Aside from Scarlett Johansson's excellent portrayal of Black Widow and the punchy appeal of Zoe Saldana's Gamora, the MCU has a real dearth of strong female characters. Let's look at the candidates: Peggy Carter (Hayley Atwell) started well but has literally aged out of the franchise, Maria Hill (Cobie Smulders) is just too insubstantial a character, Pepper Potts (Gwyneth Paltrow) is kinda dull, Lady Sif (Jamie Alexander) is given little of interest to do, Darcy (Kat Dennings) is annoying as hell, and Jane Foster (Natalie Portman) is immensely boring. What Can Be Done About It?: Give the female characters more agency, especially those capable of putting up a good fight, like Sif and Maria Hill. Don't just make them window dressing: make them masters of their own destiny, and please, no more damsel-in-distress cliches. Given that Age of Ultron will introduce Scarlet Witch (Elizabeth Olsen) and Wasp (Evangeline Lilly) will be appearing in next summer's Ant-Man, hopefully by this time next year the MCU will have a decidedly stronger female presence.