I tried to send a letter to Marvel through their online feedback form. I'm not sure that it got through.
Marvel comics was my first fandom, and one that I was devoted to for years. I subscribed to various titles, watched the ‘toons, and bought the movies. It took me a long while to realize that while Marvel was quite happy to take my money, you would never try to make me feel welcome. After all, comics are for boys, and spandex-clad tits and ass make the fanboys happy.
I don’t mind fanservice. I’m well aware that skimpy clothes and impossible proportions are part and parcel of superhero comics. The cover of Heroes For Hire (you know the one, I’m sure: the tentacle-rape and bondage one) goes beyond fanservice. If Marvel comics has plumbed such lows before, I am mercifully unaware.
A male hero would have been shown struggling valiantly against his bonds, his muscles straining and his jaw gritted. The women who are front-and-center on this cover are depicted as being powerless, helpless, and passive (if I may be so crude, they look like they’ve been fucked into submission. Did Black Cat pass out before or after an alien came all over her chest?) Their faces are childish, their expressions fearful and vapid. As an added bonus, this cover embraces racism in the form of Misty Knight--I don’t think it was intentional on Marvel’s part, but lightening up her skintone is indeed a form of racism. Think on the issue long enough and hard enough (or at all), and I’m sure you’ll eventually figure out why turning a black woman into a vaguely ethnic-looking brownish one is problematic.
You are editors, writers and artists--I’m sure that at least some of you know the meaning of “subtext.”
I don’t expect any sort of apology from you, or for you to admit to any sort of wrongdoing. I am sure that by this point you have already written me off as a feminazi out to ruin your toys, or as a hysterical woman. You have faced more eloquent criticism than I will ever manage to convey, and responded to it all with the same tired old excuses and justifications.
Consider this, though: people are seeing this cover and drawing conclusions about Marvel, it’s employees, and it’s products. I do not know any of you personally, and can make no comments as to your characters, but this cover and the Mary Jane statuette both leave me with a bad taste in my mouth, and the feeling that I’m looking upon something only a misogynistic pig would enjoy without question.
I am disgusted and hurt by Marvel’s recent behaviour. I know that you do not care about me, or my opinion, but I feel that it is time that I step up and speak out against Marvel’s gleeful exploitation and degradation of it’s female characters.
I hope that one day, the industry pulls it’s head out of it’s ass and starts to think about the message you’re putting out to the world.
ljpublic
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