The stats keep on coming with our look at female and non-binary creators at Marvel, because I’m social distancing and staying inside and what’s more fun than tabulating creator numbers? As always, please support your local comics retailers during this difficult time if you can. Small businesses are getting hit hard, so check in with your comic shop to see if you can get your comics through the mail or curbside pickup, or pay for your account now to pick up down the road. Now let’s take a look at who’s doing what at Marvel this May:
- Alyssa Wong: Star Wars: Doctor Aphra #3 (writer)
- Amy Chu: Aero #11 (co-writer), Sword Master #11 (co-writer)
- Barbara Randall Kesel: Avengers: Marvels Snapshot #1 (co-writer)
- Becky Cloonan: Dark Agnes #4 (writer)
- Carmen Carnero: Miles Morales: Spider-Man #18 (interior art), Star #5 (cover)
- Claire Roe: Nebula #4 (interior art)
- Elena Casagrande: Black Widow #2 (interior art)
- Emanuela Lupacchino: The Union #1 (variant cover)
- Eve L. Ewing: Champions #2 (writer)
- Gurihiru: Power Pack #2 (variant cover)
- Jen Bartel: Nebula #4 (cover)
- Karla Pacheco: Spider-Woman #3 (writer)
- Kelly Thompson: Black Widow #2 (writer), Captain Marvel #18 (writer), Captain Marvel #19 (writer), Deadpool #7 (writer), Star #5 (writer)
- Leah Williams: Amazing Mary Jane #8 (writer), Empyre: X-Men #2 (co-writer), X-Factor #2 (writer)
- Margaret Stohl: Spider-Man Noir #3 (writer)
- Marika Cresta: Star Wars: Doctor Aphra #3 (interior art)
- Meghan Hetrick: Champions #2 (variant cover), Empyre: Thor #1 (variant cover)
- Mirka Andolfo: Amazing Spider-Man #46 (variant cover)
- Natacha Bustos: Runaways #33 (interior art)
- Peach Momoko: Gwen Stacy #4 (variant cover)
- Rainbow Rowell: Runaways #33 (writer)
- Sana Takeda: Marvel’s Spider-Man: The Black Cat Strikes #5 (cover)
- Seanan McGuire: Ghost-Spider #10 (writer)
- Stephanie Hans: Dark Agnes #4 (cover)
- Tini Howard: Empyre: X-Men #1 (co-writer), Excalibur #11 (writer), Strikeforce #9 (writer)
- Torunn Grønbekk: Valkyrie: Jane Foster #11 (co-writer)
- Valentina Remenar: Star Wars: Doctor Aphra #3 (cover)
- Vita Ayala: 2020 Ironheart #2 (co-writer), Children of the Atom #2 (writer), Morbius #7 (writer), Nebula #4 (writer)
All together, there are 29 female and non-binary creators set to work on 33 different books in May, two fewer creators than in April on two more books. So that about evens out, really, with Marvel’s output in the same ballpark as last month. They’re putting out two more books in May, for a whopping 99 titles overall, and with female or non-binary creators set to work on 33 of them, that gives us representation across 33% of the line. That’s a one point gain from last month, as Marvel continues to hold relatively steady.
In terms of new names in May, I don’t think there are any brand new creators. We haven’t seen Barbara Randall Kesel in a while, but she’s certainly worked at Marvel before. Almost everyone else was in the mix last month, if not in the months before that. Marvel’s got a sizeable group of female and non-binary creators getting regular work right now, which is great, but it’d be good to have some new names in the mix, too.
For new books, it’s going to be Empyre-palooza in May, with what looks like a dozen or so spinoff minis that cover every corner of the Marvel universe. If you’ve got a favourite female character at Marvel, chances are they’ll pop up in one of these books, plus a lot of regular series are doing tie-ins as well. It’s a whole big thing, though there aren’t a ton of female or non-binary creators involved. Outside of all of that, the only new book with female representation is The Union, a new team led by Britannia. There also seem to be a couple of other women in the mix, too, though I don’t know who’s who. I’m not an expert on Marvel heroes in the British Isles.
Overall, Marvel keeps trucking along with relatively decent female and non-binary creator representation. The numbers are below their recent highs, but they’re steady and there’s a solid core group of creators getting all manner of gigs currently. Some growth would be nice, but given how up and down the Big Two tend to be, there’s something to be said for stability as well.
TIM HANLEY 