Something That Has Been On My Mind For A While…
A look at the number of titles featuring female characters from DC and Marvel in September. (Excluding the Adult-centered ones.)
DC Titles:
- Batgirl
- Birds of Prey
- Zatanna
- Power Girl
- Supergirl
- Gotham City Sirens
- Wonder Woman
Marvel Titles:
- Hawkeye & Mockingbird
- Shadowland: Daughters of the Shadow (mini-series)
- Shadowland: Elektra (mini-series)
- X-23 (one-shot)
- Valkyrie (one-shot)
- Black Widow
- X-Men Legacy (strongly Rogue-focused)
- Black Cat (mini-series)
- Captain America (Nomad back-up)
I wish Marvel would pick up the pace a little. While I love all the one-shots they’ve been putting out featuring strong female characters, they’ve been technically putting out them only because of their “Women of Marvel” event. What does that mean for next year? And I have to say, I would buy the heck out of a Namora on-going or an Emma Frost one. (Or a She-Hulk title, but I’m apparently alone there.)
The mini-series are nice, but they’re not enough. Group titles are also nice, but they’re not enough, either. In a title like “Black Widow,” there is a guarantee that when you pick up the title, you will be reading about Black Widow. (Most of the time, anyway.) There is no guarantee that if I pick up “Secret Avengers,” I will be reading about Black Widow, even if she’s on the cover.
DC has five on-going titles that are named after the female character that they represent. Marvel has one (and a half). I know the companies can only produce what sells, but I refuse to believe that Marvel, which produces many more titles a month than DC does, can’t afford to produce at least the same number of female-named-titles as their competitor.
I love all the one-shots and mini-series that focus on lesser known female characters and I don’t want them to go away. But I feel that they should be being produced on top of a base of steady female-named titles, not that they should be the base themselves.
It just bothers me.
