There are hundreds, if not thousands, of male superheroes who are always at the center of attention. They are great, but there are female heroes that kick just as much ass, are just as powerful, and just as cunning as their male counterparts.

For years, female superheroes haven’t gotten fair treatment and even still today they are subjects of prejudice. Even more unfortunate, there is a distinct lack of female-centric superhero movies today or even planned for the near future. Luckily, both Marvel and DC will be taking the plunge into female-driven movies with Captain Marvel and Wonder Woman, but what about all the other hundreds of female characters who could easily headline their own film? It’s time to look beyond just these two badasses and start to shine some light on all the others!

That’s why we here at Screen Rant bring to you: 12 Badass Female Superheroes Who Deserve Their Own Movie!

Black Canary

One of DC’s longest running female characters, Black Canary is one badass female superhero who has shed blood, sweat, and tears to earn her spot on this list. Black Canary has remained one of the greatest street-level crimefighters, often alongside Green Arrow, yet still stands out among the crowd. She is now one of the seven greatest hand-to-hand fighters in the DC universe, so she could without-a-doubt hold her own against some of the rough and tough male heroes in the DCEU. Even more impressive than her fighting skills is her unique metahuman ability, the Canary Cry, a supersonic scream. She can use this to fly, harm, and even kill opponents.

Beyond just her amazing abilities, she is a strong female character. Throughout her time fighting crime, she’s had plenty of ups and downs. She both married and divorced Green Arrow and helped raised the children around her. She has always stood on her own two feet and made a difference using her influence. Even though she would work very well as a Justice League member, a standalone film could help shift focus from world-threatening catastrophes back to the streets riddled with crime. Black Canary has proven herself, not just with skills but with her worth as a character and ally in DC Comics, so it would be great to finally see her in film.

Zatanna

For those who don’t know, Zatanna is a magician who moonlights as a superhero. She isn’t just any ordinary magician, she is in fact one of the most powerful and skilled magic wielders in the entire DC universe, even rivaling Dr. Fate. Her powers grant her a huge amount of abilities, such as elemental manipulation, flight, mystical invulnerability, spectral sight, and many others. But she isn’t just an immensely powered woman.

Zatanna has a tragic and interesting background. Due to a curse, she was unable to see her father for years, and was abandoned by her mother. Zatanna journeys across the world learning and honing her natural magical abilities, and could serve as DC’s answer to Marvel’s Dr. Strange. Her many adventures with Justice League Dark would be a great way to tie her into the universe, but a standalone film would give her the screen time she deserves as a character.

Storm

Let’s get Halle Berry’s Storm out of our minds and focus more on Alexandra Shipp’s teenage Storm. With Alexandra’s upcoming appearance and role in X-Men: Apocalypse, she is much more reminiscent of Storm’s royal background. In the X-Men universe, Storm is one of the most powerful characters, and is worshiped as a god for part of her life. If X-Men: Apocalypse showcases more of these roots than the earlier films, Alexandra Shipp could definitely shoulder her own standalone film.

With her powers not being completely demonstrated in the earlier films, it would be great to see her used in such a way that gives us an idea of her true abilities.

In a standalone film, it would be great to see her return to her homeland (which is Kenya in the comic books). Since she will leave her palace as either queen or princess in the new film, bringing her back could give us a compelling story of a displaced queen or princess adjusting to her prior life, now having seen the world. 

Black Widow

We’ve had one badass Black Widow in the Marvel Cinematic Universe played by the intimidating Scarlett Johansson. She has been an integral part in the formation of The Avengers and made huge contributions to the Marvel Universe. As badass as she is, Natasha Romanov has not received the movie she deserves. Black Widow does work fabulously as a side-character, but she is interesting enough and strong enough to carry a film on her own. It would show the confidence Marvel has in their female actresses as well as further ground their universe in a grittier reality.

A solo outing for Black Widow would hopefully find Natasha in her espionage days before the Avengers. Fans have clamored for a film that chronicles her days between exiting the “Red Room” facility to the day she showed up at S.H.I.E.L.D. It would be great to see an Avenger transition not just from a regular person to a hero, but from a villain to a hero. Introducing this new dynamic would shake up the current state of events, and create an even larger love and following for the character.

Huntress

Helena Bertinelli is a character only ever seen on television, animated films, video games, and comics. The Huntress has yet to make her big-screen debut, but hopefully that will change soon! Bertinelli is one of Batman’s most skilled allies, and has stood as her own vigilante for years. She has had several team-ups over the years but does just fine on her own. Although many wish to see the likes of Jason Todd and Dick Grayson in the new DCEU, Helena Bertinelli could be used as a great way to have a standalone movie with ties to DC’s powerhouse, Batman.

Despite her connections to The Dark Knight and her previous involvement in various groups, Helena is not only skilled enough as an established solo character in the DCEU, but she is interesting enough to keep audiences engaged for an entire film. Whether the film chronicles her time searching for the murderers of her parents, hunting down mobsters, or her more recent outings as an agent of Spyral, Helena brings an entertaining amount of strength, attitude, and flair to the table to make one hell of a movie.

Hawkgirl

With huge amounts of popularity garnered for Hawkgirl during her time with the Justice Society of America and on the animated hits Justice League and Justice League: Unlimited, people have waited to see Hawkgirl make a movie debut. She will be a starring character on the CW’s new show, DC’s Legends of Tomorrow, but the layered history and complex character traits of Shayera make her a great fit for the DCEU.

With rumors of Wonder Woman taking place during several timelines, we could easily have a Hawkgirl movie where her reincarnation origin is in use. The story could follow her classic origins as an Egyptian princess cursed to be reincarnated, thus allowing us to meet several versions of Hawkgirl in the movie. In the third act, the movie could settle on the contemporary version of Hawkgirl that is now fighting crime in a world filled with Superman, Batman, Wonder Woman, and other league members. She could face Hath-Set, the evil priest who cursed her to reincarnate, and perhaps a lesser known villain like Shadow-Thief to further thicken the plot. As many will recall, she is way more than capable of handling herself as she has proven time and time again during the phenomenal animated series.

Raven

Made famous by the incredible animated show Teen Titans, Raven hit home with most viewers due to her out of touch and depressed demeanor. It may sound odd to those who haven’t seen the show, but once you find out that she has to keep her emotions in strict order, otherwise her evil father Trigon would use her as a surrogate to take over the world, it becomes much more understandable. Having a film that flashes back to Raven’s childhood in Azarath, an alternate dimension world where she learned to control her emotions thanks to the guidance of the god Azar, would be a great way to introduce Raven’s origins.

What’s interesting about Raven is that she has an internal struggle with her dark side like most heroes, but the twist is that her dark side can end the world. An interesting plot that could be utilized for a solo movie would be to have her seemingly join the dark side at the end of the film instead of prevailing against her evil nature. It would serve as a great departure from classic superhero film endings, as well as serve as a great plot point for further films in the DCEU, considering her immense powers.

Valkyrie

Thor and Asgard are two fan-favorites of the Marvel Cinematic Universe, yet one huge character is missing from this area of the universe: Valkyrie. Also known as Brunnhilde, Valkyrie is an Asgardian goddess and long-time friend of fan-favorite Lady-Sif. Being one of the few female warriors appointed by Odin himself to lead the coveted Valkyrior, Brunnhilde finds worthy souls to bring to Valhalla. Valkyrie has been a huge part of The Defenders, the team that Marvel is currently developing on Netflix, but she has her roots firmly placed in the battlefields of the nine-realms.

Focusing on Brunnhilde for an entire film would serve as a fantastic gateway between The Defenders and movie universe, but would more importantly tell a fantastic tale of a female warrior’s journey from Asgard to New York City. Brunnhilde would also be a great centerpiece for an action-packed female-driven epic where we get to see her kick even more ass than Thor does. She also doesn’t come with the cockiness of Thor, nor does she have the background of just being handed such a high position. Unlike Thor, Brunnhilde bled to get the position she now holds, making her a much more interesting character than the first-born son of Odin.

Squirrel Girl

One of Marvel’s oddest treasures is Doreen Green, more commonly known as Squirrel Girl. She might seem cute, adorable, and everything that is not “badass,” but she has had some impressive run-ins with some of Marvel’s top dogs. She has single-handedly taken down Wolverine, Deadpool, M.O.D.O.K., Dr. Doom, and even Thanos! If that isn’t badass, then who knows what is?

Despite some rights issues surrounding the use of her character on the big screen, she would be an invaluable asset to whichever team she joined. She wouldn’t just bring incredible physical prowess, but a unique outlook on the world of heroes. Doreen is known to carry around trading cards that classify each hero and villain as well. For her standalone film, it really would serve as the female Spider-Man, but with even more hilarity and ass-kicking. You could literally match her up with any villain too, and it would make for an interesting story since she can undoubtedly handle a huge range of villains. The heart of the film would being able to get acquainted with her personality and see her views of the heroes and villains in the world she inhabits. In many ways, Squirrel Girl is us, but with some of the greatest powers in Marvel history.

Witchblade (Sara Pezzini)

Being one of modern-day wielders of the powerful Witchblade, a mystical force that joins with femal hosts and grants them superpowers, Sara Pezzini utilizes her new-found abilities to fight crime and those who hurt the innocent. Sara has been one of Witchblade’s most beloved hosts and Witchblade has gone out of its way to keep her alive. Due to the eternal nature of The Witchblade, the powers granted to Sara are helpful, but overbearing at times. With her tough exterior exemplified by her relationship with Witchblade, Sara has remained one of the toughest women in all of comics.

A film that focuses on Sara Pezzini could be a great character study on an NYPD detective while also adding in a great fantastical element. The armor, being a sentient being, decides what threats require full armor and full weaponry. Being a detective, Sara could struggle with her new-found abilities, and the film could chronicle her symbiotic relationship with the Witchblade.

A Witchblade franchise could be built around Sara, but since the Witchblade has been wielded by dozens of women throughout history, there could be several films about the different relationships between host and symbiote. Even though this is a Top Cow comics character, Witchblade has the potential to thrive in a market that has a lot of gritty and dark superhero and cop dramas.

Hit-Girl

Although Hit-Girl is seen in the Kick-Ass films, they could undoubtedly form a solo film around Chloë Grace Moretz’s version of the young killer. If you haven’t seen the Kick-Ass films or read the Kick-Ass comics, I suggest you go and do so as soon as possible. This little girl is a trained killer who is beyond skilled in the art of murder, and is a cussing, cocky child who teaches other vigilantes in her universe.

Known for her brutality and expertise, a Hit-Girl movie could focus on the events of Kick-Ass 3. In this comic, we find young Mindy Macready in jail for her actions as a masked vigilante. This comic completely relies off of her own iron-will and skills to finish the fight against the major mob bosses in her city. Despite Hit-Girl being young and Chloë Grace Moretz still being a young actress, the character and the actress have both proven to be more than capable of handling themselves and carrying a film. Hopefully, if a Hit-Girl movie were to ever happen we could finally see her traditional dual katanas instead of her dual USP handguns.

Zealot

For those who are not familiar with the Wildstorm comic universe and their characters, Zealot is an ancient warrior from the planet Khera. There she was part of a group of women who were known for starting and fighting in the planet’s ongoing wars. She becomes stranded on Earth and forms relationships with the other heroes of the Wildstorm universe.

Before she united in arms with the heroes of the modern times, she allied herself with other the Greeks to destroy the Trojans. She worked to regrow the Coda, the group of warriors from Khera. Even though Zealot was eventually exiled from her newly formed group, she continued to grow as a warrior. During her introduction into the DC universe during the New 52, Zealot is part of the team tasked with hunting Lobo alongside Deathstroke and the Omegas. Anyone that can fight Lobo and has enough skill to stand next to Deathstroke easily deserves the title of “badass.”

A Zealot movie would be an origin film from her time as a warrior on Khera all the way to her time working in the present day Wildstorm universe. It would have a large scope, but would create an expansive universe and mythology to pull from in later films. With her strictly warrior lifestyle, she would be one strong female character to fit into a larger universe filled with strong male characters. Her skills make her more than capable of handling herself among the other heroes of her universe.

Conclusion

We can all agree that the lack of female superhero movies is disappointing, but we should really push to see these badass women on the big screen. These women are just as deserving and kick just as much ass as their male counterparts. The world is ready for more female driven superhero films, and that’s why Screen Rant chose these 12 Badass Female superheroes Who Deserve Their Own Movie!