sigelphoenix

Posted here.

On the one hand, this is just a pretty, pretty image. I like Hughes' style, and the way his lines just look ... graceful? I don't know; I don't have the vocabulary to describe it.

However, I also think Michael Turner has a "pretty" style if you ignore the fact that all his women have the same face and, on the scale of Rob-Liefeld-to-Alex-Ross, his sense of anatomy ain't that high. So, in a way, does Greg Land if you ignore the fact that the women's facial expressions are either vacant or incongruous, body parts from different models are cobbled together, different characters look the same and the same characters look different - and, oh yeah, the whole tracing thing. So "pretty" definitely isn't everything.

My first question is, why are the women drawn like this? There's certainly nothing wrong with pretty gowns, but it's not like we're going to see a corresponding poster with the men of the DCU in slinky formal wear (or are we?). The women are also in various sultry/vampy poses, which serve to make them look more appealing for the (heterosexual male) viewer's benefit.

What saves the image from just being pandering, though, is the touch of self-consciousness I get from Hughes' choice of poses. In particular, Catwoman (on the far left) is half-turned away from the viewer, and looks as if this whole mess is beneath her. Oracle (to the right of Catwoman) looks honestly amused, like she gets the secret joke. Black Canary and Power Girl (the blondes to the right of Oracle) have pretty standard sexy-vacant model looks on their faces - however, it could also be in character (people who know them better - check?) for them to ham it up like this without actually being vapid.

Now let's talk about breasts: one of the most eye-catching parts of the image is Wonder Woman's gravity-defying cleavage. At least the rest of her body is in a powerful and commanding pose - but really, there's no justification, given the utter lack of supportive clothing. And then there's Power Girl, whose breasts are unsurprisingly the size of her head, and are not supported by a correspondingly wide waist. Both of these women's character designs could be made to work, but you can just expect me to accept them as they are.

On the other hand, I am pleased that Supergirl has smaller, believable-teenager breasts. Heck, I'm pleased that all the women don't have identical bust sizes. I do wish for more variety in the body shapes, though. Wonder Woman has some shoulder definition, but while she stands out as the tallest, she doesn't look strikingly more muscular than the others. Sure, they're all superheroes/villains, but she's Wonder Woman. An Amazon's body should stand out, and not just because of her cleavage.

Finally, I hate the shoes. Really. Sure, some women can wear stiletto high heels, and some women might even like them - but not all. Why is every foot shown in the image contorted into a three-inch heel? (And yes, we cannot see Wonder Woman's and Oracle's heels, but women's feet don't naturally bend that way. No, really. I don't care what you learned from comic books.) Wonder Woman in particular would have looked great in flat, strappy, Grecian sandals.

Also - guess which character is the lesbian? I bet it isn't obvious! Hurr hurr.

With those issues addressed, I think this poster could live up to its potential as a gorgeous group shot of these women having fun and looking sexy. As it is, it's pretty good but noticeably flawed.

As a side note, nenena on LiveJournal evened things up a little by posting this link to male Disney character beefcake. Questionably worksafe, but high-larious. [Edit: Link taken down because the images were posted without artist permission. The artist is David Kawena, and you can find the images here if you have a deviantART account.]