Sexism

This is, partially, a concept better known as fridging, according to which the female characters are there to be saved by the hero. And, for the better part of the franchise, the MCU did have poor female characters, even if Black Widow arrived as early as Iron Man 2.

But things are changing now. Captain Marvel will soon arrive (2019 is closer than you think), we have Scarlet Witch, everybody is crying for a Black Widow movie, and Pepper Potts saved the day in Iron Man 3 (and kind of ruined it for me).

Yes, the female characters are still underwhelming. And some great actresses are still cast in token roles (hopefully, this won’t be the case with Tilda Swinton). But the future looks brighter than ever!