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Today, we look at the amusing impact that Demi Moore’s famous 1991 Vanity Fair cover had on the Marvel Universe.
This is Foggy Ruins of Time, a feature that provides the cultural context behind certain comic book characters/behaviors. You know, the sort of then-topical references that have faded into the “foggy ruins of time.” To wit, twenty years from now, a college senior watching episodes of “Seinfeld” will likely miss a lot of the then-topical pop culture humor (like the very specific references in “The Understudy” to the Nancy Kerrigan/Tonya Harding scandal).
Reader Ramon T. wrote in to show me something that he noticed on Instagram, where someone had shared the cover to Sensational She-Hulk #34 with references to it being a Sports Illustrated Swimsuit Special riff…
As he asked me, are we really at the point where people don’t remember Demi Moore’s 1991 Vanity Fair cover? And apparently the answer, shockingly, is YES, despite that cover being SUCH a big deal for many years. So let’s look into the cover, as well as the Marvel Comics reactions to the cover.
WHAT IS THIS VANITY FAIR COVER?
Condé Montrose Nast started his magazine empire when he purchased the men’s fashion magazine, Dress, in 1913 and renamed it Dress and Vanity Fair (and ultimately Vanity Fair). The magazine was a hit, but it took a major hit during the Great Depression (somehow, men’s fashion wasn’t the most popular topic during the Great Depression) and ultimately it was folded into Vogue in 1936. Decades later, Conde Nast brought the magazine back in the 1980s, now with a view towards a mixture of fashion, current affairs and pop culture.
In the 1984, Tina Brown took over as the head editor of Vanity Fair and really made it a major magazine, especially with the star-studded covers featured on the magazine. The most famous of these covers is likely the August 1991 cover of a pregnant Demi Moore, shot by the famed photographer Annie Leibovitz.
Moore was 28 years old and coming off a breakout hit in 1990’s Ghost and she was expecting her second child with her then-husband, Bruce Willis, who was perhaps at the peak of his fame, hot off of Moonlighting and the first two Die Hard films. She was VERY pregnant at the time. Before this point, Brown’s policy on shooting pregnant celebrities was to feature tight shots of them, avoiding their pregnant bellies. However, Brown had just had her own second child and so she told CNBC’s The Brave Ones that she decided instead to have Leibovitz shoot Moore in a skintight dress. As Brown recalled, “I had been looking for a cover that would sort of turn the mood from the ’80s right into the new ’90s feeling of a slightly fresher era.”
That was the PLAN, but then Brown saw some other shots that Leibovitz had taken as a courtesy for Moore and Willis for their private use. Brown recalled, “And she said, ‘But there is this other picture that I took, but I really did it for just Demi and Bruce Willis.’ “And I said, ‘Well, show me it,’ and then I saw the picture of Demi, naked and pregnant, in all her glory, and I said, ‘Annie, we just have to have this for the cover. This is the cover.’” They cleared it with Moore and she agreed to let it be the cover.
It caused a major sensation at the time (upping the magazine’s circulation by a few hundred thousand, which is saying a LOT, as it wasn’t like it was easy to do that at the time). Demi Moore recently recalled the impact the cover had, “I understand what impact it had on the world. On women, on our permission to embrace ourselves in a pregnant state. But it was a moment that I was taking to really be in myself and be expressing myself and not trying to be anything other than me.” She also noted its impact on her, as well, “I do realize that that was a moment of recognition that I do think helped move me down the path of being able to step into owning who I am.”
What impact, though, did it have on the Marvel Universe?
SHE-HULK HOMAGES DEMI MOORE
John Byrne had launched Sensational She-Hulk in late 1988 and his new approach to the character was to have it be a fourth-wall breaking comedy series and the idea went over quite well. However, Byrne had a conflict with his editor and left the book less than a year in. However, when the book had a new editor, Byrne returned to the series in 1991 with Sensational She-Hulk #31.
The cover here was purely a sight gag (with She-Hulk even referencing the Vanity Fair cover in her dialogue), as it really doesn’t tie into the comic book itself (by Byrne and inker Keith Williams), which DOES open with She-Hulk sunbathing on a beach, at least. However, she is drawn into a fight against the Black Talon and his collection of mutant zombies (the X-Humed).
QUASAR ALSO HOMAGES DEMI MOORE
The Greg Capullo/Harry Candelario cover for Quasar #29 somehow came out the SAME MONTH as Sensational She-Hulk #34. The cover took some artistic license, as the plot of the story in the issue (by Gruenwald, Capullo and Candelario) was that the being known as Her (the female version of Adam Warlock) was trying to mate with the best male on Earth and so she implanted a cocoon of her genetic material on a number of superheroes, including Hercules and Wonder Man.
Quasar got one, as well, hence him being “pregnant” on the cover. In the end, the other heroes removed or destroyed theirs, but Quasar impressed Her so much that she voluntarily removed the cocoon and promised to stick around to pursue Quasar further.
Thanks for the suggestion, Ramon! If anyone else has any suggestions for Foggy Ruins of Time, feel free to e-mail me at brianc@cbr.com
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