The new solicits are out this week and the cover of Ms. Marvel seems to have made quite a splash.
Rich from Comic By Comic doesn’t like the cover and explains why in a comment of this post:
It’s just…there’s good cheesecake and there’ s bad cheesecake. Ms Marvel with a rifle, a camo helmet and a combat vest barely keeping her covered?
Bad cheesecake.
This should be a book that can appeal to female readers and I can’t help thinking Greg Horn doesn’t exactly help that.
Blogger Brainfreeze likes the cover:
A couple of things come to mind. One is that I always find it surprising when people say they won’t buy a comic because of the cover. Not the folks who aren’t buying it as something of a protest, because I certainly support the whole voting-by-dollar idea. But some folks won’t buy a cheesecake-y cover because of the embarrassment factor–wouldn’t want to be seen buying it, wouldn’t want to be seen reading it. Maybe I’m an irredeemable comic geek, or maybe I just don’t care that much about the covers of the books I read, but I’ve never seen a cover yet that would keep me from buying it if the insides were good, or that would keep me from reading it in public. (Not that I read comics in public much, since they come to my house in a nice box. But, you know, back in the old days. :))
The other is that, although there is a definite doofiness to it, this is in fact the most I’ve liked a Ms. Marvel cover in a long time. You want to know why? Because you can actually see her eyes! Just about every other cover has featured her with those phenomenally creepy blank eyes in the mask. So just the presence of an iris and pupil are enough to make me happy.
Livejournalist kali921 also mostly likes the cover and explains why in a comment of this post:
The first thing that I saw when I viewed this cover was the homage to Private Benjamin and Goldie Hawn (there’s even an homage to Laugh-In there), which is where I’m pretty sure that Horn drew at least some inspiration from. Maybe it’s a pop cultural awareness thing, but a goodly portion of the people I know discussing this cover see the Goldie Hawn homage right away, while the rest are viewing it sans that cultural awareness and reacting to it accordingly.
Our own Ragnell thinks the cover is funny, but disagrees with Kali921’s interpretation:
If that’s an homage, it’s a piss-poor one.
It’d be a funny homage, were it for the cover of say Benjamin’s Privates or some similarly themed pornographic take on the movie, but a superhero book?
You know, I never thought that I could respect Greg Horn less as an artist, but the thought that he was intentionally referencing Private Benjamin rather than Army@Love or an actual porn movie… Well, that just digs a new cellar under the Hall of Artistic Shame.
So what do you think?
April 19th, 2008 at 11:32 pm
I love it.
I love the composition, I love the figure/ground relationship, I love the rendering, I love the Ms. Marvel logo, I think all of her buttons are hilarious and considering that Ms. Marvel is usually running around with her ass hanging out, I think she actually seems pretty modestly dressed here. Everything about the design of this cover is working.
There are a lot of vulgar depictions of women in superhero comics, and Greg Horn has been responsible for a lot of them, but not this time. Full marks to him on this one. I would normally never give a second thought to buying a Ms. Marvel comic, but I will buy this if I see it on the shelf. That’s how charming I think this cover is.
April 20th, 2008 at 4:44 am
I don’t buy Ms. Marvel anyway so I try to judge the covers. But this is just one of many I don’t really care for. Plus he doens’t even get the damn service branch right…
April 20th, 2008 at 5:47 am
I like the cover and the funny little details but he really should have avoided showing that much cleavage in order to maintain some sort of credibility. (The 12 year old in me is probably thinking that it’s not enough cleavage). Carol Danvers would look no less attractive with it zipped up a little and people would be able to notice the other referencial bits instead of being swayed by the “weapons of mass distraction”.
April 20th, 2008 at 10:48 am
I didn’t even notice the cleavage, I was too busy pining for those sloganeering buttons.
“Only Good Skrull Is A Dead Skrull” indeed.
“I’m With Marvel Boy” don’t know what that means yet, but I like it.
April 20th, 2008 at 12:37 pm
B00B$
Marvel readers love B00B$
Again we see that some (many?) comic book creators and editors are juvenile sexists. Yet we wonder why the medium doesn’t grow bigger.
April 20th, 2008 at 1:46 pm
Her expression bugs me.
April 20th, 2008 at 2:04 pm
I knew this cover was going to upset someone when I first saw it. Big deal, frankly. Is this really so offensive? REALLY?
April 20th, 2008 at 2:35 pm
“B00B$
Marvel readers love B00B$
Again we see that some (many?) comic book creators and editors are juvenile sexists. Yet we wonder why the medium doesn’t grow bigger. ”
The entire world loves boobs. Show me a person who doesn’t love boobs and I’ll show you a homosexual man or a woman with small ones. And even some of them love boobs.
Dissecting this stuff like this is why people don’t go into comic shops.
You go into a comic shop and buy a comic and you WILL have someone comment on it, usually negatively. Comic shops are usually run by guys who make the Simpsons Comic Book Guy seem genial. I mean, look at how they gripe online, they’re fricking annoying.
The rare combination of ego and stupidity (can’t see how dumb such a concept is) it takes to open a comic shop leaves very little for normal people to deal with.
You never hear of Coffee Table Book Shops, or Paperback Book Shops or Hardcover Book Shops. A book is a book, the medium of comics hurt itself when it ghetto-ized itself into comic shops, catering to the creep con-core weirdos who obsess and preen over their collections and feel an aggressive need to tell everyone their opinion about what they read.
I love comics, I love the medium, I love super heroes, I loathe fandom. I think comic book fans are generally ugly (inside and often out) pieces of humanity second only to trekkies in their uselessness.
What? Is it something I said?
April 20th, 2008 at 2:48 pm
Goldie hawn was in a porno movie?
April 20th, 2008 at 4:21 pm
I actually think it’s her expression and the way she’s made up that makes it look off to me. It’s sort of a Playboy pose, not really a “soldier at war” look (and if it’s supposed to look like a WWII “Join the Fight!” propaganda poster, she needs to be smiling. Gals back then showed teeth.)
April 20th, 2008 at 4:50 pm
hey at least she’s not smoking..a cigarette..so there are things and there are things…..
April 20th, 2008 at 8:58 pm
Ms. Marvel fights in a swim suit that rides up her asscrack and people find the COVER embarassing?
You either accept the absurdity that is Ms. Marvel or ignore it.
April 21st, 2008 at 11:15 am
I don’t think it looks anything like Carol Danvers, m’self.
April 21st, 2008 at 12:11 pm
I can’t believe anyone is complaining about that cover. Compared to a lot of covers in the market, it’s downright modest.
April 21st, 2008 at 2:28 pm
I agree with Evan. I think she looks less like a person fighting the Skrulls and more like a Playboy bunny that goes to USO shows to support the people fighting the Skrulls.
April 21st, 2008 at 3:20 pm
You know, I hate Greg Horn as much as the next self-conscious liberal, but surely this is (a) obviously meant to be funny, and (b) not much different from the typical ARMY@LOVE cover? I’d say it’s arguably one of his LEAST irritating covers. At least, so long as the actual story isn’t taking itself seriously either.
I’m faintly baffled by people looking at that cover and complaining that she doesn’t look like a real soldier. That seems to miss the point entirely.