The twelfth film in the Marvel Cinematic Universe – that giant, world-conquering superhero film franchise – was highly anticipated, thanks to well-publicised production problems, and the introduction of fresh faces into mix. Fans were also excited, because the source material – the Marvel comic books featuring Ant-Man – also featured the prominent female superhero The Wasp. Were we about to see Marvel wake up and heed the increasingly vocal complaints of audiences about the sexism in their movies?

No. In fact, not only were we not going to see Marvel wake up and heed the complaints of audiences about the sexism in their movies, we were also going to watch the studio fritter away a great opportunity by making a film that is actually about those complaints. To be clear, after seven years,...

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