Homework 4 - The Comic Strip: Mary Marvel

While looking at the comic resource page, I was surprised to see the female character of Mary Marvel among Batman, Superman, and Black Panther. I hadn’t been aware that there were any comics from the 1940s besides Wonder Woman that specifically had stories to appeal to women, let alone with a character that had a prevalent role in upholding justice against male criminals. I was excited at first to see a female superhero in the early ages of comic books until I realized that she had been announced as the sister of Captain Marvel. This introduction of a girl character as a similar unit to a previous male character seems to follow a common trend, where when a successful male character has been developed and resonates with an audience, the creators would create a female counterpart to try and engage the young woman demographic. However, it doesn’t appear that this achieves the desired success, as perhaps it is not the gender that appeals to women.




Speaking as a woman, it is impossible to speak for 50% of the population, but even my friends and I have different tastes in media and characters that could be difficult to categorize. My theory is that if a story appeals to someone, they would likely engage with it despite the gender of the protagonist because I believe that in storytelling, people connect with characters’ decisions and personalities more than anything else. Not to say that gender has no effect on the connection between reader and story, but it is one factor among many. I’ve known many of my male friends who love Laura Croft, Shuri, or Tank Girl while I’ve known female friends who’ve related to Deadpool, Bojack Horseman, or Doctor Strange. I thoroughly enjoyed Mary Marvel’s adventure to defeat the criminal who reversed his age but could never really relate to modern-day Supergirl. If it was evident that women weren’t engaging with original “Superman” comics, would changing nothing but gender really prove to be a solution for 50% of people? I think as time goes on, creators are learning that people need more than just gender to engage with in media, though it may be the first step to appealing certain groups of people.