Marvel celebrates woman creators and characters March in special and variant covers

Women of Marvel #1
art from Women of Marvel #1 variant cover by Lauren A. Brown (Image credit: Marvel Comics)

Marvel Comics will publish the latest celebration of its female characters in March 2022 with the appropriately titled Women of Marvel #1, a new one-shot special written and drawn by female creators.

Women of Marvel #1 cover by Mirka Andolfo (Image credit: Marvel Comics)

Marvel published a similar special also titled Women of Marvel #1 in 2021 and a two-issue series in 2010 and has used the nomenclature for several collections.

A mix of veteran and new creative talent will tell stories that show the "fire, mystery, grace, and joy" that makes them standout characters and, according to Marvel, that makes them phenomenal women.

On sale March 9, Women of Marvel #1 features:  

  • A Squirrel Girl/Black Widow team-up by writer Charlie Jane Anders that explores the complexities of superhero identities.
  • A Shanna the She-Devil/Silver Sable story by video game scriptwriter Rhianna Pratchett that pits the duo against wild animal poachers.
  • A "dark" Jessica Jones written by Jordie Bellaire and drawn by Zoe Thorogood about compulsion and redemption.
  • A Black Cat story by novelist Preeti Chhibber and artists Jen Bartel and Marguerite Sauvage about the greatest failures and latest triumphs of Felicia Hardy - Spider-Man's sometimes friend-sometimes foe.

The special will also feature the Marvel writing debut of artist/writer Mirka Andolfo who also illustrates the cover. 

The special will feature four variant covers by women artists - Ernanda Souza,  Audrey Mok, Lauren A. Brown, and Ashley Witter.

Women of Marvel #1 will go on sale the day after International Women's Day, observed on March 8 in 2022. 

Created as 'Women's Day' in 1909, International Women's Day is meant to celebrate the achievements of women. In some nations around the world, it's even observed as a federal holiday. 

Here's a gallery of all four variant covers:

In addition to the 2022 edition of its Women of Marvel special in March Marvel Comics will also recognize Women's History Month celebration with a series of six variant covers depicting inspirational women in history mashed up with Marvel characters. 

Here's the line-up and a look at four of the Women's History Month variant covers.

On sale March 9

  • Captain Carter #1 (Captain Cartner - British suffragettes) by Sara Pichelli
  • Eternals #10 (Sersi - Cleopatra) by Rian Gonzales 
  • Thor #23 by Karen Darboe

On sale March 16

  • X-Men Unlimited: Latitude #1 (Magik - Joan of Arc) by Betsy Cola

On sale March 23

  • She-Hulk #3 by Jan Bazaldua

On sale March 30

  • Immortal X-Men #1 (Emma Frost - Queen Elizabeth I) by Ema Lupacchino

DC will celebrate the occasion with an entire month of variant covers in March featuring its women characters

Whether published at Marvel, DC, or elsewhere, these are the best female superheroes of all time.

I'm not just the Newsarama founder and editor-in-chief, I'm also a reader. And that reference is just a little bit older than the beginning of my Newsarama journey. I founded what would become the comic book news site in 1996, and except for a brief sojourn at Marvel Comics as its marketing and communications manager in 2003, I've been writing about new comic book titles, creative changes, and occasionally offering my perspective on important industry events and developments for the 25 years since. Despite many changes to Newsarama, my passion for the medium of comic books and the characters makes the last quarter-century (it's crazy to see that in writing) time spent doing what I love most.