Remember that ludicrously objectified version of the Spider-Woman No. 1 cover from August—the one that made Spider-Woman’s bottom look like an apple? The alternate cover that drew fan outrage is now getting published on Thursday with one major tweak: The words “Spider-Woman” will now cover the offending derriere.
It’s unclear what Marvel hoped to accomplish by the strategic positioning of the title: Perhaps it thought nobody would notice.
Marvel Comics and Marvel Studios have made headlines this year for embracing their female heroes: In July, Marvel Comics revealed that a woman would be taking up the hammer of Thor, and earlier this month the studio announced a Captain Marvel movie slated for 2017, the first female-centric film from the studio. Even the announcement of the Spider-Woman cover at San Diego Comic Con was enthusiastically received by female fans of the comic who were excited that a female character in the Spider-Man universe was getting a big PR bump.
That’s why female fans are particularly disappointed in the company for overly-sexualizing what they hoped would be an empowering female character on the cover. Even worse, artist Milo Manara seems to have based the cover on an erotic image he had drawn earlier in his career of a nude woman lying bottom-up in front of a gang of men. The woman-focused entertainment site, The Mary Sue, even mocked the image with several memes.
Here’s the original image:
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