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 DC Comics Watch – May 2012 Solicits

After the women in comics outcry at ComicCon last summer, DC promised to include more female creators and characters in their books, and we’ve been checking the solicits every month since to see how they’ve been doing.  May is a big month because it’s the beginning of Phase Two of the relaunch.  A bunch of books have been cancelled, and we’ve got six new titles!!  Let’s see if that changes things much:

• We’ve got two female writers, Gail Simone on Batgirl #9 and Ann Nocenti on Green Arrow #9.  There are no female writers on the new titles.
• Amy Reeder is doing the art and cover for Batwoman #9, as she has been for a few months, BUT we’ve got two new ladies!!  Jill Thompson has art/cover duties for The Shade #8 while Nicola Scott is the only woman on the new titles, pencilling Earth Two #1.
• As always, Yuko Shimizu is on cover duty on The Unwritten #37.
• Outside of the non-regular comics, Vertigo has an anthology special called Mystery in Space #1 that features three women female creators: Ann Nocenti, Ming Doyle, and Nnedi Okorafor.  I’m especially excited for Okorafor… Vertigo is really branching out!!
• In terms of new female characters, two of the Phase Two titles boast a few.  Huntress and Power Girl are starring in World’s Finest #1, which is very exciting, and The Ravagers #1 features three new characters, one scantily clad, one that’s pretty heavy on the cleavage, and one dressed how a normal person might dress if they were out in the snow.
• Superman #9 also features a new female character, the villainess Masochist, who wears a t-shirt that says “Hurt Me”.  So yeah… woot.

Overall, on regular series there are 6 women on 6 books, which is slightly less than last month (7 women on 6 books), but with the Mystery in Space anthology that’s a decent number of women set to make comics in May.  The totals have been up and down since the summer, but April and May are definitely the best consecutive months we’ve seen yet.

For characters, World’s Finest #1 is super good… two new female leads is great to see.  The cover for The Ravagers #1 does feature some women, but not in the way you’d want it too… plus, I’ll be surprised if that book lasts 6 issues to be honest.  They’re no-name characters, and Howard Mackie and Ian Churchill don’t have a ton of name power.  And don’t even get me started on Masochist.  But yeah, hooray World’s Finest!!

May was decent, and I have no idea what June will hold.  Karen Traviss will be back with Gears of War I suppose, but it’ll be fun to see what new minis and possible creative changes are coming!!  They’re doing a lot of shuffling lately.