Marvel seems, I dunno, not willing to leverage their female characters that much as a company. (Kevin Feige actually had the gall to call Captain America: The Winter Soldier a bit of a Black Widow solo film a few months ago, LOL.) I really am not into superheroes that heavily (and actually I am more familiar with DC since I watched Superfriends as a kid), so I haven't been following all of the merch and other related items that closely. But I did hear of a Guardians of the Galaxy birthday party table set that cut Gamora out of the group picture. Can't remember if it was on the tablecloth or some sort of poster or what. It's pretty depressing.
Also, there was a cartoon that was cancelled not too long ago (can't remember which one) that was supposedly cancelled due to having too large of a female audience. Apparently the suits felt the female viewers didn't buy enough merch? I mean, little girls love stuff like Disney, so I dunno, maybe if you suits made an effort, you too could sell some poorly made and overpriced merch. But effort is hard, I guess.
But I will say that if Marvel (or DC) finally gets off their butt and puts out a female-led superhero film in the next few years, I might actually buy an overpriced movie ticket (the first one in many moons) and a disc when it comes out, b/c the suits apparently need a whack upside the head and it only seems to work with money. I am sure they will pooh pooh it though, since they are always surprised/fake surprised over and over when movies outside of the recent "Hollywood norm" do well. I am going to be watching the hell out of Agent Carter when it airs on ABC this spring, though. I don't have a Nielsen box or fancy DVR or anything like that, unfortunately. My online legal views and maybe a DVD will have to do.
Young Justice was cancelled very quickly, but I don't know if the number of female characters had anything to do with it. As far as I've heard the executive reaction was something like, "We have a successful show with an interested fan base! Quick, do a Firefly and cancel it real hard!"
Reading that article, it sounds like Dini was assuming that reason based on comments made by execs he wasn't working for. Later he says he was personally told that Tower Prep had too many girls watching.
Black Widow is pretty prominent in Winter Soldier, but... no, it is not a Black Widow solo movie.
In Infinity, my daughter rarely plays as Black Widow because, as the Badass Normal of the bunch, she starts out with the least impressive powers; the game design hobbles characters who can't fly. But the Wasp and Captain Marvel can fly! Too bad you can't play them. Of course, the decision to make Black Widow the sole playable female Avenger probably stems from the movies, but that just pushes the problem back one step.
I'm sure that if you ask the suits about this gendered kid-marketing, they'll say the same thing: that girls who play video games, etc. may accept male characters but little boys are repelled by anything girly, and that this is a real effect that impacts sales. To some extent, I'm sure it's true: I've definitely seen it in the wild. But it's a vicious cycle: the attitude is reinforced by the gendered marketing to kids, and then justifies more of the same.
I think the main problem with merch marketed to girls is that they make it pink and just quit. It's a bit more complex than that. And nah, I think some/a lot of boys are conditioned to not like "girly" things, but Marvel's apparent viewpoint that female character = GIRL COOTIES that no boy will want to associate with is such a tired mindset. In the case with the Guardians birthday set, the person who mentioned it said the boy it was for would've loved to have Gamora more prominently included. I think she was included on a napkin, or something. Oh wow.
But maybe the hold-off on making Wasp and Captain Marvel playable, is, like you said, the movie-verse. What better way to gauge interest than rolling stuff like that out? I had heard that Wasp was originally supposed to be part of the Avengers movies, but they cut her due to Antman (and then seemingly killed her, but maybe Hope whatever is going to take over part of that character). The fact that they are dragging their heels on Captain Marvel frankly angers me (and they really missed their shot with a Black Widow origin story). I am not a fan of DC's grim-darkness of late, but I hope they finally do the Wonder Woman movie. It is majorly overdue. Like decades. Endless Batman/Superman reboots are just tiresome.
If little boys are repelled by anything girly, at which stage does that end so that a large portion of the male players of videogames like the departed City of Heroes have female avatars?
Yes, I'm excited about Agent Carter. However, she's currently not a superhero (unless they are going to give her some powers at some point during the show/movie-verse). Marvel has a lot of other female characters with powers that they haven't done much with yet. (And they are doing *more* male superheroes as leads for their Netflix series...why couldn't one of them been a woman, instead? She-Hulk could've been a good one, for instance.) I haven't really read much Marvel stuff as far as comics go, so I don't know if they've spent all of their energy historically on their female X-Men characters and not on their others. But still, it's no excuse. And a bit insulting to female fans (which I don't think many major comic houses think highly of at all). But I guess we're supposed to be happy with whatever is thrown our way and smile.
Some of the non-core-demographic will lurk on the internet bemoaning the lack of better My Little Pony merchandise, but good lord there's a lot of candy-colored plastic out there.
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james_davis_nicoll) wrote2014-10-01 01:49 am
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Also, there was a cartoon that was cancelled not too long ago (can't remember which one) that was supposedly cancelled due to having too large of a female audience. Apparently the suits felt the female viewers didn't buy enough merch? I mean, little girls love stuff like Disney, so I dunno, maybe if you suits made an effort, you too could sell some poorly made and overpriced merch. But effort is hard, I guess.
But I will say that if Marvel (or DC) finally gets off their butt and puts out a female-led superhero film in the next few years, I might actually buy an overpriced movie ticket (the first one in many moons) and a disc when it comes out, b/c the suits apparently need a whack upside the head and it only seems to work with money. I am sure they will pooh pooh it though, since they are always surprised/fake surprised over and over when movies outside of the recent "Hollywood norm" do well. I am going to be watching the hell out of Agent Carter when it airs on ABC this spring, though. I don't have a Nielsen box or fancy DVR or anything like that, unfortunately. My online legal views and maybe a DVD will have to do.
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In Infinity, my daughter rarely plays as Black Widow because, as the Badass Normal of the bunch, she starts out with the least impressive powers; the game design hobbles characters who can't fly. But the Wasp and Captain Marvel can fly! Too bad you can't play them. Of course, the decision to make Black Widow the sole playable female Avenger probably stems from the movies, but that just pushes the problem back one step.
I'm sure that if you ask the suits about this gendered kid-marketing, they'll say the same thing: that girls who play video games, etc. may accept male characters but little boys are repelled by anything girly, and that this is a real effect that impacts sales. To some extent, I'm sure it's true: I've definitely seen it in the wild. But it's a vicious cycle: the attitude is reinforced by the gendered marketing to kids, and then justifies more of the same.
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But maybe the hold-off on making Wasp and Captain Marvel playable, is, like you said, the movie-verse. What better way to gauge interest than rolling stuff like that out? I had heard that Wasp was originally supposed to be part of the Avengers movies, but they cut her due to Antman (and then seemingly killed her, but maybe Hope whatever is going to take over part of that character). The fact that they are dragging their heels on Captain Marvel frankly angers me (and they really missed their shot with a Black Widow origin story). I am not a fan of DC's grim-darkness of late, but I hope they finally do the Wonder Woman movie. It is majorly overdue. Like decades. Endless Batman/Superman reboots are just tiresome.
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On the other hand, Agent Carter the TV series. Which isn't bad for a character that was supposed to be mainly just the Love Interest.
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