Thread:Chipiminton/@comment-27074754-20151013205247/@comment-4651179-20151013221944

In my opinion, the role of women in comics has changed dramatically over the more than fifty years of Marvel Comics. And it can be seen that the role of women has changed due to two main reasons.

The first reason is that simply writers started treating women more equally, like proper human beings instead of objects of desire or physically and emotionally weak supports for the powerful hero.

The primordial example of an evolved female character is Sue Storm, the Invisible Woman (formerly Invisible Girl). When Fantastic Four started being published, Sue was without doubt the most useless member of the team. She was meek, submissive towards Reeds, and even expressed desire to "set up housekeeping as Mrs. Reed Richards." Comic Book Resources even made a list of 'thriteen times Sue was kidnapped in the first fifty issues of the series. Her initial powerset also reflected Sue's treatment: She only had the power of personal invisibility.

At some point readers demanded the book to get rid of her. Lee and Kirby replied to the criticism towards the Invisible Girl in the form of a comic. In the opening sequence of Fantastic Four #11, the team reads numerous letters, with some of them demanding Sue to leave. And Reed defended her... by comparing Sue to Lincoln's mother. That scene is basically Reed telling people "Yup. Sue is pretty useless and barely fights, but she inspires us!"

Over the course of time, Sue became more prominent, specially under writer John Byrne. Sue would become more confident, emotionally strong, and two external changes reflected these changes in her personality. She gained the ability to generate invisible force field, an ability that would become more and more powerful over the years, and she would ultimately stop calling herself Invisible Girl in favor of the new alias of Invisible Woman. From some sort of weak side character, she has become arguably the most powerful member of the team.

There are other two characters that went through a similar proces as Sue. Jean Grey from the X-Men and the Wasp. Jean Grey started as the only girl in the X-Men, an eye candy every male character lusted after (even Professor X), whose powers were a bit more useful than Sue's but not quite a threat. She would ultimately develop her telephatic and telekinetic abilities to become one of the most powerful mutants. I can't really delve into the Wasp considering I'm not very familiar with her beginnings, but if I recall correctly, she was extremely submissive towards Hank Pym, her boyfriend.

The second reason is centered around readership. For a long time, comic book have been aimed towards a male readership. Super heroines are no longer predominately seen through and for the male gaze. Just look at the evolution of Carol Danver's attire, from this to this, for an example. A lot of super heroines have gained traction due to the influence of social justice that has influenced different types of medias, with both Marvel and DC having more solo female tiles than ever, and keeping the ratio between super heroines and super heroes exposure more proportionate.