Marvel Comics and the Male Gaze

One thing that may have contributed to the growing popularity of Marvel Comics in the 1960s was specialization on a particular reader: the teenage male. Unlike DC, which continued into the 1970s to have strong lines in other genres besides male power fantasies, the main focus of Marvel by the mid-1960s was on their superhero line. Occasionally new titles outside that genre would be introduced, but they would be downplayed as lesser titles by Marvel itself. Marvel was a male space; the reader was presumed to be male and addressed as such.

In THE SUPERHERO WOMEN (1977), which focused only on Marvel's superhero output, Stan Lee acknowledged that more males read comics, but presented this as a "chicken vs. egg" situation. "Do less females read comics because they seem to be aimed at a male audience," he writes, "or are they aimed at a male audience because less females read them?" Lee pleads ignorance: "If you're expecting an answer, forget it. I've spent years waiting for someone to tell me!"

Elsewhere in the book Lee claims that none of the comics in the book "were written primarily for female readers, or male readers, or anything in between." This contradicts the statement quoted above (on the previous page in the book) where he acknowledges that comics "seem to be aimed at a male audience" and that fewer women read them.

However, Lee has no suggestions for how to change that situation or evidently any desire to do so. "Y'know, over the past few years," he writes, "many people have asked what Marvel's policy is in regard to women. Basically, we have no policy at all -- just as we have no specific policy toward brunettes, or tap dancers, or podiatrists. In fact, I've always been rather proud that Marvel avoids setting policies where none are needed. Why should we have a policy regarding women when we have no such policy regarding men?"

And yet, the gender bias reflects a male POV, whether Lee regarded it as "policy" or not. For example, in 1969 Marvel dipped its feet into the romance genre (a genre that competitors like DC and Charlton had not abandoned, unlike Marvel) with two new titles: MY LOVE and OUR LOVE STORY. At the same time, Marvel also got into the mystery/horror genre again. Both genres were treated in the Bullpen Bulletins as secondary (or in the case of the romance titles, dead last) in importance to what was going on in their more popular superhero titles.

Shown below are some of the 1969 Bullpen Bulletins items about the romance titles. The reader of the Bullpen page is presumed to be a young male, so when the romance titles are announced, the pitch is: "Think of the bread you'll save buying THESE for your gal friends instead of diamonds and Rolls-Royces!"  The implication of this joking remark is that women are expensive to please, so buying them these romance comic books are a cheaper alternative.

The Sept. 1969 Mighty Marvel Checklist entry for MY LOVE #1 reads "...if you like to look at gorgeous gals -- this is the place to find 'em, Charlie!" The reader is presumed male, and the added "Charlie" name emphasizes this.

MY LOVE #1, being a bimonthly title, is still at the bottom of the next month's Marvel checklist, and described simply as "For everyone who loves to look at groovy chicks -- and who doesn't?" Once again, the typical male gaze is given prominence while the female reader's POV is ignored.

The next month, MY LOVE #2 is listed at the bottom of the Nov. 1969 checklist. (The non-superhero titles were always listed at the bottom of these checklists, and the titles aimed at female readers were always listed dead last.) MY LOVE #2 is described in full this way: "Don't knock it, guys! Wait'll you get a look at these chicks!"

This is what I meant at the beginning by saying that Marvel at this point was a male space. The reader of the Bullpen Bulletins page was presumed male. The presumption also was that this male reader was not inclined to like these "girl" comics. There is even the sense that Marvel itself was a little embarrassed to be doing them, or that their only value was for looking at them from the perspective of the male gaze ("gorgeous gals," etc.). This is in line with Stan's comments in THE SUPERHERO WOMEN where he doubts that "there's an artist anywhere who can draw lovelier ladies than Jazzy Johnny Romita."

Incidentally, THE SUPERHERO WOMEN book is a great example of how these Lee-authored Marvel history books are slanted and self-serving.  To begin with, one would think that a book about superheroines would at least give a passing mention in the text to the two most famous ones, Wonder Woman and Supergirl.  Perhaps even Mary Marvel or Batgirl.  But nope, they are not even mentioned anywhere in the book.

If one had no knowledge of comics, one would assume that it was Marvel who pioneered the concept of the female superhero.  Check out this paragraph from the chapter on the Invisible Girl:

"Let me tell you right up front why I'm still frankly fascinated by the concept of the stunning Ms. Storm. At the time that Jack Kirby and I put our noggins together and decided to come up with a new team of super do-gooders, there wasn't much happening in those circles. What few heroines there were all seemed to follow the same pattern. They weren't actually heroines at all; they were just the heroes' girlfriends. They worried when their man went off to fight the ferocious foe, and they usually spent the rest of the time tearfully imploring him to give up his dangerous calling...." (etc, etc)

The chapter on Shanna admits that "Shanna is but one of a long list of leotard-wearing lovelies who have been industriously attempting to tame the savage jungle since comicbooks were in their infancy."  No mention is made of Sheena, the most famous one, but Lee does mention Marvel's 1950s character Jann of the Jungle in the next sentence. 

Each "chapter" in this book is only two pages long. So, although the book runs 253 pages, the actual text by Lee totals only 24 pages.  Due to the paucity of superheroine comics written by Lee, some of the comics reprinted within were written by others, and it's there where Lee's ignorance about anything outside his personal involvement is most evident.  

For example, in the chapter on THE CAT, he admits "I had forgotten about The Cat until recently when I was looking through our files, trying to select the stories that would comprise this volume."  Newly enthused about the character, Lee says "Sooner or later, when we get the time, I'll discuss the subject of Greer Nelson with Amiable Archie Goodwin, our Editor par excellence. And it's a pretty good bet that, if the right script and art team is available, you haven't seen the last of The Claws of the Cat!" Somehow this musing aloud got published without anyone telling Lee that Greer Nelson already had a new identity (Tigra) and that her costume was being worn by Patsy Walker as Hellcat. 

More surprising is the chapter on Ms. Marvel where Stan suggests that he was the driving force in the creation of the character. "I kicked the idea of such a heroine around with Roy Thomas for a while," Lee says. "Finally, we came up with the name MS. MARVEL,,,"  Lee then spends the next paragraph talking about John Buscema, who drew the first issue. The next paragraph has the only mention of Gerry Conway's contributions: "Scriptwise, we selected Gerry Conway to weave a web of words, both because of his experience in writing 'most every type of superhero yarn, and because he was also a socially-aware young scrivener. You see, we wanted Ms. Marvel to be treated like any other dramatic do-gooder in our merry Marvel menage; and we also wanted a sense of relevancy -- a sense of a woman's thoughts, emotions, and reactions while facing the same problems and threats as any male adventurer."  

So naturally, when one wants a woman's perspective, one selects a male writer for the job.

The problem with the above creation story of Ms. Marvel?  On the next page of the book is the splash page of Ms. Marvel #1, and the credit box says: "Conceived, Written & Edited by Gerry Conway" (a footnote adds "With more than a little aid and abetment from Carla Conway").

In the chapter on The Cat, Lee felt it was important to have women actually involved in the creative process.  "Wanting to really do it right," he says, "I asked Marvelous Marie Severin to pencil our premiere Cat strip, and Liltin' Linda Fite to write the script. Since we had the considerable talents of two such fabulous females available to us, it seemed only fitting that they write and illustrate our newest superhero series -- which would feature a gorgeously garbed girl."

Unfortunately, according to Lee, "our titanic little team began to fall apart."  Marie Severin got too busy coloring to do more penciling, inker Wally Wood "struck out for fame and fortune elsewhere, and we totally lost track of him" (did they contact the Missing Persons Bureau?) and Linda Fite got married to Herb Trimpe, and therefore "left the ranks of Marveldom for the brave new world of Motherhood!"  (Evidently once a woman has children, it's all over for her writing career.)  So, without a writer, penciler or inker available anymore "the decision was made to cancel the entire project."  Oh well!