In the past 10 years, superhero movies have taken over Hollywood. Whether it is Marvel or DC, there is no denying that the genre itself has become extremely successful. As comic book movies have grown and improved, diversity has become a large part of their success. For example, “Black Panther” was one of 2018’s most successful movies and even won three Academy Awards. This movie became iconic because it opened several doors for Black Americans in Hollywood. While women were portrayed in “Wonder Woman”, they still have a long way to go before the movies are taken seriously and treated as the blockbuster hits that they are.

On June 2, 2017, “Wonder Woman” was released by DC studios. The film received glowing reviews from critics and earned a 93 percent on Rotten Tomatoes. The movie also made a lot of money at the box office, coming in with a global total of $821 million dollars.

Now, Marvel’s female led movie “Captain Marvel” is still facing extreme backlash online. “Captain Marvel” stars Academy award winning actress Brie Larson. This movie revolves around Captain Marvel, the main hero of the story, discovering who she is after an alien race has erased her memory. In the past, Marvel films have been very popular. In the span of a decade, the films have grossed over $17 billion dollars.

Captain Marvel opened on Mar 8, 2019. The movie made a global total of $455 million dollars on the opening weekend. It received an A cinema score and a fresh critic score on Rotten Tomatoes. Even after all of this success, people online tried to tank the movie. On Thursday night, thousands of audience reviews poured into the audience score feature that Rotten Tomatoes most of them negative. The audience score sunk to 30 percent by Friday morning.

Both Brie Larson and the movie itself have recieved a lot hate from people online. Recently, the movie review website Rotten Tomatoes had to get rid of the audience feature because people were trying to get the score so low that the general public would not be interested in seeing the movie. This movie has become a lightining rod for internet trolls and hate. Internet hate is common on anything in today’s society. However, the hate that has been thrown at “Captain Marvel” is above and beyond the usual.

To show this, look at Marvel’s and DC’s  most recent solo male movies,”Thor Ragnarok” and “Aquaman”. Both came out around the holidays (Thor in 2017 and Aquaman in 2018). Both movies had a sort of quirky tone and pushed the envelope of what is to be expected in superhero movies. “Aquaman” and “Thor” performed well in both the box office and in terms of critics. Neither faced monumental hate from people online and neither had any troubles promoting their movies.

Women superheroes are also just now getting their footing. Both “The Avengers” and ” The Justice League” have had an extremely disproportionate amount of women on their team. The Justice League only has one and, while Wonder Woman is very popular she is still the only member on the team. The Avengers have only had Black Widow in their beginning movies. While the character is intriguing, she has no powers and does not throw much weight around on the team. The Scarlet Witch has also been added in more recent films but, she seems to be either a basket case or helping her love interest.

Despite the intense negativity around the movie, Captain marvel is performing well. The movie now has a 61 percent on the Rotten Tomatoes audience score and, has grossed 915 million dollars as of Mar.26 2019. Marvel is starting to produce a Black Widow movie and will have Captain Marvel lead The Avengers. DC has the Wonder Woman sequel debuting in June of 2020. While there is still a ways to go for female superheroes, movies like Captain Marvel are trailblazing the path for women in superhero movies.