When you think about Marvel Comics, chances are you think about Spider-Man. The Hulk. Captain America. Iron Man. The X-Men.

But there have been just as many X-Women as –Men.

More of Marvel's characters have called themselves Spider-Woman than Spider-Man, including the figurehead of last summer's mega-crossover Secret Invasion.

She-Hulk was Marvel Chairman Emeritus Stan Lee's final Marvel creation. A simple origin, but a lasting character.

Even so, Jennifer Walters — the cousin of Bruce Banner, The Hulk, has yet to smash her way to the big screen, in either an Ang Lee-adapted mess or much-deserved, subsequent relaunch several years later. And the only Spider-Woman your average person may recognize is a fat kid dressed as Spider-Man for Halloween. (I'm allowed to say that. It was me. They weren't boobs, they were buds.)

Wolverine became the first X-Men spin-off, beating Phoenix, Rogue or Storm. (Sorry, Halle.) And the only Marvel film with a female at the lead, Elektra, managed to do worse than its predecessor, Daredevil.

Why? Because comic books, and therefore their mainstream adaptations, tend to lend themselves more to the Y chromosome than the X.

But X has always been a key component to the success of Marvel Comics – and in March, coinciding with National Women's History Month, the company will begin a year-long celebration of the women both on and behind its pages with Marvel Women.

This article appears in Nov 11-17, 2009.