marvel divas – Comicsgirl https://www.comicsgirl.com Sat, 04 Jul 2009 19:32:55 +0000 en-US hourly 1 https://wordpress.org/?v=6.5.3 https://www.comicsgirl.com/wp-content/uploads/2017/05/cropped-EdenMiller2017-1-32x32.jpg marvel divas – Comicsgirl https://www.comicsgirl.com 32 32 59683043 Review: Marvel Divas #1 https://www.comicsgirl.com/2009/07/04/review-marvel-divas-1/ https://www.comicsgirl.com/2009/07/04/review-marvel-divas-1/#comments Sat, 04 Jul 2009 19:32:55 +0000 http://www.comicsgirl.com/?p=1017 Today, Big Planet Comics was having a 20% off sale on everything in the store. Because what’s more American than buying comics? Not wanting to fight DC traffic, we went to the Vienna store and it was full of guys and guys only. There was one other woman in there, briefly — obviously a girlfriend — looking kind of uncomfortable. It wasn’t that anyone was saying anything inappropriate — it was just full of guys.

And I was buying Marvel Divas #1. I was carrying it around as I looked at other things in the store and I was feeling … not exactly ashamed, but I was kind of feeling “No, no, I totally like other things too! This is research, this is going to be better than it looks …”

I don’t know why I particularly cared because I know enough about comics to be confident in my purchases. I think it was just that the cover is completely embarrassing.

So, yes, the comic. It’s better than you probably think it’s going to be. Is it life-changing? No. But it’s fun, and I think that’s all it needs to be.

It’s a little exposition-heavy as we get a pile of relationship and character backstory, but it does work, as Patsy Walker, Monica Rambeau and Felicia Hardy each share their troubles with men over drinks after fleeing from Patsy’s book launch party. It’s something women would do. Roberto Aguirre-Sacasa keeps the pace moving and they all talk like friends, with gentle teasing and sometimes criticism. They feel like girls I’d like to hang out with.

Nothing much happens until the final three pages when Angelica Jones walks in, crying. The girls rally around her to find out what’s wrong, and she reveals what I assume is going to be the major plot point — she has cancer — in a surprisingly emotional scene (even though I knew it was coming.

Tonci Zonji’s art is playful and animated, making what would otherwise be static scenes of people talking into something dynamic. He communicates the characters’ emotions amazingly well, with body language and facial expressions. The panel when Angelica first appears, holding her purse to her chest with a tear-stained face, beautifully shows her devastation. While Aguirre-Sacasa’s writing does elevate traditional romantic-comedy conventions beyond the usual, Zonjic’s art is really what makes this book.

I think it’s sad that Marvel really screwed up when they announced this. If people do pick it up, I think they’re going to go into it with the wrong attitude and I don’t know if this issue is really strong enough to overcome that. I did like it quite a bit, but it was about what I expected. It’s just a light-hearted diversion, though, even if it is a good one.

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Marvel Divas preview is totally cute https://www.comicsgirl.com/2009/06/26/marvel-divas-preview-is-totally-cute/ Fri, 26 Jun 2009 21:56:35 +0000 http://www.comicsgirl.com/?p=999 You can read the first six pages at Comic Book Resources. Kevin Melrose at CBR’s Robot 6 has a few criticism, such as the speed dating bit, but he’s pretty sold on it. I am too. Despite everything — the bad pitch, the bad publicity, the terrible cover, even the contrived situations in these initial pages — it works.

I like the tone so far — these are smart, capable women who still have some realistic lapses in confidence (I think the scene where the more popular superheroines show up is fun). I think whatever melodramatic twists and turns this ends up taking, I think Roberto Aguirre-Sacasa and Tonci Zonjic will handle them with wit and grace.

Expect a review of the first issue next week (probably Friday, maybe Saturday. Doubtful on Wednesday, but it’s possible).

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Firestar concept art for Marvel Divas https://www.comicsgirl.com/2009/05/11/firestar-concept-art-for-imarvel-divasi/ Mon, 11 May 2009 22:53:27 +0000 http://www.comicsgirl.com/?p=925 Tom Brevoort posted Tonci Zonjic’s concept sketch from Marvel Divas (called “Marvel Vixens” here — your call which is better). And I think after Joe Q.’s comments last week, this was a good move.

(And why, yes, I’d love to say I totally knew what I was doing when I picked the image for my Marvel Divas post, but I didn’t. I just got really lucky. I do, however, think that’s awesome that the very image I was attracted to was a concept for the book.)

I am kind of glad to see that this image is changing some people’s minds about the book, but I do fear it may be too little, too late. I do think Zonjic’s work will make the book something distinctive and fun, but I do think that promo cover will continue to stick in people’s minds.

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Today’s trio of links https://www.comicsgirl.com/2009/05/05/todays-trio-of-links/ Tue, 05 May 2009 22:17:41 +0000 http://www.comicsgirl.com/?p=916

  • Anne Billson at the Guardian wants a real cartoon heroine. She objects to Wybie in the movie adaptation of Coraline (as we all did) and evokes the great Hayao Miyazaki’s young heroines (among others). Do boys really not want to watch girls, or are they just not given the opportunity?

    Link via When Fangirls Attack

  • I was a little young for the Riot Grrrl movement so I totally missed out on Bratmobile. But I do think it’s really awesome Allison Wolfe is the English-language writer for Nana (my feelings on Partyline notwithstanding). Wolfe was selected personally for the job, which is really cool. She’s a great fit — she understands the rock ‘n’ roll lifestyle as well as the feminist undercurrent of the title.

    I feel quite inspired to include a Bratmobile video:

    Link via Journalista

  • Joe Quesada makes some insane comments about Marvel Divas in this week’s MyCup o’ Joe. Here’s the relevant bits:

    The cold hard reality of publishing and trying to sell our books to as many people as possible, so here’s an example of what happens more often than you may think here at Marvel. From time to time, we’ll be launching a title that doesn’t focus very heavily on the super heroic. From time to time I’ll get a cover sketch and it doesn’t have a costumed hero or villain on the cover, what we internally refer to as a “quiet cover.” On those occasions, more often than not, I ask my editors to direct their cover artist to give me at least a first issue cover with the characters in costume. Why? Because it will help launch a book that will most likely have trouble latching onto a large audience. We want to give every title the best possible chance to be successful. Marvel Divas is no different and that’s why you’re seeing our strong female leads in their super hero personas.

    What Quesada doesn’t seem to understand that the “quiet” cover would’ve gone over much better. After all, like I pointed out, Tonci Zonjic’s art is more appealing that the cover. I understand trying to appeal to a wide range of people, but by picking that cover, Quesada gave people — especially women, who would be likely to read this title — the wrong idea about what it could be. To me, Roberto Aquirre-Sacasa’s words said one thing and the cover said the complete opposite.

    I am still going to give Marvel Divas a chance and I do hope other people do too. But Quesada seems pretty clueless as to why people reacted to the way they did.

    Link via io9

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    I’m actually looking forward to Marvel Divas https://www.comicsgirl.com/2009/04/20/im-actually-looking/ https://www.comicsgirl.com/2009/04/20/im-actually-looking/#comments Mon, 20 Apr 2009 23:50:25 +0000 http://www.comicsgirl.com/?p=868 There. I said it.

    I’ve been avoiding this issue. I figured I’d wait until the comic came out to talk about it. But I do want to bring it up.

    At some point recently, you’ve probably read about this. People saw the image, read the whole “Sex in the City” bit and the outcry was predictably understandable.

    But I don’t think a lot of people actually read what was being said, or bothered to look a little bit deeper into who was behind it.

    Yes, that cover image is ridiculously terrible. Yes, the title is incredibly stupid. And maybe the whole “superheroines do Sex in the City” idea isn’t the most thoughtful, but as a concept goes, it’s not a terrible one.

    But let’s move past that for a moment.

    Roberto Aguirre-Sacasa is writing the title. I saw Rorschach Theatre‘s production of his play, Rough Magic, a couple of years ago, and it was awesome, geeky fun with smart, strong female characters and a literate sense of humor. While I am not one who believes gay men can always speak for women, I think Aguirre-Sacasa’s part about the comic being about “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)” is interesting. As a gay man, I think he understands that the hyper heterosexual masculinity can be alienating to anyone who’s not a straight male.

    And then, there’s the art of Tonci Zonjic, which is pretty awesome and is something I’d be delighted to see in a comic about young women trying to balance romance and careers while they’re, oh yeah, superheroines. It’s definitely a far cry from that promotional art. (This title seems to have the opposite problem of Marvel’s Pride and Prejudice adaptation, which had a great cover and bad art on the inside.)

    Will Marvel Divas be good? I don’t know. But the elements seem like they’re in the right place. I do hope that people who would connect with this comic — those who seem to be the most vocally against it — will give it a chance. I’m going to.

    (And yes, Marvel doesn’t know how to market to women. I think we’ve figured that out. I mean, I still want my lip gloss, after all.)

    Image taken from Tonci Zonjic’s Flickr gallery. I most definitely want superhero comics that look like that. Tonci Zonjic says this was actually a tryout for the title.

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