Welcome to Cover Girls. Each month, we gather a team of WWAC contributors to analyze a new and notable comic book cover featuring one or more women. This month, Rachel, Cori, Dani, Wendy, and Zoe share their thoughts on the cover of Marauders #12 by Russell Dauterman for Marvel Comics.
What is your initial reaction to this cover as a piece of comics art?
Cori McCreery: I absolutely, unabashedly love it. Dauterman is a favorite artist of mine, and his Marauders covers have been a special treat. I LOVE that Kate has her curly hair back. I love how ready to fuck shit up both her and Lockheed look. I love the callback to Marauders #1’s “Hold Fast” knuckle tats cover.
Zoe Tunnell: As someone with extremely curly hair my gut reaction was: HELL YES. I love Kate and seeing her drawn with her natural curls in such an iconic way from Dauterman was a delightful surprise. Big fan.
Dani Kinney: Much like Zoe ( a known hair-twin of mine ) I was X-static to see Kate’s natural curls making a return, especially given Duggan’s intentionality in tying Kate’s resurrection to gematria by establishing that she was successfully reborn on the 18th attempt, which in gematria stands for “life” itself. It’s also just a staggering and impactful cover that conveys the same levels of cool that Callisto’s issue #7 cover did.
Wendy Browne: She looks like my sister-in-law.
Rachel Knight: As a fellow member of the curly hair gang, I do appreciate the curls, but the first thing that hits me here is the knuckle tattoos. I’ve talked about how Marauders‘ “Hold Fast” knuckle tattoos are a big problem for me as a Jewish reader looking at a Jewish character — tattoos are taboo according to Jewish religious law, but more importantly, because the positioning and style of Kate’s knuckle tattoos here strikes me as too close for comfort to the numbers tattooed on concentration camp prisoners, something Marauders hasn’t had Kate address as of my writing this. I wish this cover had found a more culturally sensitive way to smack people in the face with KILL SHAW, a message I otherwise totally approve of.
What do you think the artist is trying to achieve?
Cori: Kate is ANGRY with a RIGHTEOUS fury and ready to RUIN what little is left of Sebastian Shaw’s miserable existence.
Zoe: Echo the original Marauders cover with Kate’s “HOLD FAST” tattoos while showing she has both changed and gotten more in touch with her roots in her vengeance quest.
Wendy: Following the frustrations of her resurrection and her inability to access Krakoa, this cover screams of a Kate who is back with a vengeance and nothing will stop her this time.
Dani: With any luck, responding to the large amount of criticism from fans surrounding the implications of the erasure of Kate’s curls’, which have been fundamental to her character from the very beginning, but has gradually been erased in recent years.
Rachel: I also feel the prominence of the curls is in response to the criticism surrounding the depictions of her hair over the past few years, and I hope that’s something that sticks around. Dauterman brings a lot of attitude here; that’s very palpable.
What does this cover tell you about the characters?
Cori: Kate and her dragon are going to absolutely wreck that sanctimonious bastard, and then smile.
Zoe: That Kate isn’t gonna be taken by surprise again and is ready to clean house.
Wendy: Partners in revenge. Lockheed is curled so intimately around her shoulders, with his tail entwined in a lock of her luxurious curls. Their expressions speak to their intentions, but I really love the way Dauterman has bound them together in this image, such that there is no doubt about the strength of their bond.
Dani: I feel like Kate taking one step further into a “take no shit” mentality. This Kate is cool, she is drive, and she is dangerous, and having died did nothing to undercut any of that.
Rachel: It tells me Marauders still doesn’t really get that this is a Jewish character or how to handle that. The tattoos! It’s not something I can really get past because they’re right there, they’re literally hitting the reader in the face. I do like that Lockheed is present and the whole “she’s back” vibes. I love revenge.
