Come on!

I know there’s some die-hard fans out there and I respect anything and all that they have to say. But, IMO I don’t find this offense at all. The female characters are beautifully drawn and it just draws out suspense and thrill in the situation the characters are set in. I seriously do not see the problem but hey to each his own right?!

Also, to the posting regarding the combination of titilation and jeopardy being the worst horror of our era, worse than the Holocaust and the slave trade combined apparently: would it be better if the cover and the story around it was about women being restrained willingly for the purpose of titiliation? They could make it clear from the first glance it’s all in fun. Would that be more appropriate for a comic book on a shelf often browsed by children? They could have smiles on their faces and be licking their lips as the tentacles are gently and seductively caressing their cleavage I suppose? You’re sick! Go read some vintage Little Lulu or Donald Duck if you can’t handle typical action/hero comic situations. If you knew enough to be offended in the first place by comparisons to a certain Asian kink genre, then look in the mirror before pointing a finger. It looks like you’re projecting to me by even seeing a problem here in the first place.

I will buy that issue for the cover & the cover alone.Sex sells,get over it.

See, I agree with what Justin Gray said here.
To me it would be more of a situation because of misinterpretation.
This SCREAMS male (and to a smaller range of females) fanservice. It doesn’t offend me personally, but it makes me roll my eyes. There will always be fanservice of one kind or another, and I don’t think the issue is an imbalance of male to female fanservice art.
I think it’s just depicting them in a wrong light. Sort of misleading, as if they’re trying (and I think they are) targeting an audience of people who enjoy this kind of thing. Is the cover the same as the content? Buy it and find out. I don’t like the fact that some readers are being mislead, and that characters aren’t being interpretted right.

It’s not an issue of degrading women. It’s not an issue of fan service. It’s just misinterpretation of characters and content.

On another note, I see that people continue to say women prefer manga.
As a woman, I disagree. I love gritty stories with manly characters. I don’t enjoy boys with big eyes and flowing white hair. I want my men mean with some chest hair to boast. Hairless manga seals aren’t my kinda thing. ;P

And with the issue of female fanservice: I’ve never seen Peter Parker or Superman in a provocative situation a woman might enjoy. Where is my half naked wet man being touched tenderly by tentacles? In the cover you see, what? AN ARM? Oo la la!
It’s time for the man to be full frontal, if ya catch my drift.

Really, this conversation is a bit boring because every point and counter is predictable to the point where it would make efficient satire. Every argument just looks like an ad hominem rerun from the last time this happened, and you can see it repeated again next week when it happens again. The reason Marvel doesn’t need to answer the critics is because the outrage doesn’t feel genuine, it is finite, and you can’t possibly make it last another week without just losing more faith in the human race, let alone one of the hobbies you love.

I think the reason you’d never see this kind of cover with a male protagonist is because the mainstream companies understand that both their female readers and the mostly heterosexual (and probably slightly homophobic) male readers would recoil in horror. Whereas I feel sufficiently conditioned by comics and most other artistic mediums that this cover just makes me roll my eyes.

But hey, Marvel’s still got one ace up their sleeve. You’ve only seen the cover!
What if the actual content inside of the issue is a direct contraposition to a cover they knew was sexist, and they’ve been baiting you all the entire time? Frankly, if that isn’t true, (and yes, I’m sure it isn’t.) they should scrap the inside story and art and make it happen just to be ambitious. It’ll read like the S.C.U.M. Manifesto but with even more violence against men, a rousing tribute to fervid, determined sisterhood and an honest look at gender identity. If the last page doesn’t end with more synchronous menstruation than the 4th week of Lilith Fair, than yes, I’ll join you in burning Joe Quesada in effigy and we can go back to a Marvel thats run by business men in suits rather than genuinely creative types.

Either way, I think you’re just pretending to care. You’re either going through the motions because you think you should be offended, or you should seek out some genuine hentai and the vast majority of pornographic comics, try to get skin a bit thicker so as not to bleed to death in a rain storm.

It’s a dumb cover, but I can’t say that I understand the rancor. I’d think that representing superheroines by tracing porn stars/adult models or almost anything drawn by Mark Beachum would be worse. (But I do understand the point that there being other wrongs doesn’t excuse this one — I’m just saying that it surprises me those things don’t spark more complaints.)

Anyway, I’ll vote with my wallet, and not purchase this issue.

Good lord … I’m sure that isn’t the case.

Can anyone think of another hobby where the fans are hated as much?

They reflected the genre and time period in a fun and stylized manner, they were aware of their sexuality, they even used it to their advantage in much the same way as the movies that inspired them do, but that wasn’t the extent of their worth as characters. At least not in my opinion. Do I like the cover? No, but my dislike of it is due to the representation of the Characters I adore.

In addition, there are many other “calls” that each companies make that no one seems to make the companies respond to or try to change, yet we let those go without a peep. granted, this one is a touch more visual and “morally wrong” so I’m just curious.

Jimmy/Justin’s version of DOD and HFH was an exact example of how a book can be sexy without showing a touch of skin. These were two, attractive, sexy characters that had brains to match their bodies and they were more willing to use the prior before the latter. Read their stories, they accomplished that. Now, I’m not sure what the book, specifically the cover, is trying to convey.

It bothers me that it did go through, what has been indicated, many levels without someone even remotely questioning the cover. Yet, the press is what they get, even if the cover gets bounced, they are getting press.

My feeble-by-comparison ComicMix column on all of this is out today. This article is, naturally, one of my links.

Keep the pressure up, Heidi!

I think Franklin did point out, correctly, that “It’s the sexuality, not the jeopardy that’s the point.”

no no no no

When the two are put together, it’s always the sexuality and the the sexuality with the jeopardy that’s the point.

It’s bad enough that women are objectified as much as they are, but the extent to which that objectification tends to go hand in hand with physical violence is downright terrifying.