I’ve been trying to pin down what bothers me about the cover of Green Arrow 44. I liked the story itself, and I think Judd Winnick has some admirable and dramatically interesting ideas of what to do with the character of Mia who, as the cover communicates so subtly, is HIV-positive. Winnick has said in a variety of interviews that he wants to write Mia as a character living with HIV, and this is where the twitch comes in for me. The cover looks like a mug shot, or worse, an “In loving memory” poster that you’d see after someone has died. And if the story is about living with HIV to the best of one’s ability and making the most of the time you have, the stark, convict-or-corpse cover composition is just… discordant. Maybe it’s just me.
Of course, I’m completely flummoxed by the cover of What if Jessica Jones joined the Avengers? (posted at Jinxworld, found via Fanboy Rampage). Beyond the terrifying prospect of seeing Brian Bendis write another “classic Avengers” story (no doubt with Extra Krazy Wanda hint-dropping), what’s the deal with those guns Jessica’s toting? Apparently, the answer to this comic title’s rhetorical question is, “She’d become an overcompensating Black Widow clone who moonlights at the Clinique counter and steal lots of product during her shifts.”