Off-Panel: Women Sweep the Ignatz Awards

As seen in the continued success of Ultimate Universe Spider-Man Miles Morales, the reinvention of dead Spider-Man girlfriend Gwen Stacy as Spider-Gwen, and the reimagining of the original superheroes as all-female in DC Comics’ Bombshells, the existence of the multiverse is proving especially beneficial for diversity. When you can create new universes on a weekly basis, you’ve got a powerful tool for flipping the dominant script. Increasingly, multiversity is equaling diversity.

Alternate universes make a point of challenging the status quo–which make them the perfect staging ground for new narratives featuring more women and characters of color.

And just two years after every presenter at the Ignatz ceremony was a woman, now, at this year’s event, every winner was a woman…. Since 1997, the expo’s Ignatz honor has celebrated “outstanding achievement in comics and cartooning.”