October saw a dust-up over an exclusive Midtown Comics cover for Marvel‘s Invincible Iron Man #1 by artist J. Scott Campbell. The criticism of the cover was due its sexualization of the 15-year-old hero Riri Williams which you can view to the left (seriously, what’s up with the head connection to the neck!?). The character is a tech wizard, though in this cover it’s her body, not her smarts that are emphasized. The cover was shelved and a new cover is being worked on.

Usually, it feels like these types of stories has the artist lashing out at critics and often doubling down on the problematic art.

But, it looks like J. Scott Campbell is an artist of a different sort and has shown a lot of maturity.

Titled “Riri Rethink,” Campbell posted the below image. Is it the new cover? Nope, Campbell just “did it to do it.”

Unlike the original cover, this new piece shows a teenager who looks more like a teen and focusing on something other than her body. In other words, it would seem Campbell has listened, taken feedback, and learned a bit in the process.

So many are quick to criticize, but you rarely see praise when lessons are learned. I applaud Campbell for this and actually want this image as a cover or a poster, it’s fantastic and far superior to the original.

When asked if there’s a chance of that, Campbell replied on his Facebook page “If the people’s demands made the other one go away, I suppose they could also demand this one into existence.”

So, can we make demand something positive as a community and make this a cover?