Back in April, Marvel sent out a blast with the cover for INFERNO #1. Part of the Secret Wars event, INFERNO #1 featured Magik, Colossus, Domino, Nightcrawler, and Goblin Queen Madelyne Pryor in the midst of the fiery hellscape formerly known as Manhattan.
The cover – drawn by Javier Garron – garnered little to no blowback. Much like Emma Frost, Madelyne Pryor lives in the nebulous zone of comic book women known basically as “Dressing like that is part of her personality, not a quirk of artistic style.”
But now, as pointed out by Bleeding Cool, Pryor”s outfit has received a minor tweak. The final version of the cover (showcased at Comixology) is exactly the same…except now the Goblin Queen is wearing a full blown-shirt instead of a wardrobe malfunction in the making.
As part of the overall push to make comic books more inclusive to women, this makes sense. Nothing says “outdated comic book costume” like wondering how much double-sided tape a heroine or villainess must buy in bulk to keep all her bits in place. What makes this particular case interesting is the change was made quietly, without any fan backlash to spur it.
HitFix Harpy reached out to Marvel to try and parse the thinking on this small but significant change, but they had no official comment.
Will the Goblin Queen”s new outfit extend to the interior pages of INFERNO #1? None of the issues's preview pages featured Pryor, so we”ll all have to wait until the full story hits comic book stands on May 27th to find out.