Although Rogue, Jubilee and Storm have long proven that female superheroes can kick some ass in a male-dominated comic-book universe, Marvel hopes to establish the same rightful place for its female artists.
The company is striving to do this with Girl Comics, a three-issue anthology miniseries project that places women solely in charge of all aspects: writing, drawing, coloring, everything. Girl Comics contributors include Marjorie Liu (Dark Wolverine), Devin Grayson (Nightwing) and G. Willow Wilson (Air), names that have garnered more attention with the increasing popularity of San Diego’s Comic-Con.
“My original hope with this was to show that women in comics are already creating just as diverse a range of stories as men,” Girl Comics editor Jeanine Schaefer told Publisher’s Weekly. “I think the characters and the stories will draw in just as many men in as women, and will get people thinking that good comics aren’t all about the gender of the writer or artist.”
The first Girl Comics book, out March 2010, will focus on the first series appearance by She-Hulk (pictured), though the series in its entirety will focus on superheroes of both genders. “I asked for pitches like, ‘If you could do anything, what would you do?’,” Schaefer told Marvel.com. “Some women wanted to focus on female super heroes and some women didn’t. We have a Punisher pitch. We have a Mary Jane pitch. A Nightcrawler pitch. Ann Nocenti is doing a Typhoid Mary story and she was one of the creators of Typhoid Mary. Not all women like the same thing. But this is a comic by women for people who like comics.”
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Stan Lee, Marvel, others sued for $750…
The comic-book debut of She-Hulk? Really?
She-Hulk's comic-book debut was nearly thirty years ago. (She's the Hulk's cousin, who got his powers through a blood transfusion, but kept her smarts. She's a monster of a good lawyer!)
D'oh. Nathan, I thought she looked familiar, though I guess she's bulked up since I last saw her. (Thanks for the heads up!)
The she-hulk depicted here is just a masculine superhero with breasts, and really not representative of more gender-balanced comics.
The Mary Jane series was really strong and interesting because the comics focused on character development and relationships, at least until a new crew of writers and artists took over.
Runaways presented a wide range of genders, and even sexuality, until new artists and writers moved it closer to the Marvel norm.
I think Marvel doesn't have a clue, and occasionally when someone produces a quality product with thoughtful approaches to gender the corporation mainstreams the comic and destroys it.
Wow, they really feel the need to entitle this series as "Girl Comics"?
Hopefully it attracts more readers (considering the majority of comic-readers are male) than I'm currently thinking. . .
I mean, I would definitely check these out.
But then again, I'm a girl.