There is no consternation like that of a 6-year-old deprived of her favorite superhero.

The much lauded and beloved Spider-Man: Into the Spider-Verse came out a couple days after my 9-year-old son’s birthday and thus, to celebrate the grand occasion, we took the boy and several of his friends to see the masterpiece. His sister, of course, came with and was riveted, though every few minutes she would lean over to me and whisper, “Where’s Gwen?” Once Gwen made her appearance, 6’s attention was absolute and, ever since, when the opportunity to play superheroes comes, there’s never any doubt who she’s going to be.

As it turns out, Spider-Man: Far From Home comes out the weekend after her birthday, and she was pretty jazzed that she was going to get a Spider-flick for her celebration as well. We watched the trailer as soon as they got home from school the day it came out and, as it ended, she nodded, said, “That looks good,” then turned to me, put her hands on her hips, and asked, in a voice that sounded an awful lot like the one I use when I’m super annoyed at a poorly portrayed female comic book character or the fact her brother failed to study his spelling words again or that I specifically ask them to put their laundry away while I’m at work and the giant, overflowing basket is still in the middle of the living room when I get home 12 hours later: “Mommy?”

“Yeah, babe?”

“Where. Is. Gwen?”

“Er. That’s a very good question.”

So, in honor of the fact my 6-year-old is starting to notice the lack of female heroes in her favorite film genre, I thought I’d remind everyone of the ladies who could either make appearances in main continuity Marvel flicks going forward or, and hear me out, I know this may be a novel concept, star in their own films, either live action or animated, in the future.

Spider-Gwen

The Spider-Woman of Earth-65 (an alternate dimension to the main Marvel Continuity) Gwen Stacy was bitten by a radioactive spider, after which she developed “arachnid-like” superpowers. Retired hero Janet Van Dyne gave Gwen a costume and web shooters, and though originally in it for the fame and fortune, Gwen eventually developed a desire to help others (power, responsibility, etc).

Though friends with the bullied Peter Parker of Earth-65, Gwen is unable to prevent him from experimenting on himself in the hopes he’ll be able to become more like his hero, Spider-Woman, he becomes a lizard-like creature and crashes the prom. Gwen is forced to fight him, and Peter suffers fatal injuries. Spider-Woman is branded a criminal, which leads to a lot of complications with Evil Daredevil and the Hand.

As is often the case, stuff gets complicated and very weird after that, but a couple other arcs that might work for adaptation are one in which Earth-65 Gwen and Earth-616 Jessica Drew (Spider-Woman) and Cindy Moon (Silk) are meeting on Earth-65 and captured as part of an attempted theft of Gwen’s portal device. Jessica tells Gwen to continue with life as usual but instead, she follows Jessica and Reed Richards, preventing them from being ambushed by S.I.L.K. agents. After getting them home to Earth-616, they discover that Earth-65 Cindy Moon (not 616 Cindy they were meeting with at the beginning – don’t look at me like that, I don’t make the news, I just report it) actually created the spider that bit Gwen, having injecting it with alien DNA and then takes Gwen’s powers away…

And then, of course, there’s Gwenom…

Spider-Woman

Did you guys read the Dennis Hopeless (who recently decided to write under his given name of Dennis Hallum) run of Spider-Woman? No? You should have. You still should. It’s rare I recommend a book focusing on a woman’s story written by a dude, but this is an exception. During his time on Spider-Woman, Jess was benched due to hitting her third trimester, had a baby while in Skrull captivity, adapted to motherhood, made the transition to working motherhood, got into a fight with her best friend and one one of the pillars of her support system, and lost another pillar completely. All of this while trying to not only work but also work as a superhero. To battle postpartum depression and loneliness while watching her friends save the world. To deal with the push-pull of motherhood and career knowing that lives depend on her being able to leave her child. An aspect of the MCU that folks have been critical of, and not without reason, is a lack of emotional range among the major players – we get a lot of man pain but not much else. Hallum’s Jessica is very nuanced and very real when it comes to issues women, nay people, deal with, which would be a welcome injection of personality and humanity.

Silk

Cindy Moon was bitten by the same spider that bit Peter Parker. Unfortunately for Cindy, her training wasn’t quite as pleasant. After she accidentally webbed up her parents, she was taken from her home (ostensibly to protect her from the predator Morlun who was tracking her). Locked in the basement of a tower with food, books, and information on the outside world, Cindy was given the door code and told she could leave at any time but knowing she was being hunted, she opted to stay.

Hearing her story over a decade later, Peter goes to free Cindy, telling her that Morlun is dead. Returning home, Cindy finds her parents have moved and questions Peter further; he reveals the Morlun has died twice (which, come on, shouldn’t we just assume that at this point), and Cindy attacks Peter for risking her release when there’s every chance he might come back again (duh).

He does.

After all that business goes down, she and Peter, um… team up.

Then there’s a lot of weird metaphysical stuff and universe jumping and Loomworld… To be honest, if anyone was going to use this part of Cindy’s story, it would need a serious sensitivity read.

Cindy is currently an agent of S.H.I.E.L.D. I think… She was. Now she’s attending S.H.I.E.L.D. Academy on Mockingbird’s recommendation? It’s a little murky…

Spinnerete

Mary Jane Watson-Parker gets her chance to sling webs on Earth-18119. Though her history prior to Secret Wars is similar to that of Mary Jane from Earth-616, after the destruction of the Multiverse, Mary Jane 18119 finds herself in the Regency section of Battleworld living under the aegis of Emperor Doom.

In this new world, MJ finds both her husband and her daughter, Anne, who has developed spider powers, in danger from various villains including Kraven the Hunter and Mysterio, and while the Avengers and S.H.I.E.L.D. promise to assist with protection, neither organization does so with the expediency Mary Jane would prefer. Thus, she dons a suit Peter reverse engineered and becomes Spinnerete. Unfortunately, that suit drains power from Peter so she switches to a biotech suit, which is… you guessed it, a symbiote. MJ and the symbiote have to battle it out mentally; she wins in the end, of course.

MJ has always been more than a cropped T-shirt, and I, for one, would love to see her get the chance to take center stage as the focus of a spider-flick.

Spider-Girl

There are actually two Spider-Girls: May Parker and Anya Corazon.

May Parker of Earth-982 is Peter and MJ’s daughter from a future, alternate universe. Though initially separated from them, May was reunited with her parents, after which Peter was severely injured and decided to retire. Neither MJ nor Peter told May about their past and hoped she would never develop powers of her own.

Because that always goes well.

Though she initially hides her crime-fighting activities from her parents, May eventually comes clean, and Peter and MJ accept her decision to follow in Peter’s footsteps until it interferes with her personal life. May ultimately resumes her double life, though she and MJ hide it from Peter. (That also always goes well.)

There’s teenage angst. A clone. Carnage gets hold of another Parker kid. Peter gets possessed by the Green Goblin. Aunt May’s ghost shows up. May also ends up in her dad’s head. There’s a psychic battle… That part seems kind of creepy…

She sort of ends up her own twin, which MJ is fine with. Peter not so much. I’d say you couldn’t make this stuff up but obviously someone did, so…

Anya Corazon is Earth-616’s Spider-Girl who gained her powers when she leapt in to defend a stranger she encountered being attacked. The stranger ended up being Miguel, sorcerer of the Spider Society and, in exchange for Anya’s selflessness, and to saver her life, he unlocked her enhanced strength, agility, and the power to grow a blue exoskeleton (the abilities symbolized by a spider tattoo). Anya joined the Society as its Hunter. Though she ultimately lost her powers, Anya remained an active hero. She helped to reduce several new Inhumans, spent time as Jessica Drew’s protegeé, and ultimately joined the Spider-Army.

SP//dr

Peni Parker, of Earth-14512, took over piloting the SP/dr suit after her father died doing so, letting the radioactive spider at its core bite her to link her with the machine.

And there you have the Spider-Ladies. So many opportunities. So many stories.

Where’s Spider-Gwen? I’m not sure. But I hope we’ll see her again soon.