It has been quite an amazing few days for representation in the world of comics as Marvel announced today their plans to launch a brand-new, all-female team of Avengers in a new title, "A-Force." The book will be co-written by G. Willow Wilson (Ms. Marvel) and Marguerite K. Bennett (Angela: Asgard's Assassin) with pencils by Jorge Molina. The book, which ties into the company's massive "Secret Wars" summer event, will launch in May.
Read more about this new team, which includes not only a number of fan-favorites, but a very important new character as well, after the jump.
There are several things that stand out to me about this cover, illustrated by Young Avengers' Jim Cheung. For starters, a co-writing team of women on an all-female team book seems like a no-brainer, but it was a step not taken when Marvel launched their all-female X-Men book with Brian Wood and Olivier Coipel. That book proved to be a hit for Marvel, not only because of its unique roster, but also because of the tremendous talent of its creative team. While that goes to show that great female characters don't need to or be written exclusively by women (see also: Joss Whedon), it's great to see non-male perspectives in comics (more on that later), especially when one half of this dynamic team is G. Willow Wilson.
Speaking of Wilson, another thing that stands out about this cover is the absence of the writer's signature character, Kamala Khan, the new Ms. Marvel. Regarding the line-up, Wilson said, "We've purposefully assembled a team composed of different characters from disparate parts of the Marvel U, with very different power sets, identities and ideologies." Whether or not that includes a shapeshifting Pakastani-American teenager remains to be seen, but I certainly hope so.
An intriguing presence on this cover is the mysterious, Captain Universe-esque figure to the right of She-Hulk. The character's known as "Singularity" and is described as "a pocket universe which has become sentient." The Mary Sue, among others, have suggested that since this being chooses to take a female form, this could be considered comics' first transgender superhero. How cool is that?
What are your thoughts on this new team? Does Singularity give a voice to a community largely missing from comic books?
While I'm freaking stoked!
ReplyDeleteWow! I don't know comics very well, but I'm certainly excited to learn about them from this blog. And an all female, kick-butt team? That is pretty cool. I think it will definitely create more interest for comics in general!
ReplyDeleteAn all female team is just so cool! And I always believe that the world of comics is cool and wonderful!
ReplyDeleteLike Maria, I don't know comics very well (read: at all), but the "Singularity" character is intriguing enough to get me very interested! The description of her is mind-blowing and lovely and powerful and mysterious. I already want to be her, and can't wait to learn more about the comic world! (Although, personally, I think the "She-Hulk" is a little too pretty.)
ReplyDeleteThis is really cool, despite the fact that I now nothing about comics.
ReplyDeleteI think that this is awesome! Maybe the comics will eventually lead to a movie with an all-female superhero cast. I think that would be a great step in the right direction for society.
ReplyDelete