Marvel for Women

by Cristina | Last Updated: April 13, 2021

Yes! Marvel for Women!

Hi, my name is Cristina, and I’m a Marvel super nerd. What? Super heroes aren’t your thing. I get it. You probably aren’t into Regency romances either, but that stopped absolutely none of us from devouring Bridgerton. Is Marvel for Women? I think so.

Liam Daniel / ©Netflix / Courtesy Everett Collection

If you had asked me 3 years ago about Marvel, I would have replied with a pretty similar unenthusiastic “meh”.  I hadn’t been keeping up with it, and I had just assumed it was more for my husband and comic diehards.  Then it hit me right in the face, like a swing of mighty Thor’s hammer.   

The Marvel bug got me on a plane back in 2019, remember travel in 2019?  Anyway, I had some time to kill, and saw Avenger’s End Game was an option.  I hadn’t seen a single Marvel movie since Iron Man when I was in college, but I had 8 hours to kill and the movie is about 3 hours long so I figured why not.  Besides it stars Chris Hemsworth and Chris Evans (and their respective arms), so it felt like it couldn’t be too bad.  Fast forward two and a half hours, and there I am on a plane, sobbing with my son passed out on my lap, blowing snot out of my nose.  I was in a full on ugly cry.  

biceps for days…

I didn’t see any of it coming.  Probably because I hadn’t seen Avengers: Infinity War, the movie that directly proceeds this one or any other Marvel movie recently.  It was more than that.  I just wasn’t expecting a superhero movie to have so much damn heart!  I am not sure if I am old-school, but I did not think that Marvel was for Women.

You were right

Where had I been this entire time?  I know, fellow Marvel nerds, I know.  You had been telling me.  You had been telling us all, since Day 1 and I just brushed it off.  I just thought I knew better.  It just didn’t seem like it was really geared towards women.

I was dead wrong.  The mission was abundantly clear.  I had to take a Marvel deep dive.  I had to know about every single one of our super heroes.  Who were they? Where were they from? Who makes all the uniforms? I knew there was a Captain America and an Iron Man, but who is Black Widow? And why does Paul Rudd look younger than he did when he played Josh in Clueless? A.  Million.  Questions.

Marvel is more than just a bunch of insanely good looking people saving the galaxy.  I think the real Marvel magic is watching the characters and the storylines develop over time.  You get to watch these characters grow and change with each movie, and it captures you.  The way they have weaved the movies together using characters and details that overlap and interact is so incredible and fun to watch.  

The Marvel team has found a way to bring something for everyone.  My kids are big into Ant Man.  They think Paul Rudd and his super human power to be tiny is hilarious, and they also think he is younger than me.  We are huge fans of Guardians of the Galaxy mainly for the outrageous soundtrack and obviously we got very big into Groot (the little tree).  

Bring on the romance, again, Marvel for Women delivers…

There are a few different love stories sprinkled throughout the universe.  For those of us who love a little unexpected romance, we get to see adorable snippets of Wanda and Vision, Tony Stark and Pepper Potts, and of course our Captain America and Peggy, the woman he goes back in time to dance with.  There is also the strong friendship theme woven into each movie.  It’s fun to put the history of the characters together with each movie, and see where they each meet and how the relationship grows.  

Stars, Kanye and music

Finally there is a list of special guest stars that has blown me away: Glenn Close, Cate Blanchett, Anthony Hopkins, Angela Bassett, Jude Law, Benecio Del Torro, Sylvester Stallone, Lupita Nyongo, Annette Benning, Josh Brolin, and more that just show up as villains or other special cameos.  

Most people would tell you to do the Marvel deep dive carefully and methodically.  I threw logic out of the window and watched strictly based on whose origin story I wanted to hear first.  Dove straight into Captain America.  I am Team Captain America, and will neither confirm or deny that this had anything to do with his arms, but the truth is, after watching End Game, how could you not be?  That happened to work out because apparently Captain America is the starting point for a classic Marvel journey.  

Then I moved onto Black Panther, for three reasons.  First the women in End Game are badass.  Second, the Weeknd and Kendrick Lamar did the entire soundtrack.  Third, because Kanye could not stop talking about Wakanda, and I had to know.   You see what I mean? Zero rhyme.  Zero reason.  

My Marvel journey continued on this way, either me or one of the kids would pick our next hero until each and every movie was finished.  I will admit that this was probably not the best way.  I have gone back and watched the more important films in chronological order. The Marvel universe is so big, there are so many details and characters that doing it out of order will leave you extremely confused. I (and my fellow Marvel nerds) would suggest following the timeline (Our personal family favorites are highlighted):  

The proper MCU (Marvel Cinematic Universe) timeline:

  1. Captain America The First Avenger
  2. Captain Marve
  3. Iron Man 
  4. Iron Man 2 
  5. The Incredible Hulk (you can skip this one)
  6. Thor 
  7. Marvel’s The Avengers 
  8. Iron Man 3 
  9. Thor: The Dark World (can probably skip this one) 
  10. Captain America The Winter Soldier 
  11. Guardians of the Galaxy (just for the soundtrack alone)
  12. Guardians of the Galaxy Volume 2
  13. Avengers Age of Ultron 
  14. Ant Man 
  15. Captain America Civil War 
  16. Spiderman Homecoming 
  17. Doctor Strange
  18. Black Panther 
  19. Thor: Ragnarok (incredible)
  20. Avengers: Infinity War 
  21. Antman and the Wasp 
  22. Avengers End Game 
  23. Spiderman Far From Home 

Ladies,  I don’t know what else to say.  If you’re not convinced at this point to start watching, there is really not much else I can do.  So I will leave it to Cap.  Here is is our guy at the end of End Game, doing his thing.  When you watch it, and get completely hyped – I want to hear where your Marvel nerd journey is going to take you. 

PS: Spiderman had been the only thing Marvel has released since End Game, which again tears your heart out into a million pieces and leaves you needing more.  But enter Wanda Vision, full season available now. Falcon and Winter Soldier has also started and it is amazing, full review soon. 

Check back to read about WandaVision on Disney+. I’m giving you a quick need to know facts if you want to jump right in.