There’s no denying this is a great time for female superheroes, even if comics and
movies aren’t exactly free of sexism.
Wonder Woman made a huge comeback in recent years, Kamala Khan is one of the most popular
new heroes of the decade, and everyone seems to be obsessed with Harley Quinn.
To celebrate the women who save the day and inspire us across all media, we’ve ranked
the top 33 female superheroes of all time.
Soon to co-star alongside Jeremy Renner’s Hawkeye in a Disney+ live-action series, Kate
Bishop is Clint Barton’s protege.
She’s a teenage girl with a tough attitude, best known as a member of the Young Avengers
team.
Just like her mentor, she wears purple and fights with a bow and arrow.
What’s not to love?
Three women have fought crime under the Huntress moniker, becoming a regular mainstay of Batman
team comics.
Thanks to her live-action role in the TV series Arrow and the Birds of Prey movie, Helena
Bertinelli is now the best-known version of the character: a badass gymnast and hand-to-hand
fighter, with excellent crossbow skills.
Introduced in 1964, Scarlet Witch and her twin brother Quicksilver are a duo of long-running
X-Men and Avengers characters.
Armed with magical powers, Scarlet Witch straddles the line between Marvel’s traditional superhero
stories and more fantastical fare.
Played by Elizabeth Olsen in the MCU, she recently got a revamped origin story in WandaVision.
Laura Kinney, aka X-23, is Wolverine’s clone.
She sometimes uses the Wolverine alias herself, armed with similar enhanced healing abilities
and adamantium-coated claws.
Created for the X-Men: Evolution animated series in 2003, she’s since become a fan-favorite
character.
Debuting in 1947, Black Canary has a long history at DC Comics.
As part of the Gotham City pantheon, she’s a masked crime-fighter.
Her signature superpower involves an ultrasonic scream known as the “Canary Cry.”
Her costumes run to the “black leather and fishnet stockings” end of the scale, making
her something of a sex symbol, and since 2012, Caity Lotz has portrayed the character in
Arrow and its spinoffs.
The original Wasp, Janet van Dyne, was one of the founding members of the Avengers.
Like Ant-Man, her suit allows her to shrink to a tiny size.
She’s armed with a couple of extra powers: insectoid wings and energy blasts.
In her private, life she’s often portrayed as a renowned fashion designer.
Her marriage to the original Ant-Man Hank Pym is sometimes depicted as abusive.
Michelle Pfeiffer plays her in Ant-Man and the Wasp, sadly relegated to a supporting
role after Janet’s daughter adopted the Wasp persona herself.
Sue Storm, aka the Invisible Woman, is an icon of the Marvel Universe.
As a key member of the Fantastic Four, her superpowers include invisibility and creating
force fields.
In some ways, her characterization plays into traditional gender roles, defined by her relationships
as Mr. Fantastic’s Wife and Johnny Storm’s sister.
But in the right hands, she can be a really compelling character.
It would undoubtedly help if Marvel hired a female writer to explore her role from a
new angle, but we also have high hopes for the upcoming Fantastic Four movie reboot within
the MCU.
Katana is a master swordswoman whose blade, the Soultaker, contains the soul of her dead
husband.
This is a rare example of a deceased man being the motivation for a female hero's tragic
backstory -- a trope typically known as “fridging.”
For more on this, check out my episode of Behind the Seams about the “Dead Wife”
trope, and why these characters often look the same in movies.
It’s linked here and in the description of this video.
But back to Katana: The Soultaker sword collects the spirit of every person it kills, allowing
communication between their ghosts and the wielder.
She made her big-screen debut in Suicide Squad, and often appears as a member of superhero
teams like the Birds of Prey or the black-ops squad the Outsiders.
First appearing in Valiant’s superhero comic Harbinger in 1992, Faith returned as a solo
hero in 2016.
Her superpowers of flight and force fields are unremarkable, but fans love her for her
relatability.
She’s a nerd, and explicitly into fandom - just like us!
She’s also the only plus-size superhero with any real name recognition.
This provides much-needed representation in a genre dominated by restrictive beauty standards.
Alien superhero Starfire is bubbly, eccentric, and often depicted as a sex symbol with mixed
results - sometimes a fun-loving sex-positive figure, other times exploitative and misguided.
Her adventures range from interplanetary intrigue to kid-friendly adventures on Earth.
Appearing in numerous DC comics, Starfire attracted a new generation of fans thanks
to her role in the animated series Teen Titans.
While Daisy Johnson is kind of a C-lister in the comics, she’s now the most established
superhero in Marvel’s TV franchise.
Arguably the true protagonist of Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D., she began as a young hacker
before gaining superpowers as an Inhuman.
She’s able to generate seismic vibrations, adopting the hero name Quake.
Big Barda is a cult favorite in DC Comics fandom.
Super-strong and ostentatiously costumed, she’s an alien from the planet Apokolips.
Her weapon, the Mega-Rod, provides an endless source material for punchlines.
A truly modern subversion of the superhero genre.
Jessica Jones is a recent addition to Marvel canon, created for the adult-rated comic Alias.
She’s a hard-drinking private detective with super strength and a dark past.
She used to be a traditional costumed superheroine named Jewel.
However, she dropped this persona after being brainwashed and abused by the mind-controlling
supervillain Kilgrave.
Now struggling with PTSD and alcoholism, she’s a private eye in New York best known for the
acclaimed titular Netflix series.
She-Hulk is an irresistibly fun character with a unique role in Marvel comics: a lawyer
to the superhero community.
She shares her cousin Bruce Banner’s Hulk powers, but unlike him, she retains her original
personality after hulking out.
Her power manifests as super strength, green skin, and a confident personality.
Tuxedo-wearing magician Zatanna has the capacity to be funny, weird, and deeply charming.
While she mostly exists as a team player, she definitely deserves more solo comics.
She’s a stage magician with actual magical powers and acts as an entertaining foil for
the seriousness of Batman.
Supergirl’s role overlaps a lot with Superman, and that’s just fine.
She represents a kind of cheerful, optimistic heroism that’s kind of rare in modern superhero
media.
Her ongoing TV show celebrates that legacy.
It’s arguably a better adaptation of the Superman mythos than the Justice League movie
franchise, and benefits from a healthy dose of family-friendly feminist themes.
Golden Age Z-lister Ma Hunkel is an early superhero parody, and she’s completely awesome.
She’s a sturdy middle-aged mom who dons thermal underwear and a helmet made out of
a cooking pot.
You have to admire a woman named “Red Tornado” who fights petty criminals in her neighborhood.
This deadly assassin exists on a knife’s edge between hero and villain.
Elektra’s not exactly evil, but hardly an altruistic role model either.
Armed with her trademark sai—a pair of triple-pronged daggers—she often appears alongside Daredevil,
and they share a tumultuous love story.
She’s one of the few female superheroes to get her own solo movie as well.
We prefer her depiction in Marvel’s Netflix franchise, both due to Elodie Yung’s sensitive
yet menacing performance and her thoughtfully redesigned costume.
Negasonic Teenage Warhead is on this list because her name is NEGASONIC TEENAGE WARHEAD,
a truly world-class superhero name.
She’s goth as hell, and she’s in the Deadpool movies; that’s all you need to know.
Batwoman has a rather ironic origin story, given her later role in the comics.
She first appeared as Batman’s love interest in the 1950s shortly after the publication
of Seduction of the Innocent.
In recent years she was rewritten to be gay herself.
This controversial decision led to some problems of its own.
While her comic’s creators wanted her to marry her girlfriend, DC Comics nixed the
decision by saying heroes “shouldn’t have happy personal lives.”
This dubious statement that sounds pretty ridiculous in the context of, say, Superman.
Despite all this, she’s undoubtedly the most high-profile lesbian superhero around,
with a key role in the Bat-family.
Squirrel Girl is canonically the most powerful character in Marvel comics, and if you’re
a comics fan you’ll know why.
She’s also unofficially one of the most fun female superheroes.
Born with squirrel-related powers, Doreen Green has a giant, bushy tail and can communicate
with squirrels.
This one’s a deep cut from the very early days of superhero comics.
We would love to see some kind of modern reboot.
Fantomah is a jungle ghost superhero whose face turns into a skull when she uses her
super-strength.
What’s not to love?
These fearsome freedom-fighters met and fell in love as members of the Dora Milaje, the
all-female squad of highly trained warriors who guard the king of Wakanda.
They act as antagonists in the current Black Panther series, but they’re definitely not
the bad guys.
It’s a complex story that positions them as vigilante heroes, protecting civilians
during a time of political upheaval.
And while they aren’t technically acknowledged as female superheroes, they definitely qualify
in our book.
America Chavez had a slightly awkward start in a limited series called Vengeance, portrayed
in a ludicrously skimpy costume.
Her real breakthrough happened in the 2013 Young Avengers comics.
She has many superpowers: strength, flight, interdimensional travel, and the power to
punch something and make it dissolve into stars.
Recently, she got a long-awaited solo series.
Natasha Romanov is an enigma.
As Black Widow, she ranges from femme fatale to pragmatic S.H.I.E.L.D.
agent.
She operates with opaque motives and uses psychological manipulation to handle her enemies.
Unlike comic book heroes who never age, Black Widow has a canonical explanation for her
eternally youthful appearance: Bioengineering means she could actually be in her 60s or
70s.
This doesn’t seem to be the case in the MCU, but who knows?
We’ll probably learn more in her upcoming solo movie.
Barbara Gordon is an influential member of the Bat-family as the daughter of Commissioner
Gordon and protégé to Bruce Wayne.
She was the original Batgirl, changing her callsign to Oracle after the Joker infamously
broke her spine in The Killing Joke.
It’s a dark and controversial moment in Batman canon, but it led to a unique recovery
arc for Barbara, as she forged a new role for herself as the information center of Batman’s
team.
Jean Grey arrived on the original X-Men team in 1963.
Since then, she’s seen a rollercoaster of plot twists and transformations.
Introduced as a teenager with telepathic and telekinetic powers, she’s one of the most
powerful mutants in Marvel canon, and plays a central role in decades of X-Men storylines,
including the Dark Phoenix Saga, which was recently adapted into a movie starring Sophie
Turner.
Kamala Khan is one of the biggest breakout superheroes of the 21st century.
She follows in the footsteps of teen heroes like Kitty Pryde and Peter Parker.
She’s a lovable, dorky kid who just wants to do the right thing.
However, it’s hard to juggle her newfound shapeshifting powers with her obligations
to friends, family, and school.
Her comics blend classic superhero themes with a contemporary tone, and are widely praised
for bringing a Muslim hero into the mainstream.
Carol Danvers used to be known as Miss Marvel, holding the title before Kamala Khan took
over.
Danvers played a background role in Marvel team comics since the 1970s.
But her popularity exploded when writer Kelly Sue DeConnick and artist Dexter Roy rebooted
her as Captain Marvel in 2012.
Her sporty jumpsuit is now a cosplay staple, and her fans are known as the Carol Corps.
Her actual powers are pretty conservative—super-strength, flight, and energy projection.
But her real strength lies in the quality of her solo comics.
Danvers is now on Marvel’s A-list, featuring heavily in recent crossover events.
Meanwhile in the MCU, she’s famously played by Oscar-winner Brie Larson.
Harley Quinn was originally intended as a side-character in Batman: The Animated Series.
No one could have predicted she’d become one of DC’s most recognizable characters.
As a quirky sidekick and Joker’s lover, she’s a controversial character whose role
means different things to different people.
To some she’s just a sexy pin-up; to others, she’s a sensitive portrayal of mental illness
and survival in an abusive relationship.
Her star power shone when she became the main selling point of the otherwise disappointing
Suicide Squad movie.
She’s basically DC’s Deadpool: a queer and unpredictable anti-hero with a weird sense
of humor and a dark past.
Ororo Munroe is a queen, a weather goddess, and a mutant leader.
She’s also unequivocally cool, from her punk look in the ’80s to her badass lightning
powers.
Storm doesn’t have as many solo comics as she should (and wasn’t treated very well
by the movie franchise).
Even so, she remains one of the most beloved X-Men characters.
And of course, there’s that epic romance with Black Panther, the superhero king of
Wakanda.
While Marvel leads the field in terms of mainstream superheroines, DC wins in the category of
female villains and anti-heroes.
Catwoman and Harley Quinn both enjoy worldwide popularity as engaging, morally ambiguous
characters with a wide range of canonical interpretations.
Originating as a burglar, Catwoman is one of Batman’s most well-known antagonists—as
well as being a sometimes love-interest.
Almost every superheroine wears a skin-tight costume and frequently gets drawn in weirdly
sexualized poses.
However, Catwoman is one of the few characters for whom performative sexuality is a legitimate
aspect of her role.
This sometimes leads to exploitative depictions, but plenty of creators get the balance right.
Michelle Pfeiffer and Eartha Kitt created her iconic depiction on screen.
Catwoman maintains a timeless appeal as a woman who takes what she wants and doesn’t
care what other people think.
The A-list of the A-list.
A literal goddess.
A feminist icon.
When her solo movie came out in 2017, people debated whether it somehow “failed” because
she couldn’t represent every feminist viewpoint on Earth.
(She obviously can’t, but that’s kind of the point.)
Wonder Woman was created in 1941 as a combination of utopian hero and fetish character.
Her long career covers everything from Greek mythology to political allegory to conventional
superhero team adventures with the Justice League.
Even better, she’s also canonically queer—something it took DC Comics several decades to admit
out loud.
There you have it, our epic list of the very best female superheroes of all time.
But if you have a favorite that we missed, be sure to call her out in the comments section
below.
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Thanks for watching, and we’ll see you in the next one.