Ant-Man and the Wasp: Marvel's Wishy-Washy Feminism is Just a Gimmick to Make Box-Office Hits

Ant-Man and the Wasp: Marvel's Wishy-Washy Feminism is Just a Gimmick to Make Box-Office Hits

What is the point of a string of strong female characters if they are just there to be sidelined by superheroes?

Feminism is a delayed movement in the Marvel Cinematic Universe. With superheroes in latex suits and cape wearing demi-gods fighting intergalactic battles with the evil forces, trying to save the Earth and the nine realms, who had time for feminism anyway? 

Surely not the Marvel Studio gods! Besides, until DC's Wonder Woman raked in a whopping $412 million in the domestic market alone, Marvel Studio heads didn't even think feminism was a profitable business.

In an email exchange that was unearthed during the Sony Hack back in 2015, the CEO of Marvel Entertainment, Ike Perlmutter had told the then CEO of Sony Pictures Entertainment, Michael Lynton, why superhero films with female leads are a bad idea. 

Perlmutter had given the example of the film 'Elektra' which was a box-office dud and called Catwoman as well as Supergirl films– disasters.

However, things are certainly different in the post-Wonder Woman world, and Marvel will be damned if Detective Comics beat them to the punch in the race to feminism. Rumour has it that phase 4 of Marvel films will be all about female domination. 

As we approach the end of phase 3, there is ample indication that some interesting female characters will populate the Marvel Universe in future. 

For starters, let's hurrah! that the distress signal that was sent by S.H.I.E.LD agent, Nick Fury (Samuel L Jackson), at the end of Avengers: Infinity War was to Captain Marvel (Brie Larson), who happens to be a woman.

Unfortunately, the painfully slow pace with which Marvel has been evolving its already existing female characters show that gender bias runs deep in their system. 

Much is being made out of the fact that Evangeline Lilly (a woman) plays the titular role of 'the Wasp' in Marvel's latest cinematic outing Ant-Man and The Wasp that almost makes you feel proud of Bollywood for making Nagina in 1986, a film that shows a woman (Sridevi) with the supernatural powers as the protagonist. 

In Ant-Man and The Wasp, Lilly's Wasp aka Hope Van Dyne gets slightly more screen-time than Black Widow (Scarlett Johansson) does in most Avengers films.

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