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	Superhero
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 may make an appearance.^[2]

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:

• Marvel Divas (104 pages, Marvel Comics, January 2010, ISBN 0-7851-3177-9)

Notes

1. ^ ^{a b c d e f g} "MyCup o’ Joe Tea, Dan Abnett and Andy Lanning". MySpace Comic Books. 2009-04-09. http://blogs.myspace.com/index.cfm?fuseaction=blog.view&friendId=92159514&blogId=482150960. Retrieved 2009-04-11. 
2. ^ ^{a b c d e f g} Richards, Dave (2009-06-09). "Aguirre-Sacasa Talks Marvel Divas". Comic Book Resources. http://www.comicbookresources.com/?page=article&id=21520. Retrieved 2009-06-10. 

References

• Marvel Divas at the Grand Comics Database
• Marvel Divas at the Comic Book DB