Yes!

[selenak]

In this interview with Marvel honcho Kevin Feige, the passage about Black Widow made me dance the dance of joy. Then he goes on to discuss the question of female superheroines and whether or not they'll fair well on screen:

Q: There’s been talk of Scarlett Johansson’s Black Widow getting her own spin-off films. How far along are we from seeing the

Comments

[moonspinner]

A: Well, I would say Kill Bill, or I could go as far back as Alien and Aliens. When they’re done good, they are just awesome hero movies. It’s only when they don’t do well that they say, "Oh, it’s because it was about a woman." No, it’s because the movie was bad.

Q: How do you feel about a movie like Elektra, then?

A: [Pauses] Did you enjoy that movie?

Q: I enjoyed… parts of that movie.

A: Right. [Smiling] I think if that had been a better movie, more people would have come to see it.I find this so interesting. While I agree a lot with the earlier part of the quote (about good movies=good movies and bad movies=movies about women/black people, etc.), I think that there is also a phenomena where successful (note: not necessarily good) movies starring women are lumped as "teenage girl" flicks and are not taken seriously/derided by the "nerd-stream". But that is slightly OT anyway

[selenak]

Yes, I think he's very right that successful films starring a female main character like Kill Bill or the Alien quartet are "hero movies" while flops are declared to be women's pics etc.

Re: Elektra: I must admit I didn't watch it, word of mouth was too bad. So I can't judge it one way or the other on a personal basis myself.

[katiger]

I don't really want to give anything away about the movie but Joss did an absolutely amazing job with Black Widow.

[selenak]

I've seen the film three times already (since we got it a week before the US did in Europe), and I agree.

[night_train_fm]

For shame, selenak. Nothing can redeem JQ for One More Day and the half-decade of purgatory Spidey-fans have been forced through ever since.

Re: guys not watching stuff about women - Avatar: The Legend of Korra seems to be further disproving this

[selenak]

I didn't say he was redeemed; undoubtedly, he'll end up in the very special hell Book on Firefly says was reserved for people who talk in theatres for One More Day. Also he'll be forced to see a new editor retcon his retcon out of existence (I hope). I just said that this is why I, personally, cannot hate the marriage hating Joe Q. :)

Mandarin: I don't think they can do that in a way that's not offensive, unless they pull something like the second season of Heroes did and declare the Mandarin is really a white man in deliberate disguise as Temujin, which in turn will offend those fanboys who don't care about racial stereotypes anyway.

And ha, yes, the Abusive Boyfriend Armor would so work as a Torchwood plot.

[a_g_doren]

Hi.

Thanks for posting this interview here. I didn't read spoilery bits but the rest is great. I hope we do get to see a Black Widow movie and maybe when we go back to the X-men Storm can have her own movie.

[selenak]

Alas the X-Men are still in possession of Fox and thus in the hands of other decision makers. But maybe the Fox crowd will be impressed enough, especially since as Feige points out The Hunger Games is a very recent proof a genre film with a female heroine can be a big success, to branch out...