13) Emma Peel – The Avengers
Back before The Avengers was synonymous with a group of superheroes, and back before Black Widow strutted her stuff in a leather catsuit, there was a different kind of Avengers and a different redhead making her kick-ass credentials known to the world at large. She also happened to wear a leather catsuit.
Mrs. Emma Peel might not be a movie character (unless you count the risible 1998 Uma Thurman incarnation), but she’s influenced plenty of them, and no list of kick-ass women would be complete without her. Mrs. Peel arrived on the small screen in 1965, and promptly stepped into pop culture lore. A lanky auburn-haired beauty in a tight leather outfit, she also happened to be a brilliant mathematician who wrote papers on thermodynamics in her spare time, had a working knowledge of chemistry, botany, and astronomy, was an amateur sculptor and modern artist…oh, and also learned both judo and karate for the hell of it.
Emma Peel used her formidable fighting skills and equally formidable wit to assist her friend and partner John Steed in defeating diabolical masterminds who threatened the future of Britain and, perhaps, the world. In the person of Diana Rigg (yes, Olenna Tyrell did have a life before Westeros), Emma Peel was far more than just eye-candy (though she was that too). Steed always treated her as an equal, and she would have accepted nothing less – an attitude that was groundbreaking in 1965, and is still unfortunately missing from a lot of kick-ass partnerships today.
Emma Peel was a feminist character who never made an issue of her feminism or her femininity – she knew she was equal to men, and never had to prove it. Whether she was battling man-eating plants from outer space, crazed scientists with weather machines, or resurrections of the Hellfire Club, Emma Peel was always cool, tough, and stylishly kick-ass. Without her, I can assure you that Scarlett Johansson would never have stepped into that suit. While Emma did return briefly in the ill-conceived 1998 film of The Avengers, there is only one true Mrs. Peel. Underestimate her at your peril.
– Lauren Humphries-Brooks
