This article was brought to my attention by blogger Catwoman over at Hardcore Nerdity. It’s a brief interview with Joe Quesada about the new Marvel title, “Marvel Divas” which Mr. Quesada is touting as a title for women.
Does this…
look like it’s the cover for a title aimed at women? Seriously?
The Geek Husband What Rules’s response on seeing it was, “Wow, pornalicious.”
Ahem…
Dear Mr. Quesada,
Marketing to women, UR DOIN IT RONG!!!!!!!
Please to be stopping.
Sincerely,
Every Female Comic Fan in the Universe
He describes it as “Sex and the City in the Marvel Universe.”
Personally, I think Mr. Quesada never got past Samantha’s tits to understand exactly why women actually liked the show. I admit to an unhealthy fascination with the first two seasons on HBO, only partially because Chris (OMG, DREAMY) Noth played Carrie’s boyfriend, Mr. Big. These were four women who were strong, independent, had jobs I would KILL for, and owned their sexuality. They didn’t sleep with men to please men, they slept with men to please themselves. Even Charlotte, the most timid and puritanical of the four, realized that owning her own sexuality and pleasure was neccessary to her mental health and happiness.
So I look at that image above and compare it to this shot from the intro titles to “Sex and the City,”
where the four women are engaged with each other, not posing pornaliciously, and I find Mr. Quesada’s vision sorely lacking, as well as his comprehension of what made women, even nerdy women like me, enjoy “Sex and the City.” These women have agency and friendship. They aren’t all posing sexily in their own little world, completely separate from one another. Even in the promo shots for the movie that were more posed, they still look more powerful than those superheroines above.
After the “Sex and the City” comment, he adds: “I also think the series is going to a deeper place, asking questions about what it means…truly means…to be a woman in an industry dominated by testosterone and guns. (And I mean both the super hero industry and the comic book industry.)” You’ll forgive me a sardonic laugh at this point, because he immediately follows it up with this gem: “But mostly it’s just a lot of hot fun.”
I think I’m about to give myself a concussion from all the “headdesking” about to occur.
Seriously, Joe, hire some women and let them write. It’s the only way you can come out of this without looking like a complete sexist pig. Ok, it’s too late for that. But seriously, women like comics, women like superhero comics, women WANT to like superhero comics, and women want to not cringe every time they buy an X-title and think “Wow, I feel dirty that any of my money is going to support someone who doesn’t think I’m a real person.”
Geek Girls Rule!!! 
It’s things like this that keep me from developing much interest in spending time and money on comics:
“The idea behind the series was to have some sudsy fun”
Oh, so we can expect a bath scene with artfully placed bubble-bath then? Yeah, that whole promo paragraph just screams deep, meaningful storyline.
/dripping sarcasm
Quesada is clueless when it comes to women and sexual minorities.
Quesada is clueless
You could have just stopped there and been no less correct. He’s a very big part of why I don’t buy comics any more.
I was saddened to see this, because for a moment, a BRIEF moment, I thought that Marvel was going to bring in their own version of Birds of Prey, which rocked under Gail Simone’s penmanship.
Instead, it’s another titilation title like Heroes for Hire.
God, I swear, sometimes I feel like shaking Joey boy until his teeth rattle in his head and tell him I appreciate well-written female characters instead of artwork to jerk off to.
Ogre’s suggestion is he just hates women, and is actively trying to drive us all off so he doesn’t have to worry about us anymore.
I just think he’s completely clueless.
But! he has a daughter! That means he can’t be sexist! QED, at least per Joe Q…
Even when he draws a female chara whose superpower is healing like this… I mean, Wolverine is ALWAYS drawn with pornface and his taint showing, right?
I’m not sure this is marketed to women. The guy writing it is gay. Mightn’t it be targeted for a gay audience or an audience that is a fan of camp?
You really think that Quesada is going to seriously market something to the camp-loving gay male market? Seriously?
I do wonder what the story is actually going to be like, besides the cover art and Quesada’s bs. I think there are some Marvel comics that have been put out in the last six or so years — I’m thinking especially of Emma Frost, She-Hulk, and Ms. Marvel — that had extremely porny covers that were off-putting to a female audience, but had a far better storyline and art once inside. Can’t judge a book by its cover art and its editor-in-chief, however, it’s better marketing to have the cover art match the story.
You really think that Quesada is going to seriously market something to the camp-loving gay male market? Seriously?
But they did once already!
[d&rlh]
I remember telling some of the artists at Dragon Con that they were going to be sorely disappointed when they saw a real naked woman for the first time.
Wow… that’s… spectacular.
Really, it looks like, “We need to recruit fans of DC’s Birds of Prey” running headlong into a truck full of, “We have all these female characters that don’t have a place in any major titles right now!”
All I can say is that this is a damn boring cover that has no personality whatsoever.
The message I get is LOOK!! FEMALES INSIDE!!
But that’s really not enough to sell me on a story because the characters look so static and dull.
“I mean, Wolverine is ALWAYS drawn with pornface and his taint showing, right?”
….Well then I’d have a reason to buy his book!
I have to agree, I’m not seeing brains and strength on the cover of that book so much as bewbs and camel toe. Awesome marketing, really.
Well, it won’t last long and will soon find it’s way to being a footnote in comics history.
…but the same month this came out, so did the cover to THE TROJAN WAR #3.
From Marvel, believe it or not. And THAT cover rocked!
Renee, can you post a link?