It has recently been pointed out to me (thanks to The Mary Sue reader, Rob Payne for this) that I suffer from Feige Syndrome.
What is Feige Syndrome? According to commenter Payne, it's "the comic book movie version of Stockholm [Syndrome]."
So, here's what happened:
Kevin Feige, PGA (apparently joining the movie producers' professional organization warrants letters after your name), first captured me with Iron Man. Soon after, I started fighting back once viewing The Incredible Hulk and Iron Man 2. I wanted to escape, but Feige was drawing me in with Avengers movie buzz and post-credit scenes. With Captain America, I was officially drawn in and by the time Avengers rolled around, I was suffering full-fledged Feige Syndrom.
Then came the female super hero movie talk. That sweet summer child I was didn't know better. I thought Feige could do no wrong. Of course he was going to make a Black Widow film. He probably already had Black Panther and Captain Marvel planned out too.
It was about this time that rumors started going around about a Peggy Carter show.
Then word came that they were making a Defenders series on Netflix and none other than the brilliant Jessica Jones was getting her own show, along with Daredevil (who is blind), Luke Cage (who is black), and Iron Fist (who I have very little knowledge of, but he's white and has no disability). It's not perfect, but this is more the kind of representation I want to see in my media and pop culture.
So yes, Feige drew me in with fancy movies and female led TV shows.
Then Feige kept saying stuff like this. He kept talking about wanting to do female super hero movies, but in reality he was saying, "we totally want to but can't yet," which, is of course absurd, since Feige is the one who decides what movies get made. He (or Disney) just doesn't want to.
With all my disillusionment, I thought I had broken free of Feige Syndrome. Then today, this happened:
Evangeline Lilly, who is playing Hope van Dyne in Ant-Man, is sporting a new haircut that is all too familiar. My first reaction? I was excited. I actually got chills. I told a friend the other day that the only way Ant-Man would start redeeming itself is if Judy Greer plays some flash-back version of Janet van Dyne, aka the Wasp. Just a few days later I get a picture of Evangeline Lilly (who would kick ass as Janet van Dyne) looking like Janet van Dyne.
Janet is married to Hank Pym (played by Michael Douglas) in the comics, but something "tragic" has happened to her in the movie and she is no longer around. I can only assume she was killed, which sucks because 1. she was a founding member of the Avengers and actually gave them that name and 2. they killed off an awesome character (and one of my favorite Avengers) for the sake of moving a male character's plot along, also known as fridging, which is a crappy and overused trope in any medium.
Point being, the moment after seeing this picture, I was so excited and starved for a female super hero that I was willing to accept the idea of fridging Janet as long as I got to see some incarnation of the Wasp.
This is what Feige has done to me. Whenever I think of leaving, he'll throw me a bone like this, but I'll never taste that sweet female super hero movie steak.
What would really piss me off is if Hope didn't become the Wasp in this movie. At this point I might swear off all Marvel films if that were to happen.
...but probably not.
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