In August, Marvel showed the Spider-Woman variant cover #1, which presented the overtly-sexualized superhero, in anatomically silly pose that had her showing her womanly parts to the city. Milo Manara was the artist that created the two variant covers of Spider-Woman, on Tuesday Marvel announced that it had canceled the two variants. It was slated to draw because they thing Manara is liable for the sexualized image of the woman superhero.

X-Men and Avengers: Thor #2 and Axis #1 were both created by Manara variant covers, they are considered as collector's items that are rarer than usual covers, which will now be made by other artists. According to Marvel Senior Vice President of Publishing Tom Brevoort

"I think that the people who are upset about that cover have a point, at least in how the image relates to them," Brevoort wrote. "By that same token, Milo Manara has been working as a cartoonist since 1969, and what he does hasn't materially changed in all that time. So when we say 'Manara cover,' his body of work indicates what sort of thing he's going to do."

Manara is famous for his erotic creations for comics; the issue here is not about his erotic art, or whether he should be allowed to create erotic images in comics. The issue is why Marvel, a colossal comic firm that has began to place itself as a gender equality and diversity leader in the business, hired Manara to draw the Spider-Woman cover if what it was hyped was gender equality.

Thor #2 is significant, because that's the second issue featuring the history-making female Thor, which Marvel has been touting since this past summer. If the female Thor was drawn in a similar, overtly-sexualized fashion to how Spider-Woman was drawn, the company would have likely faced the same backlash - if not an even greater one.