I'm surprised a thread of this nature hasn't been made yet, but maybe that's because it's an issue so dragged over lately and no one felt the need to do so. Either way, I volunteer!

I've been doing some research for an article lately on the "Women in Refrigerators" idiom on female comic book characters that have been injured, killed, or depowered as a plot device within various superhero comic books, and seeks to analyze why these plot devices are used disproportionately on female characters pretty much exclusively because they are female characters. Think about every kidnapped girlfriend of a superhero. Think about ladies like Rachel Dawes and Mary Jane Watson and Barbara Gordon. How many examples can we come up with? Here's a list for you if you're coming up short.

There has been a massive push just in the last couple of years encompassing equality for women to become more than just women in refrigerators within the realm of comics, but sadly, the bar just isn't being cut. Instead of actual equality within the realm of comic book storylines, we're getting crap like Thor and Robin roles turning into females to silence the fanbase on the matter, when the reality is that the material we're being given boils down to a token gesture. Female characters they are "creating" are essentially riding the coattails of their existing male character predecessors. Is there a reason we can't just have original female superheroes and sidekicks ushered into the spotlight instead of borrowing the success of male ones? Surely there's a little room in the spotlight!

How many of the Avengers superheroes movies have been made now? Iron Man has three films, Thor has a third film coming out, and so does Captain America. Spider-Man had three movies released, and so did Batman. And then in a long line of one-upping competitive developing films lists revealed by both DC and Marvel, each list includes only a single female superhero film inbetween the massive sausagefest that encompasses the rest of the releases. What means is that between now and 2020, we can expect exactly two female superhero lead films and about eighteen male-centric ones. That is unacceptable. But if you're looking for an explanation on the matter, see what the Marvel president has to say about the lack of female lead films. Spoiler alert: He doesn't have a good excuse.

Anyway, the tie I wanted to make between spotlight female superheroes and women in refrigerators is that there needs to be an exchange of the crappy existing ratio. Less women in refrigerators used a plot devices for male-centric superhero storylines and more strong women on the front page. Shoutout to Marvel for their Ms. Marvel revamp featuring Kamala Khan as a Pakistani-American girl who becomes a young Muslim Ms. Marvel and DC Comics revamping their Batgirl outfit to sport her function and skill instead of her body. These changes between the two major franchises are awesome, but I worry that they get overshadowed by the bulltrout that is currently Iron Man and Thor and Batman v. Superman.

I can't be the only one fed up with the male-dominated industry.