Saturday, January 03, 2015

WSJ on graphic novels aimed at women

The Wall Street Journal wrote about new comics aimed at women. Unfortunately, they just had to include a very bad choice for women who're realists:
Marvel’s new series, “Ms. Marvel”—about a Muslim girl living in Jersey City, N.J.—was the publisher’s No. 1 best-selling digital title of 2014, according to Marvel. (The trade paperback version, “Ms. Marvel Vol. 1,” released in October, has been through seven print runs.)

[...] Sana Amanat, the Marvel editor behind “Ms. Marvel” and “Max Ride,” said the success of “Ms. Marvel” came as a surprise.

“I honestly thought that people would see this and say ‘Uck, God what a gimmick,’” she said. “It was a bit of a risk.”
And despite what she says, it is a gimmick. If they didn't want anybody to think that, they would've left religion out of the mess. Interesting they haven't told how much it's really made in sales, digital or otherwise.

I wonder why this book matters, but not some of the other series they've published with female leads, like the Capt. Marvel book now starring Carol Danvers in the role of her male predecessor? If the WSJ wanted to, I'm sure they could've put that into the text instead of the Muslim Ms. Marvel. Now that I think of it, this article's used a gimmick, and not a very good one.

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