Dubai recently saw people coming together for the love of comics, fantasy and superheroes at Comic Con. But it is time for a comic that features a strong woman on her own journey — one that doesn’t need a love interest along for the ride.

So far, female superheroes’ existence, in literature and films, seems to have progressed from the simple need for a male counterpart or a love interest. There are some very obvious ones, such as Hulk and She-Hulk, Spider-Man and Spider-Woman or Batman and Batwoman.

This is a problem, because instead of taking the time to create a new character with any interest or depth, writers just slap a tinier costume on an already existing character, add “she”, “lady” or “girl” to the name and call it a day.

If these female superheroes aren’t created based on a preexisting male hero, they’re usually created as a love interest instead. This leads to the woman being defined by the man, even though she would be better and stronger on her own. Do I smell a need for male dominance?

In previous eras, a lot of female superheroes were introduced as weak, to enforce the ‘damsel in distress’ stereotype. We’ve seen all well-intended female superheroes forced into this stereotype at some point.

Take Wonder Woman — the feminist icon was not spared the altercation of character to suit her love interest, Steve Trevor. In Wonder Woman comics from the 1940s and 1950s, she was obviously stronger than Trevor, but social norms often backed her into a corner of domesticity. She deflected bullets with ease, but became softer during the romantic comics’ boom. This was eventually erased and Wonder Woman remains an iconic single super-heroine.

Are we dooming our next super-heroine to a similar future? History is not reassuring. Nevertheless, when a female superhero is written as an independent character, she ceases to be defined by male preferences and becomes her own person. This is the future we look forward to and it begins with the next female superhero, breaking free from the shackles that held her ancestors back and joining the legion as a unique member of equal strength.

The reader is a grade 12 student based in Dubai.