Marvel: Twitter Reactions on Controversial Spider-Woman Artwork

Marvel Comics provoked outrage recently by revealing a variant cover of Spider-Woman drawn by a renowned erotic artist Milo Manara.

The image received heavy criticism from fans and comic book enthusiasts.

"The (physically impossible?) pose – bottom up – is familiar to anyone who has read erotic comic books," wrote Time magazine. "I get it: superheroes wear spandex and a lot of excitable teenage boys read these comic books. But this cover takes the sex-factor to a new extreme… A male hero would never be placed in the same physical position."

Here's what fans tweeted about the cover:

But I don't think any little girl will see this cover and think they've found their role model. @Marvel #SpiderWoman

— Catrina Dennis (@ohcatrina) August 21, 2014

I see so many amazing artists scraping by on commissions, and then I see things like the latest Spider-woman cover, and I'm like: WHY?! — Kiri Callaghan (@KiriCallaghan) August 19, 2014

Well there's another creator I won't buy work from. OH BOY!! The Spider-Woman variant is terrible. This is not what we need more of

— Jess Camacho (@CamachoJess) August 19, 2014

How am I going to be able to fully appreciate and enjoy the new Spider-Woman issue if I'm always constantly fuming over the degrading art — ezra miller bee (@hawkcIint) August 19, 2014

What is the atrocity that is the spider-woman cover

— jess stan (@buckybarnes) August 19, 2014

I absolutely hate this cover for Spider-Woman #1. That's the kind of cover that sends the wrong message entirely. pic.twitter.com/XFSDdJClFU — Ross Zombie (@Ross_Zombie) August 19, 2014

.@CBR you know he's drawn that shape before... Only with a woman with less clothing. Poor guy has a poor imagination. Sees perversion alone.

— Natasha Rodriguez (@nfrwords) August 23, 2014

Writing on Tumblr, Tom Brevoort, the senior vice president of publishing for Marvel Comics, responded to a fan question about the uproar.

Brevoort said that "the people who are upset about that cover have a point, at least in how the image relates to them".

However, he added that Manara has been "working as a cartoonist since 1969, and what he does hasn't materially changed in all that time. So when we say 'Manara cover', his body of work indicates what sort of thing he's going to do."