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The 15 most powerful female superheroes right now (pictures)

From the all-woman Avengers to the upcoming Supergirl, we're definitely looking at a heroine renaissance.

Leslie Gornstein
Leslie Gornstein is a senior editor with CBS Interactive. For the past two decades, she's covered consumer and B-to-B tech; biotech; entertainment and various other subjects that seemed interesting at the time. She's the author of The A-List Playbook (Skyhorse) and she lives in Los Angeles.
Leslie Gornstein
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Super heroines

There's never been a better time to be a female crime-fighter. Supergirl is kicking butt on TV. Marvel has a bunch of women superheroes on the job. 

And, of course, now we (finally!) have a big-screen Wonder Woman, channeled by a fearless-looking Gal Gadot.  

But those aren't the only female fighters of evil we've been celebrating lately...

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2 of 17 Chelsea Lauren/WireImage

Jean Grey

"Game of Thrones" star Sophie Turner (left) took over the role of Jean Grey from Famke Jannsen (right) for 2016's "X-Men: Apocalypse." Next up: "X-Men: Dark Phoenix" in 2018.

She's also a current hit in digital comic form, too.

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3 of 17 Melissa Benoist/CBS/Twitter

Supergirl

Former "Whiplash" co-star Melissa Benoist is now Supergirl, which first aired on CBS but recently wrapped up its second season on the CW.

"THIS," the actress tweeted soon after she got the part, along with a photo of herself in costume. "I still can't believe I am wearing the House of El coat of arms." 

(Disclosure: CBS is the parent company of CNET.)

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4 of 17 Netflix

Gamora

Space assassin Gamora, embodied on the right by Zoe Saldana in Marvel's "Guardians of the Galaxy," returned to big screens in 2017. Next up for the movie version of Gamora is "Avengers: Infinity War."

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5 of 17 Marvel Comics

Need more Gamora?

FYI, Gamora's got her own Marvel comic, too.

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6 of 17 DC Comics

Batgirl

Go-to DC Justice League moviemaker Joss Whedon announced in 2017 that he's working on a screenplay for a Batgirl project.

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7 of 17 Marvel Entertainment

Thor

In 2014, Marvel announced that the king of Asgard would actually be a queen. The female Thor (who was still the star of the Mighty Thor comic as of May 2017) was an instant hit; the first five issues of her series outsold its predecessor by 30 percent.

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8 of 17 Warner Bros.

Wonder Woman

Israeli actor Gal Godot also will play Wonder Woman in Warner Bros.' upcoming feature "Justice League," due in November 2017.

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9 of 17 Marvel Entertainment

Ms. Marvel

Since 2013, Ms. Marvel has been a Muslim teenager named Kamala Khan. "Ms. Marvel Volume 1: No Normal" was the best-selling graphic novel in October 2014. She's still chasing criminals in 2017.

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10 of 17 Marvel Entertainment

Spider-Woman

The original Spider-Woman, Jessica Drew, returned to web-slinging with a brand-new ongoing series in October 2014. She was a hit then, and she's still in digital print as of May 2017.

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11 of 17 Marvel Entertainment

Super heroines

In early 2015, Marvel announced the A-Force, an all-female hero lineup. Since then, She-Hulk and Co. have stepped into the vacuum left by the Avengers, who went AWOL during Marvel's Secret Wars storyline.

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12 of 17 Marvel Entertainment

Singularity

The A-Force storyline re-upped the tour of duty for classic super-heroines, but also introduced a new face: Singularity. Creator G. Willow Wilson described her as more of a cosmic event than a person, a pocket universe that chose to manifest in a human woman shape.

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13 of 17 Marvel Entertainment

She-Hulk

Jennifer Walters, also known as She-Hulk, leads A-Force, Marvel's female Avengers team. 

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Silk

Marvel's Silk character has got clout, literally. She's a master at hand-to-hand combat, and she also has Spider-Man-like abilities. No wonder she still has her own title via Marvel Unlimited.

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15 of 17 Marvel Entertainment

Spider-Gwen

Peter Parker's flame is living her own web-slinging adventures in an alternate universe. Her standalone title launched in February 2015.

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16 of 17 DC Comics

Batwoman and the bombshells

Batwoman has gone through many iterations, including a recent Vargas-inspired crime fighter in a comic series co-starring an equally retro Wonder Woman and Supergirl. 

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17 of 17 Image Comics

The Rat Queens

In a world filled with caped crusaders and psychotic antiheroes, the four women at the center of Image Comics' Rat Queens scratch a very neglected itch: that of fantasy geek girls.

Anyone who has played Dungeons & Dragons will recognize the classic team-up of the dwarven warrior, the halfling thief, the elven mage and the human shammy, but female readers will get an extra kick out of their combined girl power. 

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