Gender in speculative fiction
The first known female superhero is writer-artist Fletcher Hanks's minor character Fantomah, an ageless, ancient Egyptian woman in the modern day who could transform into a skull-faced creature with superpowers to fight evil; she debuted in 1940 in Fiction Houses "Jungle Comics".
Carol Danvers
Carol Susan Jane Danvers is a fictional superhero appearing in American comic books published by Marvel Comics. Created by writer Roy Thomas and artist Gene Colan, Danvers first appeared as an officer in the United States Air Force and a colleague of the Kree superhero Mar-Vell in "Marvel Super-Heroes" #13 (March 1968). Danvers later became the first incarnation of Ms. Marvel in "Ms. Marvel" #1 (cover-dated January 1977) after her DNA was fused with Mar-Vell's during an explosion, giving her superhuman powers. Debuting in the Silver Age of comics, the character was featured in a self-titled series in the late 1970s before becoming associated with the superhero teams the Avengers and the X-Men. The character has also been known as Binary, Warbird and Captain Marvel at various points in her history. She has been labeled "Marvel's biggest female hero", and "quite possibly Marvel's mightiest Avenger". In 2012, Danvers' incarnation of Ms Marvel was the highest ranked female character (at #11) on IGN's list of the "Top 50 Avengers."