While the recent addition of Spider-Man as a playable character in Marvel's Avengers has many PlayStation players excitedly jumping back into the game, it makes one of its biggest issues even more apparent, that being the lack of playable women superheroes. When Marvel's Avengers first launched back in September of 2020, two out the six playable characters were women. At the time, this was understandable, given that many of the most famous Avengers (made even more so by the 2012 film) were men, and developer Crystal Dynamics helped to shift this dynamic by showing the story campaign from the eyes of newcomer Kamala Khan in Marvel's Avengers. But in the time since the campaigns release, the gap between the number of playable male characters and playable female characters has grown significantly.
Throughout the course of Marvel's Avengers post-launch roadmap, four new characters have been added. Only one of those, Hawkeye's protege Kate Bishop, is a woman. This has taken the gap in the roster from two/four to three/seven. While percentage-wise this remains pretty close, the number of chances Crystal Dynamics has had to add new female characters to the roster but hasn't makes the issue all the more frustrating. Given that Crystal Dynamics has a massive, storied roster of female superheroes to choose from, but has chosen not to use them, is a disappointment - especially when one of the five founding members of the Avengers, Wasp, and longtime Avenger Scarlet Witch, still haven't joined Marvel's Avengers' roster.
While this imbalance is disheartening, it is not something new when it comes to Marvel. Out of the 27 films in the Marvel Cinematic Universe, only two of them feature a woman as the titular character (with a third, Ant-Man and the Wasp, sharing the title). This imbalance is even more prevalent in video games. Out of every Marvel game ever released, a single one has featured a female hero as the sole playable character (2005's mobile game, Elektra). Meanwhile, Marvel's recent high-profile releases like Marvel's Spider-Man, Marvel's Wolverine, and Marvel's Guardians of the Galaxy have all been based around male heroes. The main playable character of Marvel's Midnight Suns, The Hunter, has been depicted as a woman in its trailers and promotional material, but it has also been confirmed that the player will be able to choose whether to play The Hunter as a man or a woman.
Marvel's Avengers Needs More Marvel Women Heroes
Crystal Dynamics hasn't given any concrete plans for Marvel's Avengers 2022 content updates, including who, if any, will be added to the roster as a playable hero. There have been some hints that the next hero in Marvel's Avengers might be She-Hulk, who could make for an exciting addition and line up with previous leaks. With the growing importance of tanks, thanks to Marvel's Avengers' new Klaw Raid, She-Hulk could play an invaluable role as a new, high-health tank.
In addition to She-Hulk, other female characters, such as Captain Marvel, Wasp, and Scarlet Witch could also bring new abilities and powers to the roster. With Pym Particles already in the game as a status effect, Wasp already has a built-in shrinking mechanic. Captain Marvel could bring in the Kree as an enemy (which has already been hinted at with the inclusion of the Inhumans and Kree Sentinels) and Scarlet Witch could use her chaos magic to devastate her opponents or heal her teammates.
By bringing in more female characters to join the roster of Marvel's Avengers, Crystal Dynamics would not only benefit by gaining many of their unique power sets, but also by gaining many of their unique perspectives and stories. This could help make the roster more interesting and diverse, as well as help set Marvel's Avengers apart from its Marvel competition. Previous Marvel games, like X-Men Legends and Marvel Ultimate Alliance, featured an assortment of women X-Men and Avengers, and there's no reason why Crystal Dynamics' own game couldn't do the same with its future updates.