Commissioned to produce 24 variant covers for the superhero series, Cho has pulled out after six, citing attempts to censor work for ‘showing too much skin’

In a dispute that may be too much even for the legendary diplomatic skills of Wonder Woman, comic-book artist Frank Cho has quit his job drawing covers of the superhero for DC Comics, citing attempts to censor his work for being too revealing.

Cho, who was asked by DC to create variant covers for a series of Wonder Woman comics, said in a statement to the Bleeding Cool site that his issue lay with writer Greg Rucka.

“EVERYONE loves my Wonder Woman covers and wants me to stay. Greg Rucka is the ONLY one who has any problem with covers. Greg Rucka has been trying to alter and censor my artwork since day one,” Cho told the site.

According to Cho, Rucka, who declined to comment, found his third Wonder Woman cover “vulgar” and said it “showed too much skin”. The image, provided by Bleeding Cool, shows a muscular version of the superhero in an armoured leotard.

Cho called Rucka’s objections “baffling, since my Wonder Woman image is ‘on model’ and shows the same amount of skin as the interior art”, and said the author had a “weird political agenda” against him. On Facebook, he confirmed that the sixth issue of the Wonder Woman comic would be his last variant cover. He had been commissioned to produce 24.

New Spider-Woman comic cover condemned for 'blatant sexualisation' Read more

Cho’s portrayal of women in comic books has been controversial in the past. His illustrations, often published only on his website, of characters such as Star Wars’s Princess Leia and She-Hulk, have left them in various states of undress. A 2010 profile in the Washington Post described Cho as being “capable of drawing almost any permutation: breasts in profile, breasts under T-shirts, breasts amplifying superhero logos, and so on … They all have one thing in common: their disproportionate size.”

In 2015, Cho published an image of the teenager Spider-Gwen, alluding to the infamous Milo Manara cover showing Spider-Woman in a “sexualised” pose on all fours. In response to subsequent online criticism, Cho produced a series of covers with other female characters in the same pose and later donated $1,000 (£740) raised from the sale of his Spider-Gwen image to a domestic violence charity. “It was fascinating, amusing and appalling to see the overzealous critics of my art use faux outrage to air their personal demons and imagined injustices in the world,” Cho wrote at the time. “I can’t stress enough what utter nonsense and a waste of energy this whole event has been.”

Online commentary about Cho’s departure from the Wonder Woman project drew support for both sides, but several major names have spoken up for Cho. Robert Liefeld, a founder of Image Comics, tweeted: “Frank Cho is a huge talent, big draw in comics. He crossed the street and put his heart and soul into those covers. Deserved better.”