Choo Choo! Everyone on the Lady Train!
[What the hell is wrong with me…?]
Anywho, here are links to previous versions, if interested:
Marvel Women Part 1
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Black Cat
- Character Summary: Felicia Hardy; Femme Fatale and Spider-Man lust bait; Very much aware of and in control of her sexuality, Felicia has utilized certain… traits to get the jump on superheroes and supervillains alike; Originally just a well-trained thief, she eventually underwent a treatment to give her probability altering powers (a la bad luck); She also has a specially designed suit that gives her peak strength, speed and agility of a human in excellent physical condition (even though she is obviously portrayed as being in excellent physical condition; Felicia’s main weakness is her reliance on relationships, as she tends to fall head over heels FAST and doesn’t recover well from break ups (she holds grudges… like the “turn to a life of crime just to spite you” type); Unfortunately, ladies, Felicia is not really a feminist ideal, which will become apparent in the “themes” section below; She is typically very overly sexualized and though she often uses her body to get what she wants, she can equally be seen throwing it at Spider-Man because he’s a strong, mysterious male figure; In other words, she’s not a strong female character in the Captain Marvel capacity, but more in a “Sex in the CIty” capacity; To her merit, however, she does succeed in being an excellent foil to Spider-Man’s “Power and Responsibility” motto.
- Common Themes: Power without Responsibility; Identity and who defines it; Sexuality; Looking after one’s self first; A gray moral spectrum vs a black and white one
- Good For: Femme Fatale lovers; fans of “Cheesecake” comic characters; People who appreciate a woman who DOES use her body as an asset; People who think Spider-Man is too uptight; People who hate Mary Jane Watson; Fetishists (leather, claws, furry suit… come on…); Catwoman fans
- Go To Series: Any Spider-Man, really; Heroes for Hire (vol 1); Claws and Claws II; Hawkeye Vs. Deadpool; I do NOT recommend Marvel Divas if you want to take the character seriously…
- Stand Out Stories: Amazing Spider-Man (vol 1) 194-195, 204, 226-227; Spectacular Spider-Man (vol 1) 74-76, 89, 100; The Evil that Men Do
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Angela
- Character Summary: Aldrif Odinsdottir; Angela was essentially born to Odin, taken by Angels, and later brought back into the main Earth realm against her will; This parallels her real world origins to an extent, wherein she was born to Spawn creator Todd Macfarlane and writer Neil Gaiman, taken by Gaiman in a series of legal battles and sold to Marvel; Angela had originally come into the world as a Spawn antagonist and now found herself as a displaced daughter of Odin; She is still very new to the Marvel Universe, but they have done some cool stuff with her, including letting her beat the tar out of Thor; Angela very much shares the Thunder God’s knack for battle and war-like persona, but takes that to a further extreme by being more stoic and reserved than her brother; She is a badass, warrior princess in every way and it’s exciting, in my opinion, to watch what she does as the Marvel Universe continues to expand
- Common Themes: Power and Battle; Justified Bloodshed; Displacement and Confusion; Chaos vs Order
- Good For: Red Sonja fans; Xena fans; Badass, Magical, Super-Strong, Sword-Wielding Female Character fans; Fans of Mythology and/or the Thor comics specifically; People who like Space-Opera type stories; Fantasy fans
- Go To Series: Angela: Asgard’s Assassin; Guardians of the Galaxy (vol 3)
- Stand Out Stories: The Trial of Jean Grey; Original Sin: Thor & Loki;
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Storm
- Character Summary: Ororo Monroe; Tough, proud, determined and imperfect; Storm is a very real character, in that she has plenty of emotional and mental weaknesses that impede her from time to time, but she consistently pushes past them in the name of the greater good; Storm is an excellent, regal leader, whether she be leading an entire nation or the X-Men, but she also has a bit of a rambunctious streak that she possibly picked up from her time picking pockets in Cairo; Once revered as a Goddess, Storm has a knack for turning up the drama and pizzazz during a fight to make badguys shake in their boots; Lost her powers for a time, and still managed to do more in that period than many X-men do/have done with powers.
- Common Themes: Power vs Pride; Life vs Responsibility; Overcoming weakness; Strength of Will
- Good For: People who like strong leaders; Mythology buffs who like realistic depictions of Gods; People who like different settings or cultures in their comics (not just USA); People who prefer world-shattering comic battles over street level kung-fu type
- Go To Series: Storm; X-Treme X-Men (Vol 1); X-Men (Vol 3); Astonishing X-Men: Storm
- Stand Out Stories: Rogue Storm; Lifedeath I & II; World’s Apart; The Crucible
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Spider Woman
- Character Summary: Jessica Drew; Her mother was blasted by a spider-DNA laser while Jessica was still in the womb (because, how else); Originally a member of Hydra, then a agent for SHIELD, now and Avenger and sometimes SWORD agent; Jessica has always been a fun character in that she is tough and independent, but not beyond being goofy from time to time; Often showing a dry sense of humor, Jessica has been known to playfully tease her teammates, pull pranks and even make the Hulk make her a sandwich; Jessica is also a talented private investigator, though she hasn’t had much “street-level” action being an active member with larger teams for most of the recent years; Another character with a dark past, similar to Elektra, but Jessica doesn’t show the same “atonement” drive that Elektra does, possibly since there is considerably less blood on her hands; Marvel throughout the years has had a tough time deciding where Ms Marvel fits, originally having her solo before killing her off and then tossing her with various teams; Recently, Jessica has been an active member in the “Spider-Verse,” playing roles in Spider-Island and Spider-Verse crossover events.
- Common Themes: Deceit and truth; Inflitration; Investigation; Pros and Cons of Teams
- Good For: People interested in heroes with more subtle powers; People looking for a darker spider character with less swinging and more crawling through windows; People looking for a female character that is as talented in combat as she is at avoiding/getting out of it
- Go To Series: Secret Avengers (vol 3); Spider Woman (Vol 5)
- Stand Out Stories: Secret Invasion; Origin; Spider Woman (vol 1) #50
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Squirrel Girl
- Character Summary: Doreen Green; Mutant with the abilities of a Squirrel, which trust me sounds worse than it actually is; She has super human strength, speed and agility as well as razor sharp teeth and the ability to talk to squirrels; Despite seeming somewhat lame, she has taken on some pretty intense villains and won, including *ahem* DR. DOOM, MODOK, aaaaaaaand THANOS… Seriously…. This chick has defeated just about every giant, world destructing villain in the Marvel Universe and has saved the butts of Iron Man and The Thing, as well as others (say what you will, this is canon and I challenge you to find one sucker at Marvel to tell me otherwise without me kicking him/her in their crotch); Also, she apparently used to get the “snikt” from Wolverine (You get what I’m saying there, right? I’m using the sound Wolverine’s claws make to make a joke about how they used to a-DO EEET! [You see what I’m doing there, right? That’s a Fez joke, like from That 70’s Show. That’s how he says “Do it,” as in like sex and stuff.]); Much like Deadpool, Doreen is a comedic character who at points seems to be aware of her presence as a comic book character; However, unlike Deadpool, this knowledge doesn’t come from/ exacerbate any insanity as much as it just seems to come from her being a generally eager and cool person (at one point Deadpool hands Doreen a copy of Civil War: Front Lines #10 so she can see what happens to Speedball, and Doreen is more concerned about Speedball than she is about, y’know, the whole comic book thing); Real talk, Squirrel Girl is easily one of my favorite Marvel characters and I am so freaking happy she has her own solo series now; I personally feel like she is a refreshing bit of comedy tucked between all the other characters who take themselves way to seriously and Deadpool who gets laughs by inappropriately shooting things (sorry, D-Piddy).
- Common Themes: Optimism; Bright-eyed eagerness; Squirrels; How cool being a super hero can be; Nuts and acorns; How super heroing should be about fighting evil, not all the drama; Trees and climbing them
- Good For: Anyone, but mostly those who want some light-hearted, comedic reads that don’t involve limbs being removed
- Go To Series: Great Lakes Avengers, Unbeatable Squirrel Girl
- Stand Out Stories: Thing (vol 2) #8, Marvel Superheroes (vol 2) #8, Cable & Deadpool #30, Great Lakes Avengers Special #1, New Avengers (vol 2) #7 & #15
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