Super visible The story of the women of Marvel Comics

This lively history from comics writer Stohl (Captain Marvel) highlights women's contributions to Marvel Comics from the 1960s through the present. In the publisher's early days, women usually started out as assistants before branching out into creative roles, Stohl writes, explaining how Irene Vartanoff assisted editor-in-chief Roy Thomas before taking on editorial duties for reprints, even as she remained locked out of the most prestigious writing and penciling positions. Recounting recent efforts to correct Marvel's checkered history with female superheroes, Stohl describes how Kelly Sue DeConnick reimagined Captain Marvel in the early 2010s by giving her a less revealing costume and more robust backstory drawn from DeConnick's own childhood as a military brat. Elsewhere, Stohl covers Marvel's efforts to publish more comics featuring and written by people from diverse backgrounds by discussing how comic book editor Sana Amanat and novelist G. Willow Wilson created the Muslim character Ms. Marvel and how YA author Maurene Goo developed the web-slinging Korean American hero Silk. The emphasis on the past 20 years leaves the previous decades somewhat underexplored, but engrossing interstitial oral history chapters illuminate the challenges and rewards women faced in the office, including sparring with sexist coworkers and finding camaraderie with female colleagues. This loving tribute to Marvel's unsung heroines will please comics fans. Photos. (June)

An homage to pathbreaking women. Stohl, along with Stephens, producer and co-creator of theWomen of Marvel podcast, and editor Schaefer have mined 800 pages of transcripts, 300 hours of interviews, and over 130 conversations to create a lively history of female artists, writers, editors, proofreaders, and colorists who forged their careers at Marvel. Bursting with anecdotes and illustrations--photos, drawings, comic book pages--the book traces the advent of women into what was then a domain of straight white men who assumed that females didn't read comics, sci-fi, or fantasy. The women's pluck, talent, and mutual mentorship , though, led to their rise from entry-level jobs to leadership positions. Although voices from a cast of 127 characters and contributors sometimes result in cacophony, more than a few emerge as major forces in the industry: Louise "Weezie" Simonson, for example, joined the Marvel editorial staff in 1980 and helped build the X-Men universe. She recruited new female talent--not because they were women, she said, but because they were "people who were good at what they did." Kelly Sue DeConnick pitched the idea of a female Captain America: Captain Marvel. Recalling controversy about her concept of the superheroine's costume, she had asked herself, "Is this a hill I'm going to die on, or am I just going to make progress?" She made progress, to be sure. The first issue ofCaptain Marvel sold out in 24 hours. Many women attest to being the only woman in the room; others, to being the only minority or woman of color. All, the authors found, "have made a habit of throwing open every door they can find, and, when they run out of doors, stocking up on dynamite to bring the walls down." Vivid testimony of resilience and grit. Copyright (c) Kirkus Reviews, used with permission.