Comments on: Marvel’s Attitude Towards Female Readers

By: Lyle

Lyle — Tue, 28 Nov 2006 17:16:42 +0000

I don’t recall if the hype for the Marvel Mangaverse targeted women, but when the line (which got scaled back into an event which could become a line) was still rumored it was talked as an attempt to appeal to females (because women read manga). I was pretty excited about those rumors hoping we’d get something like Spider-Man Loves Mary Jane, but what resulted seemed to show a “big eyes and speed lines” understanding of manga.

They did get closer to showing an understanding of the manga audience with the Tsunami line and the series of digests that Tsunami evolved into, though I think a lot of that is a matter of stumbling into success.

By: david brothers

david brothers — Tue, 28 Nov 2006 14:20:45 +0000

This is the first I’ve heard of the Mangaverse being meant to attract women. It was a ploy to ride a gimmick by Marvel that resulted in a couple good stories (Legend of the Spider-Clan is a personal favorite of mine) and a lot of bad ones (Ben Dunn on anything).

The Phoenix thing you’re talking about, Johanna, was actually a different entity altogether. I think it took place a year or two later.

It started out as a mainline Marvel series that was tenuously tied to the Marvel U. By tenuously I mean that there was a character named Jean, a character named Maddie, and possibly a Phoenix and that’s it. The name of the writer/artist escapes me, but I think he’s either a studio mate or contemporary of Adam Warren. Brian Kinnaird? Ryan Kinnaird?

It was, uh, pretty bad, to be polite about it. Story was so-so at best and the art was way too cheesecakey for me, and that’s saying something. I’m a Frank Cho and Adam Hughes fan, but I like my heroines to wear a bit more than butt-floss and half a bustier :/

By: Johanna

Johanna — Tue, 28 Nov 2006 14:08:05 +0000

Marvel Mangaverse was supposed to attract women? With that Phoenix character who didn’t wear anything below the waist? Sheesh!

By: Lyle

Lyle — Tue, 28 Nov 2006 07:30:59 +0000

I have to admit, when I read the interview earlier today, I had a different reaction. I found it somewhat encouraging that the perspective was “Let’s try to figure out what genres we’re not serving and try to get better there.” versus “Let’s try to guess at what an audience we’ve long served badly would buy and try to create those comics.”

Then again, maybe it’s that I don’t expect Marvel to get far by aiming to create for female customers (or even in trying to learn from female comic readers) and I’d expect they’d be more likely to find success by approaching the question as “What kinds of stories are we missing?”

Then again, maybe I’m still reacting to the clueless attempt to draw female manga readers that the Marvel Mangaverse turned out to be.

By: Shawn Levasseur

Shawn Levasseur — Tue, 28 Nov 2006 04:04:48 +0000

The problem is that every time over the past decade or so that Marvel seeks to expand its line, its been to create more superhero universes. DC expands into different genres.

Marvel, via it’s old “Epic” line used to do the same. But that was a looooong time ago.

DC is a comic book company. Marvel is merely a Super-Hero comic book company.

By: Johanna

Johanna — Tue, 28 Nov 2006 00:52:34 +0000

If you went into stores that claimed to carry books, with no specifics, but only stocked those kinds of books aimed at people who weren’t you, wouldn’t you pine a bit?

By: Ray Cornwall

Ray Cornwall — Mon, 27 Nov 2006 22:28:44 +0000

The real problem with Marvel in this regard is that they don’t think like a publishing company. They think like a licensing and movie company. They’re so wired into thinking about making money off the 18-to-35 male demographic that they don’t know how to make anything else. Looking to Marvel to make comics for women is like looking to ExxonMobil to make milkshakes: they could probably cobble something together, but would you really want to drink it?

There’s a flip side to this story, of course. My wife reads a lot of “chick-lit”, stories aimed at professional women 25-35. Should I spend a lot of time pining for them to put out something I should read?

By: David Oakes

David Oakes — Mon, 27 Nov 2006 21:17:14 +0000

Actually, he doesn’t even want them to read super-books:

“[M]aybe we can get a couple of Anita Blake fans to pick up Spider-Man, and send them over to Mary Jane.”

Marvel publishes exactly one book for women, and doesn’t even want them to read Spider-Man! I really hope that this was also a lack of extemporaneous skill on Buckley’s part, the way the rest of the quote sounded.

But yes, DC for all it’s cold, calculating commercialism does seem willing to publish entire lines of books for niche markets, like “women”, rather than just one book. Marvel seems to view them only as ways to sell more Spider-Man.

Personally, I am waiting for the team-up with “Hannah Montana”, to grab that tweenette market.

By: James Moar

James Moar — Mon, 27 Nov 2006 21:02:12 +0000

Well, it’s not like women make up anything like half the human race….