Stohl, Margaret, Jeanine Schaefer, & Judith Stephens. Supe Visible: The Story of the Women of
Marvel Comics. New York: Simon & Schuster, 2025. ISBN: 9781982134617
Everyone knows (or at least has heard of) Marvel Comics! Spider-Man, Captain America, The X-Men, She-Hulk, Black Widow, and The Mighty Avengers, right!? And of course Stan Lee! But how much do you know of the writers, the colorists, the letters, the cover designers? Pulling back part of the curtain on those unsung workers is what Super Visible does.
As the authors are quick to show, women were on scene and working at Marvel back in the 1960's and before. Stan Lee would not have been able to function without Flo Stanberg among unnamed other women who inked the comics, did lettering, drew the art, and the like. And over the years as Marvel grew in size, so has the number of women involved and so has has their impact on Marvel comics and the broader pop culture. Super Visible is an outgrowth of the podcasts and panels that talk about the role of women in the Marvel Comic Universe - comics, books, movies, and television. As they state at the beginning of the book, this is an examination of the role of women in the history of Marvel Comics told by the women in the room. So there is straightforward narrative sections intermingled with oral history interviews. Plus plenty of visual elements to highlight those present and bring the reader inside.
Super Visible provides a side of comic book history not often discussed with the story of women in comics being front and center. If you want to explore Marvel Comics's full history, you will want to peruse this title!
