Marvel’s Swimsuit Special is one of the cringiest things Marvel has ever done. The book was a clear cash-grab aimed at readers who wanted to see their favorite Marvel heroes (and villains) sexualized. However, when former Marvel editor Christian Cooper got his hands on the book, he completely flipped the script, making it “the gayest thing you ever saw,” according to comic legend Warren Ellis.
Ellis (Nextwave: Agent of Hate) shared his positive thoughts on Cooper, a former Marvel editor who recently made news because he was racially profiled when a woman called the police on him when he asked her to leash her dog in Central Park. Ellis called Cooper “a lovely guy,” and shared an incredible story about him involving the Marvel Swimsuit Special where Cooper made the issue extremely homoerotic.
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Ellis wrote in his newsletter, that once Cooper got his hands on the Marvel Swimsuit Special (Cooper edited issue 3 and 4), which was usually predictably awful, he decided to make it, as Ellis puts it, the “gayest thing you ever saw.” (NSFW description below)
I saw my old colleague Chris Cooper in the news — some crazy racist woman tried to have him killed by cops in Central Part. I knew Chris when we were both at Marvel. He was a lovely guy, and I enjoyed his company immensely. We definitely got slightly drunk together at a Marvel summit out in Glen Cove. I always liked him a lot. He did one of the funniest things I ever saw at my time at Marvel. Back then, Marvel would release a summer book called the Marvel Swimsuit Issue, which was exactly as awful as you think it is. What they used to call “fan service” and “good girl art.”
Except one year Chris Cooper somehow got hold of it. And that year’s issue was the gayest thing you ever saw. Like, gaydar installations all over the Northern Hemisphere just straight up burst into flames. Anyone who beheld that book from a distance of twenty feet became, by genetic testing, 3% gayer. It was so fucking funny, it was so not what Marvel did at the time, and it was so well played.
Chris, wherever you are, I hope life is becoming more peaceful.
That’s an incredible story from Ellis featuring some amazing phrasing and word choices (you’d expect no less from Ellis). “Anyone who beheld that book from a distance of twenty feet became, by genetic testing, 3% gayer,” is absolutely hilarious. If you’re curious what he means, here are a couple of the pin-ups from the series’ fourth issue. Here’s Bobby Drake’s Iceman making some ice for his drink while in a speedo.
Here’s the Human Torch getting into barbeque season in his own special way.
Kudos to Ellis for writing the letter supporting his friend and also for telling this amazing story. Marvel’s Swimsuit Special is for everyone to enjoy, so the pin-ups are more than appropriate. Cooper deserves serious credit for sneaking past Marvel’s higher-ups and making the issue as gay as possible. It’s a legendary story behind an absolutely atrocious miniseries from Marvel Comics.
