Dear Greg Horn,

God bless you, good man. God bless.

Two Views of Ms. Marvel

Most of what I know about Ms. Marvel I picked up from the blogs. I gather that she's a super-strong powerhouse and leader of one of Marvel's premier super teams with a confusing back story and, um, a generous endowment. Basically, she's Marvel's Power Girl. But nevertheless, I'd like to take a moment to consider how Marvel is presenting their blonde bombshell to the potential comics buyer (as taken from their July Solicitations):

First up is the cover of Ms. Marvel #17 by Greg Horn. I know Horn mostly as the cover artist on She-Hulk, where a reputation for bad cheesecake poses didn't stop him from producing some really awesome covers.


First off, I like that after photo-referencing the face, Horn went ahead and photo referenced the hair too, giving the finished image a more natural look (rather than looking like a real person wearing a yellow foam wig). I also like how the lighting and speed lines emphasize her smile and the flaming bits of debris suggest how powerfully she broke through. The head seems maybe too big for her body, but the rest of her seems reasonably well proportioned. Over all, this is a very good representation of a strong woman who really, really enjoys beating the crap out of doors.

And then we have Frank Cho's cover for Mighty Avengers #5:


Oy.

I don't mind that Ms. Marvel is shown getting shot in the back; I assume that's a scene in the comic itself and seeing the leader and strongest member of the team taken out on the cover shows the seriousness of the threat. It's that she's shot off to the side, facing away from the viewer, while Ant-Man--Ant-Man?--gets to look badass front and center.

Okay, we get it. Frank Cho likes to draw women's butts. But this is getting ridiculous, especially after the ass-tastic covers for Mighty Avengers #3 AND Mighty Avengers #4. Why can't Ms. Marvel face the viewer, so we can see her reaction to the attack? Why can't we empathize with her, rather than gaze at her?

Is she a character, or is she an object?

Greg Horn has his answer, Mr. Cho. What's yours?

All Hail!

Greg Horn has gotten a lot of flack for drawing cheesecake covers on She-Hulk which misrepresent the actual content of the book and drive off women who would otherwise enjoy the book.

So I wanted to give a shout out to Mr. Horn for this cover:


That's some good work right there. You immediately get the spy thriller genre of the issue. Jen Walters, the She-Hulk, looks strong and confident, even a little bored, as she glides through the air on seemingly insubstantial wings. Plus all the black and white swirls immediately recall Jim Steranko's trippy covers for Nick Fury: Agent of S.H.I.E.L.D. All in all, it's nice to see Horn get away from his "boobs sell" mentality and deliver a solid cover that really tells the reader what the book's about...


... what's this? In the corner? Can we get a close up?



Yeah. Uh huh... could you zoom in a little more? Enhance that a bit?

ALL HAIL THE HYPNO-CHEST!