Ready For Their Close-Up: Three Women of Color Super-Heroes Who Should Have Their Own Films Now

Ghost in the Shell tanked at the box office, and it seems that studio executives are starting to understand that white-washing can hurt the bottom line. Now, perhaps, we’ll get some movies based on super-heroes who are women of color played by actresses who are actually women of color.

What has been puzzling about this whole controversy (beyond the obvious racism and sexism at the root of it) is that there are some hugely popular comic book characters that are women of color. Each of the major movie super-hero series has ignored some obviously blockbuster-able properties.

Here’s my list of the WOC super-hero movie that each studio should green-light stat:

The X-Men Series (Fox) — Storm (Ororo Monroe)

Storm is one of the most popular characters in the entire Marvel comics cannon, but she has been ill served by the X-Men movies so far. Rather than the sweet, trembling weather-witch that Halle Berry portrayed, the Storm of the comics is all strength, dignity and fight. (I’m ignoring the portrayal of Storm in X-Men: Apocalypse because that movie was just terrible all around.) Simply put, Storm is bad-ass. Worshipped as a goddess in Africa, this powerful, regal warrior still has much of the scrappy child-thief she was in her youth at her core. Storm has been a leader of the X-Men (and often THE leader of the X-Men before it splintered into separate teams) for decades. Think about that, the X-Men has had a BLACK WOMAN leader since the early 1980’s. That’s a movie-worthy story unto itself. How amazing is Storm? When Cyclops wanted to run the X-Men again, Storm beat him in a fight for the job EVEN THOUGH SHE’D LOST HER POWERS. That’s right.

Now that the Wolverine trilogy has ended, Fox must be looking for its next solo project. There are rumors of an X-23 film and I can see the appeal (and of course, the film would star a Mexican/Canadian female character which is a great thing). But, Storm is far and away the far more established and popular character. Or, if Fox is already committed to X-23, why not pair them? X-23 certainly could use the example of a strong woman since up until now her mutant mentors have been Caliban, Charles Xavier and Wolverine. And, there are literally dozens of talented Black actresses who would be amazing as Storm. My first choice is Oscar winner Lupita Nyong’o — who, like Storm, is an African woman who has shown she can play strength. And I’d love for Tariji P. Henson to play Callisto, head of the Morlocks.

The Marvel Cinematic Universe (Marvel/Disney) — Ms. Marvel (Kamala Khan)

In 2014, Marvel announced that Captain Marvel would be its first MCU movie starring a female super-hero. It was something of a puzzling choice, because fans had been begging for a Black Widow movie (ironically, if Marvel had done a film based on Scarlett Johansson’s character, we may have avoided the whole Ghost in the Shell debacle). And, although I love Carol Danvers and am looking forward to the movie, Captain Marvel isn’t a world-known iconic character like Spider-Man, The Hulk, or most importantly, DC’s Wonder Woman.

If Marvel was going to have to introduce movie audiences to a character that many of them didn’t know, why not go with the more intriguing choice of Ms. Marvel? Kamala Khan, a Muslim-American teen, was a breakthrough and breakout character when introduced in early 2014. A hit both with comic-buyers and critics, Khan can morph her body into anything and has fought with and against some of Marvel’s most famous super-characters. She is now an Avenger. What makes this Ms. Marvel such a standout, though, is just how relatable and normal a teen she is. Plus, she is an old school optimistic super-hero (rather than one of the tortured damaged super-heroes that are so in vogue right now). In fact, this New York Times Best Seller and award-winning comic book created a template for younger women characters that has been followed by other series, including Batgirl (Batgirl of Burnside) and Ironman (Riri Williams). And, as if that all wasn’t enough, this is a super-hero movie that America really needs right now. The power of a Muslim-American girl putting on that most All-American symbol — the super-hero cape — sends a message about what our nation actually stands for.

If I were running the MCU, I’d announce Ms. Marvel stat and put it on the fast track with a young unknown star and provide support to her from already established MCU super-heroes (much like they are doing with Spider-Man: Homecoming).

The DC Extended Universe (Warner Brothers) — Batgirl (Barbara Jordan)

With Wonder Woman about to hit theaters, Gotham City Sirens announced, and Batgirl apparently a go, the DC Extended Universe is far ahead of its competitors in investing in movies featuring women characters. But, announcements are easy; making good movies with strong female characters of all races is something else entirely.

Like everyone else, I’m hopeful that Wonder Woman will live up to the hype. The movie features many women characters (in addition to the Amazons, the film includes Etta Candy as Diana’s female friend in our world). And, it does appear that some effort has been made to include women of color among the Amazons. We’ll have to see if these Amazons are fleshed out characters of import, or merely token window dressing.

As for Gotham City Sirens (does everyone else hate that name as much as I do), there are rumors that Poison Ivy and/or Catwoman will be played by a woman of color. Given the fact that Catwoman is one of the few iconic supers to have been played by African-American women in the past (Eartha Kitt and Hally Berry), it would be a shame if DC took a step backwards here. Let’s just hope that the other characters in Sirens aren’t as hyper-sexualized as Harley Quinn in Suicide Squad.

This brings us to the recent announcement about Batgirl. When I first drafted this article, I was going to suggest that Starfire (Koriand’r) be added to the Justice League. But, then came the news about the Batgirl movie. I know that the premise here is “women of color comic book characters being played by actresses of color”. But why wait for a hypothetical movie when there is one already tee’d up?

There is absolutely no reason why Barbara Jordan has to be white. She is a unique character in the DC universe because she was created for the needs of the TV show in the 1960’s. Comic book cannon was changed to give Commissioner Gordon a daughter who wore the cape. If the film needs in 2017 are that Barbara Gordon is Latinx, or African-American, or Asian-American, there is no reason that the comic-book cannon can’t be re-shaped again. And it should be. Joss Whedon has proven time and time again that he can write amazing women heroes that reflect the experiences of real women. I trust that, much as he did with Zoe on Firefly/Serenity, he can bring us a powerful woman of color in this film.

Finally, a note about the Justice League. In the upcoming film, Wonder Woman will be the sole female super-hero, just as she’s been in countless TV and animated film versions of this team. This tired “tokenism” trope has got to go. It is 2017 people. After the Batgirl solo film, she needs to be added to the League.