Are male superheroes shown as more powerful then female ones?

Question

I am asking because I want to do my dissertation on women in comic book films.

are the women such as Mary-Jane from Spiderman and Lois Lane from Superman just the love interest do they have any other function?

Answer 1

Jean Grey is the most powerful member of the X-Men, and Susan Storm is the most powerful member of the Fantastic Four. And there's also Storm from the X-Men, and they have female villains Mystique and Deathstrike.

Wonder Woman is obviously powerful but they haven't done a film incarnation of her yet.

Generally, yeah, the girls are just the love interests. It traces back to the fact that all these characters originate more than 40 years ago, and that was the social standard being presented at the time. Other than the ones I mentioned, the only exceptions (in film) are Elektra from Daredevil and Catwoman, who are both love interests of more popular characters. But they do more than that, obviously.

Answer 2

No way, I can fight some superman but for any superwoman I would rather surrender.

Answer 3

In film perhaps, but in comic books, not really.  One of the most powerful characters in the Marvel Universe is Jean Grey when in the form of the Phoenix.  

Within the span of an action film, it is hard to truly develop anyone outside of the main character.  So within superhero movies or general action movies, the female character often becomes just a love interest.  

Answer 4

not really, because Phoniex, Rouge, Ms. Marvel, Storm, Wonder Women, Zatanna and Supergirl are probably the most powerful girls there are.   the only guy superheros stronger are like Superman, Thor and Hulk but those girls could probably take almost anyone else. in either dc or marvel.  spidy would be crushed by those girls.

Answer 5

No.  In this generation the X-Men have a lot of powerful women -- Storm, Phoenix, arguably Rogue.  In my generation the Scarlet Witch was pretty powerful (and she's still around), while Thor married Sif.

Then of course there is Wonder Woman.  While the Black Canary was the answer to many run-of-the-mill superheroes and detectives, including, I suspect Batman.  And Sheena, Queen of the Jungle is a legend in her own right.

Women are often objectified in comic books, but they are not, overall, presented as less powerful than men.  Trina Robbins built a fascinating body of work out of exploring the empowerment of women in traditional comics.  I suggest you look her and her comics up.

Answer 6

There are plenty of strong super heroes in comics. There's Supergirl, Batwoman, Catwoman, Powergirl, Storm, Rogue & others. If anything they aren't weaker just made too s**y probably.

Answer 7

no cos once i saw an episode of justice league where d woman with d wings (d ginger one) was beating super man up cos both superman and her were seeing each other as monsters nd she was trashing superman

Answer 8

a superhero well wat about POWERPUFF GIRLS  

Answer 9

i think you have to look at the target audience for the comic book (esp. marvel, etc)

mary-jane and lois lane aren't superheros - so first you may have to compare actual female superheros (see kill bill2 for an intersting pov!)

the function - a sense of humanity, esp superman (compare with batman - the lone figure)

Answer 10

Mary Jane Watson and Lois Lane aren't superheroines. And yes, their only purposes are as love-interests/people to be saved regularly.

By in large, female superheroes are considered physically weak, with Supergirl, Ms. Marvel, and Rogue being the notable exceptions. Female Supers tend to have psychic or energy attacks that allow them to stay at range to fight. That doesn't mean they can't win fights; they frequently do. But they do tend to have to be more clever about it.