Preview Pages for the Marvel Swimsuit Special: Friends, Foes & Rivals are out!
written by Tom Seeley and Tony Flecs
Art by Mahmud Asrar, Nick Bradshaw, Aaaron Kuder, David Marquez, Ron Lim, Nic Klein, Mirka Andolfo, Luciano Vecchio, Marguerite Sauvage, Joshua Cassara, Ryusei Yamada
(my apologies in advance if I missed an artist, there's quite a few because of the pin-ups and I'm having a hard time finding a definitive list)
Main cover by Adam Hughes
Source here
The term is literally "ratfucking" as She-Hulk states it, and is usually in order to win political elections. It refers to covert political sabotage/dirty tricks, popularized in the Nixon-era of US history. Essentially, Donald Segretti and his lackeys and his crew used sleazy, dirty tricks to undermine their democratic political opponents -- forging letters that can allege sexual misconduct, faking support of shitty policies, false news releases, etc.
In the context of this issue, Roxxon's running a smear campaign against the heroes of the Marvel Universe via a Swimsuit Magazine using AI-generated slop, making it look like they support an environmentally destructive oil company. In addition, it alludes to Roxxon likely covering something else up on their end. By creating public outrage against the Avengers (and others), they can manipulate and sway public opinion to further their own agenda! (by either defunding the hero teams, destroying all public credibility, bids for power over them, things like that).
Personally, I think it's a little silly in a fun, campy way, so I'm kinda excited about it. I don't recommend taking it too seriously as far as storylines are concerned, lol.
(I'm still personally hoping for an Auraki splash page and also for that one lady to finally get her nude Thor)
