Women Of Marvel

Girl Comics #1-3

by Mariko Tamaki, Elsa Sjunneson, Natasha Alterici

Who run the world? You already know! Now celebrate the Women of Marvel as an astonishing array of writers and artists from across the comic book and entertainment fields unite to make theirs Marvel — in stories featuring super hero sensations from She-Hulk to Gamora, from Jean Grey to Rogue, and from Medusa to…Peggy Carter, Captain America?! And we didn’t forget to bring on the bad girls — including Mystique, Hela and Lady Deathstrike! Even some of the guys are allowed to join the fun! The acclaimed WOMEN OF MARVEL one-shot is collected together with Marvel’s first-ever series made completely by female creators, 2010’s GIRL COMICS — plus a gallery of Jen Bartel’s gorgeous Women’s History Month variant covers — for a volume that proves that the future is female!

COLLECTING: Women of Marvel (2021) 1, Girl Comics (2010) 1-3, material from Marvel’s Voices (2020) 1

Genres: Graphic Novels, Marvel, Comics, Fantasy, Superheroes, Fiction, X Men

196 pages, Kindle Edition

First published March 15, 2022

About the author

Mariko Tamaki is a Toronto writer, playwright, activist and performer. She works and performs with fat activists Pretty Porky and Pissed Off and the theatre troupe TOA, whose recent play, A vs. B, was staged at the 2004 Rhubarb Festival at Buddies in Bad Times Theatre. Her well-received novel, Cover Me (McGilligan Books) was followed by a short fiction collection, True Lies: The Book of Bad Advice (Women's Press). Mariko's third book, FAKE ID, is due out in spring 2005.

Mariko Tamaki has performed her work across Canada and through the States, recently appearing at the Calgary Folkfest 2004, Vancouver Writer's Festival 2003, Spatial III, and the Perpetual Motion/Girls Bite Back Tour, which circled though Ottawa, Montreal, Brooklyn and Chicago. She has appeared widely on radio and television including First Person Singular on CBC radio and Imprint on TVO. Mariko Tamaki is currently attending York University working a master's degree in women's studies.

[MacMIllan Books]

Reviews

[bri 🧸 · Rating 2 out of 5]

underwhelming but i love women!

[Missyohara · Rating 5 out of 5]

Great collection of women writers and characters. Has inspired a new reading list!

[Sesana · Rating 3 out of 5]

This is functionally in the Voices of Marvel line, even without the branding. Like the Voices of Marvel books, it has one issue of brand new material and a few older issues to take up space. In this case, the Girl Comics miniseries of short stories by women creators from 2010. Both the new Women of Marvel issue and the Girl Comics issues have some good stuff and some mediocre stuff. There was one Doctor Strange story from Girl Comics that went totally over my head, because it seemed pretty firmly based on whatever was going on with him 12 years ago. On the plus side, it also included a Nightcrawler feature, so that worked for me. Overall, there's some good stories, and some fun stories, so at least worth a read.

[XMCU · Rating 4 out of 5]

i got through the Women of marvel and the one story from Marvel Voices.

Women of Marvel: I don't know how significant the Peggy Carter and Gamera stories are (because I don't follow those Marvel Characters). Misty Knight story is passable (good) for me and pairs nicely with Daredevil annual (2018) #1 Featured in Marvel Universe Time And Again. I'm not familiar with Marrow and Feral other than the Marvel Unlimited exclusive comics. The comic featured here shows how they first meet on Krakoa. It's relevant to the Unlimited App's comics, but not necessary to read. but a person could read this story on the app, so there's no reason not to read it. the mystique and rogue (with jurassic park cameo/reference) is okay. at some point, Marvel should make a Woman of X-Men book.

Marvel voices: She Hulk single page comic. it's okay.

Comic Girls comics: just so you're aware, these stories take place around the 2010 era comics. these comics aren't in chronical order. here's what i read so far - punisher's comic is good. Kate Pryde is okay. Jubilee's is okay. okay meaning passable for me and i like it. night crawler's comic is meh to me. jean Grey and Scott's Comic is okay. doc octopus's story is disapointing, so it's meh.

OVERALL: as much as i'd like to give this book Five stars, this is still a compilation of random and mostly insignificant stories. This book is worth getting for the X-Men stories.

[Kori Watson · Rating 3 out of 5]

It didn’t frustrate me as much as fearless but it’s like the definition of a mixed bag. a lot of these where weird, disappointing, questionable, bland and/or out of character (from my perspective Girl comics is from 2010 and characterisation can vary wildly over a decade+ especially when characters have films come out in the interim).

probably needs a wider range of context than the average reader has but that’s just how marvel anthologies often are.

The Venus story was a definite low point. I’ve only read one classic Venus story so I’m no super fan I just think both on it’s own and as a follow-up it didn’t work.

[Laura · Rating 4 out of 5]

I really enjoyed reading this, and wish it had been marketed a bit better. Wasn't just a bunch of superhero comic shorts, but interviews with women who have worked at Marvel in several capacities and brief bios of others. Wish it had been more in depth, but it was interesting and the shorts were good and fun.

[Bell (wicked era💚🫧) · Rating 3 out of 5]

The first half is great filled with the more recognizable women of Marvel, the second half of this kinda fell off for me. Ex. Not all of the short stories were exclusively of Marvel women, repeated stories of minor characters like Medusa, a couple of stories were just about kids, and why is Logan in the second half of this so much? Lol

[Niche · Rating 2 out of 5]

Uneven anthology

This was pretty uneven and, as the title implies, it draws from across the Marvel-verse so there's no particular property or series to tie it to. I wouldn't say any were bad, but a number were fairly dull with few standouts.

[Rachelle · Rating 3 out of 5]

So awesome! Woman power. So many great women of Marvel in this issue. And a nod to current and historical women working at Marvel. Love that this work is out there and being done to get more representation for women and non-binary folks in comics.

[Olivia Ambrose · Rating 3 out of 5]

Very underwhelming. A collection of short stories that don't amount to much. And for a book about Marvel women, some of these only focus on men? I'm not entirely sure what the goal was here, but it feels like it got missed.

[Anne-Wil · Rating 4 out of 5]

This comicbook contains a lot of short comics, all in different art styles. I didn’t like every comic, but I do appreciate every single art styles. I absolutely loved the interviews at the end of the book, and I cannot wait to read Super Visible by Margaret Stohl and Judith Stephens!

[Will Plunkett · Rating 4 out of 5]

Rounding up the 3.5 to a 4. Plenty of short single-page stories among the longer ones, and good variety of characters (villains included). I preferred the Asked & Answered sections and other background history text.

[Faloni © · Rating 5 out of 5]

I don't know when I've seen you last, way over due hun... Make it happen.

[Eli · Rating 3 out of 5]

3.5 stars

This is a collection of very short comic stories. Some were pretty good, others not so much. Overall I enjoyed it and I appreciate that Marvel did a collection like this.

[Ina · Rating 3 out of 5]

Was disappointed to not have a single Wanda storyline in this - why put her on the cover then?

[Isapropanol · Rating 2 out of 5]

Loved the first few stories, but the majority of it was not enjoyable.

[nicole · Rating 3 out of 5]

There were so many stories not about women in this Women of Marvel book

[Esme · Rating 2 out of 5]

Two stars for the reason that this book could had its potential but it did give the execution it needed. For example it didn't give the female writers actual marvel characters to write about. The only few stories where not the actual marvel characters there where just female characters and they where just short stories. i wished more female writers could write more comics and this was not the type of comic i wanted. lastly although this book did have its good stories which were when they give one the list of artist and writers and what characters they focus on sometimes it never actually discuss which artist and writers actually have did a whole issue or volume on their own like Captain marvel writer Kelly Sue DeConnick. it was suppose to lift women of Marvel but it seems they still at the back of Marvel Comic stories.

[Megan · Rating 3 out of 5]

I really enjoyed this! I did prefer the essays and interviews, but found a lot of the short comics to be entertaining.

[Elle · Rating 3 out of 5]

Things I loved about this graphic novel: some of the one-shots were really fun, and I liked the fact it was women across Marvel for many of them, with varying stories. What I absolutely loved more than anything else, however, were the interviews with different women who have worked with and for Marvel, and the focus on various women who have been involved with the company in ways that have been overlooked.

However, there were more things about this graphic novel that bugged me than didn’t. Let’s start with Wanda, who features on the cover: we didn’t actually get a Wanda story. There’s so much there regarding her character, so many different things that could be done, yet…nada. Weird choice.

There were some fun, interesting stories here, and I really liked when we got the opportunity to see the different women across Marvel interacting with each other. However, it felt like maybe a couple too many of the stories were about hair or beauty, there were a handful that were about male characters in Marvel, and like the hair/beauty thing were a bit too many in overly cartoony/cutesy art style. These things in moderation would have been fun to include but it started to feel a touch patronising.

2010’s Girl Comics are included in here too, and I think that’s where a lot of this as a whole started feeling a little flat to me. I would have liked to have seen more actual comic issues that focused on women characters like She-Hulk, Wanda, Storm etc-I-could-go-on, or even ones where the different characters could unite against a threat, but overall the anthology is a very mixed bag. It felt like I’d really get into a one-shot, and enjoy it, then end up feeling let down by the next one.

Overall, that was how I felt towards the book – let down. Again, the interviews are great, and it’s really interesting to see how many women work and have worked at Marvel, with their contributions acknowledged, but the one-shots themselves were all over the place and it felt like some might have been rushed at the last minute. I really wish this had just been done a bit better, but on the other hand I am glad to have read it and glad I now have a copy here.