REVIEWS: MOVIES & DVDs | COMIC BOOKS | VIDEOGAMES | WEB SITES & MORE

Mighty Avengers With Mighty Boobies by Mike-oh

Marvel pimps out their female characters once again for another fast buck.

The Mighty Avengers. There are a number of big differences between Marvel and DC. One difference can be summed up in one word, "respect." DC totally respects their iconic characters. Guys like Superman, Batman, and Wonder Woman are constantly thrown into the ringer to shake things up. But at the end of the day, these characters are treated with a real respect towards their roots and their heritage. And in cases where a creator strays from the path, as in Frank Miller and Jim Lee's mis-characterization of Batman in All-Star Batman and Robin, fans let them know that they are going off course.

Marvel, on the other hand, has no problem with handing over their great icons to their creators and letting them go in seemingly any direction they want. The most recent example of this is the upcoming Mighty Avengers. What surprises me the most about this new title is the decision to have Frank Cho handle the art. Cho is an excellent artist when it comes to drawing the ladies. Actually, he can draw anything. He just tends to focus on the ladies. Which is the reason for my concern. In a recent interview with Cho and Bendis, nearly every comment made by the creative team centered around nearly pornographic descriptions of the female cast mebers slected for their Avengers lineup.

Now don't get me wrong. I have no problem with Cho's illustrations of women. Or even comic books that center arounf beautiful women like Shanna the She Devil, Red Sonja, or even Wonder Woman. But what does that have to do with the Avengers?

I'll tell you what it has to do with the Avengers. It's called marketing. Marvel has had a lot of success with the multiple X-men titles and the multiple Spider-man titles. So much so that they have obviously decided that it's a great time to release multiple Avengers titles. So they start with New Avengers. Then roll out the Young Avengers. Now comes Mighty Avengers. And don't be surprised if they come out with just plain old Avengers some time soon. Each one of these books has their own target audience and their own marketing strategy. Obviously Young Avengers was going after a younger audience. New Avengers has been an attempt to leverage Marvel's most popular characters, Spider-Man and Wolverine (you know, those guys responsible for their success with their own multiple titles not to mention their own movies), in order to reach a broader audience.

So with the Mighty Avengers, it can be surmised that their marketing strategy is to reach that segment of the fanboy audience that thinks with their peckers. Mighty Avengers is obviously designed to be a soft porn version of the Avengers that will attract diehard superhero fans that are looking for pure escapism with an R rating for sex. It sure isn't the Avengers I remember. Just consider the cast: Wonder Man, Iron Man and Ares make up the male cast. Ms. Marvel, Black Widow, and Wasp make up the female cast. Huh??!! That's right. What sense does any of that make. If people were baffled about the decision to make Spider-Man, Wolverine, and Luke Cage into Avengers, what's up with this crew? Sex is what's up with this crew.

And it's not like I have this great concern about using sex to sell. I've spent my entire career in advertising. It's something I understand very well. Intimately, even. It's just that I think they are injuring the integrity of some great, iconic characters by using such sophmoric techniques in place of great story telling. It doesn't make sense. Marvel has all of this power as a publisher. All of this access to great talent. And all of this control. But instead of using it to create comics that transcend the medium and make visual storytelling more compelling and unforgettable, they are using it to show us super-boobies.

Instead of stories that take our breath away and make us long for the next issue, they are shaking their ass in our faces. Isn't it possible for them to have at the foundation of their series something that Bendis and Cho want to talk about besides how Wasp is going to look flying around with her legs spread?

Jim Lee and Frank Miller made a similar mistake recently. Frank made the decision that Jim draws beautiful ladies so he writes each of his stories in the All-Star Batman and Robin so that they will feature specific women from the Batman roster. In issue 3, they spend the whole issue on scenes of the Black Canary jumping around a bar like ninja stripper. No Batman. No Robin. No story. Just tits and ass. The response from the fans was overwhelming sour.

The bottom line is this: we don't mind sex playing a part in the stories we read. But if the story is built around it, then it doesn't work. What people want is great storytelling first. Sexy girls, action, explosions, drama, violence, and all that comes second. And the last thing we want is a carefully calculated marketing plan that is designed to sell us more comics. If only Marvel would focus on publishing great comics instead of selling lots of comics, I am convinced that they would usher in a whole new age of comic reading like never before.

So, what do you think? Agree? Disagree? Give us your feedback.