Women At Marvel Comics Watch – July 2013 Solicits

July might not be quite the Amanda Connerpalooza that June was, but there more women making comics at Marvel than last month AND Amanda Conner stuck around to still do a couple covers, so we’ve got wins all around.  With some extra female creators and some female characters in new books, July is looking pretty good for Marvel.  Let’s go through their solicits:

• For writers, we’ve got Kelly Sue DeConnick finishing up “The Enemy Within” crossover with Avengers Assemble #17 and Captain Marvel #14, Kathryn Immonen on Journey Into Mystery #654, Marjorie Liu writing Astonishing X-Men #64, and Robin Furth co-writing the Dark Tower: The Gunslinger – So Fell Lord Perth one-shot.
• On art, Sara Pichelli is doing interior and cover art for Guardians of the Galaxy #5 and the cover of X-Men #3, Ming Doyle has a story in Guardians of the Galaxy: Tomorrow’s Avengers #1, Stephanie Hans is on interior art for Fearless Defenders #7, and Amanda Conner is doing covers for Avengers Assemble #17 and Captain Marvel #14.
• We’ve also got a bunch of ladies in new books: Avengers A.I. #1 features Monica Chang and Alexis and women account for 2 of the 6 characters shown, Guardians of the Galaxy: Tomorrow’s Avengers #1 (which seems to be a collection of the digital comics, but I could be wrong) includes Gamora, Dorothy is back for The Emerald City of Oz #1, and finally we’ve got some new Spider-books with a lady villain I don’t know on the cover of The Superior Foes of Spider-Man #1 putting women at 1 of 5 there and two Avengers (Black Widow and Spider-Woman) in Superior Spider-Man Team-Up #1 for 2 of 11 there.

All told, we’ve got 8 female creators on 9 different book in July, an increase of 2 female creators from last month though one less book.  I told you last time that Amanda Conner probably wouldn’t be on 5 covers again!  That really boosted the book total in June.  All together, I’d call July a step up from June.

For female characters as well.  There are 7 females characters featured on the cover of new books in July, and spread out as well.  I’m really digging Marvel’s recent spate of women-starring titles, but it’s good to see female characters popping up in other team books too.  And they’re all different, which is another plus.  There are ladies everywhere in Marvel comics lately, at least in the fictional department.

Things are more widespread on the creator side too, though.  We’ve got THREE female artists inside books in July, which is a big jump.  It’s usually just Sara Pichelli all on her own. Plus there’s a nice selection of covers and the usual, quite excellent writing gigs.  It’s still just a handful of each, but it’s a growing and very talented handful.

Overall, July looks decent for Marvel.  Their female character representation continues to be strong, and there are more female creators than last month.  That’s what we like to see here.

Women At Marvel Comics Watch – June 2013 Solicits

It seems that Marvel noticed that DC had Amanda Conner doing covers for two of their new books in May, so not to be outdone Marvel went and hired her to do FIVE covers for them in June.  It is most definitely Amanda Conner month at Marvel, though amusingly they only spelled her name right in two of her five solicits.  Let’s see what else is scheduled for Marvel in June, and hopefully spell all of the names correctly:

• For female writers, Kathryn Immonen is on Journey Into Mystery #653, Marjorie Liu writes Astonishing X-Men #63, and Kelly Sue DeConnick pens “The Enemy Within” crossover in Captain Marvel #13 and Avengers Assemble #16.
• We’ve got female interior artists this month!  And more than one!  Sara Pichelli is drawing Guardians of the Galaxy #4, while we’ve got a new addition to the Marvel ranks with Kate Brown on Young Avengers #6.
• For covers, Sara Pichelli is on covers for Guardians of the Galaxy #4 too, along with Age of Ultron #10 A.I., though I don’t know that that is.  And the aforementioned Amanda Conner is covering X-Men #2, doing a normal variant for Fearless Defenders #2, a special Wolverine variant for Deadpool #11, and variants for both parts of “The Enemy Within” crossover with Captain Marvel #13 and Avengers Assemble #16.
• Yet again, there are no new books in June, so there’s not much new for female characters.  Though Cloak and Dagger are in Ultimate Comics Spider-Man #24, so there’s Ultimate Dagger at least.  That’s something.

In June, there will be 6 different women on 10 different books, a good step up from May’s 6 women on 6 books.  The number of female creators may be the same, but they’re working on a lot more titles at least.  As always with Marvel, though, there aren’t a ton of permanent gigs for women.  DeConnick, Immonen, and Liu will be back next month writing, and I assume Pichelli will be on Guardians for a few issues, but Brown is a fill-in artist and I sincerely doubt we’ll see another five Amanda Conner covers in July.  Though that would be awesome.  This lack of permanent gigs isn’t great for Marvel’s consistency, as we’ve been seeing in recent months.

As for new female characters, Ultimate Dagger is cool.  Cloak and Dagger seems to have a small but enthusiastic following, so that’s exciting news for that  fanbase.  It looks like Marvel is kicking back in the late spring to see how well the Marvel NOW! series can sustain themselves, and are relying on Age of Ultron for an extra sales bump.  I expect we’ll be seeing some new things in July, with Age of Ultron finished in June, and hopefully some new female creators too.

All together, Marvel’s set to have the best month for female creators that we’ve seen from them in a little while, though the gains are likely temporary and there’s not a lot going on for female characters.  I’m very curious to see what July will bring.  May and June were very quiet, so something’s got to be coming.

Women at Marvel Comics Watch – May 2013 Solicits

Well, things are slightly better than last month in terms of female creators, but last month was terrible so things remain nowhere near good.  As for female characters, Marvel NOW! seems to have cooled down for now, though there is a new female-centric crossover starting in May.  Let’s go through the solicits:

• Kathryn Immonen writes Journey Into Mystery #652, Marjorie Liu is on Astonishing X-Men #62, Robin Furth co-writes Dark Tower: The Gunslinger – Evil Ground #2, and Kelly Sue DeConnick pens the one-shot Avengers: The Enemy Within #1.
• There are a couple of cover gigs, with Amanda Conner on X-Men #2 and Stephanie Hans on Fearless Defenders #4.
• And that is all for ladies making comics.
• There aren’t any new Marvel NOW! books, but Kick-Ass #3 is set to start in May, so Hit-Girl will be in that, if that’s your sort of thing.
• While there’s no Kelly Sue DeConnick-written Captain Marvel or Avengers Assemble in May, her one-shot leads into a crossover between those series, so she’ll be back on both in June.

In May, there are going to be 6 different female creators on 6 different books, which is a step up from the 5 on 5 we had in April.  However, this is the smallest increase possible, and it’s WAY lower than Marvel was just a few months ago.  I’m not entirely sure what’s up with this.  The lack of Disney books lately has removed the usual 3-4 Italian female artists that tended to work on those, but ladies used to pop up in other places too.

There are also NO female artists scheduled for the interior of a Marvel comic in May.  There are two on covers, which is fun, and both are on female-led books, which you can read as “Ladies drawing ladies! Hooray” or “Ladies drawing ONLY ladies?  Really?”  I vacillate between the two, in terms of writing as well.  The Big Two both have most of their female creators working on female-centric books, and it’s starting to feel like the publishers are kind of limiting their female creators.  On the other hand, by and large these are some great books.  It’s just a little odd.  Ladies can write and draw men too.

On the bright side, a Captain Marvel/Avengers Assemble crossover will be fun!!  And if I recall correctly, it’s only five issues including the one-shot so if you’re getting one book and not the other then splurging on the whole crossover won’t break the bank.  Plus, Hit-Girl is back if you enjoy Mark Millar making children say and do terrible, terrible things.

Overall, though, Marvel isn’t doing so great with female creators.  The new female team books announced recently have been fantastic, and I’m glad that things are improving on the character side of things despite nothing new in May.  Nonetheless, the lack of female creators is disheartening.  Over at DC, Ann Nocenti is writing almost as many comics in May as all of Marvel’s female writers combined!!  Marvel was doing well when we started looking at the solicits a few months back, but they’ve really nosedived since then.

Women At Marvel Comics Watch – April 2013 Solicits

Earlier this week we saw that April isn’t looking great for DC in terms of female creators, but things are even worse at Marvel.  They’ve put up some big numbers in the past few months, but dropped steeply in March.  The numbers are even lower now, and it’s starting to look like a bit of a problem.  Anyone can have a bad month, but two in a row with a decline going back even further isn’t good at all.  Let’s look at the solicits:

• Kathryn Immonen writes Journey Into Mystery #651, Kelly Sue DeConnick continues her stellar run with Captain Marvel #12, Marjorie Liu writes Astonishing X-Men #61, and Robin Furth co-writes The Dark Tower: The Gunslinger – Evil Ground #1.
• It doesn’t say so in the solicit, which is oddly blank, but from the signature on the cover it seems that Sara Pichelli is on art duties for Ultimate Comics Spider-Man #22.
• And that is all.
• However, in character news, Brian Wood and Olivier Coipel’s all-female book X-Men premieres in April!!  It looks great, and stars six ladies and no dudes.  And they didn’t even call it X-Women, which is nice to see.  It’s a good month for female characters at least.  Plus, Terry Dodson is doing a variant cover, and with Terry usually comes Rachel Dodson, though she’s not listed in the solicits.

So last month Marvel had 6 different women on 7 different books, and in April that’s set to fall to 5 women on 5 different books.  For some reason, Kelly Sue DeConnick isn’t listed as writing Avengers Assemble in April, though I don’t know if that’s permanent or just a fill-in to tie into the “Age of Ultron” event.  And you’ll notice that there is NO Disney book in April either, and they usually featured a few Italian ladies.

But we’ve got X-Men!!  That’s exciting.  I mean, there are more women in the new X-Men team than there are making comics in Marvel’s solicits, which is a downer.  More fictional women in ONE book than there are real women in ALL of the solicits is a bad scene.  Nonetheless, that’s no knock on X-Men.  It looks like an awesome book, and everything Brian Wood’s said about it so far sounds fun and he seems to have a great approach to writing female characters.

X-Men is a big plus for April, but the paltry number of female creators is killing my buzz.  Marvel had been so good in that department, but lately it’s really dropped off.  They CAN do very well, and for whatever reason they’re just not right now.  We know they’ve got lots of women in their rolodex, which makes it extra frustrating not to see them in the solicits.

Women At Marvel Comics – March 2013 Solicits

So do you remember how since we started looking at female creators in Marvel’s solicits a few months back I’ve been saying “Yeah, these numbers are good but they seem a little tenuous. This could drop off big at any time”?  That time is now.  With only a few female creators on regular gigs, the bulk of Marvel’s numbers came from random jobs.  There had been a lot of them for a while, but not so much in March.  Let’s go through the solicits:

• Kelly Sue DeConnick writes Avengers Assemble #13 and Captain Marvel #11, Marjorie Liu writes Astonishing X-Men #60 and co-writes X-termination #1, and Kathryn Immonen writes Journey Into Mystery #650.
• On the art side, all we’ve got this month is Sara Pichelli on Ultimate Comics Spider-Man #21.
• Outside of the main Marvel books, Anna Merli and Michela Frare are on art duties for Monsters, Inc.: The Perfect Date #1.
• And that’s it.
• To be fair, there are a few new cover artists doing variants who seem to be Korean and it’s tricky to get information about them.  As far as I can tell, they are all dudes, but if anyone has any information on Rock-He Kim, In-Hyuk Lee, or Jung-Geun Yoon, please let me know in the comments.
• For new books, Wolverine #1 seems to just be about Wolverine.  But Guardians of the Galaxy starts with a proper first issue co-starring Gamora, and the Age of Ultron event begins with a couple of ladies on the various covers.  It’s not as many female characters as we’ve seen the past few months, but it’s a few.

A month ago there were 11 different women on 10 different books at Marvel.  In March, that falls to 6 different women on 7 different books.  That’s a big drop, and the worst numbers we’ve seen from Marvel so far in the few months we’ve been doing this.

A few semi-regulars are nowhere to be seen, particularly on covers.  Stephanie Hans and Jana Schirmer had been steady for a couple of months, but they’re gone in March.  Robin Furth’s Dark Tower book is done for now as well.  And we’ve learned a valuable lesson about putting all our eggs in one basket: The Disney books have been good for 4 or 5 female creators each month, but this drops to 2 in March.  The end result is that the number of female creators is about half of what we’re used to seeing, which is a bummer.

Female characters dropped off as well.  We already knew about Gamora from Guardians of the Galaxy #0.1 last month, and the Age of Ultron covers show what appears to be an unconscious She-Hulk and some gal with a sword fighting next to Moon Knight.  That’s it.  Marvel NOW! seems to be tapering off a bit, so the glut of new books is winding down, and we’re used to seeing several of them with lots of women involved.  When it’s just a few books with just a couple ladies, it’s a bit of a letdown.  It’s not terrible, of course, but it’s less than we’re used to.

So overall, March isn’t looking so great for Marvel.  Even DC has more female creators, and they fired their most famous one!!  Hopefully things pick up next month and we’ll have the return of some of the ladies we usually see, and maybe some new faces as well.

Women At Marvel Comics Watch – February 2013 Solicits

It’s another busy month for real and fictional women at Marvel, with several new series featuring female characters and the usual assortment of female creators.  Now that we’re in our third month of checking in on Marvel, we’re starting to see some trends, which we can discuss after we look at solicits for February 2013:

• Things are very busy for writers, with Kelly Sue DeConnick on Avengers Assemble #12 and Captain Marvel #10, Kathryn Immonen on Journey Into Mystery #649 and A+X #5, Marjorie Liu on Astonishing X-Men #59,and Robin Furth on Dark Tower: The Gunslinger – Sheemie’s Tale #2.
• On the artistic side of things, Sara Pichelli draws Ultimate Comics Spider-Man #20, while Jana Schirmer does the cover for Red She-Hulk #62 and Stephanie Hans does a variant cover for Young Avengers #2.
• The Disney special Monster’s Inc.: The Humanween Party #1 features all sorts of female creators: Elisabetta Melaranci, Federica Salfo, Michela Frare, and Mirka Andolfo.
• There are a bunch of new Marvel NOW! series beginning in February, and apart from Nova they all seem to feature female leads.  Guardians of the Galaxy co-stars Gamora, a warrior with an odd name; 3 of the 6 characters on the cover of Uncanny X-Men #1 are ladies (one of them is Emma Frost, I think… I don’t know the rest), and 2 of the 8 characters on the cover of Secret Avengers #1 are women (Black Widow and Maria Hill).
• Also, Fearless Defenders #1!!  That’s ALL ladies, with Valkyrie and Misty Knight to start and many more to come!!

On the female creator side of things, all told there are 11 different women on 10 different books in February, which is both better and worse than January.  There were 13 different women last month, so we’re down there, but there were only 8 different books, so we’re up there, with a difference of 2 for each.  So let’s call it’s a draw.

There are actually more women on the main Marvel books this month, with Stephanie Hans back, and the drop is because the Disney book fell from 7 women in January to 4 in February.  The monthly Disney book of some variety (it’s been all Monster’s Inc. since we started looking at Marvel, but there have been other Disney properties before that) supplies a big chunk of the female creators each month, which is fine so long as it continues to come out and continues to utilize female creators, but it’s a lot of eggs in one basket.  If it doesn’t come out or changes, the numbers could plummet.

Marvel continues to be great with female writers, with 4 different women on 6 books, and there’s been some decent cover representation, but interior art has been low.  Sara Pichelli is fantastic, but this is the second month in a row with only one female interior artist on a main line Marvel book, and there were none the month before that.  Marvel’s doing well overall, but things feel slightly tenuous with the reliance on one big Disney book and the lack of female artists.

On the character side of things, though, things are going fantastically.  Every month we’ve looked at so far has brought a bounty of female leads and co-leads in the new Marvel NOW! titles.  And now we’ll have an all-female book in Fearless Defenders too.  The consistent involvement of female characters is great to see, and hopefully it keeps up in the months to come.

Overall, it was a very solid month for Marvel.  The only real problems for Marvel right now are hypothetical problems.  Each month the actual representation has been decent, and better than what we’re used to seeing at DC.  Things could always be better, of course, and some more representation in certain areas would be nice, but Marvel has done well thus far.

Women At Marvel Comics Watch – January 2013 Solicits

After checking in on DC for over a year now, we’ve expanded to cover Marvel as well and we’re in our second month.  With the December solicits as a baseline, now we can get a better sense of how Marvel rolls with female creators and characters.  They had a lot of both last month, but was that just an aberration?  Let’s take a look at the January solicits:

• On the writing side of things, we’ve got Kelly Sue DeConnick on Avengers Assemble #11 and Captain Marvel #9, Kathryn Immonen on Journey Into Mystery #648, Marjorie Liu on Astonishing X-Men #58, AND Robin Furth on Dark Tower: The Gunslinger – Sheemie’s Tale #1.
• For art, Sara Pichelli is on art and covers for Ultimate Comics Spider-Man #19, while we’ve got a brand new creator, Jana Schirmer, doing the cover for Red She-Hulk #61.  There’s no Stephanie Hans anywhere, though, which is odd… she’s usually on something.
• And then there’s Monsters, Inc. #2, where Elisabetta Melaranci, Anna Merli, Sonia Matrone, Mara Damiani, and Elena M. Naggi are on art duties while Lori Tyminski and Adrienne Brown do the cover.  That’s an impressive amount of ladies on one book!!
• There are six new Marvel Now! books in January, and none of them have any female creators, so that’s a bummer.  Also, there don’t seem to be any female leads in Super Spider-Man (apart from Mary Jane), New Avengers, or Morbius: The Living Vampire.  However, 4 of the 6 characters on the cover of Uncanny X-Force #1 are gals (it looks like Storm and a few chicks with swords), Shanna the She-Devil costars in Savage Wolverine, and Ms. America and Hawkeye (Kate Bishop) are in Young Avengers.
• There’s also a weekly Punisher book called Punisher: Nightmare that doesn’t seem to star any women, though they don’t list the creators so maybe (ie. probably not) some women are writing or drawing the book.

Overall, in January 2013 there are 13 women writing or drawing 8 different books at Marvel, a nice step up from the 11 women on 7 books in December.  However, as we talked about last month, Monsters, Inc. is carrying the bulk of the load.  Of the 13 women overall, 7 are on Monsters, Inc. #2, and that book is done in January.  We’ll have to see whether another Disney property with a similar number of female creators replaces it in February.  If there’s not, the numbers are going to drop drastically.

Even though we’re only two months in, we’re starting to see some patterns.  Marvel has a few women with regular gigs, all of them writers, and the art side seems more fluid.  Sara Pichelli is stepping onto Ultimate Comics Spider-Man for what looks like a few issues, but I doubt it will be a regular gig for her.  Jana Schirmer is brand new to Marvel, and the question now is will she be back next month?  Apart from DeConnick, Immonen, and Liu having regular writing gigs, the rest of the female creators at Marvel are a rotating cast so far.

As for female characters, there’s some decent representation.  However, all of the Marvel Now! books in December had at least one female lead, and only half of the new titles in January do.  It still adds up to 7 female characters co-starring in 6 new books though, and that’s pretty solid.

Overall, January looks pretty good for Marvel, but with Monsters, Inc. wrapped up the big question is what will happen in February for female creators?  Also, what new Marvel Now! books will premiere, and will there continue to be a decent number of female characters?  Only time will tell.  But Marvel looks decent two months in.