Shadowcat (Kitty Pryde) - Marvel Comics

Kitty Pryde aka Ariel aka Sprite aka Shadowcat was created in 1980 by the X-Men dream team, John Byrne and Chris Claremont.
Kitty has been a little sister and girlfriend to several X-Men.

Kitty is one of the few named Jewish characters in the Marvel Universe.
I imagine a lot of others are, because most of Marvel's writers and artists were Jewish back in the 1960s.
As a matter of fact, there have been several long in depth articles written about the religion of Marvel superheroes.

But back to Kitty.
Kitty was a throwback to the original Marvel formula with the X-Men.
The teen outcast that discovers she really is a bit more different than the other kids.
In her case, a mutant.

Kitty's powers are cool.
She phases through things.
But it's a tad more complicated than just that.
Actually, it would take a Physics professor to really explain all the stuff Kitty can do.
And James Kakalios did just that in his book "The Physics of Superheroes".
Check it out sometime, it's very interesting.

Besides her superpowers, Kitty was trained in martial arts in a manner similar to Psylocke (as it it was all pretty much downloaded into her consciousness) so she is versed in various martial arts.
She speaks several languages including Shi'ar and Skrull, and she is a hi-tech genius.

Barbie as Poison Ivy

Well Barbie can be a superhero or a supervillain.
Here she is as the most famous Eco-terrorist in the world, Poison Ivy.
Though she was originally created to look similar to Bettie Page, Ivy's look changed over the years.
Now she is one of Batman's archenemies and Harley Quinn's "Pal".

Zatanna - Smallville

Although she is not a hugely popular comic book character, Zatanna Zatara is hugely popular with the fans. Everybody loves her. She was created by Gardner Fox and Murphy Anderson and first showed up in Hawkman #4 way back in 1964. Zatanna fought crime in a classic magician's outfit (top hat, tails etc) and spoke words backwards to create magic spells. Yeah I know, original but really....what?

Zatanna was brought to picture perfect life on the CW TV series "Smallville" played by Canadian actress Serinda Swan. She seriously looked like she just stepped out of the comic book. Which was kinda odd for Smallville and their sometimes very broad interpretations of DC characters.

She first appeared in season eight, in the episode titled "Hex", then appeared in season nine in the episode "Warrior". In season ten in "Warrior" Zatanna is in the background but is played by a stand in dressed in her outfit.

They tried to launch a standalone Zatanna movie back in 2005 as an action comedy, but nothing ever came of it.

Now here is Zatanna's possibly very cool future..... Guillermo del Toro is working on a Justice League Dark film titled "Dark Universe". Since John Constantine is a member of JLD and has his own series coming up on NBC, del Toro has said that the film will exist in the same universe as the TV show, and that he might get the actor from the series to play Constantine in the movie, unlike the main DC Universe that wont be doing such cross-overs. Now...Zatanna is already set to appear in the film...so will we get Zatanna showing up on the Constantine TV series as well since the two were an item in the comics? It could happen...

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Barbie as Wonder Woman

Here we have Wonder Woman Barbie.
She’s been around since 194, ALMOST beating Captain America (Cap’s debut only beat her by around nine months) and along with Superman and Batman, she is one of DC Comic’s Trinity.
The Amazon Princess is very popular and they have been trying to get a live action movie going for years.
Now that Gal Gadot is gonna be the Amazon Princess, we may be closer than ever to actually getting that done.

Barbie Batgirl DC Superheroes Collector Barbie Doll

Barbie also shows up as the female counterpart of the Dark Knight, Batgirl.
Although she never really rose to the level of Batman, like Supergirl, she has her own very loyal fan base.
Unlike Wonder Woman and Supergirl, Batgirl was created in 1966 and was a collaboration between DC and the Batman television series that was going on at the time.

Supergirl Barbie

The Man of Steel’s cousin, Supergirl.
Kara Zor-El was created in 1959, and although she never achieved the fame of Superman, the Maid of Might has her own rabid following, and her own Barbie.
As much as I love the Barbie Wonder Woman figure, I like this one just as much.
Doesn’t she look just a little cocky?
But just why shouldn’t she be?
All the powers of Superman, plus….she's hot!

Supergirl - Laura Vandervoort on Smallville

In 2007, the CW TV show Smallville gave us an incredibly hot version of Supergirl played by the gorgeous Laura Vandervoort.
This Supergirl had Helen Slater's naivety at first, but slowly developed a personality that was sweet...but she knew she could punch you through a wall if she had to.
They played around a LOT with her story, as they did with every storyline on Smallville. But they did work in a few things from the comics like her going to to the 31st century to join the Legion and using glasses and a wig to hide her secret identity. In some of the odder things they did, she could fly and Clark couldn't and she even kind of "became" Supergirl at one point before Clark became Superman.
It was messed up yeah, but it was Smallville. They really didn’t try to reign into the DC mythos until the last couple of seasons.
And it's no secret that I would have loved to see Laura Vandervoort get her own "Supergirl" spin-off show. But that didn’t happen.

Jessica De Gouw as the Huntress from Arrow

Jessica De Gouw as the Helena Bertinelli version of the Huntress from the CW's "Arrow".
While not as Gothic as Ashley Scott as The Huntress in "Birds of Prey", this one is a bit closer to the comics.
As you can see she has her crossbow, and there is just a hint of purple on her outfit.

This Huntress is the Helena Bertinelli version of the Huntress.
That is the version that is NOT the daughter of Batman and Catwoman.
Her father is mob boss Frank Bertinelli and Huntress is out to kill him for ordering the death of her fiance.
She shows up in the episodes "Muse of Fire", "Vendetta", "The Huntress Returns" and the episode "Birds of Prey" where she has a run-in with, you guessed it, Black Canary.
This Huntress does wear a costume and carries a crossbow.
Although she is dressed in black, in a nod to her comic book incarnation, her jacket is trimmed/lined in purple.
Unlike other incarnations of Huntress, this one starts out as kind of an anti-hero then pretty much turns full-fledged bad guy.
Bad enough that at the end of “Birds of Prey” she is hauled off to jail.
So that wraps up Huntress.
I will mention though that in addition to her live action appearances, she also appeared in animated form in Justice League Unlimited (which was very well done) and in Batman: The Brave and the Bold (not as well done but fun nonetheless).

Ashley Scott as The Huntress

The Huntress played by the gorgeous Ashley Scott.
This Huntress was the daughter of Catwoman and Batman and was teamed up with Oracle and Black Canary's daughter in the WB's "Birds of Prey".

Forget the plot holes and liberties that they took with the source material. Ashley Scott could have just stood there in that black outfit with her long, leather overcoat billowing behind her for 45 minutes a week and I would have been happy.

Yes forget that she had superhuman strength and agility and her eyes went cat-like when she used her powers, things which had nothing to do with the comics. She just looked really good. Which was the problem with the show. They understood the look, but they lacked the substance. In the hands of other writers this show could have lasted as long as Smallville did easily. But it only lasted one 13 episode season.
 

Wonder Girl - DC Comics

There have been three Wonder Girls in DC.
Diana herself, Donna Troy and Cassie Sandsmark.

I like the Wonder Girls.
Of course Donna Troy was MY Wonder Girl growing up.
But thanks to "Young Justice: Invasion", I got to know Cassie.

But even though scenes like this are really cool with Wonder Woman and her two sidekicks, the New 52 ruined all that.
I liked Donna and Cassie being Diana's Nightwing and Robin.
Thanks a lot DC.

Tigra - Marvel Comics

Tigra.

She's furry, she's hot and she's funny.
Along with She-Hulk, she's one of the few Marvel females that have managed to keep something of a sense of humor about them despite all they go through.
She's been in no less than four different Avengers groups, plus the Lady Liberators and the New Warriors.
And EVERY fight she is in is a catfight.....

The Tigra is the defender of the "Cat People", not people that like cats but people that are actually descendants of a race of cats created by sorcery during the Dark Ages. They have lived in the shadows ans always had a Tigra to protect them. Sort of combine that horrible Halle Berry "Catwoman" movie and the movie "The Cat People" and you are close.

Anyway HYDRA (Hail HYDRA!) goes after the Cat People for some weapon tech they have, Greer as the Cat is mortally injured trying to help them and to save her life the Cat People use science, magic and psychic powers to turn her into The Tigra.

Tigra looks like a humanoid tiger. She has sharp retractable claws and enlarged canine teeth that can puncture steel and your standard superhero skill-set, superhuman strength, speed, senses and agility. Because of her transformation, she is said to have limited mystical abilities, but these have never been explored extensively. She also has some degree of resistance to psychic attacks.

And she is the patron saint of Furry/Comic fans everywhere.

So far Tigra has only appeared in one Marvel cartoon, the absolutely horrible "The Avengers: United They Stand" (1999) where she was voiced by Lenore Zann (Rogue).

 

   Tigra and Ms. Marvel have a real catfight

Lyra - Marvel Comics

She's the daughter of Hulk and Thundra.
What else do you need?
It's like what if Superman and Wonder Woman had a baby.
And Wonder Woman was a man-hating Femizon from the future and Superman was a green rage-filled hate machine.
Just don't make Lyra calm.
You wouldn't like her when she's calm.

You see, in her quest to create the perfect female warrior, Thundra got some Hulk DNA (which wouldn’t be hard the way he goes around smashing things) and took it to the scientists in her future. They impregnated her and in nine months or so....BOOM! A little baby girl with the genetic make up of the Hulk and Thundra. Yes this is sort of the Marvel equivalent of what would happen if Superman and Wonder Woman had a kid. Although she was nicknamed, "She-Hulk" in the comics, I decided to include her here what with Thundra actually being her mother.
One thing I thought that was cool about Lyra was her power. Yes she had Hulk level strength, but the madder Lyra got...the weaker she got. The exact opposite of her father.
So to maintain her strength, she had to enter into a Zen-like trance that enabled her to stay calm and very strong. Of course since this was a really cool quirk and didn’t go along with the berserk/killing rage so popular in comics, Marvel got rid of it.
Hey...who wants a powerful character that remains powerful by keeping their head about them and NOT giving into rage? What kind of role model is that?
Idiots.
Lyra was created by Jeff Parker and Mitch Breitweiser, and first appeared in Hulk: Raging Thunder #1 in 2008.

Supergirl - DC Comics

The Maid of Might, the Girl of Steel, Supergirl. Kara Zor-El was the cousin of Superman and was sent to Earth by her father and mother Zor-El and Alura to be raised by her cousin. But her capsule malfunctioned and where Kal-El made it here as an infant, Kara aged to her teenage years. Supergirl was created by Otto Binder and Al Plastino, debuted in 1959 and immediately made a HUGE splash. The fans loved her.

Of course the The New 52 has changed Kara quite a bit and she is no longer the happy go lucky teen she was. Thanks DC. You have a wonderful way of taking all the fun out of characters. You do realize when EVERYONE is as grim and dark as Batman, he won't be special anymore right?

Anyway, Kara as a Kryptonian has the full powers of Superman. But Kara may be even more powerful than her cousin. Superman has spent a lifetime holding back and trying not to hurt people or damage things with his powers. Kara has not had that benefit/holding back. When she cuts loose...she really cuts loose.

If you forget the 1984 film, Supergirl has fared pretty well in the media outside comics. She was good in Superman: The Animated Series and Justice League Unlimited, both times voiced by Nicholle Tom. She also did quite well in Smallville, with Laura Vandervoort playing a live action version of Supergirl. And if you wanna see a really fun Supergirl, check out the Super Best Friends Forever shorts DC made which should have been turned into a series.

Supergirl also appeared in the animated DC films, Superman/Batman: Apocalypse and Superman: Unbound and now she is getting her own CBS TV show.

Spider-Girl - Marvel Comics

Part of the MC2 Universe, Spider-Girl was May "Mayday" Parker, the daughter of Peter (Spider-Man) Parker and Mary Jane Watson.
I really liked this character and the feel of the series.
It reminded me a lot of DC's "Batman Beyond".

I'm really surprised that more people do not know about May "Mayday" Parker aka The Spectacular Spider-Girl. Yes, Spider-Girl. Set in the MC2 Universe, May is the daughter of Peter (Spider-Man) Parker and Mary Jane Watson. MC2 (Marvel Comics 2) was a series of stories set in a possible alternative timeline of the Marvel Universe. There we got to see what would happen to the heroes in a few years from now, without messing up the current continuity. It was Marvel's way of logically progressing the stories without affecting their trademark heroes. What I liked about the series was that it had a "Silver Age" feel to it in a lot of ways.

May was created by Tom DeFalco and Ron Frenz and first appeared not in MC2, but in an issue of "What If" in 1998. I liked this Universe it was set in because it wasn’t your typical apocalyptic future stories. Everything didn’t go to hell in a hand-basket in a few years. And you got to see the sons, daughters, nieces and nephews of our current heroes.
May inherited most of her fathers powers. She was only half as strong but twice as fast. May's wallcrawling was due to a bio-magnetic field her body generated. Her "Spider-Sense" was vastly more acute than her father's and she also had the ability to sense the weak points, similar to the Inhuman's Karnak. She also wore mechanical web-shooters that could fire a line, impact webbing and metal darts.

And she got the best of both worlds. She inherited her mothers looks and her dads brains.

Sif - Marvel Comics

Marvel Comic's version of Sif.
Usually just a back up player in Thor's adventures in the comics, in Norse Mythology, Sif was a goddess, Thor's wife and the mother of his children.
Well at least she did manage to get into both Thor films and show up on Marvel's Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D. (played by Jaimie Alexander).

 

Unfortunately, the Lady Sif has usually been used as a background character in Thor. She was created by Stan Lee and Jack Kirby in 1964 and....well that's not exactly true. Stan and Jack based their Sif on the goddess Sif from Norse mythology. Where Marvel's Sif is pretty much just an Asgardian warrior with a sword, the Norse Sif was actually a goddess and the wife of Thor. She also had golden hair which Loki cut off and Thor made him replace a golden headpiece.

The hair-cutting thing was worked into Marvel's story, but in the comics, her hair is replaced by black enchanted hair made by dwarves. Yeah....I know.

Also in the comics, Sif is the sister of Heimdall (aka Heimdallr in the myths).

Sif has your standard Asgardian powers, super strength (she can lift around 30 tons), durability and she's basically immortal. She's six foot two and weighs 425 pounds. 425 pounds? Yes, like all Asgardians, Sif's body tissue is about three times as dense as a humans. Sif also has the power of teleportation through time and space

She also carries a sword that has been enchanted by Odin that allows her to cut open passageways between dimensions.

Of course Sif was portrayed on the big screen by Jaimie Alexander in both Thor and Thor: The Dark World. And she also showed up as Sif on an episode of Marvel's Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D.

Scarlet Witch - Marvel Comics

One of my all time favorite Marvel superheroines, the Scarlet Witch.
She didn't look like this in Avengers: Age of Ultron, but I got used to the "new" look.

I've always had a soft spot in my heart for Wanda Maximoff aka the Scarlet Witch.
One, she had a "stand and point" power.
Two, her brother Quicksilver was a world class jerk.
Three, her daddy Magneto was one of the biggest, baddest super villains in the world. Normally not so bad, but when you are trying to be a hero, it can be a drawback.
But Marvel rectified all that years later and had Wanda, originally a pretty weak character, almost destroy the world.
Things change right?

Scarlet Witch was created by Stan Lee and Jack Kirby and first appeared not in the Avengers, but in X-Men #4 back in 1964.
You see, Wanda and her brother Quicksilver are both mutants and were part of her father's Brotherhood of Evil Mutants.
Interestingly, Wanda's outfit was green on the cover of X-Men #4.

Anyway, after a brief run she and Pietro (Quicksilver) went to the Avengers because the Avengers had a habit of allowing ex-criminals to join...and because Iron Man asked them to.
At that time the Avengers were Cap and three ex-supervillains, Hawkeye, Scarlet Witch and Quicksilver.
So the Avengers had the first supervillain work release program ever.

Wanda became a mainstay in the Avengers.
She married the android Avenger the Vision, was trained in the mystic arts by both Agatha Harkness and Doctor Strange, and was the leader of the Avengers West Coast team.

As far as powers go, generally her abilities are the power to alter probability (Hex Spheres) and work magic.
Her probability alteration has gone up to God-like points now and then as when she resurrected Wonder Man or when she wiped 90% of the mutants off the Earth by saying, "No More Mutants."
Besides all that, she's a pretty good hand to hand fighter, being trained by both Captain America and Hawkeye (who has had a crush on her since the 60s).

Justice League: War - DC Universe Animated Original Movies

Yes I finally got around to watching "Justice League: War".
And yes I know it took me long enough.
I liked it.

It wasn't "Under The Red Hood" or "Justice League: Flashpoint Paradox" by any means.
But I hope the Justice League live action movie is at least similar to this.

Read More Here:
Justice League: War Review
http://www.bubblews.com/news/2872049-justice-league-war-review

Raven - DC Comics

One superheroine that I think has fared much better on TV and in video games than in the comics...Raven.
Voice actress Tara Strong breathed all kinds of life into this character.
A lot more than the books ever did.

Heck, I even liked her better in Injustice: Gods Among Us than in the comics.

DC Comic's Raven was a good character. I think they dropped the ball around...well really not long after she was created. But they really messed her up in the New 52 with a version that is pretty much unrecognizable. The saving grace of Raven is in DC's animation.

I really liked her in the Teen Titans animated series, where she was voiced by Tara Strong. Tara reprises the role many times. She was Raven in the original Teen Titans, New Teen Titans, Teen Titans Go!, in the animated film Teen Titans: Trouble in Tokyo and in the video game Injustice: Gods Among Us. Tara is to Raven what Kevin Conroy is to Batman.

Her mom was a human and her father was/is one of the most powerful demons in know creation, Trigon. So Raven has a huge laundry list of powers she can pull out at anytime. Sometimes I wonder if the writers don’t just give her new powers as is convenient. It sure seems like that sometimes.
My favorite basic skill set is: empathy, teleportation and her black Raven Soul-Self (that can fight, create a force field and do long range recon for her). But it seems like now she is WAY overpowered.

Psylocke - Marvel Comics

Psylocke can go mind to mind with the best telepaths in the Marvel Universe and still go round after round with the likes of Wolverine and Sabretooth.
Plus she is one of the hottest superheroes ever created.

You talk about a character with a messed up past. Here is Elizabeth "Betsy" Braddock. Betsy is the sister of UK based superhero Captain Britain and was created back in 1976 by Chris Claremont and Herb Trimpe. CB was a character that appeared in Captain Britain Weekly, a book put out by Marvel UK.

Anyway, Betsy was a precog, then a telepath, then she got telepathy AND telekinesis (with no explanation...her powers just changed), she was blinded and then got bionic eyes, then she body melded with Kwannon who was a Japanese female ninja mutant and gave us the Psylocke we all know and love today. Yeah...like most female comic book characters, she has been through a lot.

Psylocke has been a member of a lot of groups, most notably the X-men. But she has also been in The Hand, the Hellfire Club, Excalibur and X-Force just mention a few.

Powers? Who knows? Marvel has altered the character so much that you can't keep track of what she does. I hate it when you have version 1,2,3 or 4 of a character.

The one we are (or at least I am) most familiar with though is the one with ninja skills, telepathy and the awesome "psychic knife," that could take down just about anybody that she scored a direct hit on.

So at that time (around 1989) Psylocke could go head to head with the best telepaths in the Marvel Universe and still go hand to hand with people like Wolverine. She was a pretty well rounded character.

Power Girl - DC Comics

Power Girl got her back story cleaned up by DC in the New 52.
She got a new costume, but some things are hard to change.

She's the Supergirl of Earth 2 that wound up over here on our Earth, the cousin of Superman (well that Superman) and Supergirl with an attitude, Kara Zor-L aka Karen Starr aka Power Girl. She is also a lot of fanboy's dream girl.

Power Girl has had a fairly convoluted past (who hasn’t) but of course all that was wiped clean by the New 52 in DC. Now she and Huntress have formed their own counterpoint to Superman/Batman as World's Finest. And now before she adopted the name Power Girl, she was her world's Supergirl.
And they got rid of that costume she had. Okay...there is a lot of nostalgia connected to the costume but it really was..well...distracting. Maybe it was supposed to be. But she has worn the revealing costume from time to time even now in the New 52. By the way, the original Power Girl costume is a favorite of female cosplayers everywhere.
She has all the powers and abilities of Superman plus (and I think this is a BIG plus), since she is from Earth Two, Kryptonite has no effect on her. And this Power Girl is also a pretty darn good scientist and an excellent business woman (she runs Starrware Industries...or she ran it...who knows).