No one liked Marvel's porny Spider-Woman. And the company listened.

Last month, Marvel presented the variant cover for Spider-Woman #1 which featured the superhero in an overtly-sexualized, anatomically silly pose that had her presenting her lady bits to the city below. On Tuesday, the company announced that it had canceled two covers that Milo Manara, the artist responsible for the sexualized Spider-Woman, was slated to draw.

Avengers & X-Men: Axis #1 and Thor #2 were both supposed to have Manara variant covers — collector's items that are rarer than standard covers — which will now be created by other artists, Newsrama reported.

Manara is known for his erotic comics. And the argument here isn't whether or not Manara should be allowed to draw his erotic art. The question is why Marvel, a colossal comic company that has started to position itself as a diversity and gender equality leader in the industry, commissioned Manara to create the Spider-Woman cover if what it was touting was gender equality.

Thor #2 is significant, because that's the second issue featuring the history-making female Thor, which Marvel has been touting since this past summer. If the female Thor was drawn in a similar, overtly-sexualized fashion to how Spider-Woman was drawn, the company would have likely faced the same backlash — if not an even greater one.

We have a request

Vox's journalism is free because we believe that everyone deserves to understand the world that they live in. That kind of knowledge helps create better citizens, neighbors, friends, parents, consumers and stewards of this planet. In short, understanding benefits everyone. You can join in on this mission by making a financial gift to Vox today. Reader support helps keep our work free, for everyone. Will you join us?

One-Time Monthly Annual

$95/year

$120/year

$250/year

$350/year

Other

$

Yes, I'll give $120/year

Yes, I'll give $120/year

We accept credit card, Apple Pay, and Google Pay. You can also contribute via