Marvel Divas?

[long_silence.insanejournal.com]

Announced in today's My Cup O' Joe Myspace blog where Dan Abnett and Andy Lanning filled in for Quesada

An all new limited series called Marvel Divas starting in July from Roberto Aguirre-Sacasa and Tonci Zonjicy. It will feature Blackcat, Photon, Hellcat and Firestar.

“The idea behind the series was to have some sudsy fun and lift the curtain a bit and take a peep at some of our most fabulous super heroines. In the series, they're an unlikely foursome of friends--Black Cat, Hell Cat, Firestar, and Photon--with TWO things in common: They're all leading double-lives and they're all having romantic trouble. The pitch started as "Sex and the City" in the Marvel Universe, and there's definitely that "naughty" element to it, but I also think the series is doing to a deeper place, asking question 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.) But mostly it's just a lot of hot fun.
”- Roberto Aguirre-Sacasa

Comments

[mullon.insanejournal.com]

I think this is sexist...somehow.

[menagerie.insanejournal.com]

"The idea behind the series was to have some sudsy fun and lift the curtain a bit and take a peep at some of our most fabulous super heroines." bothered me a little. Perhaps an entire lack of subtlety.

[taggerung301.insanejournal.com]

this is so designed for teenage boys, haha

[bluefall.insanejournal.com]

Yeah, that's my overwhelming reaction here. "I am clearly not the target audience."

Which is silly, because I loved Birds of Prey like delicious, delicious cake, and I would buy the shit out of a Lady Liberators title. But hey, Marvel. They're further behind the gender curve than DC, after all, and that takes some doing.

[jarodrussell.insanejournal.com]

I guess this answers the age old question, "What would a Marvel Birds of Prey be like?"

[warpedhand.insanejournal.com]

Well, apparently Marvel thinks Gotham City Sirens is a sure-fire winner.

[angelophile.insanejournal.com]

Oy. Usually Campbell art's kinda fun but that cover just makes my eyes sting.

As for the blurb... oh dear. Couldn't they have found a female writer, at least? It might have helped tone down the blatantness of it all.

[long_silence.insanejournal.com]

What are you talking about? Roberto Aquirre-Sacasa is gay! Everyone knows that's just as good as having a female writer, just like Sex in the City. /ends sarcasm.

[menagerie.insanejournal.com]

Interesting art, I'm not sure I'd want a whole comic of it.

About the team itself: I wish they would have gone with a different outfit for Firestar. I liked her 90's outfit, with the little jacket. It would also add a bit more variety since, if I recall right, it was predominantly red. We have two red heads dressed in yellow here. Seems a bit much.

Also two cat-based people. Couldn't they have dragged a fairly underused X-female (Dazzler? Nocturne?) in or something?

We have two zappy characters, two agile/cat-like characters. I would have much rather seen some physical beef or something different. It just seems like a very weird team. I like the idea, but I can't help but think maybe throwing in Mirage (is she repowered?) Songbird, or someone else interesting might have been better. (I thought Firestar retired anyhow...)

All that said, it still seems like an interesting team.

[long_silence.insanejournal.com]

I find it very odd that there is a comic named Marvel Divas, and it doesn't feature the original Disco Diva Dazzler.

She-Hulk and/or her Lady Liberators would have been good choices too. Mirage is still currently depowered, though she's showing up in that new New Mutants series. Songbird is busy dealing with Norman's new Thunderbolts. And Firestar is retired, though I don't mind her showing up.

[darklorelei.insanejournal.com]

Patsy, noooooo!

[scottyquick.insanejournal.com]

Wow, where's your icon from?

[morgana006.insanejournal.com]

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.) But mostly it's just a lot of hot fun.

It sounds like they want it to appeal to women, but also have it appeal to teenage boys. HEY YOU GUYS WE'RE GONNA EXPLORE WHAT BEIN' A WOMAN IS LIKE ALSO IT WILL BE TOTALLY HOT

On one hand, I kinda want it to go well because it would be neat to have an all-female book, on the other hand I am sensing a bit of fail.

[newborn.insanejournal.com]

Man, they didn't even need to add anything like that to the summary, though. Isn't the art of totally hot and anatomically unlikely female superheroes enough to draw in the teenage boys? Why come off sounding like ignorant dicks at the same time, guys? :\

[jlbarnett.insanejournal.com]

this group just doesn't make sense to me.

I'm not even sure where most of them would have met.

[long_silence.insanejournal.com]

Yeah. Shouldn't Patsy still be in Alaska?

Who else is going to protect the polar bears with antlers?

Edit: I fail at spelling and grammar.

[seriousfic.insanejournal.com]

Didn't they just do "Marvel BOP" with Heroes For Hire?

[brilliantnova.insanejournal.com]

That was my exact thought.
I cant say I don't like the line up, but the overall premise
is not going to sell to anyone, unless it's marketed as
an out cheesecake comic.
Don't hide behind this
women bonding sudsy bullshit.

Damn I am personally insulted.

Some of us ( women) could not relate to Sex in the city and have no desire to .

[parsimonia.insanejournal.com]

Okay, if they'd like to attract female readers to this title as well as teen-aged guys, do they really think female comic nerds are the "Sex and the City" types?

Or maybe I'm just generalizing and a bunch of other women are going to reply telling me they loved Sex and the City. I've never watched it, but from afar it seemed like it was far more about consumerism than sex.

[bluefall.insanejournal.com]

It was about consumerism and sex and sex as consumerism.

I found it a decent way to burn half an hour or two if my suitemates were doing one of their incessant marathons and I was in the mood. It actually had some pretty smart writing and humor and some really genuine emotional arcs - not the kind of characters or story focus I seek out, but interesting enough when it's there. I can see buying, I dunno, a $12 trade of an eight-issue mini of a Sex & the City-style comic featuring characters I know and care about written by a witty author who understands and cares about those characters in particular and what they in particular would say or do in the situations they're recounting to each other.

The funny thing *about* Sex & the City, though, is how deeply failtastic and not particularly Sex & the City-like things that are described as appealing to that sensibility usually are. Kind of like how "Eragon is the next Lord of the Rings" or how people refer to films or comics as "mature" when actually they mean "written specifically for an extremely adolescent mindset." (Or even more comic-specific, it's similar to the way WATCHMEN killed all sense of decency in the industry, because people keep trying to imitate it without understanding what Moore's writing actually was.)

[volksjager.insanejournal.com]

Yeah. Firestar!

[pyrotwilight.insanejournal.com]

Is this like a redone version of that Marvels INC. mini they announced but cancelled some time ago?

[thandrak.insanejournal.com]

Exactly what I was thinking.

[neuhallidae.insanejournal.com]

The image, I could deal with as promo art or whatever. But God, the summary makes me want to punch someone.

[seriousfic.insanejournal.com]

Also, I really can't hear Divas without thinking they're going to be accompanying the Nature Boy Ric Flair to the ring in a fight to the finish to be undisputed WWF champion. Which I might actually enjoy more, since everything's better with Ric Flair.

[ian_karkull.insanejournal.com]

Normally, I'd be all up in arms about this with you.

But guys, this is Roberto Aquirre-Sacasa we're talking about here. The man who literally made a 30+-issue Marvel Knights series about how much he loves The Invisible Woman.
Really. Yes, really.
Read Marvel Knights 4 and you'll know what I'm talking about. It's just one, long love letter to Sue Richards.
And let's be honest here, I love Sue deeply, but she... hasn't been much of a role-model exactly, at least in her original incarnation.

The gist of what I'm saying is that, as stupid and as sexist the solicists may make it out to be, give the series a chance, Roberto Aquirre-Sacasa is one of the few, true feminist remaining in the business and he's also a really great writer, so he may surprise you yet.

[freeman333.insanejournal.com]

Hmm. I admit, I had not realized this was the same person. And it's a valid point that Marvel Knights 4 was largely awesomesauce. So perhaps you are right, and this series will turn out much better than anticipated.

We'll give it a shot, based on your recommendation. But if it sucks, we're holding you personally responsible.

And we know where you live.

[ulf_boehnke.insanejournal.com]

It's strange to see Monica in her Nextwave costume calling herself Photon.

[statham1986.insanejournal.com]

See, I would have been mildly interested in this, given Black Cat's always been one of my favourites, and Patsy's just come off of a crazy, but incredibly fun miniseries, but the fact that the pitch was originally even remotely related to Sex and the City has turned me right off.

Nothing they can say could possibly change my mind, now, because the fact that they thought four great characters should be relegated to the status of sex-and-clothes obsessed idiots in the first place is bad enough.

[greenmask.insanejournal.com]

Oi, artist:

No. Not those waists, preferably not those breasts, and definitely not all the crotch-wrinkles if you want's even be bothered to give most of them soles on their boots.

The hair is interesting though.

[greenmask.insanejournal.com]

If you want's even??

IF YOU CAN'T EVEN.

>_>

[sandoz_iscariot.insanejournal.com]

I'd like to be surprised, but yeaaaaah I'm not feeling it. I don't like how the solicit has to reassure guys that the book's "sudsy and naughty" before getting to its mission statement about what it "means to be a woman". (And no offense to Mr. Aguirre-Sacasa, but I'm a little dubious whenever I hear that coming from a male writer.)

Plus the team lineup manages to be random and yet redundant.

[sentienttoaster.livejournal.com (from insanejournal.com)]

Eh, I'm not to big on the cover and the pitch doesn't make me want to read it that much either. But since it has Patsy and Monica in the same comic I am willing to give it a try. But I could be shocked, we don't really know who is drawing the inside of the comic and the writing could be good so I'm going to be cautiously optimistic.

At least it should be better than Teen Titans. IT IS ONE OF THE FEW COMICS I AM ACTUALLY AFRAID OF.

[sir_mikael.insanejournal.com]

This looks like it could ahve potential to be a fun read (it's got Monica Rambeu! for one).

My mind works in weird ways. Somehow I bypassed the Sex And The City-anology and went straight to Golden Girls.

Picture it. New York City 2009. 4 experienced superheroines share a HQ. Monica, the sarcastic cynic who keeps them all grounded. Felicia, the sultry one who's far from ashamed of having her fun with anyone of the opposite sex. Patsy, the oldest character, refuses to go away and supposedly has quite a few relatives with "underworld-connections" if you know what I mean.
Last but not least, Angelica is the modest one who'll bore everyone senseless with her stories from Massachusetts (a town and academy where people behaved and dressed in the strangest of ways).
Together they fight crime, have romantic intanglements, teaches us morals, and eat cheese cake!


...Like I said, weird ways.

[hyaroo.insanejournal.com]

...You know, if they'd pitched it that way, I'd have rushed to buy double copies of the first issue!

[halloweenjack.insanejournal.com]

Jeez. That cover... that cover. Not only would I not want to buy a book with that cover (and I've bought hardcore Eros smut many, many times), but I would have to check to make sure that no one was around before I even peeked inside, just as if I was thirteen again and stealing glimpses at Heavy Metal. This is the sort of picture that teenage J. Scott Campbell wannabes spend months on drawing. Jeez.

[kitty_tc_69.insanejournal.com]

Why, why, WHY Hellcat and not Tigra? What can Patsy do that Felicia can't do better? And what is Marvel's problem with screwing over Tigra lately anyhow?

I guess I shouldn't complain too much, though, it does have three of my very favorites. I'll probably buy it just to give support to Monica, Felicia, and Angelica.

[long_silence.insanejournal.com]

Patsy can drink beer and coffee while gossiping about guys, Tigra can't. That poor, poor pregnant lady.

[ashtoreth.insanejournal.com]

I have trouble figuring out how they made this team. I liked the Sex in the City movie, though I can't imagine anyone outside New York or Paris a fantasyland living that way. They have never hung out, ever, to my knowledge.

And their costumes are all ugly. ::cries::

[darklorelei.insanejournal.com]

Pick a female who isn't doing anything else?

The costumes don't bother me, but the art is terrible.