Where’s our Avenger?

I haven’t seen Avengers Assemble yet, but when I saw the trailer, I thought, ‘Hmm. Just the one female character…’ Then I saw this. And then I saw someone on Twitter saying it doesn’t pass the Bechdel Test, which I can’t say I’m that surprised about, apart from the fact that it’s a Joss Whedon film and Joss is usually down with that sort of thing. (When asked in an interview years ago why he writes strong female characters, he responded “Because you’re still asking me that question.”) But this post isn’t really about that – if you’re interested in Avengers Assemble read this post instead. Or, you know, as well.

No, it was when I saw this UK Avengers poster - via Inside a Story on Tumblr – which has no female characters at all. I probably would have just huffed, but moments earlier I’d been looking at these really cute bookmarks by Bethy Designs on Etsy and I’d noticed that there was only one female character (Gwen from Merlin) there too.

I think there are probably a few female characters that could have a bookmark, if not make it onto that poster – I’m mainly thinking Amy Pond, I’ll be honest – but I can’t think of any more. Now this may just be that I’m not watching the right TV shows. Who am I missing? Or do we need Joss Whedon to come and write us a British Buffy?