This Is What Happens When Men Try to Draw a Female Superhero

It's hard out there for a female superhero. When Wonder Woman finally ended up in a movie, the Hollywood powers that be made her look like Xena, cutting out all her campy fun. And when Spider-Woman gets a rare comic book series, she ends up looking like a porn star. Comic Book Resources released Marvel's art for the highly anticipated first issue of a new Spider-Woman comic series, and it's, well, rather offensive.

The official cover art is pretty standard, though, it does seem to throw her bust into the spotlight:

And her sidekick, Silk, seems to be posed too provocatively to be able take any real action. But at least the plot looks pretty cool:

A war is brewing, and every spider-character in the multiverse is a target! But being a target is something Jessica Drew just won't abide. She's a woman with a mission and with Silk, the newest spider-character on the block at her side, she'll have to put all her training to the test if she wants to make it out of Spider-Verse alive!

But the variant cover, created by Milo Manara, needs discussing.

Spider-Woman looks like she's simply covered in body paint, flashing the city she's ostensibly protecting. And according to The Mary Sue, the pose is nearly identical to one Manara used in an Italian erotic comic book called Click. All in all, the image seems to toe the line of pornographic; imagine Spider-Man in that position instead, and the concept would have never gotten this far.

Marvel declined to comment on the issue to The Mary Sue. But if they want to attract female fans, they should at least have their male superheroes pose like this too. Here's an illustration of The Avengers posed like Scarlett Johansson's character for inspiration.

Via