The debate over superhero brand dominance has always raged between the characters, comic series, movies, and TV shows of DC and Marvel Comics; recently, a new point of contention has emerged, partly due to the ever-growing feminist socio-political climate. This new fight resides between Wonder Woman (DC) and Captain Marvel (Marvel, duh), over which of these two comic heavyweights are the superior female superhero. While Wonder Woman has always been a prominent figure in DC Comics for decades, she has never had the same coverage as Batman or Superman; that being said, the recent Wonder Woman movie was well-received in spite of the faltering DC films of late. On a different note, Captain Marvel, aka Carol Danvers, has only been recently established as a major player in Marvel comics. While she may not have the same legacy as Wonder Woman, Captain Marvel is regarded as the most powerful of her peers in the Marvel universe and she has a movie coming up in 2019.

My favorite panel from Wonder Woman: The Hiketeia

Ultimately, I feel that Wonder Woman’s legacy and character solidifies her dominance as the talisman of female superheroes. The princess of Themyscira has become almost synonymous with female heroism at this point, and has literally decades of comics to back this up (The Hiketeia is my personal favorite). Captain Marvel, in my opinion, is an upstart; in the comics, her character has been downright villainous at times, partly due to her taking on an overtly hyper-masculine personality. While this characterization may be due to the writers at Marvel comics needing to hype-up her character in preparation for her upcoming movie, she is still clearly lacking in a definitive comic or graphic novel that would set her apart from all the other Avengers.