On Wednesday, Marvel Comics revealed a slew of upcoming solicitations for the month of November. This cover image for Spider-Woman #1 by artist Milo Manara was among them…
As you could imagine, plenty of geek sites went nuclear, declaring Manara’s cover as “sexploitive” and eagerly igniting controversy around the image.
The Spider-Woman #1 Cover Is So Wrong #Comics #SpiderWoman http://t.co/0yA7ogNwIu
— Nerd Approved (@NerdApproved) August 21, 2014
Marvel’s Spider-Woman #1 may sport the most sexist comic book art ever http://t.co/870bfUpUJq — Joy (@joyly45) August 21, 2014
An Artistic Critique of Milo Manara and Greg Land’s Controversial Spider-Woman Covers http://t.co/vMn8h11JHf via @TheMarySue
— Amber Love (@elizabethamber) August 21, 2014
WHOA—Marvel is facing major backlash for this crazy provocative Spider-Woman pose: http://t.co/vGMzJrZnBk
— E! Online (@eonline) August 21, 2014
Marvel has not commented on the image and, given their track record, I’d imagine that they will just let this blow over. Or, at the very least, throw a little Photoshop on Spider-Woman’s rear-end before the book hits shelves in November. The cover is still making the rounds online, however, and will continue to circulate in a Remenderian effort to reshape the industry’s already tense gender divide.
Now, as a long-time fan of all things Marvel, I couldn’t help but immediately notice that this is very much in line with most images of Spider-Man throughout the decades. Images such as…
Not to mention some other compromising positions that Spider-Man has frequently been seen in…
Now, I am forever invested in diversity and equality within the realm of entertainment (black guy here), but maybe this variant cover (a fact often glossed over) isn’t as much of an issue of equality as we’ve been led to believe.
A little context goes a long way.
Troy-Jeffrey Allen writes about action/adventure for Action A Go Go. He is a comic book writer whose works include BamnComics.com, The Magic Bullet, Dr. Dremo’s Taphouse of Tall Tales, and the Harvey Award nominated District Comics. In addition, Allen has been a contributing writer for ComicBookBin.com, OfNote Magazine, and ForcesOfGeek.com. His work has been featured in the City Paper, The Baltimore Sun, Bethesda Magazine, The Examiner, and The Washington Post. Yes, he wrote this bio.