Thursday, August 30, 2018

Spider-Woman Co-Creator Marie Severin Dies At Age 89

 
Truly one of the unsung heroes of comic's Silver Age.
 
 
Severin broke into the comic book industry in the late 1940s when her older brother, comic book artist John Severin (1922-2012), asked her to color one of his stories for EC Comics. She did such a good job that she was soon the regular colorist for EC Comics. When EC Comics’ comic book line went out of business following the institution of the Comics Code Authority (which seemed almost designed specifically to put EC Comics out of business), Severin worked for Atlas Comics a little bit before leaving comic books entirely to go work at the Federal Reserve.


In the late 1950s, Severin began to get back into comic books, working for Atlas again doing some production work. As Atlas turned into Marvel and began to expand, Severin’s work for them expanded, as well. By the end of the 1960s, Severin was the main colorist at Marvel while also doing the occasional penciling job. When the Hulk gained his own series, Incredible Hulk, Severin was the penciler for the first five issues of the series.


She created Spider-Woman at a time when heroes NEVER had female versions of themselves and she was her own character with little to do with Spider-Man and his powers. There was no SHE-HULK, yet. In fact Spider-Woman had her own cartoon series in the 70s, You have no idea how rare that kind of thing was in the 70s. Next to Wonder Woman and Isis, a female superhero was also rare on TV.






6 comments:

Debra She Who Seeks said...

Brava, Marie! RIP

Cal's Canadian Cave of Coolness said...

She was solid at a time when nice girls didn't do those kind of things.

Chrisloc1701 said...

Great article my friend. She will be missed.

DrGoat said...

She was a part of the old school. The ones that created all this stuff we love. The passing of that generation is a sad one. Rest in peace, and thank you.
PS Don't recognize that Metal Men cover. Must have been a later issue.

Rob R said...

A fine tribute!

jester59388 said...

Marie was also a great humorist and was responsible for a lot of the funniest material in "Not Brand Echh!" My introduction to her work was Hulk Annual No. 1, with that tremendous battle against the Inhumans. It's still a favorite. She was a great talent - very deserving of her Eisner Award -- and will be missed.