Milo Manara’s Upcoming Marvel Comics Variant Covers Have Been Cancelled

According to PREVIEWSworld, Marvel Comics have removed two Milo Manara variant covers from their upcoming titles. You may remember Manara from Spider-Butt-Gate…

Yes, we thought we were done having to report on the Spider-Woman #1 variant by Manara. He’s the erotic artist we couldn’t believe Marvel hired to help promote their new title, with a questionable cover, on a book they hoped would gain some female readers. We posted another artists’ critique of the variant as well as the main Greg Land cover and followed up with responses from Manara and the book’s writer Dennis Hopeless.

Marvel’s Editor-in-Chief, Axel Alonso, later apologized for the choice, saying it absolutely did not send the message they wanted to send, nor did it “reflect the sensibility or tone of the series,” but that they definitely wouldn’t have sold it as the main cover. That raised a few eyebrows, but this new revelation comes as a bit of a surprise to this writer. PREVIEWSworld posted these two bits of info in a larger piece on changes to previously solicited items:

Thor #2 Manara Variant (SEP140859, $3.99) will now be done by an artist to be announced, not Milo Manara.

Avengers and X-Men: AXIS #1 Manara Variant (AUG140720, $4.99) will now be done by Siya Oum, not Milo Manara, and will be retitled Avengers and X-Men: AXIS #1 Oum Variant.

Was the thought that these other variants might be equally offensive in their specific content, or did Marvel feel it was better to simply cancel them regardless of how they looked? As we’ve previously stated, our issue was not the artist himself, but Marvel’s choice to hire him for this particular job; and then, their choice to say yes to the cover he turned in. The Thor title at least is another book with which Marvel is specifically targeting women, having announced Thor would be a woman on The View.

We’ve reached out to Marvel for comment and will update our post if they respond.

(via Comic Book Resources)

Previously in Spider-Butt-Gate

• What If Dude Superheroes Got Sexy, Erotic Art Variant Covers?
• Captain Marvel‘s Kelly Sue DeConnick Talks About That Spider-Woman Cover
• Milo Manara’s Spider-Woman Cover Rendered in 3D Is a MONNSTERRRRR

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