You don’t have to be a comic aficionado to be aware of the latest Spider-Woman cover, it’s caused quite a furore on this here internet. Another case of the comic book industry sexualising its female characters; they got ‘erotic artist’ Milo Manera to create a variant cover. Of course comics have often had a penchant for objectifying its females characters, whether the lead in their own comic series or otherwise. There’s a certain attention to detail and composition reserved for the ladies.
Our overlord, Jimmy, recently showed you The Oatmeal’s little bit of creative equality by colourfully applying similar ‘rules’ to Spiderman. However, The Oatmeal weren’t alone in this mission as comedian, and contributing writer for Comic Book Resources, Brett White took it upon himself to mock up a few alternative covers for some of Marvel’s male stars.
To do this, White took a number of images from the Marvel Swimsuit Series – yes, Marvel had an annual swimsuit magazine from 1991-1995 – and mocked them up in the manner of modern comic covers. Of course, they’re not as sexualised as such (example: Thor might be the God of Thunder, but he ain’t the God of down-under IF YOU KNOW WHAT I AM SAYING), and these are images Marvel have previously published – admittedly in annuals that, of course, focus on the Marvel-lous females.
However, taken out of their context and placed into that of the official series covers it’s a good example of how things might appear were the roles reversed, and these were what went for serious, story covers. Bring out the beefcakes!
More heroes that are more hunk than Hulk on the next page…
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