10 Things I Hate About The Marvel Cinematic Universe
2. They Champion Diversity While Refusing To Represent Women
This is a big one, and an ugly one. Marvel Studios have been on point in at least trying to address ethnic diversity in their output - so why is their treatment of women such a continuing blind spot?
Marvel Comics has a decent reputation, by and large, for its female characters. True, the way they’re drawn and clothed is often the most cringeworthy kind of cheesecake, but there are significant numbers of leading female heroes and villains written to be independent, compelling and individual people.
That's something you can’t say about Marvel Studios’ output to date. In eight years and fourteen films, we’ve seen three major female characters on screen, and neither Black Widow, Gamora nor Scarlet Witch is poised to star in her own movie anytime soon. Meanwhile, Marvel cast award winning actors Natalie Portman and Gwyneth Paltrow as generic arm candy in the Thor and Iron Man movies.
We've had a little more female representation on Marvel TV. Skye is arguably the co-lead of Marvel’s Agents Of S.H.I.E.L.D., Hayley Atwell’s Agent Carter had her own shortlived show on ABC, and Jessica Jones fronts one of the Netflix shows and is as compelling as any of the men: Luke Cage was introduced as the love interest in her show. Yet still no g*ddamn Black Widow movie?
Tellingly, there was virtually no Black Widow merchandise greenlit after her starring role in Avengers: Age Of Ultron. Guardians Of The Galaxy’s female lead Gamora suffered a similar fate. Both decisions were supposedly down to Ike Perlmutter, CEO of Marvel Entertainment, a man with considerable experience in the toy game. Why the gender-based shut out?
It’s because, historically, boys don’t buy toys of girls. For decades, Disney’s had the young female market sewn up with their Disney Princess schtick. Toys, stationery, backpacks and lunchboxes - that licensing market brings in far more money than they’ve ever made from the movies featuring those characters.
Disney acquired Marvel Entertainment in 2009 (and Lucasfilm in 2012) to access the licensing market that had always eluded them up until then: the young male merchandising dollar. The MCU and Star Wars movies being made at present are box office behemoths, but their licensing potential is arguably of more interest to Disney than the movies they make.
This may all change with the announcement in 2014 of the upcoming Captain Marvel movie, and last year’s revelation that Marvel Studios had been moved out from under Perlmutter’s purview and under the Walt Disney Studios remit, following a falling out between Perlmutter and Feige.
Nonetheless, it’s cringeworthy business. This is the twenty-first century, and it looks like the MCU will have been trading for eleven years before Marvel Studios trusts a woman to open a movie.