. She has been portrayed by Famke Janssen in five of the X-Men films and Sophie Turner will play a younger version of her in the up coming X-Men: Apocalypse film. IGN ranked Jean Grey 6th on their top 40 X-Men list, 13th in their top 100 comic book heroes, and Dark Phoenix persona 9th in their top 100 comic book villains of all time. And she's ranked 3rd in Comics Buyer's Guide's 100 sexiest women in comic list showing that red heads turn the guys on as much as blonds do.

 The White Queen, Emma Frost is a telepath mutant who started out as a X-Men villain as a member of the Hellfire Club and is now a core member and leader of the X-Men. Created by Chris Claremont and John Byrne in 1980 as a part of the Dark Phoenix Saga. She is partially responsible for Jean Grey's transformation into the Dark Phoenix. After this she was seen in the Uncanny X-Men and the original volume of the New Mutants along her own team of young mutants call the Hellions. After the death of her Hellions in the mini series Firestar, Frost teamed up with Banshee, Jubilee, and Sabertooth in Phalanx Covenant, which lead to her becoming a main character in the spin-off series Generation X, which leads Frost to become a leader of the X-Men through the events of House of M to A vs X. Due to her origin nature, starting out as a stripper in the Hellfire Club, Emma Frost is one of Marvel's most popular characters and a prime point for over-sexualization of female characters in comic books despite many saying she's an exception. Comics Buyer's Guide ranked her 5th on their list of 100 sexiest women in comics.

Storm, Ororo Munroe, is an African mutant with the ability of weather manipulation. She has been a Member of the X-Men as well as a leader of the team and a member of the Avengers. Storm was married to Black Panther making her a queen consort for Wakanda, until their devorce after the events of A vs X where their alliances were on opposite sides at first. In Marvel Now she is a member of the all female X-Men team, and in 2014 she was given her own solo series. Storm holds a high spot in comic book history as one of the first black superheroes and the first woman at that. Her sex appeal has been boosted due to her protrayal by Halle Berry in five of the X-Men films. Alexandra Shipp will play a young Storm in the up coming X-Men: Apocalypse film. Storm's awards include:
89th greatest comic book character of all time by Wizard magazine
42nd greatest comic book character of all time by IGN
8th on IGN's  top 25 X-Men
37th on IGN's top 50 Avengers
Mavel.com ranked her as the 3rd greatest X-Men member
30th in Comics Buyer's Guide's 100 sexiest women in comics list

Rogue is one of my favorite Marvel characters, she's a mutant with the involuntary ability to absorb (sometimes remove) memories, physical strength, and superpowers from anyone she touches. This causes her to see her mutation as a curse limiting her physical contact with others including her love interest, Gambit. Over many years, Rogue finally gained control over her mutation allowing her to have more personal contact with other and the ability to choose what she wants to "take" from a person. Due to the nature of her mutation, Rogue is one of the most modest characters in comics covering up most of her body in order to avoid an accidental absorption. Her signature look is white streaks that run through her hair, and almost every costume of hers has some green. As a rebellious teen, Rogue ran away from her home and got close to a boy, and her mutant powers awoke when he kissed her. This traumatizes Rogue causing her to start wearing body concealing clothing and thinking her mutation is a curse. Shortly after this another mutant, Mystique adopts Rogue as her daughter in order to breed Rogue's loneliness, envy, bitterness, and despair into anger thus recruiting her into the Brotherhood of Mutants.  This leads to Rogues absorption, and removal, of Ms. Marvel's powers. Desperate to gain control of her powers, Rogue then leaves the Brotherhood turning to Professor X and his X-Men, this leads her to become a regular member of the X-Men. During some time off from the X-Men, Rogue travels to Australia where she is attacked by Danger a humanized version of the X-Men's danger room. Upon her rescue by Professor X and Gambit it's revealed that Rogue's mutation never developed past initial "nascent" stage, which is the reason behind her powers not working the way they should. Professor X then starts breaking down the mental wall that kept Rogue's powers from developing. Finally she was able to kiss Gambit without any ill side effects! Rogue was finally in control of her mutation. After the events of House of M, Rogue decides to side with Wolverine and leave Cyclops and the rest of the X-Men in order to open up the school that Professor X had started years ago in order to train young mutants to control their abilities rather than make what little young mutants where left into soldiers. In A vs X, Rogue tries to remain neutral during most of what's happening only taking sides with Cyclops when the school is "attacked" by the Avengers in order to make sure no more X-Men join Cyclops. She soon regrets that decision when she witnesses Magik sending Ms. Marvel into the portion of Limbo that Magik brought to Earth, thus leading to Magik banishing her from Earth as well. Having returned, Rogue served as the X-Men's representative when appealing to the Avengers. As of Marvel Now, Rogue has been a member of the all female X-Men and is currently a member of the Uncanny Avengers.  She was 5th on IGN's top 25 X-Men list, 4th on their top X-Babies list, 3rd on Marvel's top 10 toughest women list, 1st on CBR's top 50 X-Men of all time, and ranked 10th in Comics Buyer's Guide's 100 sexiest women in comics.

Psylocke, Elizabeth "Betsy" Braddock, is the twin sister of fellow Marvel Superhero, Captain Britain. Originally, Betsy was a supporting character for her brother and even substituting for him at on point before becoming the mutant, Psylocke in 1986. She started out at precognitive, then a telepath before her mind was placed into the body of a Japanese female ninja known as Kwannon (Revache), gaining most of Kwannon's martial arts skills and some of her personality. Her code name, Psylocke, was coined by X-Men villains Mojo and Spiral. She later gained the power of telekinesis. Betsy's a model making her ideal for a sex appeal and well Kwannon is a model body status ninja. And Psylocke's main costume is basically a blue swimsuit with a red sash, so it's no surprise that most view her as just eye candy for male readers rather than look at her abilities and character development. During her time in the New Exiles Kwannon's mind came back in Betsy's former body causing both to stay with the X-Men for a time being until Revache discovers that she has the legacy virus. Revache dies after this discovery allowing Psylocke's full personality and telepathic potential to restore. During the events of X-Treme, Pyslocke died while battling Vargas protecting fellow X-Men, Rogue and Beast. One year after her death, she returned and was reunited with her brother during Scarlet Witch's House of M reality storm. In Marvel Now, Psylocke is a member of the all female X-Men & X-Force, and has a more modest costume that a ninja character might wear. 

Psylocke has been include in IGN's Battle of the Comic Book Babes where she won in 2006, IGN also placed her 22nd in their top X-Men list and 3rd on their X-Babies list. Marvel has stated that Psylocke is there second most favorite hero in 2011, that same year UGO ranked her 9th in list of superhero upgrades that kicked complete @ss and featured her among their 25 hot ninja girls list. In 2009 Marvel took a poll asking who's the better fighter in "Marvel vs Capcom 2 where Psylocke got 68% of the votes. UGO also ranked her 5th on their list of fighting games' finest female fighters, and surprisingly enough she didn't make Comics Buyer's Guide's 100 sexiest women in comics list.

 Many women have come from Spiderman's comics: Spidergirl, Spiderwoman, Black Cat, Silk, Gwen Stacy, & Mary Jane "MJ" Watson. Overall many of these of these spider gals are well dressed to move around as a spider themed hero, well minus the breasts hugged "nicely" in the spandex. Black Cat is a thief much like DC's Catwoman who seems to like showing off her cleavage in her black leather-like spandex, and has been romantically involved with Spiderman. Mary Jane is Spiderman's second love, former wife, and a model/actress. She's a red head with the "best" body and push up boobs. Spiderman's first love, Gwen Stacy wasn't anything spectacular, not a model or a sexy cat thief but a scientist like himself. Gwen's death at the hands of Spiderman while he was trying to save her from his arch villain, Green Goblin, is a pivotal moment in comic book history. She's has come back in a matter of speaking from another Marvel Earth known as Spider-Gwen. Silk is an interesting character that I was introduced to in the Spiderverse saga who is somewhat of a soul mate for Spiderman after the events that led Mary Jane to make a deal to erase their marriage. She was bitten by the same spider as he was making her his female counterpart. Spiderwoman is very different than Spiderman for she was born with her spider abilities after her mother was shot with a ray of DNA of several different types of spiders. She's a member of the Avengers and has her own comic series as a spin off from the Spiderverse and has quite the Avengers after the events of Spidderverse. Spidergirl has been a sidekick for Spiderwoman; she gained her spider abilities from a mage from the Spider Society. She was also appeared in the Ms. Marvel series around the time of Civil War as a recruit for service as a licensed superhero under the Superhuman Registration Act. Spidergirl is linked to the villains of the Spiderverse saga as she can read the scrolls, and she was a student of the Avengers Academy before that. She is also a Latina Superhero.

These women have one these awards:

MJ is 43rd in Comics Buyer's Guide's 100 sexiest women in comics

Spiderwoman is 54th in the same list

Gwen Stacy is 89th in the same list

Spiderwoman is ranked 20th in IGN's top 50 Avengers list

Marvel has also done a series of comics called Women of Marvel. These comics feature the leading ladies of Marvel teaming up together.

If you are interested in the full list from Comics Buyer's Guide please look here:

http://comicvine.gamespot.com/comics-buyers-guide-presents-2-100-sexiest-women-i/4000-463770/

 

Till next time

-FoxCat ya later