Marvel Divas

Marvel Divas

Artwork for the cover of Marvel Divas 1 (Sep 2009).Art by J. Scott Campbell.
Publication information
Publisher Marvel Comics
Schedule Monthly
Format Limited series
Genre
Publication date September – December 2009
Number of issues 4
Main character(s) Firestar
Black Cat
Hellcat
Photon
Creative team
Writer(s) Roberto Aguirre-Sacasa
Artist(s) Tonci Zonjic
Letterer(s) Cory Petit
Colorist(s) June Chung
Editor(s) Joe Quesada
Alejandro Arbona
Jennifer Grünwald
Warren Simons
Collected editions
Marvel Divas ISBN 0-7851-3177-9

Marvel Divas is a limited series comic book published by Marvel Comics.[1] On April 9, Marvel Editor-in-Chief Joe Quesada revealed in his weekly blog with MySpace Comic Books that the series follows four female heroes, who, up until now, had nothing in common.[1] The group featured Firestar (Angelica Jones), Black Cat (Felicia Hardy), Hellcat (Patsy Walker) and Photon (Monica Rambeau), four single women who bond over their inabilities to find a solid romance.[1] The creative team is Roberto Aguirre-Sacasa and Tonci Zonjic.[1]

Background

Originally, Aguirre-Sacasa had envisioned it as a solo book featuring the Invisible Woman.[2] Further brainstorming had prompted him to pitch the miniseries as a Sex & the City homage for the Marvel Universe.[1] He chose the four most unlikely characters and made them bond over their inabilities to find romance and the fact they were heroes.[1] Aguirre-Sacasa describes the series as "a lot of hot fun".[1] Most of the series would be viewed through the perspective of Hellcat.[2]

Plot

The series' four main story lines connect to a larger story.[2]

Hellcat deals with her ex-husband, Damien Hellstrom's attempts to reenter her life. Photon, also dealing with an ex, helps Brother Voodoo retrieve a powerful artifact. The Black Cat considers a return to the life of crime. Firestar, a graduate student studying art history, deals with her radiation powers giving her breast cancer. Justice appeared in the third issue of the miniseries.

Criticism

The cover of the first issue and the likening of the plot to Sex and the City has had Marvel and Aguirre-Sacasa accused of misogyny.[2] Aguirre-Sacasa's response was "In terms of those specific accusations, it's something I'm pretty sensitive to, and I think my record holds that I've never written a misogynistic story, including 'Divas'".[2] His response to the cover was "It's sexy, it's fun, it catches the eye, it gets people talking. [...] To me, the book stands and falls on its content, which is either your cup of tea or not, but I promise you it's not misogynistic."[2]

Collected editions

The series has been collected into a trade paperback:

Notes

  1. ↑ 1.0 1.1 1.2 1.3 1.4 1.5 1.6 "MyCup o’ Joe Tea, Dan Abnett and Andy Lanning". MySpace Comic Books. 2009-04-09. Retrieved 2009-04-11.
  2. ↑ 2.0 2.1 2.2 2.3 2.4 2.5 Richards, Dave (2009-06-09). "Aguirre-Sacasa Talks Marvel Divas". Comic Book Resources. Retrieved 2009-06-10.

References