6 Lessons We Learned From 2016’s Superhero Movies

4) More Leading Women/Ethnic Minorities

The superhero movie genre has a poor track record with leading female and ethnic minority characters. Yes, there exists a handful of comic book films with women or African-Americans in the lead – Elektra, Catwoman, Steel ­– but unfortunately, most have been awful. Recently, strong female characters like Marvel’s Black Widow and X-Men’s Mystique have been a welcome addition, but they’re still only part of a bigger, male-led, ensemble cast. Likewise, the trend for black characters to be stuck as the sidekicks to the white heroes – e.g. War Machine and Falcon – is a bit problematic.

2016’s superhero movies made some big steps in diversifying the landscape, however, and were met with a lot of praise for it. Civil War introduced the kickass Black Panther, and now fans can’t wait for his 2018 solo movie (which will be the first MCU movie with a black lead). Elsewhere, Gal Gadot’s Wonder Woman threatened to steal the show in BvS and Harley Quinn and Will Smith’s Deadshot were the two standout characters of Suicide Squad.

In 2017, DC will give us Wonder Woman and Cyborg as a founding member of the Justice League, with Gotham City Sirens (starring Margot Robbie’s Harley) to come in the next few years as well. Marvel, meanwhile, have got Captain Marvel and the aforementioned Black Panther on the slate and are always taking about a Black Widow solo film. This can only be a good thing, and we hope the upward trend won’t lose its steam anytime soon.