Joss Whedon wants more female superheroes in the next Avengers

“Oh my God TMB, stop talking about The Avengers!” Haha, some of you may feel like this but honestly…who can shut up about this movie? In my defense, this post is in regards to the sequel and what additions to the team that Whedon wants to see. In a recent interview with Entertainment Weekly, Whedon leads us to believe that he wants some female additions to the team.

Whedon joked, “I think we need to get some more men on the team,” while Thor’s Chris Hemsworth looked around Johansson at Chris Evans, Robert Downey Jr., Mark Ruffalo, Jeremy Renner, and Samuel L. Jackson and agreed, “Yes, there are too few of us.”

It was a good point. There are a lot of female superheroes in comics, but very few turn up on film. Cobie Smulders’ S.H.I.E.L.D. agent Maria Hill was a solid addition to The Avengers, but there are many more.

Via:Entertainment Weekly

So who could the female heroes be? Scarlet Witch? Ms. Marvel? Wasp? I would like to see more female additions to the team. I think it is the studios most of the time that disagree with having the female heroes because they have the basic “playground mentality” that a boy is always stronger than a girl. Whedon has shown us that this is not the case, Black Widow kicked some ass! He also worked on a TV series centered around another female badass that you may have heard of called Buffy the Vampire Slayer, which I still feel is underrated. I hope we can see some new additions, I’m personally rooting for Ms. Marvel.

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About Ryan

First and foremost, Ryan Brown is a fan. He has been an avid fan of both the theater and cinema since an early age and his passion for both has been continually growing ever since. When dissecting a film, he focuses on all elements of film-making including some fan/cult factors. He believes that character development is the foundation of a good film and usually starts his analysis of a film from there moving forward. His writing style may be influenced by his background of narrative and argumentative studies in the subject, but he tends to enjoy a more conversational style to better interact with the readers, unlike some other pretentious and pompous writers.

17 thoughts on “Joss Whedon wants more female superheroes in the next Avengers

  1. Personally I wouldn’t mind She-Hulk to make her way on to the Avengers. Sure 1 Hulk is plenty but another might be needed with the cosmic direction they’re aiming their films toward. 
     
    I also vote for Valkyrie.

  2. “Scarlet Witch?”
    Too powerful.  I can’t think of a way to introduce her without the arc turning into something along the lines of what we got with the Jean Grey/Phoenix in X-Men 3.  I guess one could use her towards the end of a long arc as a means of rebooting a series, but I envision a reboot as something that wouldn’t occur for quite awhile.
     
    Ms. Marvel?
    Again, too powerful.  What’s the angle?  It’d be the female version of Superman, only without the one known vulnerability.  Once you introduce her, why have anyone else come round?  Major crisis?  Call Ms. Marvel.  That’s like a 15-minute movie at best.  I’d love to see her, but the story would have to be pretty compelling.
     
    Wasp?
    Hokey.  Every time I think of the Wasp, I imagine the winged girl in the latest X-Men installment; it looked really weird.  Take that weird look, shrink to to a really small size, and then have the character shoot sparklers from her fingertips.  I just don’t see it fitting well, at least not visually, into what has been established with the Avengers and its recent precursors.  On the other hand, it fits pretty darn well within the Wedon-verse; if you introduce Pym particles, then it’s not too crazy of an idea, and you get to avoid the whole “mutant” issue that is raised by a lot of the other Marvel characters.
     
    With that said, who’s left?  I was going to say that Cloak and Dagger would be interesting.  Introducing a duo that work well together, with one being a heroine with an interesting power.  However, their backstory doesn’t seem to jive with what’s been established with the Avengers; they are mutants, after all, and the Avengers world so far hasn’t dealt with that topic.  Once you introduce mutants, you enter into X-Men territory, which just complicates the Wedon-verse, IMHO.  I’d rather select a strong female who fits seamlessly into what’s already been established, or moves the needle incrementally towards the more fantastical.
     
    Where does that leave us?  Gah, I just don’t know.  Maybe the Wasp is practical.  Maybe we could go with the Enchantress, one of Loki’s devotees?  Who’s the woman who’s frequently running with Dr. Strange?  Of course, you’d have to introduce Dr. Strange and further the magic angle, but “magic” was already invoked by Loki in the Avengers when he questioned how Thor arrived on Earth without the bifrost bridge, so that isn’t too great a leap.

    1. @Royal
      On the “too powerful” argument.  Have you heard of The Hulk?  He has exponential strength that cannot be measured.  Have you read World War Hulk?  Oh and Thor who is an immortal God?  Also most characters have been overpowered over the years so there is a whole “power timeline” to choose from and give the characters the powers that would fit in the movie…just choose the appropriate time period and story.
      If they can have intergalactic beings attacking Earth which initiates a possible interstellar war…I think they can tone down some characters’ powers and fit them on the team…

      1.  @Browntastic 
         
        It’s not that she’s all-powerful (read: strength).  It’s that her powers read like an itemized list of everything in the supermarket; what can’t she do?  Moreover, what are her weaknesses?  With Superman we at least know his vulnerabilities: kryptonite and his own code of conduct.  If the writers can tone down her powers a bit, and make sense of how she got her powers, then it could work.  If I were a writer trying to shift backstory to support the inclusion of Danvers/Marvel into the current universe, at some point I’d probably just throw my hands in the air and say, “Why not just create an entirely new character, because that’s just what we’ve done?”

    2.  @Royal Ms. Marvel is too powerful? She is nowhere near Superman’s level, she’s not even at Wonder Woman’s level. I’d suggest you read the Marvel Wiki. Ms. Marvel would be the 4th most powerful member of the team. She’s outclassed by The Hulk, Thor and Iron Man. She’s only about 1/2 as strong as a calm Hulk and Iron Man is faster in flight. Granted in the comics she can absorb energy to enhance her abilities, but the effects are only temporary. She has the power blast, but that’s about it. The rest of her powers are passive.  I think Ms. Marvel would be a great addition to the team. It would give them another woman and flyer. She’s not too powerful.

      1.  @Pman67 
         
        She’s not all-powerful in terms of strength.  And we can’t really size up Ms. Marvel to Superman/Wonder Woman because they live in different universes.  Who’d win an arm-wrestling contest?  Who knows?  But what we can say is that Ms. Marvel’s abilities are like Superman’s in that they voluminous.  I might be wrong, and feel free to correct me, but what are Ms. Marvel’s shortcomings/weaknesses?  What’s her achilles heel?  
         
        Pit her against the current line-up of Avengers and what’ll it come down to?  Ms. Marvel getting worn down by a fist fight between Thor and the Hulk?  That doesn’t sound compelling.  Actually, that wouldn’t even happen because Ms. Marvel can fly at speeds that break the sound barrier.  As soon as she started to get fatigued she’d just fly off to recuperate.
         
        I guess you could make her an ally, but the storyline would have to be really compelling to add a character with that laundry list of powers.  I just think her backstory would have to be tweaked a lot to work her in to the current universe.

        1.  @Royal That’s why Rogue put her in a coma right?  The Super-hero universe is like a football game…any given Sunday, anyone can win, depending on the circumstances.  They even hinted to it in the Avengers movie that The Hulk was all powerful…otherwise Loki **Spoiler ALERT!!*** wouldn’t have tried to manipulate the Hulk to turn him loose on the Avengers, he knew with The Hulk, the Avengers would clean house…which they did…

        2.  @Browntastic 
          Always bigger fish until you run into what I call the “Dragon Ball Z” or “Bleach” problem, where stronger and stronger beings keep cropping up.  At some point the power levels just get ridiculous, even by fictional standards.
           
          Yeah, Rogue put her in a coma (and brought her out of one), but to do that, you have to introduce the concept of mutants, which just seems a little too progressive for the current Avengers universe.  I know this probably doesn’t make sense outside of my head, but I would prefer that the Avengers avoid the concept of mutant powers.  Instead, I’d like to see them pursue the concept of magic along the lines of Dr. Strange.  Again, this probably doesn’t make any sense outside of my head.

        3.  @Royal But that’s where they take the characters’ power level at a certain timeline.  The DBZ effect has already occurred in the Comic Book Universe so you maybe can’t take “overcharged healing factor” Wolverine who can basically regenerate from a single cell or have the Magneto that can harness all forms of energy (fire, electricity, etc) and pull from Jupiter’s magnetic field, but instead you take the character from a time period where they weren’t “overpowered”. 
           
          As for the Rogue comment, that was just to reiterate my point of “any given Sunday”, not to suggest that they throw her in the storyline. 

        4.  @Royal Don’t get me wrong, Ms Marvel is a powerful character. If we were talking about her as Binary it might be a different story. I’m just talking about regular old Mr Marvel though. Plain old Ms Marvel would get her head handed to her by Thor, The Hulk and probably Iron Man. Her only chance against any of the three would be to absorb energy from somewhere and boost her power.
           
          She only about half as strong as those guys. Yes, she can fly at around 1/2 the speed of sound. She’d nowhere near as fast as Iron Man (@ mach 8) or Thor (faster then the speed of sound) and it’s not like the Hulk hasn’t fought people that can fly in the past. As for her escaping when she got fatigued, well Thor knocked out Namor with one punch and Hulk has fought all the rest of the Avengers at the same time. Ms Marvel might not be awake long enough for fatigue to set in. 
           
          I suggest you read the Marvel Wiki. She has a interesting set of powers, but they pretty much boil down to strength, speed/reflexes, flight and in-vulnerabilty. Guys like Thor, IM and Hulk have every thing Ms. Marvel has, but to a greater degree.
           
          One the long running story lines involving Carol was that in spite of all her powers she’s always felt inferior because there were so many heavy hitters on the Avenger that she match up to powers wise.

      1.  @Pman67 
         
        I’ve read different takes on Cloak and Dagger.  Early on, I remember reading that “the formula” awakened latent mutant powers, which is why they survived the treatment.  Later, I remember reading that their transformation was more akin to Bruce Banner’s acquiring the Hulk.  I just checked the Wiki on them and it jives with what I remember.  Then again, we could both be wrong.

        1.  @Royal During the recent Utopia crossover, Dr. Nemesis confirmed the Cloak and Dagger are “mutates” and not “mutants.” They may have had the latent superpower gene, but the got their powers from the drugs they were given.

  3. I’d think Spiderwoman would be an easy one. She’s had ties to Hydra in the past, and it wouldn’t take too much of a stretch to introduce her as a Shield created superhero because they couldn’t get “that other guy”

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