9. A Lack Of Important & Interesting Female Characters
Marvel StudiosLong gone are the days where comic book movies are designed to appeal to only teenage boys looking for huge explosions and sexy ladies kitted out in skin-tight spandex. Though we're not quite there yet, the genre as a whole is getting better at giving female characters interesting and complex parts, as evidenced by Mystique in X-Men, Gwen Stacy in Marc Webb's Spider-Man movies, and despite being something of an unavoidable sex object, Black Widow in the Marvel Cinematic Universe (especially in Captain America: The Winter Soldier). These are some of the genre's best examples, though a lot of movies still seem stuck in the cinematic past, where females are merely heroines to be rescued, or simply so lacking in personality that they can never truly take a central role in the narrative. Darcy and Jane Foster from the Thor movies are two prime examples (though Darcy admittedly has her fans), while Christopher Nolan's peculiar engagement with women in his Batman movies has been well-documented (even if Catwoman was a step in the right direction). We're certainly not out to decry most comic book movies as sexist, but they need to balance their female characters: they can be sexy, but if they're playing a big part in the story, it certainly doesn't hurt if they're either resourceful or powerful as well. Of course, a damsel-in-distress female character isn't inherently sexist, but we're just really damn tired of seeing it. Hopefully characters like Thor's Sif and Batman v Superman's upcoming interpretation of Wonder Woman will help create iconic feminist figures we can all enjoy.