Ryan at Comicsfodder rounds up all the things that Marvel and DC have done lately to show that they don’t take female readers very seriously, and points out something we’ve noted ourselves:

I’ve never really been certain why Marvel gets such a free ride on the misogyny front when watching DC’s every panel has become a particularly engrossing game of “Gotcha”. Perhaps its selective perception (although the “Heroes for Hire” henati-ish cover incident still lingers in recent memory).

They’ve never shied away from using their female characters for cheesecake on covers or elsewhere, design costumes just as questionable as any DC female hero or villain, and haven’t had sustained runs on as many female-centric books as DC. Of course, I also don’t follow Marvel the way I follow DC, so a lot of my opinion is formed from the casual dipping in and out I do of much of the Marvel Universe.


It really is true though — maybe Marvel commenters are a lot less eagle-eyed than DC ones…or DC readers are just more addicted to jumping on every single little thing that DC does and reading larger meaning into it. Not that it’s hard to find lunkheaded decisions from both companies that seem hellbent on dismissing a large chunk of potential new readers, but, that’s how it goes.

Unrelated, but earlier yesterday CB Cebulski was Twittering the following:

# Yes, I have found that more female artists are submitting artwork to Marvel these days, especially from Europe.

# Sara Pichelli came out of ChesterQuest and is kicking all kinds of ass at Marvel now. And also keep an eye out for CQ finalist Serena Ficca.

# One name I can also name is Rebekah Issacs, who we met & hired at NYCC. She makes her debut on Ms. Marvel 38: http://tinyurl.com/cdug2k

# Female writers? Marjorie Liu and Kathryn Immonen both made their Marvel debuts this past year and are moving on to bigger books.

Despite the title of this post, we actually TURNED OFF THE COMMENTS because we just aren’t in the mood for bingo today.