I have strong opinions about women in comics. Sad fact is, in a male dominated field, they are often misrepresented, marginalized, misunderstood, and objectified in a completely erroneous manner that stunts their growth. I want them to be done right, and then be successful. Success brings them to greater platforms like TV and films, and that’s a barren field for the ladies right now. Some might think me sexist for saying this, but if a super-heroine doesn’t have fashion, she’s probably not going to have much of a career. I don’t care if that sounds sexist. I’m calling it as I see it, and I can back it up. More important is to understand the difference in fashion and fad. The goal of both major comic companies now is to get newbies on board, and if the character on the cover doesn’t tell them what they’re about, and give them a window to who they are, why would they care? Super fashion has to tell a story. It also has to suit the activity of the character. Too many details and too much busy-ness can be the death knell of a career, no matter how well written they might be. I’m going to be really brutal to DC in particular, because they NEED it and deserve it the most. Their dwindling sales are the writing on the wall, and I’m sorry, but Jim Lee was the most poorly thought-through choice ever for modifying the looks of the characters, in particular the women. I can make a case for that, too. Marvel has success lately, and I guarantee you, fashion HAS played a part in it. DC is leaning on fad. Art that’s fad doesn’t last; it never does. Everything about the predominant DCU at this point is visually myopic. All flash, and no class.
Here’s Carol Danvers, Captain Marvel. Note the fact that the costume is succinct in its defining of the character. “Superhero. Sci-Fi. Military.” Also, it can easily bleed to other media, like film, with no need to be over-tweeked. Jamie McKelvie, using his simple and elegant style has composed a visual that any halfway decent artist can render with minimal difficulty. It’s visually quick and is fashion over fad, with clean lines, and no excess. The consequence of this wise choice?
THIS. Not just one, but hundreds of them. They call themselves the “Carol Corps” and just guess who they are? The golden bough of readers- new and FEMALE. One look at the title, and it’s clear what it is about and they’re buying in. It’s luring, and makes an intimidated new reader feel ready. It lays out a visual welcome mat, and then the writing delivers. At a con recently, apparently the room flowed to a standing room only crowd, ready to talk Captain Marvel love. Also note how seamlessly the visual translates into the real world. Kudos.
Catwoman. Darwyn Cooke made the same thing happen with this character. One glance, and you get “Cat. Sultry. Stealthy.” It supports fashion AND function for the character, and again, you already know enough about the lady from seeing it to open the book and feel invited, without the arrogant assumption that you know her. The zipper ring is a great touch, and gives it pop without overwhelming the look. Purrrr-fect. Sad thing is, this was in place when the Catwoman film with Halle Barry came along. Yes, the plot was wretched, but one look at the trashy, busy, and ugly costume they came up with was enough to keep me away from the theater. Extra galling is how easily this look could’ve been adapted.
Power Girl. “Tough. Superhero. Unashamed.” I’ve seen articles where some feminists have bashed it, calling it a ‘boob window’, and sought that it be changed (which has been tried three times in the past and failed). The correct term is a cut-out and it’s a longstanding fashion element. I find it catty, and I don’t that it assumes that anyone who likes it is sexist. I’m not, not at all. I think women should make choices that are true to themselves and NOT to accommodate the projections of others. I’ve had it argued that it’s still risque, siting other visual examples. That’s the choice of the artist. Many choose to decide to amplify the bust factor. The fault is not that of Wally Wood, the designer. Do some guys drool over it? Sure. That doesn’t make it wrong. Further, it’s live-action ready. Powerful, defensible, and classic.
HONORARY MENTION: Power Boy. I’d be incomplete without addressing him real quick after the last one. His look sums him up too. “Narcissist. Bit of a Douche. Powerhouse.” The outfit is actually not half bad for super-hero fashion. This guy got cut the hell in half in less than a year. He was obviously made just to make a statement about “himbos”, but honestly I think he could’ve helmed a title. I’m serious, I’d love a well done comic about a quasi-hero who’s the butt of the joke. He’s even New Gods connected. Plus, he could chew up some screen scenery without a doubt. Hey, why not?
Saturn Girl. Love the character, love the mod, go-go-esque costume. Do not love the character in the costume. When she rose from being pretty much a cypher, we learned that she was a caring, warm, humble, and self-sacrificing woman. She’s also the Sue Storm of the Legion, as a founder, mother, and wife. It’s too flashy and risque for her. Her character would go for something more modest, and it only says “Saturn” to me, and doesn’t denote her heroic nature. Of course, it didn’t last a full decade (it made a slight latter day return, but when the Legion comes back-and it will- I bet it won’t be there).
Barbara Gordon, Batgirl. A case study in the importance of good fashion for the superhero women. First rendered here by the late Carmine Infantino. What does it say to me? “Look it’s Batgirl, see it’s Batgirl, no really it’s Batgirl.” I get it Carmine. The ears, the cape, the chest emblem, the emblem on the weapons bag (which I like, BTW), the belt buckle, the boots and the gloves tipped me off. All of the visual pyrotechnics are unnecessary and gaudy. The shape of the mask is jagged, and makes her look needlessly hard. Infantino was so-so with design, but he came up with the classic Black Canary look, so he gets a partial pass.
Hey there Miss Yvonne! Now, we’re talking. The mask points are made rounder and softer, and it makes her face look more open. The gloves and boots match the cowl, and the gaudiness subsides. This is how it had to be tweeked for the TV Set. Vrooooom!
Back in four- color land, Don Heck comes along and gives this cluster-f*ck just what it was missing. A starched collar. Robin had one too, but this is not Robin-Girl. It makes her look like a businesswoman. The grey shading starts to creep and take over. Just plain fuggly.
Where do you go from there? Hey, let’s make it sweatsuit grey and yellow and make those ears bigger than half her head, so there’s nary a trace of softness left. In the ‘70s, women like her were visually desexualized to the point that they looked like men with breasts. Bat-astrophe. In the ‘80s, there’s so much indifference about this character she’s pretty much invisible. In Crisis on Infinite Earths, she’s relegated to being a silly joke, to no outcry. Batgirl drops out in 1986, with the Crisis, then we all know what happened to Barbara next, thanks to a gunshot from the Joker. Batgirl was gone, and unfortunately most folks didn’t really care.
BATGIRL BEGINS! Now THAT’S more like it. Over in TV land, 6 years after she hung up her cowl in the comics, along comes Bruce Timm, a gifted cartoonist. Saints be praised. The ‘over-batting’ is gone. Just one emblem, and thanks to the addition of the matching cape, boots, cowl and gloves, the yellow ugh factor now makes the chest emblem pop. The mask is rounded down a’la “Batman ’66”, AND she now looks her age. The character comes over to the comic based on The Animated Series, to great response, even garnering a very successful oversized one shot. Character interest escalates beyond what it ever was before. DC responds in the mainstream universe with Batgirl flashbacks galore, including her own mini-series.
Wanna make it even cooler? Kill the grey, and now she doesn’t look like a wannabe juniorette Batman. She’s got her own thing going on. The black allows the yellow to come back and it fits perfectly. The two-tone cape is lovely. This is the blueprint for the “Batgirl: Year One” classic, which is a total hit with the fans (I’ll be damned if in the last issue, the big old buckle and bat-shaped boots don’t come back. Sigh.).
The Huntress. Stepping away from Babs for a sec, to illustrate the notion of fad and bad design. Here’s Bruce Timm doing an ill-fated Jim Lee look for the character. It’s top-heavy for one thing, and makes her face look jagged and unnecessarily harsh. It’s a sad, lukewarm S&M look. The open spaces make the character appear to be a narcissist, and that’s not the case at all. Also, I find it HIGHLY offensive that her crucifix, which was worn around her neck and emphasized that she was a Catholic which made sense as (in this canon) she was from an Italian mafia family, is now an accessory for such a cheap whorish look. Her personality is completely defied, and the uncovered body parts leave her, very obviously, open to attack. In TV or cinema, this would be nothing but sex farce. If Bruce T. can’t make it look good, you’re screwed. Sick, sexist, and ugly. FAIL EXPONENTIAL.
Cassandra Cain, Batgirl. So, DC realizes that folks now love Batgirl like they never did before. Babs is in a wheelchair, thanks to Mr.J, and is vital in other books. Their solution is a new character. The costume is bad-assed, but the youthful feminine charm is lost. The costume DOES say who she is, but it’s definitely reflective of the 90s, and not suited for the long haul. Slim chance for other mediums with this one. Cassie hangs out for a few years, and dies off from an apparent lack of interest.
Then, there’s Stephanie Brown, the next Batgirl. Let’s try this thing again. Too much of a too much. It’s not sleek and well lined. All of that padding is so unnecessary. Too bad, because the character inside is actually fun and great and bogged down by the minutiae.
Kate Kane, Batwoman. Hey, let’s just put another sassy redhead in a Bat-suit, so we can meet everybody half way. Good idea. The red and black is amazing, and it says “Bat. Badass. Woman.” Ready for ‘toons, or even the big screen. ‘Nuff said.
Meanwhile, over in Elseworlds, Thrillkiller Batgirl. Hot, but not a good idea in a knife fight. A- for fashion, B- for function (the lack of cape does make it a little more sensible than the rest of the gang), and a full scholarship for fanboy horniness. This version’s personality is a reckless, sensual wild card, so it actually does make sense.
Babs comes back again, in the New 52. The costume is back and it’s still pretty fussy (it had bolts on the chest in the first issue). It started out insanely busy, and I’m willing to bet it will ebb off more as time passes. It’s a step in the right direction with the annoying bat-belt being more subdued and not visually outweighing the emblem. The whole desire for her return would be impossible if not for the Bruce Timm contribution.
A lady with a lot of looks is Zatanna. The classic take. One look- “Magician. Female. Charming.” Yee-up.
Then, she becomes a real super-heroine. No bemoaning of the boob-window that I ever heard. Pretty simple, sorta blah (grey is just hard to pull off in four color land, it requires something to give it punch), but it does say “Sorceress. Super-heroine. Sexy.” Makes it about 5 years.
Then, came Perez. Good artist, a lacking designer usually, and was the go-to revamp guy for the company in the Eighties. A lobster on her head (?), the next use of that starchy collar (which is fine on a traditional magician costume), and those big ol’ Z earrings are pretty dreadful. This is also a strong example of busy artists making busy costumes. Only they can even halfway render them. Other artists strengths and weaknesses have to be considered. The Captain Marvel, Timm Batgirl costume, and even the Power Girl costumes are hard for the lamest of talents to screw up. Not ready for prime time, at all. Again, didn’t survive a decade, and the character pretty much vanished for a few years. Where’s her big comeback? The Animated Series, once again, and back to the classic look. Soon after, she started up all over the place and in flashbacks with the League, this outfit gets ret-conned out. Her own series comes shortly thereafter.
New 52, and damned if I don’t actually kinda love it. The hair especially. It takes the best elements from the previous looks, and incorporates them beautifully. High crimefighter fashion. “Super-heroine. Magician. Confident.” They got it right, here. It can cross media lines of all stripes. I guarantee that if DC doesn’t fold, this could last for decades.
Wonder Woman. Arguably, the most controversial costume of the lot. Loudly says “American. Princess. Outdated.” Nostalgia is fine, but objectively it’s not very good, and it’s pretty silly. Here we are again with Timm, and it’s still just a lame bikini. How do you update an multi-media icon and leave her recognizable??
Simple, you hire an artist like Darwyn Cooke, again a cartoonist, who barely tweeks it and you get “Strong. Proud. Anachronistic Warrior.” Simple and here again, a cartoon based artist who using classic style makes a design that can be followed, and used in any media. *slow clap*
So, what do we get instead? We almost got freakin’ KNEE PADS. Seriously. What we ended up with is an outfit with a washed out and blah color scheme, a needless arm band that has no function and is redundant with the emblem- which on the camisole is reduced to bling, and a suit that’s overall message is ‘stars’. It arrogantly assumes that the approacher knows who the character is, it makes no sense as an armor, and those little lines on the red of the torso are subject to the artist who gets stuck with them. It’s obvious in the context that it’s not Cliff Chaing’s work, as his offerings are more spacious and spartan, so it conflicts with it’s environs. All that detailed business would look silly in live action. This is why detail driven and over-drawing artists fail at designing. Again, cartoonists and classic stylists know how to make threads that are universally renderable and convey the essence of the characters that wear the designs.
Good ol’ Raven. I rag on George, but he did this right. “Mystical. Bird-themed. Not a hand-to-hand combatant.” The big circles would be the detractor in ‘real life’, but it still gets a pass. Right on the money, Sir Perez.
OK, so the sprite here is what kids are being sold on the hugely popular “Teen Titans GO!” series on Cartoon Network. The other is the new-look Raven from DC. Ok, not only is it mo-fuggly, but just how would they expect a kid to graduate from beloved cartoon characters to this unrecognizable mess?? It’s so faddy, it hurts. Needlessly horrific, is what it is. It takes a mysterious but feminine character and evolves her into a monster. Sick and stupid. Total fail. No new reader, especially a female or a child of any gender, is going to be drawn in by this. It will not last to see the dawn of 2016, I’d bet you good money.
What needs to happen? DC needs to look at PRESENT DAY Marvel, and where the quantifiable successes are. Marvel’s taking home the lion’s share, and with lots of good reasons. Understand, I love DC. It’s what I cut my teeth on. I do not, however, think they are making sound choices now. These examples are a statement about the culture that’s dominating (and failing) right now. DC is the classic company, the pioneer. Yet, they seem to be adhering themselves visually to the busy, over-drawn, needlessly exaggerated style of the 1990s that was very much a Marvel ideology at that time. It didn’t last because it was a total fad. People got burned out and abandoned it. Fashion is art, and art is what lasts, when it sees itself as fashion. The lesson? Hire simple, cartoon based designers when you want a product that will endure, and allow the character to prosper. Save the Super-Heroines!
PLEASE LEAVE ANY FEEDBACK/COMMENTS/DISCUSSION POINTS YOU MIGHT HAVE. I LOVE TO CHAT.
THIS JUST IN: AUGUST 26, 2013-
http://treblemirinlens.tumblr.com/post/59434815917/captain-marvel-stole-the-spotlight-on-the-cover-of
Harley stole the show from day one. She came onto Batman: The Animated Series like a crazy Fury. The Joker’s obsessively attracted and thoroughly insane girl sidekick, with a great comedic voice provided by character inspiration Arleen Sorkin. Within a half year, Harley palled up with Poison Ivy and it turned fandom on it’s ear. In the second season, more episodes focused on her, and the element of comedy rose on the program. DC released a one-shot by series writer Paul Dini with art by cartoonist Bruce Timm called “Mad Love”, wherein we learn that Harley is actually former Arkham Asylum psychologist Harleen Quinzel, who decided to make a name for herself by writing an exposee on her patient. Through his manipulation, this student who apparently flirted her way to a Masters Degree becomes his number one fan and fashions a new identity to help out her “puddin'” and to hopefully become Mrs. J. We also see the abusive and scary side of the relationship and how his manipulation still dictates their dealings with each other. We root for Harley, and want her to get out and give up her criminal life, but we also don’t want her to go away. Next thing you know, Harley arrives in the DC Universe proper and lands her own title. I feel that Karl Kesel and Terry Dotson’s run with her title is exemplary. It’s all about Harley deciding that her union with her beloved could only result in her being murdered, so she strikes out on her own. Kesel writes into her mythos an eye-opening new detail and modus operandi. As a student, Harleen has a serious love interest, and the two of them are unknowingly spiked by a demented professor with the deadly smile-and-death inducing Joker venom as a twisted experiment. The effect is a bizarre dementia, and ends up with her man dead from a bullet; a silhouetted scene leaves us with the mystery of who of the two of them pulled the trigger. We also see through her eyes that Harley’s world is a cartoon and bears no culpable sense of right or wrong, which explains her jubilant and twisted demeanor. Her new reason for criminal activity is to put people in jeopardizing scenarios to make them fall in love and the result is demented and often hysterical. Of course, the next writer shoves Karl’s take down in the sinkhole where it remains unearthed. From there, she made it back to the small screen in “The Batman”, and went to another comic series, Gotham City Sirens, an overlooked jewel featuring Poison Ivy and Catwoman as her serendipitous team-mates. Then came the happy-fest known as The New 52.
Suicide Squad #1 introduces us to a totally new, totally different, and totally flabbergasting character named Harley Quinn. She no longer wears her jester-togs (which covered her entire body, yet she was still very sensual and sexy, a testament to talented artists/writers), but instead has strange red and black hair, an undeniably whorish and a corset-topped and skimpy outfit with a curious make up job. She’s a mean-spirited and totally psychopathic slut who has none of the sweetness and misguided nature of the original version. A new origin story is plastered in, with the Joker throwing Harley into the Ace Chemical vat he crawled out of as a clown, which was as necessary as knee-pads on Wonder Woman. I stuck with the Squad for five issues out of genuine morbid curiosity about her and the new sexed up Amanda Waller, and had to bail from the apoplexy. It’s been announced that Amanda Connor, Justin Gray, and Jimmy Palmiotti will be doing a new Harley book with a new Derby-girl inspired look. Hope springs eternal, but lately it’s a dried-out reality in the often blood-splattered and angry whorehouse of DC Creative. Then, there’s the Harley drawing contest. Check out the above link for details. It’s about suicide and nudity. Well, of course it is. I have no problem with her being crazy or sexy- that’s her to a perfect T. But naked and suicidal? You are a company that’s already on the defensive about misogyny. Are YOU insane, DC? How did you THINK this was going to go over? Any spite you incur is deserved for the reality vacuum you’ve sucked yourselves into. If you’re already accused by a lot of folks for negative depictions of women, what PR genius slept through this one?? You signed off on it, suffer the consequences. What troubles me even deeper is the juxtaposition of what you are telling us about female readers.
The stated reason I’ve seen in print is that the impetus for the Superman/Wonder Woman title is the idea that a superhuman romance title is to appeal to a female audience. First of all, are you telling me that’s still in your goal plan? Damn strange roads you’re taking to get there, DC. Second, what IS your stance on romance, anyway? Harley was about fun and love. Mad fun and crazy love, but nonetheless the appeal was the zany take on all of the above. We’ve seen Harl run from a situation when it was life threatening, and take up a new brand of chaos in previous tropes. Who thought this mutation was something anyone wanted? If you wanted romance for ‘the chick market’, why is Hawkman single? Why are Ralph and Sue Dibney dead? Why isn’t the Flash dating Iris? There are SO many mixed messages abounding the issues of love, marriage, and such it’s like a dumping of two jigsaw puzzles on the same table.
So, love, fun, and character essences are now on the file 13 list. As I said earlier, I don’t want this to become a hater blog about the classic company of comics. Like the Portishead (perfect Harley-band IMO) song says “Give Me A Reason To Love You…”. I’m running out of those, myself. Save Harley Quinn!
Saving Wonder Woman 