OK...this is a pretty great book that I and about 10 other people will read and enjoy. It's very much Sex and the City in the Marvel Universe with a really horrible cover. I know that Joe Q said that without a sexed-up cover the fanboys wouldn't even take a look...well, when they do read the story, with very cool non-T&A art, they won't come back for the second issue. Are there enough readers familiar enough with the Marvel U. to get the jokes AND want to read a pretty straight ahead romance/day in the life book about Hellcat, Black Cat, Photon, and Firestar for to it to last beyond four issues? Probably not...but I would love it to do well and prompt more mini-series in the future. This is the Marvel answer to Gotham City Sirens without the bit of creepiness I feel from some of Paul Dini's scripts...
Views: 124
You need to be a member of Captain Comics to add comments!
Take three former Avengers and one of Spider-Man's most trusted allies and what do you get? A superhero Sex and the City that's at least three years too late. I knew this book was to focus on our heroines - Hellcat, Captain Marvel, Firestar and Black Cat - in their everyday lives, but I didn't think it's be quite so shallow. Page after page of swapping stories about crap men over cocktails. Resentment towards such supposedly more successful super-heroines as She-Hulk, Invisible Woman and Storm. And a final page injection of like, super-emotional drama to add a bit of weight.
Taking the last first, and stop reading now if you don't wish to be spoilt, it turns out that Firestar has breast cancer. In the real world this is a horrible thing to learn. In a superhero universe that regularly has people coming back from the dead, it's less so. Two of the exes mentioned in this issue have supernatural powers so it's not unlikely they could zap a few rogue cells. Captain Marvel has about 50,000 light-based frequencies, I'm sure she could do some surgery, guided by the Irredeemable Ant-Man (and she'd get a shag as a bonus). Given how ditsy and competitive the women are here, it's likely Firestar would put in for a Misty Knight-style cybernetic attachment.
I suppose the fluffy portrayal of Patsy Walker isn't so far from her origins in Marvel's Silver Age romance line, Black Cat has always been a bit flighty and Firestar we barely see this issue, so no real problems there. Let's just say we're seeing the same heroines from a new angle.
It's the presentation of Monica Rambeau that gets me. A former leader of the Avengers and extremely capable heroine, she was a bit of a joke in Next Wave, but that was OK as every character was. Here she has another new personality, wittering on the whole time about being black. Apparently she went home to New Orleans to help in the aftermath of Katrina, 'cleaning up the mess you white people left behind'. The clean-up involved being a member of an all-black superhero crew. Am I missing some point? Does Monica only like non-blacks if they get pissed with her?
There's a single panel in which we see our heroines fighting together and what do we get? http://1.bp.blogspot.com/_PxotHw9e2Pw/Sk0zDAedL4I/AAAAAAAAA6I/XNF4v... A stupid bloody wink from writer Roberto Aguirre-Sacasa. He can do better that that, if a gag about Beta-Ray Bill is anything to go by.
The art by Tonci Zonjic is delightfully expressive, and airy in a Darwyn Cooke way. If the level of cartooniness was more consistent from panel to panel it'd look even better.
Oh, and Marvel Divas? Looking at J Scott Campbell's cover, you'd think it was Marvel Slappers.
I sw the title in previews and figured it was a swimsuit issue. Does this actually fit into contiunity with the rest of the mu or is this just an indulgence?
Mark
It takes place just after Secret Invasion and Hellcat's last mini-series (she's back from Alaska and has finished her second autobiographical book).
And I'm not sure that Angelica has breast cancer...we just know that she has been diagnosed with some form of cancer.
I'm going to concur with Mart on this. I really would like a book focusing on some of the less popular female heroes, but this really was Sex and the City with costumes. I don't mean that in an "homage" kind of way; I mean that in a "blatant rip off" one. Also along the lines of what Mart said, Monica should be presented as an A-lister in-story even if she isn't in terms of reader popularity.
And besides, she converts to light to fly, so this couldn't even appeal to the fan boy in me because there's no way she could carry anyone.
I would disagree completely with Joe Quesada on this one. It is not a good idea at all to have a cover that is so mis-matched with the book. The people who like the cover are going to be turned off by the book. The people who might have liked the book are going to be turned away by the cover. The audience you're aiming for isn't the audience you're getting and the end result is that no one's happy. Why didn't they learn their lesson from similar mis-matches like Emma Frost (Emma's early days as a high school student, aimed for a teenage girl audience, matched with Greg Horn cheesecake covers aimed for fan service)?
I would disagree completely with Joe Quesada on this one. It is not a good idea at all to have a cover that is so mis-matched with the book. The people who like the cover are going to be turned off by the book. The people who might have liked the book are going to be turned away by the cover. The audience you're aiming for isn't the audience you're getting and the end result is that no one's happy. Why didn't they learn their lesson from similar mis-matches like Emma Frost (Emma's early days as a high school student, aimed for a teenage girl audience, matched with Greg Horn cheesecake covers aimed for fan service)?
Yeah, I saw those Emma stories later repackaged with better covers in Target months later.
I would disagree completely with Joe Quesada on this one. It is not a good idea at all to have a cover that is so mis-matched with the book. The people who like the cover are going to be turned off by the book. The people who might have liked the book are going to be turned away by the cover. The audience you're aiming for isn't the audience you're getting and the end result is that no one's happy. Why didn't they learn their lesson from similar mis-matches like Emma Frost (Emma's early days as a high school student, aimed for a teenage girl audience, matched with Greg Horn cheesecake covers aimed for fan service)?
Maybe the *did* learn their lessons from Emma Frost -- who knows how much their estimates were for sales without those Horn covers?
I agree that from a creative and customer-satisfaction standpoint, it's a bad idea... but maybe the sum of people who'll hold their nose and buy it despite the cover and the people who'll buy it solely for the cover is greater than the total of people who'd buy the book with an appropriate cover.
The title though is a big problem. Marvel Divas sounded a bit too much like the Divas in the WWE, fun to look at but I don't really take them seriously as wrestlers. So I barely glanced at this (I'll skim through it on Wednesday) but I was never a fan of SITC anyway so that hook is gone too. This could be a good book suffering from terrible marketing.
Mark
Wow...I would not have linked the word divas to wrestling...of course...I've never watched, so that might be why...
Diva always means someone like Beyonce or Renee Fleming to me...
Also along the lines of what Mart said, Monica should be presented as an A-lister in-story even if she isn't in terms of reader popularity.
I haven't read this title, but that sort of characterization has always bothered me too. I've long mulled the idea of creating a ranking of characters who are "A Listers"/Celebrities within their Universe, but we, the readers, call them C-Listers. Particularly in the Marvel U, I think the "List" wouldn't necessarily be populated by the likes of Spider-Man, Storm and Wolverine. Instead, you'd see folks like Wonder Man, Wasp and Captain Britain. (Naturally, Captain America would be on both lists.)
Replies
Take three former Avengers and one of Spider-Man's most trusted allies and what do you get? A superhero Sex and the City that's at least three years too late. I knew this book was to focus on our heroines - Hellcat, Captain Marvel, Firestar and Black Cat - in their everyday lives, but I didn't think it's be quite so shallow. Page after page of swapping stories about crap men over cocktails. Resentment towards such supposedly more successful super-heroines as She-Hulk, Invisible Woman and Storm. And a final page injection of like, super-emotional drama to add a bit of weight.
Taking the last first, and stop reading now if you don't wish to be spoilt, it turns out that Firestar has breast cancer. In the real world this is a horrible thing to learn. In a superhero universe that regularly has people coming back from the dead, it's less so. Two of the exes mentioned in this issue have supernatural powers so it's not unlikely they could zap a few rogue cells. Captain Marvel has about 50,000 light-based frequencies, I'm sure she could do some surgery, guided by the Irredeemable Ant-Man (and she'd get a shag as a bonus). Given how ditsy and competitive the women are here, it's likely Firestar would put in for a Misty Knight-style cybernetic attachment.
I suppose the fluffy portrayal of Patsy Walker isn't so far from her origins in Marvel's Silver Age romance line, Black Cat has always been a bit flighty and Firestar we barely see this issue, so no real problems there. Let's just say we're seeing the same heroines from a new angle.
It's the presentation of Monica Rambeau that gets me. A former leader of the Avengers and extremely capable heroine, she was a bit of a joke in Next Wave, but that was OK as every character was. Here she has another new personality, wittering on the whole time about being black. Apparently she went home to New Orleans to help in the aftermath of Katrina, 'cleaning up the mess you white people left behind'. The clean-up involved being a member of an all-black superhero crew. Am I missing some point? Does Monica only like non-blacks if they get pissed with her?
There's a single panel in which we see our heroines fighting together and what do we get? http://1.bp.blogspot.com/_PxotHw9e2Pw/Sk0zDAedL4I/AAAAAAAAA6I/XNF4v... A stupid bloody wink from writer Roberto Aguirre-Sacasa. He can do better that that, if a gag about Beta-Ray Bill is anything to go by.
The art by Tonci Zonjic is delightfully expressive, and airy in a Darwyn Cooke way. If the level of cartooniness was more consistent from panel to panel it'd look even better.
Oh, and Marvel Divas? Looking at J Scott Campbell's cover, you'd think it was Marvel Slappers.
It takes place just after Secret Invasion and Hellcat's last mini-series (she's back from Alaska and has finished her second autobiographical book).
And I'm not sure that Angelica has breast cancer...we just know that she has been diagnosed with some form of cancer.
And besides, she converts to light to fly, so this couldn't even appeal to the fan boy in me because there's no way she could carry anyone.
Yeah, I saw those Emma stories later repackaged with better covers in Target months later.
Maybe the *did* learn their lessons from Emma Frost -- who knows how much their estimates were for sales without those Horn covers?
I agree that from a creative and customer-satisfaction standpoint, it's a bad idea... but maybe the sum of people who'll hold their nose and buy it despite the cover and the people who'll buy it solely for the cover is greater than the total of people who'd buy the book with an appropriate cover.
Wow...I would not have linked the word divas to wrestling...of course...I've never watched, so that might be why...
Diva always means someone like Beyonce or Renee Fleming to me...
-
1
-
2
of 2 Next