Which Marvel Movies Are the Most Feminist?

If you aren’t already familiar with the Bechdel Test, allow us to give you a quick rundown. Essentially, it’s an easy checklist we use to measure female representation in film. There are three rules. First, there must be at least two women characters with names.

Second, those women have to talk to each other. And third, their conversation has to be about something besides a man.

We’ve already put the DC live action superhero lineup to the test. But what about Marvel? Since Marvel has too many live-action films to count (and some strange relationships with both Fox and Sony), we’re going to approach this as follows: only films considered to be part of the official Marvel Cinematic Universe have been rated.

So here’s how the ranking goes for the Marvel movies Bechdel test.

The Incredible Hulk (2008)

Technically, The Incredible Hulk was released after the MCU’s first installment, 2008’s Iron Man (by a month). But if we’re judging by caliber of film here, you’d think this thing came out years prior.

Yes, we’ve got two named female characters, but not only do they not talk to each other, the entire purpose of having one of them around is to calm Hulk down. One out of three, for being the worst rated Bechdel candidate and also the worst film on this list.

Doctor Strange (2016)

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At only two years old, Doctor Strange is not a film that should rate at only one out of three. But here we are, with The Ancient One and Dr. Palmer (who is atrociously underused, by the way) never even getting far enough to have an actual conversation with each other.

This nearly complete miss is shameful.

Captain America: The First Avenger (2011)

Peggy Carter and a nameless shopkeeper exchange code phrases with each other, which would have given Captain America a full pass, if only that damn shopkeeper had had a name. But she didn’t.

So one out of three, although we have to give the film credit for Carter herself, who is one of the greatest female comic heroes to ever hit the big screen.

Spider-Man: Homecoming (2017)

It’s unfortunate that Spider-Man: Homecoming only passes one Bechdel test, because it’s actually a great return to the MCU for the character.

But we guess when the majority of your female characters are high schoolers with little screen time, the best conversation between two of them that you could hope for would be a f—, marry, kill type thing.

One out of three, but we really need to get Aunt May in on some Avengers action in the future.