Problems with Female Characters

I recently saw Cowboys and Aliens (midnight showing Bitches!) and I love Jon Favreau's work.  But as I get closer to arriving in LA and hitting the streets to find myself a job on set that I can be proud of, I wonder what the place is for women in Hollywood.  This interview with Olivia Wilde had me stoked on the film and the idea that they were portraying a woman from the time period as the strong and independent woman she would have had to be in order to survive the cowboy old west days.  However (and this is probably because I was unfamiliar with the comic on which the movie is based) I was disappointed in the film when SPOILER ALERT BIG TIME: she was revealed to be an alien.  This is probably written into the comic, as I said, but it still made me sad that the strong bad ass woman was literally from another planet.  ANOTHER SPOILER ALERT: I was also really peeved that for her to save the day she had to martyr herself.  Can a woman save the day?  Yes, if she explodes.
Here is the interview that got me so psyched on the film. Watch it. I don't think the SPOILER ALERT: alieness and martyrdom were things she is really thinking about in this interview, but they are still worth noting.

I saw a post by a friend who is always psyched about comicon on facebook and it was a link to a batgirl who apparently faced quite alot of negativity for questions relating to the inequality of female to male main characters in comic books, as well as in the creative aspects of comics.  Read it.  I was really shocked, as I'm sure "batgirl" herself was, by the clear hostility in the executive's voice when asked about women in DC.  Comics have long been associated with lonely male nerds, but that's simply not by a long shot the whole demographic of people who read comics.  That in itself is an awful stereotype and I think it is a problem that is compounded (when you read the blog interview you will understand) by hostility from the people who are in control of the brand.  Comics can be about women, as well as men.  Comics can be MADE by women, as well as men.  I used to think that this inequality was probably due to less women wanting to be involved in comic books, but after reading this blog, I feel like even though there are fewer women interested in comics it doesn't justify the 1% female creative staff noted by one male fan of the DC universe.

I guess what it boils down to is that women are still "the weaker sex" in movies and comics.  I want to fix this, but it is not something to be done (as some female film theorists would have it) in an alternative art cinema.  Women should be superheroes too; women should be movie heroes too.  I was so excited to see Kickass because of Hitgirl's insane action sequences and strength.  Ultimately though, she was reliant on a male superhero (one less experienced and more beat up throughout the film) to ultimately save her.

Unfortunately, this is how I see things.  Do you have any inspiring female characters not reliant on male companionship?  Did I majorly miss something in my ideas that I should be aware of?  Tell me how you see it because this is one thing I would like to see differently and I know the things I discussed are just the tip of the iceberg.