Women of Marvel, Vol. 2

Women of Marvel (Collected Editions) #2

by Roy Thomas, Chris Claremont, Terry Austin

Featuring more classic tales of Marvel's leading ladies, this volume includes characters such as Kitty Pryde, Black Cat, Dagger, Spider-Woman, Tigra, Rogue, Storm and more!

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

222 pages, Paperback

First published August 22, 2007

About the author

Roy Thomas was the FIRST Editor-in-Chief at Marvel--After Stan Lee stepped down from the position. Roy is a longtime comic book writer and editor. Thomas has written comics for Archie, Charlton, DC, Heroic Publishing, Marvel, and Topps over the years. Thomas currently edits the fanzine Alter Ego for Twomorrow's Publishing. He was Editor for Marvel comics from 1972-1974. He wrote for several titles at Marvel, such as Avengers, Thor, Invaders, Fantastic Four, X-Men, and notably Conan the Barbarian. Thomas is also known for his championing of Golden Age comic-book heroes — particularly the 1940s superhero team the Justice Society of America — and for lengthy writing stints on Marvel's X-Men and Avengers, and DC Comics' All-Star Squadron, among other titles.

Also a legendary creator. Creations include Wolverine, Carol Danvers, Ghost Rider, Vision, Iron Fist, Luke Cage, Valkyrie, Morbius, Doc Samson, and Ultron. Roy has also worked for Archie, Charlton, and DC among others over the years.

Reviews

[Nate Deprey · Rating 1 out of 5]

This is definitely not "Women Who Write or Draw Marvel" because despite being an anthology of female comics not a single story in this collection was written or drawn by a woman. Instead we have a genuinely dumb Avengers story where a female villain (Enchantress, I don't give a shit about spoilers here and neither should you) convinces various female heroes to beat up the all male Avengers as the "Liberators." Next up we have a forgettable Spider-Woman story, four separate, actually good, Chris Claremont X-Men stories featuring predominantly female lineups, the confrontationaly awful conclusion to the Vision and Scarlet Witch that includes the birth of their twin boys. The collection mercifully concludes with two issues of Strange Tales. The first is a fun, ten page romp with Dagger and the Black Cat and the second is 12 pages of hot expository garbage. I can't believe I finished this.

[Rick · Rating 3 out of 5]

This 2nd volume in the Women of Marvel collections is another mixed-bag of offerings, but then that is something to expect from anthologies.

Opening this volume is the classic Avengers #83 which features the first all-female line-up of Avengers: Wasp, Scarlet Witch, Black Widow, Medusa and Valkyrie (actually the Enchantress in disguise) as The Liberators. Author Roy Thomas kind of presents this a joke, but it is at least an attempt. It was, after all, 1970 and I don't think anyone at Marvel was taking an all-female line-up too seriously since the industry was dominated by male chauvinists.

Spider-Woman #10 actually only illustrates how little progress Marvel made over the next decade, but they were trying.

Next up is the classic Uncanny X-Men #168 which opens with Kitty Pryde's exclamation that "Professor Xavier is a Jerk!" Kitty tried to convince Professor X that she belongs with the X-Men and not the newly formed group of students, the New Mutants. Needless to say, fun and hi-jinks ensue. Chris Claremont was at the top of his game with this issue. The next selection is a couple years later.

Uncanny X-Men #189 features a confrontation between the temporally displaced Rachel Summers (the 2nd Phoenix) and guest star Magma from the New Mutants against the Hellfire Club's evil Black Queen, Selene.

Then another year jump brings us to Uncanny X-Men #201 and the showdown between Storm and Cyclops for who will lead the team with some more developments for the new Phoenix.

If you want surreal, then Vision & the Scarlet Witch #12 is right up your alley. Steve Englehart's "Double Sized Climax" to his Avengers: Vision and the Scarlet Witch: A Year in the Life ends the celebration of Marvel's most bizarre couple with the birth of their twins. You may ask how an android and a mutant witch could conceive, but the Scarlet Witch does manipulate probabilities with her powers so... Well, is anything beyond her reach, if she wants it bad enough? This was only the climax of a series which celebrated the strangeness and weirdness that being superheroes in the Marvel Universe would mean when trying to live as normal a life as possible. Note that the twins are the boys who will "grow up" to become Wiccan and Speed in the Young Avengers.

A few months later and Englehart delivered the next selection from West Coast Avengers #15 which focuses on Tigra (and her original superhero identity the Cat) and tries to wrap up some loose ends in her story.

Then another adventure with Marvel's mutants from the pages of Uncanny X-Men #218 with Rogue, Dazzler, Psylocke and Longshot taking on the Juggernaut.

And the volume rounds out with a two-parter from Strange Tales #10-11 featuring an odd team-up between the Black Cat and Dagger, as they rescue the latter's partner Cloak from this sinister clutches of Mr. Jip.

Missing is any kind of textual introduction or historical commentary of these stores. Some are good, some not-so-good, but the ladies of Marvel Comics shine through anyway.

[B. Jay · Rating 3 out of 5]

I read Volume 1 and 2 of these collections simultaneously and was surprisingly struck by the evolution of female heroines in Marvel comics. It wasn't too unexpected to see that the villains in 1960's era female super hero comics were one-dimensional woman-haters, or that the strong female leads in these stories needed to be faced by misogyny before finding their inner strength. It was a bit shocking to find a few of these characters lingering into the nineties, though.
The real impact for me, though, was re-discovering the story-telling abilities of Chris Clarement. Claremont reinvigorated the comics medium in the late seventies and throughout the eighties with the previously cancelled X-Men. He gained fame when he killed off Jean Gray (noticeably absent from these collections) and when he made Wolverine the first anti-hero lead in mainstream comics. But less tangible was his soap-operatic storytelling- not that soap opera story lines were new to Marvel, but Claremont injected them with a realness- and excitement- that inspired most other writers to up their game.
The X-Men stories offered in these trades may or may not be the best examples of this, but they all serve to demonstrate Chris Claremont's respect for female characters. Rogue, Storm, Dazzler and gang, are strong because of the real world obstacles and responsibilities thrust upon them. Rogue's guilt and the danger she faces from her powers, are in no way the fault of a chauvinist man telling her to do laundry, but she faces and deals with her problems with the wavering resolve any real person feels when dealing with problems- whether it may be a difficult boss or mental health issues. This depth and nuance in character development is what truly sets Marvel apart in it's handling of Wonder Woman clones.

[Korynn · Rating 2 out of 5]

I bought this volume, which is by the way a hefty $25 for a paperback, because I really enjoyed the first volume. The first volume not only had the attraction of having a great cover by Mike Mayhew but it featured Marvel's female characters including some origins. This second volume is not to my taste. It features some stories that just leave a bad taste in my mouth. The Avengers "female liberators" storyline is just horrifying to me. Valkerie shows up and talks the Wasp, Scarlet Witch, Medusa, and Black Widow into "liberating" themselves by beating the crap out of the guys on the team. Kinda the opposite of teamwork. How is it that comics can take cultural movements and make them so trite?
There is the Scarlet Witch gives birth even though she couldn't have been possibly knocked up by her android husband issue. It goes on and on for pages and basically just blows the mind.
There are several X-Men issues, featured for their girl power moments.
There is a Spider-Woman issue with very interesting art and no story to speak of.
There is another Avengers issue about Tigra (practically a rewriting of her origin story to some degree) but it is also a part of a bigger storyline and so confuses the heck of those of us who just want a story without fifteen characters, backissue recommendations every two minutes, and subplots we can't possibly understand in one issue.
So it's a bit of a time capsule and it is bitter to swallow.

[Samra · Rating 4 out of 5]

Very cool to learn about some adventures I didn't know

[Bookyurt · Rating 2 out of 5]

Eh. Maybe like a 2.5.