Can Someone Explain This to Me?

I liked the Image series "Debris" that came out last year. It was a little heavy on the hero's journey/ Mono-myth stuff for my taste, but it was fun and the art was really good. I even did fan art for it!

The four issues of "Debris" were recently collected into a trade paperback. I was surprised to see how differently the lead female character was portrayed on the cover of the paperback as compared to the comics.

Here's what I mean: Here is the cover of the first issue featuring the protagonist, Maya:

And here is the cover of the trade:

Can we see that one more time? (this time with the cover of issue #3):

 

The cover artist for the trade is not the same artist for the book. OK, fine.

But I thought the depiction of women* in the book was pretty respectful. Maya was young and attractive, and sure, wore tight clothing, but she was at least drawn realistically.

I was happy to see a more realistic portrayal of a female character. It's a little sad now to see that character all sex-potted up. Fishnets and a flowy evening dress are not practical for fighting giant robots!

Also, she's straddling a penis-shaped pipe! Seriously!?



*(There was actually more than one woman! This is what we call progress in comic books.)