this blogpost is about the overly popular concept of female counterparts for male characters...some are great, some are just aweful...
Marvel's Major Women
Three of the biggest female players in the MU are She-Hulk, Ms Marvel, and Spider-Woman. All three have one thing in common, they are all based off a pre-existing male character. I'll start with Spider-Woman because she's an exception to this whole concept, she doesn't have Spider-Man's powers, she doesn't have a similar personality, she doesn't have a similar background, or even a similar costume the only thing she shares is the name of the Spider-Person. And she's not even a member of the Spider-Man universe. She's definitely my favorite out these 3.
The second one I'll talk a little about is Ms Marvel. Personally I'm not too crazy about the character, but she's done some great things as one of the biggest women in the Marvel world. She's probably the only female counterpart that can actually surpass her male counterpart, Captain Mar-Vell in popularity and relevance.
The last one, but obviously not the least, is the Sensational She-Hulk. She is the cousin to the Incredible Hulk, which unfortunately creates a lot of wrong preconceived notions about the character. She shares a lot with him like the colors green and purple and similar powers; however, she's got an extremely different personality she's very funny and outgoing rather than angry and misunderstood.
Batgirl Pick one, what I'm gonna say about her applies to all of 'em. Like most of DC's female counterparts most of her story is closely tied to that of her male counterpart. The cool thing about her though is that she doesn't even try to be like Batman. Each one has had her own inspiration, for examples Bab's being Commisioner Gordon.
Daughters With Daddy's Powers
Most of Polaris' story doesn't even have anything to do with Magneto, up until recently. And she doesn't follow in his footsteps. She's got the same powers, but unfortunately gets written off too much as just a female Magneto which is hardly the case for her.
The other one I wanted to mention is Bashee (Siryn) the daughter of the original Banshee. I think this character is pretty cool she's got her dad's powers, and a variation or her dad's costume which allows him to live on through her. The good thing is though is that she survives as her own character whichout any misinformation about the character
Your Thoughts Obviously I'm not going to elaborate on all of them (X-23, Lady Deadpool, the Supergirls, etc.) that's why I wanna know your thoughts on these ladies (post your thoughts on the ones I didn't mention too please), which ones do you love? which ones do you hate? and for the hell of it, which woman would you like to see have a male counterpart?
I'll start by saying this isn't about characters who need to upgrade their powers. It's about characters who need a change in their role, or just an upgrade in prominence.
Iceman is one of the very first X-Men, he's a member of the First Class. Out of all the O5 he's undoubtably received the least development as far as his character is concerned. The only time we have a story about him it's about making him even more powerful. One part of his story that some seem to forget is his time with the Champions (Black Widow, Angel, Ghost Rider, and Hercules). He's had a ton of girlfriends who we never hear about any more, and he's lucky to even get 5 lines in each issue of Uncanny. He could really use a good writer to come along and actually use him.
Another character who could really use a boost would be Rachel Grey, the daughter of Cyclops and Jean Grey. The biggest problem with her is probably that she's very similar to her mother, a lot of fans write her off as just another Jean Grey while in fact she isn't, her story is very different from her mother's. There's a few things with her character that should be explored, but first things first she has to return from space. She used to have a relationship with Nightcrawler (RIP) I'd like to see her reaction on his death, but I doubt we'll see. What she needs is something big in her life to come along and seperate her completely from Jean Grey, maybe she should step up and lead a team like daddy does.
Yes, that's right, Storm needs a boost. You're probably wondering why the hell I'd add her, well I'll explain. Storm is one of the biggest names in the X-Men Universe (not just the X-Women), and she's arguably the most iconic woman in the Marvel Universe as a whole. Ever since her marriage to T'Challa her character has been going downhill in terms of prominence she's usually in Wakanda being the Queen rather than fighting along side the her friends. Storm is a take charge woman who is never afraid of action, her fans want to see her leading a team of X-Men again. I think that would be a good idea given how many mutants we have appearing in one book at once (and it's not even much more than a cameo) if Storm were to have her own team that would reduce the number of characters per book and it gives more panel time to everyone.
You're probably wondering the same thing were with Storm, well I'll explain this too. Remy is one of the huge fan favorite X-Men, he has been since his debut back in the 90's. Recently, like Storm, his character has been going downhill, he hasn't really done much since the mid-00's other than being Rogue's boyfriend. He has a good sized fanbase that Marvel should start taking advantage of. I think what he needs is an ongoing series.
Polaris, the second X-Woman and Havok's girlfriend, the later being what usually defines her. She's often only given any relevant role when when she's crazy and when she isn't crazy she's Havok's arm candy. It looks as though she might be showing up in Uncanny X-Force seeing as how the first arc or so will be about Apocalypse, I'm just hoping she doesn't get mind controlled I mean she's been mind controlled more times that Psylocke's had power changes. She's also Magneto's daughter, which I really hope gets touched on after Wanda's return in the Children's Crusade. She needs a writer to come along and actually want to use her, like Chuck Austen did, I know he's pretty much hated among the X-Men community, but he actually took the character and did more with her than just making her Alex's girlfriend.
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