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By memory, I don't recall many instances where a male "good guy" hits a female "bad guy" throughout the Avengers universe. It's possible this is because the MCU villians have been mostly men. In fact, in Avengers: Infinity War, in Wakanda the women seem to go off and have their own little sub-battle.

I recall Thor fighting Hela in Thor: Ragnarok. I recall Hawkeye bashing something into Scarlett Witch's head in Avengers: Age of Ultron. Maybe Starlord hit Gamora in Guardians of the Galaxy (?). Maybe this is it?

In the Avengers universe, which male "good guys" have ever hit a female villain?

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  • Would you be interested in the TV series (including Netflix)? Also, does the conflict in Civil War count at all? – Obie 2.0 Feb 4 at 6:38
  • Should be noted there are some characters first came as antagonists (in some level), later transformed into protagonists.. Ex: Winter Soldier, Loki. Just pointing out there are no static good guys** – Vishwa Feb 4 at 6:50
  • Also how do you define hit, i know it seems stupid, but if iron man blasted a woman with his palm repulsers (don't know if it has happened just using an example) is that hitting? does shooting count? – Blade Wraith Feb 4 at 10:22
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I'll be honest, i'm really not sure what the importance of gender is in this context, but I've recently done another run though of the films (but not TV shows) and while i was not watching it with this in mind (so i may have missed some) but from what i can tell, the below is reasonalbly accurate.

If this is basic research for some form of gender studies paper, then obviously you should consider the times when female "good" characters have ever hit men. As any paper that only looks at one side of a situation is very very poorly written.

And I'm only really counting humans, as there is no telling what gender certain alien races are...

  • Iron Man: 0
  • Iron Man 2: 0... its mostly machine on machine lots and lots of female on male though!
  • The Incredible Hulk: does the hulk count or just banner? banner 0, Hulk actually seen, 0, but in all that damage probably a few
  • Thor: 0, but a fair amount of female on male
  • Captain America - The First Avenger: 0, a fair bit of female on male again
  • The Avengers Assemble: 0, hawkeye does hit black widow a few times but he is under mind control so isn't a good guy at the time, this comes after his arrow blows a hole in the ship which in itself hurts a lot of people and that includes BW and Maria Hill, and hulk at least intends to attack BW after banner loses control not sure if he actually does or if it is the damage he's doing that knocks her to the ground. from this point theres a fair amount of female on male so i'll just leave it left unsaid and very obviously known
  • Iron Man 3: Tony Stark does fight with a single female extremis agent, the one that regrew her arm and then was blown up in the gas explosion, and there are other (at least 1 female) extremis soldiers that fight with the suits in the final battle, but these are controlled by Jarvis, which as AI is NOT male or female. Rhody does shoot at a couple but they are not killed by him.
  • Thor: The Dark World: 0
  • Captain America: The Winter Soldier: Cap blows up three hydra helicarrriers and we see females in the hydra crew so i'm not sure if this counts?
  • Guardians of the Galaxy: Starlord does have a minor fight with gamora early on xandar, this is mostly with tech, and rocket also zaps her at the end of that fight
  • Guardians of the Galaxy Vol. 2: 0
  • Avengers: Age of Ultron: Hawkeye does zap Scarlet Witch...
  • Ant-Man: 0
  • Doctor Strange: There is a baddie that is female, but i can't remember what injuries she sustains i think he is defeated by the Sorcerer Supreme
  • Captain America - Civil War: Obviously there are several instances here, but its Good on Good, Scarlet Witch and Black Widow are both "hit" by male characters, although Black widow only seems to spar with Hawkeye, and is only actually hurt by Scarlett Witch... SC on the other hand is "sound arm pulse thing" by rody, is that hitting? its obviously causing pain.
  • Spider-Man: Homecoming: 0
  • Thor: Ragnarok: Thor does fight scuffle slightly with Valkrie, and obviously does have a few fights with Hela
  • Black Panther: 0 all characters you see Black Panther take down are male to my recolection
  • Avengers: Infinity War, there is a brief fight with the female baddie by Vison, by this point considerable as male, and then Cap also has a brief fight as well, after that only female on female, or female on male
  • Ant-Man and the Wasp, ant Man does fight with Ghost on several occasions...

Now if we consider female hitting male... then all the above words would just about cover Black Widows hallway scene from Iron Man 2...

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  • 6
    Wow! That’s amazing, thanks! It’s mostly just out of personal curiosity as to how the movies are evolving (not for a paper). It looks like there’s still an attitude of it being unacceptable to hit women, even if they’re the villain. It’s somewhat old school. – Rebecca J. Stones Feb 4 at 11:57
  • @RebeccaJ.Stones, that's fine, as i said, they're might be others but not that come to mind, i just don't like seeing people publishing one sided papers, that's the only reason i mentioned it. I would say its probably more that female villains are less common, in the majority world view women need more reasoning behind doing evil things, so larger characters it's fine, they'll be back story, but those that don't have any back story then its easier to just use generic male bad guy extra number 1 through 40. – Blade Wraith Feb 4 at 12:39
  • @BladeWraith I think it is a little more than too few female baddies. A lot of the male Avengers fulfill typical male hero cliches. Captain America is an anachronism raised with the idea "a boy should not hit a girl". Tony Stark is a chauvinist who treats most women quite sexist. Thor also seems to come from a male-warrior dominated background, also treating most females more like girls than like warriors. Most of them follow some form of gentleman code, where a man should hold open doors for women and not hit them in the face. – Falco Feb 4 at 13:02
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    @Falco: I agree completely, i was more referring to the lack of generic female bad guys which pads the female beating up male ratio quite considerably. there are certainly more male antagonists, and the gentleman's code is definitely a factor in being able to portray a female antagonist in the same way, but generally speaking male protagonist = male antagonist, Hela is the only exception to this rule, in the MCU, but Disney movies are the same... female hero, female villain, male hero, male villain, take a look at the Disney films, its almost always the same – Blade Wraith Feb 4 at 13:11
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    @Falco: again, very true, although the hulk definitely cares about puppies!!! – Blade Wraith Feb 4 at 13:12

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