As a superhero movie-loving teenager, I had to be content with the fact that not many of my favorite films featured women in top billing. The closest I got during the early 2010s was Black Widow in Iron Man 2, who was a great hero, but felt very catered to the male gaze in that black catsuit…
Don't get me wrong, I still loved watching Iron Man, Captain America, and the Avengers movies. But something always felt missing: where was my version of a kick-ass hero? And where was one who wasn't in a skin-tight suit – and who wasn't constantly being asked in the press about losing weight to fit into said skin-tight suit, for that matter?
