10 Most Inappropriate Marvel Comics Storylines Ever

In years and ages past, female characters within comic books were a far cry from what they are today. Either the damsel in distress, ludicrously oversexualised in skimpy and wildly impractical 'costumes', or both, women in comics were often not approached seriously or considered as real characters.

Thankfully, Marvel has made huge strides in this department, but there are still moments through history that are impossible to ignore. One of the most infamous is a variant cover for Spider-Woman #1 by artist Milo Manara, that painted the titular hero in an almost unbelievably inappropriate pose.

Though his works did stretch further, Manara was most well known for his erotic art, so it's hardly surprising that his cover was explicit to the point of receiving a flood of complaints. The image in question shows the titular character in skin-tight clothing, risqué even compared to Marvel's history, and in a pose clearly designed to exploit her in a sexually suggestive way.

While this is an inappropriate cover rather than the story itself, it became much, much harder to take the character seriously, so much so that Marvel had to censor the artwork. This was too little too late, unfortunately.