The Pull List: 15 May 2013

There's something cool about the fact that of the nine comic books I purchased this week, five of them feature female protagonists: Batgirl, Batwoman, It Girl and the Atomics, Sword of Sorcery and Wonder Woman. It seems like only last year we were still all bemoaning the lack of female characters in American comic books. Now sure, of those five books two of them (It Girl and Sword of Sorcery) have been cancelled, but it still feels like an impressive development.

The first step was getting the big two superhero publishers to start publishing more female characters and I think they are doing it - the next step is to actually get people reading them. Red She-Hulk was cancelled this week as well, and Captain Marvel is looking relatively shaky. I'm wondering: is the problem that readers (still primarily male) aren't interested, or is it that publisher's aren't highlighting these characters as well as they should? All I know is that I'll be looking to replace my cancelled titles with something similar - if it's available.

Reviewed this week: Age of Ultron, Batgirl, Batwoman, He-Man and the Masters of the Universe, It Girl and the Atomics, Legion of Super-Heroes, Sesame Street, Sword of Sorcery, Ultimate Comics Spider-Man and Wonder Woman.