Superheroes are meant to cheer us up, but sometimes the way Hollywood portrays “representation” just brings a cringe to our faces instead of a cheer. Whether these are strange gender changes, cliché characters, or that one always too powerful with no advancement, Hollywood has some failings for which it is not able to move on. Let’s find out what the biggest mistakes are that they keep making.
10. Acting Like It’s Groundbreaking Every Time
The next female hero is always so overhyped by the studios as if she were breaking a new path, while in fact, the path was already broken several decades ago. Ripley, Sarah Connor, Leia, and Mulan are some of the women who were already the stars before Marvel or DC came to know them. The real revolution was not just putting “first ever” in a press release, but instead of creating complex, real characters.
9. Villifying the Audience Rather Than the Script
Whenever a woman-led project fails, the accusation that is immediately brought up is “toxic fans.” Nevertheless, let’s be honest with them: awful writing is the main culprit. People loved Ripley and Sarah Connor because of their imperfections and being human. If you compare these characters to Rey and She-Hulk, who are frequently forced and underdeveloped, it is not that hard to figure out why the reactions were negative.
8. Perfect From Day One (Yawn)
Heroes should fight. That’s what their triumphs are satisfying. Rather than this, Hollywood sometimes gives its heroines all the authority from the beginning. Seeing Galadriel smash a troll with no effort or She-Hulk control her powers immediately misses the entire path that leads us to care.
7. Quick-Fix Gender Swaps
One more thing about the “Here’s Thor… but a woman!” type of jokes is that you can hear them at a pitch meeting, but they don’t usually appear in a movie. Just a simple gender change without a new plot line normally looks like a lazy job. The characters that go well, e.g., Kate Bishop coming forward as Hawkeye’s protégé, are so because of the distinctness of their imperfections and the change.
6. Supporting Women by Toppling Men
What’s the point of turning male heroes into hilariously ridiculous characters if the only purpose is to show off the women? Better stories allow characters to shine together rather than through a cheap one vs. one game. Thor didn’t need to become a buffoon for Jane Foster to be significant. It is always more potent to have harmony rather than undermining.
5. Stale Asian Stereotypes
For Asian heroes, the fight has usually been cast as villains, comic relief, or computer nerds. Romance? Don’t make us laugh. The Fu Manchu caricature and yellowface past still cast long shadows. Shang-Chi was long overdue, finally presenting an Asian superhero who’s complex, heroic, and human. But why did it take the 2020s?
4. The Forced Team-Up
Women team-ups can dominate, but only if they’re earned. Endgame’s “all the ladies line up” moment was staged for the trailer, whereas The Mandalorian succeeded because the story organically built up to those characters being able to fight together.
3. Impossible Fight Choreography
Nothing ruins immersion so effectively as a hero who single-handedly eliminates a squad that is double the size without breaking a sweat. One of the main reasons for the success of the most spectacular fight scenes, where Charlize Theron is the star in Atomic Blonde, and practically all the movies of Michelle Yeoh, is that they are able to transmit struggle, exhaustion, and inventiveness. However, when Black Widow goes through the entire armada of villains with no effort, it is no longer thrilling but rather becomes an exaggerated caricature.
2. Selling Diversity Rather than Story
True enough, representation is crucial. Yet the problem is that en diversity is advertised by studios as a mere decoration of the plot instead of the handling of a real story; it simply does not make sense. The Black Panther film reached the top not only with the help of Marvel but mostly through respecting culture and identity. Diversity, in the worst case, seems like a PR stunt, while, in the best case, it can be the very core of the film.
1. When They Actually Get It Right
Here is the bright side of it: if Hollywood nails it, the result is fantastic. Shang-Chi gave us an Asian superhero who was not only mighty but also human. Black Panther managed to transform cultural valor into commercial success. In fact, the very existence of these films is evidence that the audience does not want change but rather shortcuts of poor quality. The audience we are looking for are heroes and villains that are complex and have real consequences, not catchphrases.
The lesson? Hollywood is not required to come up with a new concept for each of its heroes. Get rid of the attempt to be so “historical” and just produce better stories with characters that we recognize to be real.