"The thing is, the women like these movies as much as the guys, so we don't have to knock ourselves out finding a female," said Stan Lee in an interview with The Hollywood Reporter on Sept. 18. 

Lee, in the same interview, confirmed that movies are in the works featuring the Black Panther and covering "Inhumans," which first appeared in "Fantastic Four" in the 1960s with a race of genetically modified humans with superhuman powers due to alien experimentation. 

Okay, so here's the thing: It started out with these boys' club-types saying that women don't like comics or comic book movies at all, so there's no point in including female superheroes. They used the failure of the "Catwoman" and "Elektra" films as justification for the refusal to greenlight a female-led project. 

With May 2012 release of "The Avengers" and the incredible success of other films in the franchise, turns out that, no, actually, women really like these films! So that means we don't have to change anything, because we like them as they are!

Stan Lee is not "The Man" at Marvel Studios anymore, so his information must be taken with a grain of salt about the production of the aforementioned films. That being said, there are still no films that focus on female leads. In past movies, Marvel has produced films with popular female characters who are well-written, not overly sexualized and who can hold their own against the male leads (Pepper Potts in "Iron Man," Jane Foster in "Thor," Black Widow/Natasha Romanov in "The Avengers" franchise). 

"Catwoman" and "Elektra" were terribly written films. That's why they bombed. But you could have a similarly written film with a male lead and it will still do reasonably well in the box office. It used to be that these films targeted the "straight white male" demographic, but it's becoming more and more apparent that they are no longer the sole audience for superhero films. 

When "Catwoman" and "Elektra" came out, the opinions on what comic book movies were and what they could be were very different from what they are today. As the later Marvel films came out (starting with "Iron Man" but becoming especially apparent in "Thor"), there was more of an emotional depth to these films, with an emphasis on character development and story arcs rather than the visual of pure action. 

As a female comic book fan, I'd read many of the 1960s and 70s stories that my mother and aunt had gotten when they were young, but I didn’t feel comfortable saying I was a fan of comic books because I’d been made fun of in school by boys who were “real” fans. As the earlier films came out—"The Fantastic Four" films, "Daredevil" and "The Incredible Hulk" and Sam Raimi's "Spiderman" films—I knew that I was not the target audience. I was welcome to enjoy them, but the films were not made for my demographic to watch. The later films, however, expanded their interests outside of the primarily male audience. 

Even more than fans of comic books, female or male, but these films attracted scores of individuals who were unfamiliar with canon, and yet could enjoy and become invested with characters they, from the outset, knew nothing about. I could go to the movies with a group of non-fan friends, people who, after previously poor experiences with comic book and superhero movies, could enjoy the films as much as I did. That’s fantastic, financially—you want your big-budget films to be as accessible as possible without sacrificing the quality, and “The Avengers” did that. It did not compromise the comics’ integrity, but it also made it understandable to new fans.  

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Even Joss Whedon, the director and writer of "The Avengers" and in-production "The Avengers 2: Age of Ultron," has said that he would like to see films with more female heroes. Considering that Whedon was the writer behind "Buffy the Vampire Slayer," "Firefly" and "Dollhouse," all of which feature strong female characters kicking ass and taking names, but that wish has not come true for Whedon or for the female fans. Stan Lee just said what all of the Marvel head honchos were afraid to say out loud: They don’t care about the female fans. 

Because we enjoyed a last film, we expect the next to improve. I don’t want rehashing of the same story with the same character balance, over and over. We, like anyone else, get tired of the monotony of the token female character, which, unfortunately, Black Widow is. I would love to see a backstory film for her, or for Hawkeye and Black Widow together. And while she will be playing a major role in the second Captain America film, "The Winter Soldier," and in the second "Avengers" film, it's not quite enough. “Thor” and “Captain America” are getting two films, “Iron Man” has had three blockbuster movies, but when asked about a Black Widow movie, Marvel wants her to prove herself and her popularity with the audience (in spite of the obvious enjoyment of her character from those who attended “The Avengers” and her fanbase in social media and fan communities). 

Comics have been historically hostile towards female fans. From the scourge of the so-called "Fake Geek Girl" to sexism at conventions, from horrifically over-sexualized characters to story lines that detail outright abuse of significant others, if you're a female comic fan, you'd best keep it to yourself. The backlash to the growing female audience, especially after the success of "The Avengers" and the burgeoning female-fandom, was intense and hostile. 

"Have you even read the comics? Name me the original Avengers." 

"I bet you don't even know what her real name is."

"You decided to cosplay as her because you wanted to get attention. Look how slutty you're dressed!" 

"You're not a true fan because you're only watching to look at the men."

Here's a hint: If you're so insecure that you have to question, openly and hostilely, any female you see in your boys-only club, maybe it's not her problem, it's yours.

The boys up in the upper tiers of Marvel studios seem to be frightened of its new female demographic. "It worked fine the way it was," they say, amid cries from its audience for a female-led film, "So why bother changing?"

I don't just hear laziness from Lee's statement. I don't just hear sexism; I hear fear. Because they still don't think that female heroes can keep a film afloat, even though films like "The Hunger Games" have proven otherwise. As the percentage of female fans continues to grow, it also becomes more and more agitated with the lack of representation in the Marvel films. Don't just pander to our demographic with shots that attract the so-called "female gaze" like a shirtless Thor or try to satisfy us with one (maybe two) token female characters. Tokenism is not representation. It's not only saying that this character was almost an afterthought to fill some sort of quota, a necessity but not wanted, but also something mouthpieces could hold up proudly and say, "Look at this! Look what we did! You can't complain now." 

What are you so afraid of, Marvel? Do you really think, that after the massive box office successes of recent years, that trying to shift your target demographic to be more inclusive and showing representation of non-white male superheroes is such a risk? And maybe it is a risk. But then again, so was the first "Iron Man" movie with Robert Downey, Jr.

Look, I get it. Films are expensive and you're not going to waste money. So make a smart economic decision: a well-written film with a strong female character can go a long way. 

You can contact Staff Reporter Christine Bancroft here or find her on Twitter here.