Marvel films, it's time for a Black female lead

[Infern0]

White female leads in media are getting as common as white male leads. The push for diversity is nice in theory but I feel that getting happy over attractive white women being the leads in all of these properties is getting tiresome.

Star Wars is supposedly diverse now and it does always have attractive white women being the best characters and it does do a good job of that but the minority races in those movies are comic relief, nobody noticed this and it's actually really racist and dissapointing.

In MCU it's a similar situation with Captain marvel being praised for having attractive white woman Bree Larsen be the main character although a black lady does get to be her sidekick and a black man her comedy sidekick

The new Thor movie is again going to be starring an attractive white woman front and center, although Valkyrie is going to be in it but we don't know to what extent, and will anyone really be surprised if she's mostly used as a figure of fun, and Pormans sidekick? I won't.

Black widow is coming soon featuring an attractive white woman as the star, as is Wanda Vision starring an attractive white woman as its star

Over on TV we broke new ground with the announcement of Batwoman which features an attractive white woman as its star.

Ant Man recently added an attractive white woman as Co star to its movies.

So yeah, I'm all for diversity but these studios need to figure out there is more social demographics out there than Stupid men and attractive white women.

 

[Tosk]

I'm down. What character?

 

[Nerys Myk]

Monica Rambeau.

 

[Mudd]

Well, most movie stars are attractive - to someone, anyway. I'm all for more attractive women starring in expensive tent pole movies.

 

[gblews]

I'm definitely in favor of this. But I'm pretty ignorant in this area. The only reason I know Monica Rambeau is because I saw Captain Marvel and read some of the lore.

But, I'd love to see another character get her shot.

 

[Infern0]

Monica Rambeau.

Would be an awesome selection, I was hoping for a Valkyrie solo film but that doesn't seem likely now.

Someone did make a case for an outside bet but what about an African or African American woman to play she-hulk? Or even a spider man character who isn't well known in silk, in that case it's be an Asian female lead but that'd be just as cool imho.

 

[Infern0]

Well, most movie stars are attractive - to someone, anyway. I'm all for more attractive women starring in expensive tent pole movies.

It's because there's no risk.

If you release a movie like captain marvel you are getting the female audience no questions asked, you are "risking" the male audience in theory but not really in reality. I know a lot of males who went to captain marvel because and I quote "she's hot"

 

[Nerys Myk]

Well I am of the opinion, Monica was robbed of the "Captain Marvel" title decades ago. So I think she's owed something.

 

[Kai "the spy"]

It may be because I'm a white, cis, heterosexual male, or maybe it's because I'm more of a traditional comic book fan (please don't take that one out of context), but I feel more like, I wanna see this or that character from the comics in a movie, so starting with "we need a character heading one of these movies that's *insert demographic group here*". I totally understand this kind of thinking in others, mind you, and I totally support it. I just wanted to make it clear that that's not the way my thinking works.

Now, after this disclaimer that'll probably just create problems for me, let's get to my actual answer:

I liked the idea Marc Bernardin formulated on an episode of Fatman Beyond awhile ago, that the way to integrate the X-Men into the MCU should be done via solo movies, and the first one should be Storm.
Bernardin's idea was that the movie would be set in Africa, either Cairo, where she lives as a thief, or (if they wanna do this truthful to the comics) the Serengeti where she's worshipped as a goddess, and Professor Xavier would appear almost like an antagonist in Ororo's eyes (here's this white dude with a British accent wanting her to give up her life in her home to follow his orders and fight a war she's got nothing to do with).

As Storm is one of my favorite Marvel characters, who never got her due in the FOX movies, I really like this idea. Especially after finally reading Giant-Size X-Men #1 (the recently published facsimile edition), and the way Xavier recruited her (and a few of the others) felt rather jarring to me. Storm is among those who seemed to have found their place in the world already, and she gives it up way too easily, it actually made me suspecious if Xavier didn't maybe nudge her telepathically towards the decision he wanted.

So, yeah, Storm would be my pick. But I'd also be happy with a Monica Rabeau movie. Not only do I like her, she was Captain Marvel waaayyy before Carol.

 

[Nerys Myk]

Especially after finally reading Giant-Size X-Men #1 (the recently published facsimile edition), and the way Xavier recruited her (and a few of the others) felt rather jarring to me.

I didn't think so
Xavier: A most impressive display, Ororo. Truly beautiful
Ororo: Who are you? What business have you in Ororo's land?
Xavier: I am called Xavier, and I have come to make you an offer. I pray you will not refuse.
Ororo: An offer? What have you to offer a Goddess?
Xavier: You have a land, Ororo and a people who adore you. I offer you a world and a people who may fear you, hate you. But people who need you none the less. The world I offer in not beautiful, but it is real. Far more real tan the fantasy you're living know
You are no Goddess, Ororo and you have responsibilities. Come with me child. Taste the world outside. You may may find it's flavor bitter or surprisingly sweet.
Ororo: You present a most peculiar argument, yet I sense sincerity in your word. All right, I will come with you. Perhaps the time has come for me to leave the nest at last.

 

[Greg Cox]

Storm is probably Marvel's most high-profile black heroine. And Marvel has finally got the movie rights to her back, so . . .

 

[Kai "the spy"]

I didn't think so
Xavier: A most impressive display, Ororo. Truly beautiful
Ororo: Who are you? What business have you in Ororo's land?
Xavier: I am called Xavier, and I have come to make you an offer. I pray you will not refuse.
Ororo: An offer? What have you to offer a Goddess?
Xavier: You have a land, Ororo and a people who adore you. I offer you a world and a people who may fear you, hate you. But people who need you none the less. The world I offer in not beautiful, but it is real. Far more real tan the fantasy you're living know
You are no Goddess, Ororo and you have responsibilities. Come with me child. Taste the world outside. You may may find it's flavor bitter or surprisingly sweet.
Ororo: You present a most peculiar argument, yet I sense sincerity in your word. All right, I will come with you. Perhaps the time has come for me to leave the nest at last.

Well, it felt jarring to me.

I realize Len Wein only had 36 pages to introduce a whole bunch of new characters and tell a story justifying them coming together, but it did feel rather quick for such a life-changing decision.
Plus, the responsibility line sounded off, considering the people who worshipped Ororo because they depended on her. Ororo is just gonna leave them on their own to help a small group of people she doesn't know, and probably never even heard of?
Also, Ororo "sensed sincerity in his words". Now, come on, considering what Xavier is capable of, both in telepathic abilities and the way he can behave quite manipulative, can you honestly tell me this doesn't sound at least suspicious?

My point is, this meeting which took all of five panels could use some fleshing out, and that could be done well in a Storm solo movie to start off the MCU X-Men.

 

[Nerys Myk]

Also, Ororo "sensed sincerity in his words". Now, come on, considering what Xavier is capable of, both in telepathic abilities and the way he can behave quite manipulative, can you honestly tell me this doesn't sound at least suspicious?

Chuck wasn't written as a dick in those days.

 

[Gaith]

If we're talking about American characters specifically (though there's no reason we should be), seeing as Latinas outnumber Black women, one could argue for a Latina lead before any others. Still, the overall point is well taken. There was no need for Star -Lord, Ant-Man, Doctor Strange, and Peter Parker to have all been white Yanks - especially when Cumberbatch is doing an unnecessary accent, to boot.

 

[Infern0]

If we're talking about American characters specifically (though there's no reason we should be), seeing as Latinas outnumber Black women, one could argue for a Latina lead before any others. Still, the overall point is well taken. There was no need for Star -Lord, Ant-Man, Doctor Strange, and Peter Parker to have all been white Yanks - especially when Cumberbatch is doing an unnecessary accent, to boot.

I particularly liked Wonderwoman which starred an Israeli woman with a white woman being her comedy assistant, more movies like that would be great.

Maybe in a storm movie we can have an African American American lead with Melissa McCartney as her comedy sidekick who we all laugh at her pratfalls

 

[Grendelsbayne]

Chuck wasn't written as a dick in those days.

Xavier's always been written as a dick. Except for arguably a brief period around the early 90s where he was mostly humbly bonding with new team members and waxing poetic over his older students.

For the thread subject: I'm not at all convinced that white female stars have become 'just as common' as male ones. But I do agree it's definitely (past) time for more non-white stars, both male and female, especially in the MCU which after 23 movies still only has Black Panther in this category (and Shang Chi on the way and no non-white female stars even announced).

As for who it should be:

Storm. Storm storm storm storm. Did I mention Storm? Yeah. She's one of the biggest characters in Marvel comics, decades long co-lead (with Xavier and Cyclops and Wolverine) of the most successful superhero franchise in Marvel history and she was treated like crap by fox. If Feige has any sense at all (and I expect he does), Storm will be a huge deal in the MCU.

Kamala Khan is one of the most popular modern characters in the comics with great story, supporting characters, the whole package. She's a no-brainer (and Feige has publicly confirmed he has 'plans' for her, though we don't know what yet).

Ironheart is probably less likely, but it's one character I've definitely been hoping for anyway. And with how far they went with Pepper in Endgame, I feel an Ironheart movie potentially co-starring Paltrow as a mentor would work really well. But I fear if they do make one they might just take the name and give it to Tony's daughter Morgan rather than use the totally separate character of Riri Williams.

Both Valkyrie and Shuri could easily carry a Disney+ show at least, if we're counting those (which we seem to be counting WandaVision, so I guess the answer is yes).

X-23 was hispanic in Logan, even though I don't think that's the case in the comics. I think it would make sense to keep that change since that was the character's movie debut and it worked really well. I also think it would make sense to make X-23 marvel's primary Wolverine to help differentiate the MCU X-men from the Fox stuff (Keep Logan himself as a mysterious, nomadic figure, perhaps). If they were to do that, giving her her own film would be a good idea.

And there are other characters who could potentially be race bent for the mcu without issue. Songbird and Squirrel Girl are two that I would love to see get their own films and nothing about their stories requires them to be white.

Also, I still have my doubts about how (and if) the Deadpool series will truly be integrated into the MCU, but if it is I'd definitely love to see a Zazie Beetz Domino movie, or a Disney+ series at the very least. Hell, even if the Deadpool series isn't integrated into the MCU but just continues to be its own thing, I'd love to see Zazie get her own film.

 

[Captain pl1ngpl0ng]

i would watch a Misty Knight series with a young Pam Grier as the lead...

 

[Jinn]

A Monica Rambeau movie is just about the only thing Marvel could announce to actually make me excited.

 

[Jayson1]

Well I have had this idea of a movie starring Shuri with Martin Freeman's character as a side kick along Luc Cage from the show having to stop some villan plot. Jason

 

[JoeZhang]

Misty Knight all the way for me.