 |
| Simply sensational... |
It's called a "distaff counterpart." You take a character, often male, swap out the gender and introduce them as a whole new character. There are numerous examples and reasons for this. For the sake of gaining a newer and wider audience, Mattel & Filmation did it with the He-Man and the Masters of the Universe franchise when they introduced She-Ra. To create It could be a case of the writer having fun, and for once not being lazy, as was the case with Marvel Comic's Deadpool meeting numerous alternate versions of himself, including a distaff counterpart in Lady Deadpool. Or it could be seen as a way of sexualizing an already overly sexualized character without having to deal with all the homophobia in an already overtly macho industry, as was the case with Wolverine and the female X-23. Or it could be done to secure royalty rights, as was the reasoning behind She-Hulk, the distaff counterpart of Marvel Comic's Hulk character, intended to ensure CBS' possible & rumored spin-off series featuring a female Hulk would net them some money.
And while, to be fair, most distaff counterparts are treated rather lazily, with few exceptions, She-Hulk is one of the few that truly stands out. Instead of trying to simply create gender biased/flavored stories featuring a Hulk with tits, She-Hulk ended up with a title known as the Sensational She-Hulk, which took the character of Jennifer Walters, one time lawyer and now green skinned glamazon, the farthest away from the the Incredible Hulk comics. Granted, because of the whole "with tits" thing, there would be sex appeal (they are comics after all,) the true stand out was humor. Often found on the covers. So to celebrate the individuality of the title's run, which happens to be one of my favorite books of the late 80's & early to mid 90's, here's a look at my ten favorite comic covers.
