*Dear Marvel: Women Want More Avengers T-Shirts

Like most of the known world, I too watched “Avengers: Endgame” this weekend. I laughed, I cried a lot, and came away trying to recall every detail. I didn’t realize I had become such an MCU nerd!

But unlike other MCU nerds, I do not have the gear to reflect it. Why? Because I’m a woman, and Marvel/Avengers T-shirts are severely lacking.

This is not the first time I’ve come upon this problem. Last year, before “Black Panther” came out, I found a really great T-shirt at the Disney Store and gave it to my husband for Valentine’s Day. There were also great boys’ T-shirts at Old Navy, and affordable too! For women…all the T-shirts were thin, many were white and just not as great as the boys’ T-shirts. I did not get to wear a Black Panther T-shirt to the movie the way the males in my family did.

Ditto for “Avengers: Infinity War” a couple of months later.

https://www.instagram.com/p/BiaZUNQnwaT/

A cool Sailor Moon T-shirt…for men.

But, I was committed to finding a T-shirt to match my family, and found one I liked at GameStop….in a man’s size. It was my last and final option, so I just bought it, knowing that it would end up in my husband’s T-shirt collection.

That’s always the thing, though. Men’s clothes — T-shirts, jeans, socks, shoes — almost are always better quality and style than women’s options. Like, there’s a freaking super cool Sailor Moon T-shirt on the men’s side at Target, but what do women get? “Smile More.”

Seriously, I actually found that on a T-shirt in the women’s section just a couple of weeks ago, as I searched stores for a women’s “Spider-Man” T-shirt I liked ahead of Elliott’s “Spider-Man: Into the Spider-Verse” birthday party (I had to get a man’s T-shirt from Hot Topic), and again before “Endgame,” which was a lost cause.

The Marvel/Avengers options I found at my local Target. Both super thin, and more crop top than T-shirt.

What I have found is that women’s superhero T-shirts are either cutesy, tank or crop tops (no mom wants to wear a crop top, FYI), styled weirdly “just for women!”, or adorned in needless shiny, glittery stones, buttons or other whatnot. Here are a few examples.

When you filter for “Women” on the Disney Store “Avengers: Endgame” store, you get five not-horrible T-shirts, a Captain Marvel T-shirt, and two super girly shirts, one of which has the “Avengers” A logo in black stud appliques. There’s also a long-sleeve crop top, and a crop top tank top, but I am not counting those. Ugh.

There are 14 Men’s T-shirts and the designs are SO. MUCH. BETTER.

SPOILER ALERT AHEAD

So, I have a couple of T-shirt suggestions after Infinity War and Endgame. C’mon, the women seriously represented in these two movies. Scarlet Witch nearly took down Thanos single-handedly, not once, but twice — but Thanos literally tapped out in Endgame. And that Lady Avengers team up — I wanted to jump from my seat and holler.

UPDATE: Marvel Studios posted a screenshot of that epic scene!

via GIPHY

So, please, Disney, Marvel, Hot Topic, Box Lunch — anyone! — give us female Marvel fans better T-shirts! One I would LOVE to see is the Lady Avengers scene in Endgame on a T-shirt. Black Widow, sadly, won’t be in that scene, but she can still be represented if you put “She’s not alone” on it. Of course, that line is from Infinity War, but it still works.

That phrase can also work on T-shirt with Scarlet Witch backed up by Okoye and Black Widow.

Another one I’d LOVE to see — “I have nothing to prove to you” above Captain Marvel. TAKE MY MONEY.

From Black Panther? Nakia, with “I save my country.”

I also feel like Marvel missed an opportunity in Age of Ultron when they didn’t have Black Widow on the motorcycle, snatching up Cap’s shield, muttering, “I’m always cleaning up after you boys.” As a mom of boys, that shirt would literally be made for me, but it’s also a nod at how Black Widow so often provides critical backup for the superpowered members of the team.

C’mon, the MCU ladies have had SO MANY GREAT LINES in 22 films, but the T-shirt game is so egregiously lacking. Make that Endgame T-shirt happen, PLEASE.