Women & NB Creators at Marvel Comics, June 2020 Solicits, 34 Creators on 29 Books

Continuing this very productive first week of self isolation, this is the sixth of these posts I’ve written so far. It’ll be in the future when you read it, though, at least two weeks away. What will I be counting then? How many Cheerios are in a box, perhaps? Time will tell. As always, comic book retailers are having a tough go of it with so many of us staying home, so please support them if you can. See if they offer curbside pickup or mail delivery, or pay for the books you have on hold now via etransfer or some such and then pick them up later on. Now let’s dig into who’s doing what at Marvel this June:

• Alyssa Wong: Star Wars: Doctor Aphra #4 (writer)
• Amy Chu: Aero #12 (co-writer), Sword Master #12 (co-writer)
• Annie Wu: Black Widow #3 (variant cover)
• Becky Cloonan: Dark Agnes #5 (writer)
• Carmen Carnero: Miles Morales: Spider-Man #19 (interior art)
• Claire Roe: Nebula #5 (interior art)
• Colleen Doran: Captain Marvel: Marvels Snapshot #1 (interior art, variant cover)
• Elena Casagrande: Black Widow #3 (interior art)
• Elizabeth Torque: America Chavez: Made in the USA #1 (variant cover)
• Emanuela Lupacchino: Black Widow #3 (variant cover)
• Eve L. Ewing: Champions #3 (writer)
• Gurihiru: W.E.B. of Spider-Man #1 (cover)
• Jen Bartel: Giant-Size X-Men: Storm #1 (variant cover), Nebula #5 (cover)
• Jodie Muir: Star Wars: The Rise of Skywalker Adaptation #1 (variant cover)
• Jody Houser: Star Wars: The Rise of Skywalker Adaptation #1 (writer)
• Kalinda Vazquez: America Chavez: Made in the USA #1 (writer)
• Karla Pacheco: Spider-Woman #4 (writer)
• Kelly Thompson: Black Widow #3 (writer), Captain Marvel #20 (writer), Deadpool #8 (writer)
• Leah Williams: Amazing Mary Jane #9 (writer), X-Factor #3 (writer)
• Margaret Stohl: Spider-Man Noir #4 (writer)
• Marika Cresta: Star Wars: Doctor Aphra #4 (interior art)
• Mirka Andolfo: Dr. Strange #7 (variant cover)
• Nina Vakueva: Black Cat #13 (interior art)
• Peach Momoko: Nebula #5 (variant cover), Power Pack #3 (variant cover)
• Rainbow Rowell: Runaways #34 (writer)
• Sara Pichelli: America Chavez: Made in the USA #1 (cover), Black Cat #13 (cover)
• Stephanie Hans: America Chavez: Made in the USA #1 (variant cover), Dark Agnes #5 (cover)
• Tini Howard: Excalibur #12 (writer), Strikeforce #10 (writer)
• Torunn Grønbekk: Valkyrie: Jane Foster #12 (co-writer)
• Tula Lotay: Star Wars: Doctor Aphra #4 (variant cover)
• Valentina Remenar: Star Wars: Doctor Aphra #4 (cover)
• Valentine Pasche: Champions #3 (variant cover)
• Vita Ayala: Children of the Atom #3 (writer), Empyre: X-Men #3 (co-writer), Morbius #8 (writer), Nebula #5 (writer)

All together, there are 34 different female and non-binary creators set to work on 29 different books at DC in June, five more creators than in May across four fewer books. Again, we’ve got some small ups and downs with the numbers, but everything evens out to about the same level. Marvel remains a bastion of stability over the past few months, after years of being all over the dang place.

The publisher’s output looks to be a bit lower in June, with “only” 93 books, but with appearances from female and non-binary creators dropping to 29 books this month, that gives us representation across 31% of the line. While that’s a two point drop from May, it’s well within Marvel’s wheelhouse as of late.

For new names, we’ve got Kalinda Vazquez writing the new America Chavez: Made in the USA series, which looks like it’s going to be a lot of fun. We also have Valentine Pasche doing a variant cover for Champions this month. We’ve seen a few new artists popping in recently to do variant covers as of late, and several of those creators have become regulars at Marvel.

America Chavez: Made in the USA is the only new book with a female lead in June, where it’s a pretty quiet month across the board. The Empyre event is in full swing, with all manner of spinoffs and tie-ins, and Marvel’s not rolling out of a ton of brand new titles. I’d expect more once this wraps up and we move into the big summer event, which I think is X of Swords or some such? The X-books are great right now, so I’m curious to check out that one.

Overall, Marvel continues to hold relatively steady right now. The numbers still remain below their recent highs, but the numbers look okay relative to what we’re used to seeing from the Big Two. There remains, as always, an enormous amount of room to grow, though, and it’d be nice to see Marvel taking advantage of the great talent out there, especially since they’re putting out upwards of a hundred books a month.

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