A life-like female android who exists only to serve the State’s needs gets rescued by two “missionaries,” and starts to learn that she may be more than just another robotic toy. So far, the plot of European comic Sky Doll doesn’t sound too different from plenty of other android awakening tales. But Sky Doll’s journey of discovery involves a lot of sex — and Marvel Comics is taking a leap into a whole new territory by reprinting it in the U.S. Click through for details.
Starting in May, Sky Doll will be the first comic to get reprinted for American audiences as part of Marvel’s partnership with French publisher Soleil. The advertising copy for the first (of three) issue of the series reads as follows:
Meet Noa, a so-called Sky Doll; a life-like female android without rights, who exists only to serve the State’s needs and desires. But when Noa meets two so-called “missionaries” who aid in her escape from her tyrannical master, all hell breaks loose for our cyborg siren as she uncovers clues that she may be much more than just a robotic toy.
It shouldn’t be surprising that Noa’s journey involves more sex than the usual Marvel escapade through futuristic dystopias. She was created to serve needs and desires, after all. It also includes a cynical undercurrent, as it relates to the corruption inherent in religion and politics.
Considering the traditionally conservative nature of Marvel’s output, as well as the company’s history of censoring controversial material (X-Statix’s Princess Diana revival, for example, or the de-nudification of the mature-reader-labelled Shanna), will the comic make it to American stores uncensored? And even if it does, will American audiences be more receptive to this kind of European material than they were to DC’s failed line of Humanoid reprints? [Newsarama.com]
