When the Avengers completely changed their lineup, a promotional bonus poster included with the comic led to quite a problem for one superheroine. This poster was featured to showcase the brand new line-up of Avengers, including those who were joining the team at the time. Among the team's new reserves was the hero Angelica Jones, better known as Firestar. 23 years later, Busiek has revealed the true story behind that free giveaway poster and the domino effect that it had on Firestar's character.
Avengers #4 by Kurt Busiek and George Pérez marked a major turning point for The Avengers as a unit. In the fallout from the battle against Morgan, several key members left the team, including Black Panther, Ant-Man, The Wasp, Falcon, and Beast. During the same battle, both Firestar and Justice proved themselves as strong enough heroes to earn a spot on the Avengers. Given the new members, a giveaway poster was provided to readers to visually highlight the numerous subtractions and additions to the team.
It was through this poster that Busiek and co. realized that Firestar was in desperate need of a makeover. As he explains in a tweet, "I thought there’s no way Angelica Jones would wear a cleavage-baring outfit like that, however nice a design it was." Busiek and his team then proceeded to write this new change into the story to get some "characterization out of it." However, the poster went into press before the team had a chance to talk over new designs for Firestar. Nonetheless, later in Avengers #8 there is a scene where Angelica tries on her new costume and, realizing that the costume is far too revealing to wear in public, she makes her own alterations to it that wind up being her new costume.
Classic comic books are no stranger to portraying female superheroes in revealing costumes. Old school costumes for characters like Power Girl and Carol Danvers during her Ms. Marvel days have subsequently received criticisms in more recent years. Exposing the cleavage of women in comic books and dressing them up practically in swimsuit attire was the norm prior to the 2000s and especially during the 1990s.
It was not until more recent years that comic book culture has both acknowledged how impractical these costumes could be during battle and poked fun at them. It was rare to see comics display such a modern self-awareness regarding women and their in-comic costumes. For that reason, it is refreshing and surprising to hear about how Kurt Busiek's team went out of their way to rectify a female Avengers' costume, even if it was more so to stay true to a character rather than provide commentary on the state of comic book women and their wardrobes.