Silver, Modern, Green, Woman: My Two Favorite Superhero Comic Book Covers
By Michael Griffin, MLS
Abstract
The silver age cover for X-Men #50 is compared to Botticelli’s painting The Birth of Venus and the modern age cover for Harbinger #17. The contrast of subjects typifies the status of women’s liberation in western society at those times, 1968 and 1993, or second and third wave feminism. In the first, a woman is coming into her power. In the second, a woman is supported by a camouflaged man.
Keywords: camouflage, feminism, Harbinger, Venus, X-Men
Superhero comic books have an 80-year history to draw upon to pick out one's favorite covers. I am not doing that; instead, I am reflecting upon the two covers which naturally stand out to me as my clear favorites. One of them is certainly among the most popular silver age covers of all: Jim Steranko’s 1968 cover for X-Men #50, hereinafter referred to as X50. The other is little noticed or remarked upon: Howard Simpson's 1993 cover for Harbinger #17, which I will refer to as H17. While these two covers have many obvious differences, one can contemplate possible similarities and how each might embody the zeitgeist or spirit of its own age.
Steranko's X50 shows the debut of the character Polaris, mistress of magnetism. It is a kind of birth of Venus, and does bear comparison to Botticelli’s 1485 classic painting The Birth of Venus. In a mirror-reversal of the painting’s pose, a winged figure is still on the side opposite to the arm hanging down. Rather than covering her breast, Polaris is stretching out her hand to express power, perhaps channeling magnetism or just symbolizing her command of the situation. Venus and Polaris are both flanked by supporters, though the X50 cover teases that they may be fearful adversaries (they are not). X50 shows the birth of Polaris in a time of rising empowerment of women in America, called second wave feminism. Women’s liberation had moved beyond getting the vote and was now raising consciousness about social position. Superhero comics responded somewhat in kind (Madrid 2016). For example, the story inside X50 is of a mild-mannered young woman kidnapped by followers of the supervillain Magneto and turned into Polaris. Her natural powers had lain dormant until Magneto’s minions activated them. One may critique the story as not exactly feminist, yet the result is a newly empowered young woman who at story’s end maintains her independence.
Image 1
X-Men #50 cover Copyright © 1968 Marvel Comics.
Image 2
The Birth of Venus (Public Domain)
Let us now jump ahead in real time from 1968 to 1993. According to the Valiant Wikia, the H17 cover was drawn by Howard Simpson, inked by Bob Layton, and colored by Maria Beccari. It shows the young, single black female character Shatiqua carried in the arms of the character Camouflage. She looks possibly surprised, as if he has just scooped her up. Her own superpower is fast agility and reflexes, yet we don’t know if she will resist or hang on to him in approval. The cover is thus an effective tease to entice us to see what will happen inside the story. It is only a tease, since this scene does not occur in the story, but it does symbolize what occurs. Shatiqua invites Simon, or Camouflage, to attend a house party with her. At the party, Simon beats up Shatiqua’s domineering and abusive boyfriend, before leaving with agents of the Harbinger Foundation. Shatiqua and Simon are friends, and he protects her in a way.
Image 3
Harbinger #17 cover Copyright © 1993 Valiant Comics
A variety of further interpretations of this cover can fit the zeitgeists of its time and our present. The 1990s saw the rise of third wave feminism, broadening out to include issues of race and class, and superhero comics took this influence up to the present day (Cardo and Curtis 2018). Here we have an unremarked example, a woman of color supported by an invisible man, fitting the third-wave context of the post-women’s lib years. In our current 21st century we have further gender issues. A Jungian reading sees the animus, the male aspect hidden inside the woman. Or a Jungian transgender reading sees the anima made flesh, the female aspect hidden inside the man replacing the fading man. If we don’t look inside the story, there is no certain clue of Camouflage’s gender, in fact, except for a lack of any hairstyle indicating short hair more common to men in 1993.
The flexible utility of this cover owes to its true nature, which belongs to an art tradition in western civilization only a century old: camouflage art (Forbes 2009). Perhaps the H17 artists Simpson and Layton intended no more than a contribution to the camouflage art tradition, but the colorist Maria Beccari made the dominant wall color green, which fits original camouflage based on nature. However, the green of nature is a symbol of natural power, and now a further connection to X50 arises. Polaris has naturally green hair besides a green costume, and as such resembles a kind of nature goddess, which is fitting since she commands magnetism, a force of nature. Her aura of power casts the X-Men in a green light. Green is prominent on the H17 cover also, merely as the main color of the striped wallpaper. This green is in vertical panels and also designs running vertically along the wallpaper. And imagery of the wallpaper covers the character Camouflage as if it was lines of force channeled from nature. Since Camouflage is carrying the woman Shatiqua, it is as if she is supported by green lines of natural force, although she is obviously not in control of those forces like a nature goddess. She is not like Storm, the X-Men’s black African nature goddess who first appeared in 1975 (Dalbeto & Oliveira 2015).
So we do have a tonal contrast between covers. X50 shows an empowered young woman with those around her taken aback. Polaris floats in the air, a vertical orientation position. H17 shows a young woman taken off of her own feet by power, in a horizontal orientation. The third wave seems harder to control than the second wave, if we read gender politics into these covers. Was it so in society? At least in superhero comics, there was a proliferation of superheroines, including the X-Men (Campochiaro 2016).
And where are they now? Polaris has maintained her popularity and continues to appear with the X-Men today. She is even one of the main characters in the live-actors TV show The Gifted, a spinoff of the Marvel Cinematic Universe X-Men on Fox TV. Shatiqua was a lesser character who only lasted six more issues after H17. Camouflage joined the Harbinger B-Squad and last appeared in 1995. My shy introverted nature is drawn to the Camouflage character, while my anima also seems OK with either woman, in X50 or H17. These images of beautiful young women, self-empowered or supported by a camouflaged man, call to me. Influenced by their times, such covers remain as powerful symbols, the waves of force the women channel matching their waves of feminism, spreading out across space and time to reach our present day.
References
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https://artsandculture.google.com/asset/the-birth-of-venus/MQEeq50LABEBVg
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http://marvel.com/comics/issue/12500/uncanny_x-men_1963_50. [Last accessed 1 March 2019].
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