8 Reasons Batman V Superman Is The Most Culturally Significant Movie Of 2016

5. A Lead Female Superhero

Marvel get a lot of much-deserved praise for being trendsetters in the cinematic universe landscape, although one area they've consistently proven weak at is female characters. Yes, we do have Black Widow playing an increasingly crucial role across the series and Gamora's a solid second-in-command to Star-Lord, but there's a serious lack of representation of proper heroes, with most women reduced to a love interest role.

This is best represented by Captain Marvel, the studio's first female-led outing, being its twenty-first picture. Yes, there's industry concerns about audience appeal, but that's still a staggering number.

By comparison, DC's getting there on #4 (at least as far as the DCEU's concerned) with Wonder Woman, although the ball started rolling with Batman V Superman. Diana Prince wasn't the lead, but it was the biggest role a female superhero's had in either franchise (X-Men has Mystique, but that's an ensemble), marking it out as a key piece of comic book history and - for once - giving the Distinguished Competition some bragging rights.