>>101466986This is so fucking dumb, how could you see the women in the X-Men as sidekicks? Have you even read Claremont's run? The women take the primary spot in the narrative pretty often, and if they're not getting the same amount of focus as the men, it's not because they're playing "sidekick". One of the most remembered stretches of time on the title is probably when Storm was leader. Even most of the spinoffs like New Mutants or (especially) Generation X don't put women in anything near a "sidekick" role. Same goes for most of the iconic runs on any team book; Roger Stern's Avengers put Wasp and, later, Monica Rambeau at the center of things, often excluding all three of Captain America, Thor, and Iron Man from the lineup entirely. The Defenders is remembered for its incorporation of Valkyrie and Hellcat, and even The Champions was led by Black Widow from the very beginning. Songbird was the emotional and thematic core of Thunderbolts for basically its entire existence.
Marvel's first two attempts at female leads weren't in any way female versions of male characters; Black Widow and The Cat were both original characters with their own unique backgrounds, and even Ms. Marvel and She-Hulk's connections to their male counterparts were tenuous and only came up with respect to their powers and origins. Spider-Woman had the longest lasting initial run of the 70s female superheroines, and she has no connection to Spider-Man whatsoever besides the similar name.
And it's not like they stopped in the 70s. Elektra might have been a foil to Daredevil, but she's had some of the most iconic stories at Marvel. Dazzler was actually successful back in the day. Their detective characters like Dakota North and Jessica Jones got critical acclaim and devoted fan followings. They can even launch new mutants into solo series like X-23 and they can be successful.
Stop being so reductive by talking about shallow team appearance when male characters have just as many of them.
