Ant-Man and the Wasp Delivers a Sweaty Marvel Heroine, At Last

Have you seen the latest Ant-Man and the Wasp poster? Listen, I’m excited. Paul Rudd and Evangeline Lilly stand back to back, positioned under their title cards, with Lilly slightly in front of Rudd. It’s a fairly standard Marvel Studios poster design, except for one thing: Lilly is looking far from salon fresh. Her hair is pulled back into an actually messy, definitely sweaty, post-gym ponytail that’s coming out into flyaways. It’s helmet hair. It’s “I just took out a supervillain” hair. It’s unglamorous - and it's absolutely perfect.

The Marvel Cinematic Universe is infamous for heroines who rarely look less than perfect. Black Widow has gone from bad wig to bad wig to some pretty cute bobs, but we’ve never seen her with so much as a hair out of place or an eye unlined. Avengers: Age Of Ultron introduces Wanda Maximoff as a Hot Topic scrapper with yesterday’s hair, but reintroduces her at the end as an Avenger with a new outfit, subtler makeup, and an enviable blowout. Gamora, the deadliest woman in the galaxy, has soft waves that frame her face through the messiest of firefights. And Mantis, the... feelingest woman in the galaxy, has a sleek, mid-length 'do that not even Thanos could defeat.

After Infinity War, fashion writer Rebecca Jennings called out Marvel Studios in Racked, for saddling its female leads with long flowing locks, even in the midst of battles. “[W]hy don’t Black Widow, Gamora, Scarlet Witch, and Mantis - and even superheroines beyond Infinity War, from Wonder Woman to Jessica Jones, Elektra, Storm, and She-Hulk - ever seem to take a second to throw their hair into a chic chignon (or, more likely, a half-assed messy bun like the rest of us do before an activity as simple as getting on the elliptical)?” Jennings got a lot of blowback for calling Marvel Studios' long hair obsession sexist - but she was right.

Miles long, unbound hair is impractical for battle - and in a superhero universe that’s put so much effort into looking real, it stands out as strange. MCU's costume designers have worked hard to give their heroes outfits that are less silly than those found in the comics. I mean, they didn’t succeed (and there’s nothing wrong with silly), but by drawing inspiration from military tactical gear and under armor, toning down the colour schemes, and making garments out of “practical,” textured materials, their aesthetic goals are clear. These are serious, professional superheroes. Commando gear and wicking for all, full face makeup and near-uniform blowouts for the ladies.

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Only Black Panther features female characters with hair that’s tailored to their individual characters, jobs, and situations in the film. Shuri’s long braids and Queen Ramonda’s dreadlocks are often tied back or tucked under headdresses. Oyoke and the Dora Milaje have shaved heads, and Nakia has Bantu knots. Every character in Black Panther has a distinctive and gorgeous look that stylist Camille Friend worked out just for them, because was it important to her and director Ryan Coogler that the film's hairstyles be natural, afrocentric, and as character-defining as their costumes.

The same care and attention to detail simply hasn't been found in other MCU productions, all of which take a single-minded approach to styling women. There’s little to unpack in Black Widow, Scarlet Witch, Gamora or Mantis’ hair and makeup, except for what lies behind their monotony: A dull equation of one form of female beauty given to all forms of female power. No matter their personal histories, Marvel's female characters are saddled with the same interchangeable, department store, neutral-niceness that says less about them than it does about Marvel Studios and what those in charge think heroism looks like on a girl.

Ragnarok’s Goth-witch Hela only stands out so much because everyone else doesn’t. Keep that wing subtle, girl, or your eyeliner will instantly transform you into a villain! And Ultron may have skipped the full makeover sequence but it didn’t skip the makeover, transforming Wanda from threateningly overmade to fresh-face and heroic.

What makes Ant-Man and the Wasp such an outlier is that not only does the Wasp sport a messy ponytail, she’s being consciously advertised as unglamorous. She looks like she’s been fighting all day, and she’s ready for more. The trailer suggests that, although there will be times where she’s kitted out in her CEO-best, Hope Van Dyne will spend much of the film looking just as unpolished as MArvel's male heroes often do. Not because she dresses down and avoids makeup (though, Marvel, where is that character?) but because she’s let that aspect of her character lapse over the course of a busy day of fighting supervillains.

This is extremely refreshing, both as a point of character development and as a break from the typical superhero routine. She's gotten away from the sharp perfection of her Ant-Man bob, a hairstyle lifted from the comic book version of her mother, Janet Van Dyne, and is making a statement of being her own hero. Fans feel like they see Hope Van Dyne on her recent posters and in those scenes, not just another random MCU heroine. In this look, you can see a character as lived-in and thoughtfully constructed as her male co-lead, finally giving us a heroine who can match Tony Stark's post-battle sweatiness.

Directed by Peyton Reed, Ant-Man and The Wasp stars Paul Rudd, Evangeline Lilly, Bobby Cannavale, Michael Peña, Tip “T.I.” Harris, Judy Greer, David Dastmalchian, Michael Douglas, Michelle Pfeiffer, Laurence Fishburne, Hannah John-Kamen, Randall Park and Walton Goggins. The film arrives in theaters on July 6.

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