Lately, there has been quite the trend in comics and that is the growing amount of strong female lead characters. There were already a few to begin with but it seems women are more prevalent in what has always been a male dominated cast of heroes and villains. A big reason is the readership, more women are starting to read comics than ever before. Even though many did beforehand now more than ever are we seeing a large spike in female readership.
However, most heroes and villains have always been male and quite masculine, but times and readers call for change. It's not to say that comics are slowly deleting their most popular characters and replacing them all with women but what you notice is a larger amount of women in comics, whether they have their own book or take a major role in another character's book.
Big surprise hits have come in the form of these new books. Books such as Ms. Marvel, She-Hulk, Elektra, and Black Widow have all brought a good perspective to these characters, made them stronger lead characters, and made them interesting reads.
However, most heroes and villains have always been male and quite masculine, but times and readers call for change. It's not to say that comics are slowly deleting their most popular characters and replacing them all with women but what you notice is a larger amount of women in comics, whether they have their own book or take a major role in another character's book.
Big surprise hits have come in the form of these new books. Books such as Ms. Marvel, She-Hulk, Elektra, and Black Widow have all brought a good perspective to these characters, made them stronger lead characters, and made them interesting reads.
Another huge change this year that was announced was Thor "becoming a woman" as to say that the true Thor became unworthy to carry Mjolnir and a woman was able to lift the hammer of the God of Thunder. Thor is still a huge part of the Marvel universe and did not disappear simply because there is a new female God of Thunder who wields his hammer but now there are two interesting stories for two interesting characters. One of her stories and those belonging to Thor himself, also adding to the mixture is Angela who is a sibling to both Thor and Loki who came to Marvel during the Original Sin storyline and now has her own title Angela: Asgard's Assassin. Thing about her is that they've been able to decently blend her into the Marvel world when initially Angela was a character in the Spawn universe but due to reasons that are long and complicated, Angela's creator took her elsewhere. So that is two powerful females now centre stage in Asgard.
Along with that you see DC going with a completely new direction on Batgirl, which has sparked both joy and disdain. Many felt that straying from the traditional path set for Batgirl, the one that had gone on through 34 issues of the New 52, something that itself was still an interesting read was a bad idea and it was a risky move on DC's part. However upon the release of Batgirl #35, the new version of Barbara Gordon, her new setting and story, and especially her new costume became quite a hit. It took me some time to get used to the idea that Batgirl was not as edgy as it used to be and seemed more of a teenage oriented book with a younger Barbara Gordon. It has since grown on me and I do enjoy the "first two issues" of the new version of Batgirl.
And over the past few months, Supergirl has become one of DC's stronger female characters, plot, writing, and creativity wise. The "Red Daughter of Krypton" story arc which took place over the Supergirl, Red Lantern, and a few Green Lantern books was some of the better DC stuff to come out this year. It was a great read and something that DC has always shown, that Kara (Supergirl) has always been full of rage and hatred because of what happened to Krypton and her family. They finally gave it a great story by letting that rage fully consume her to the point that a red power ring found its way to her finger and started her path as a Red Lantern. She was part of a Red Lantern Corps that was already being led by Guy Gardner, who started out as a "mole" for the Green Lanterns but had officially taken over for Atrocitous as leader of the Corps. which would eventually lead to a war between the two. It was a great story that ended in a good resolution and I hope that they continue to explore other aspects of Supergirl's personality, if she were to become a Red Lantern again, I would be okay with that as well though it is highly unlikely.
I have to say that the push of stronger female characters has been good for the industry and good for the readers so it's something I hope they continue, I hope they don't get carried away with, but do hope they continue. When I say get carried away with, companies do have a tendency to force things down on people so if they find that comfortable balance of strong male and strong female characters, like there is now, then things will be fine but there's always a possibility of overdoing it.