5 Best Female-Led Superhero Movies Ranked

Women superheroes have often gotten the short end of the stick in all media of artistic expression. Even though they’ve existed in comics since the 1940s, countless comic storylines involving characters like Captain Marvel or Wonder Woman often indulged in misogynistic tropes. As for superhero movies, women-led titles in this realm have often been demonized and seen as destined to be box-office flops. That’s in spite of titles like the worst superhero movies ever made or the superhero movies that bombed hardest at the box office, starring characters of all genders. “Kraven the Hunter” and 2019’s “Hellboy,” for instance, didn’t automatically ring the death knell for male-led superhero features.

Even so, women-led superhero movies can often either get erased or struggle to even exist. The five best female-led superhero movies in history (ranked below from “least best” to greatest) exemplify the artistry and power contained in quality motion pictures that just so happen to star women. Best of all, all five of these movies inhabit wildly different visual and tonal aesthetics. Some are grim meditations on psychological torment. Others are intimate family dramas. Still others are some of the most vibrant animated movies in history. There is no one way to identify as a woman (gender’s a societal construct, after all). 

Similarly, there’s no one way to create a quality superhero movie anchored by a lady. Grab your capes and swords, and let’s dive into the five best women-led superhero movies in cinema history.

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5. Thunderbolts*

Marvel’s Phase Five movies, no matter how much they made at the box office, had a wonky creative track record. This era of the Marvel Cinematic Universe kicked off with the bloated “Ant-Man and the Wasp: Quantumania” and, from there, kept delivering a deluge of features that were too crowded and too reliant on fan service for their own good. Arguably, the low point of the entire MCU (thanks to cultural flops like “The Marvels” and “Secret Invasion”), Phase Five still saw some quality MCU projects reaching the public. That included “Thunderbolts*,” a team-up movie anchored by Florence Pugh’s Yelena Belova from “Black Widow.”

In this title, Belova must unite with other MCU scoundrels, such as John Walker/U.S. Agent (Wyatt Russell) and Ava Starr/Ghost (Hannah John-Kamen), after they all realize they’ve been set up to die. “Thunderbolts*” suffers from some problems plaguing many modern MCU films, namely an excessively subdued color palette and frustratingly inert camerawork. However, it’s also a shockingly moving exercise, unafraid to keep its scope relatively intimate or to touch on raw material. Hinging the “Thunderbolts*” story around Belova also proves an inspired move since the tremendously talented Pugh lends immensely tangible vulnerability to this tormented assassin.

Pugh leads a terrific ensemble cast that also includes an endearing supporting turn from Lewis Pullman and humorous work from David Harbour as the closest thing Belova has to a father figure. While many Phase Five movies were distressingly hollow, “Thunderbolts*” actually had some verve and substance.

4. Birds of Prey

“Birds of Prey” practically deserves a spot on this list just because of director Cathy Yan closing out the film with Kesha’s toe-tapping tune “Woman.” However, Harley Quinn’s (Margot Robbie) first big solo movie was also a blast long before that Kesha track appeared on the soundtrack. For one thing, this project (with its non-linear narrative impulses, disdain for authority, and rollicking atmosphere) genuinely resonates as an anarchic exercise. For another, Yan doesn’t skimp on the vibrant colors throughout this production. A delightful set piece where Quinn bursts into a police station and starts blasting bright hues everywhere is especially a trip.

Meanwhile, screenwriter Christina Hodson comes up with some fun new iterations of classic DC Comics characters, including a lethal but insecure vision of Helena Bertinelli/The Huntress (Mary Elizabeth Winstead). Watching this assassin alternate between effortlessly slaughtering her foes and messily rehearsing her catchphrases in a mirror is a hoot. These lively figures inhabit various memorable fight sequences that make up the trickiest “Birds of Prey” action scenes. All that effort paid off tremendously, since this R-rated endeavor has plenty of unhinged mayhem up its sleeve. 

Margot Robbie’s unpredictable Harley Quinn performance is also a tremendously fun anchor for “Birds of Prey.” Especially exquisite are the moments Robbie portrays Quinn’s doctor past simmering to her chaotic surface. “Birds of Prey” isn’t devoid of flaws or weird storytelling choices, but those hiccups can’t diminish either the immense entertainment or the joys of details like that Kesha needle drop.

3. The Heroic Trio

Like so many classic superhero movies, director Johnnie To’s “The Heroic Trio” follows a collection of seemingly disparate people who can only save the day working together. In this case, those three individuals are Ching/Invisible Woman (Michelle Yeoh), Tung/Wonder Woman (Anita Mui), and Chat/Thief Catcher (Maggie Cheung). They all come from different backgrounds, and none of them can defeat the figure known as the Evil Master alone. Together, though, they can change everything and also headline an action film for the ages. Even given how iconic so many of Johnnie To’s action films were, “The Heroic Trio” was an especially extraordinary work.

For one thing, two of the women assembled for the lead roles, Maggie Cheung and Michelle Yeoh, are among the 13 best actresses of all time. Cheung, so mesmerizing in “In the Mood for Love,” proves extra riveting waltzing around, beating up bad guys, and clutching a shotgun with short hair. To boot, all three exceptional performers are handed a film that delivers all the maximalist entertainment one could want from an action movie. Each fight scene is littered with beats bound to make audiences go “How did they do that!?” while resplendent costume design is similarly omnipresent. 

While so many superhero movies are content to deliver drab hues and forgettable action sequences, “The Heroic Trio” drums up deeply specific spectacle worthy of its three leads. That’s especially impressive given how the thought of uniting Cheung and Yeoh for a superhero movie immediately inspires lofty artistic expectations.

2. Fast Color

Tragically dropped in early 2019 with minimal fanfare from Lionsgate, director Julia Hart’s “Fast Color” is a fascinatingly low-key take on the superhero movie. This production is a multi-generational odyssey about a family whose members, like the troubled Ruth (Gugu Mbatha-Raw), have superpowers. Ruth’s been trying to make it on her own, suppressing her superpowers for ages now, but when trouble rears its head, she returns home to her mom, Bo (Lorraine Toussaint), and her daughter Lila (Saniyya Sidney). Many “realistic” takes on superhero stories resort to shock value edginess or extreme graphic violence to reinforce their “grounded” bona fides.

“Fast Color,” meanwhile, embraces slower pacing and rawer emotional beats to communicate a story about superpowered people with emotionally tangible woes. Going this route lets characters like Bo take on such fascinating, intricate dimensions and lets performers like Toussaint and Mbatha-Raw flourish. The subversive tendencies of “Fast Color” extend to a finale upending superhero movie conventions by not only eschewing explosive action, but explicitly using superpowers for non-violent means. This is a motion picture richly devoted to specific character beats and struggles, not power fantasies.

The said finale also makes superb use of editing from Martin Pensa as “Fast Color” oscillates between the past and present. Balancing those two segments of Ruth’s life could lead other films to become overstuffed. Here, it’s just another beautiful “Fast Color” sequence. Released the same month as “Avengers: Endgame,” “Fast Color” is a tender vision of superhero cinema that should be emulated more.

1. Spider-Man: Across the Spider-Verse

The very first scene and the last shot in the ending of “Spider-Man: Across the Spider-Verse” center on Gwen Stacy/Spider-Woman. These facts reflect how “Across the Spider-Verse” is every bit her movie as it is Miles Morales’s (Shameik Moore). In that respect, “Across the Spider-Verse” does this character incredible justice. Not only does Gwen Stacy get plenty of action scenes where she memorably fights crime while donning an iconic super-suit, but “Across the Spider-Verse” also thwips up several moving sequences where Stacy has to “come out” to her police chief father as a vigilante.

This emotional subplot epitomizes the joys of these “Spider-Verse” movies. They’re maximalist wonders overflowing with all the goofiest elements imaginable from decades of Spider-Man comics. Yet they’re also capable of delivering such intimate and poignant portrayals of parent/child dynamics. In this case, Stacy’s frustrations about her father and struggles to find a new place where she can “fit in” are realized with such deft success. That climactic scene where Stacy and her father finally have a raw conversation about her superhero identity (complete with beautiful accompanying abstract background animation) is more mesmerizing than many noisier, action-packed superhero finales.

These wonderful Gwen Stacy traits in “Across the Spider-Verse” journey are just some of the many artistic accomplishments here. This is a production bursting with visual and sonic creativity; every little detail in the sound design and backgrounds is delightful. It’s phenomenal that this richly realized version of Gwen Stacy anchored a masterpiece.

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Read the original article on Looper.