Nude villains of the DC Universe
I'd been thinking of doing a post about all the things that are wrong with Detective #823, but it doesn't seem to have happened, but I do have to wonder what it is with female clothing in the DC universe this month.
On the cover of Detective #823 Poison Ivy isn't so much wearing a costume as garnish. On the first page we find her tucked up in her cozy cell in Arkham wearing an orange prison uniform several sizes too small for her and apparently made of tissue paper. This is confirmed a few pages later as a fight with a monster reduces it to a few shreds (don't they let girls wear underwear in Arkham?). Batman later has a fight with the same monster and yet his outfit remains remarkably intact.
Meanwhile, over at the new Atom #3, which is generally pretty cool, the wonderful Giganta pops up and pops out. It seems she forgot to bring her costume, so when she gets big her clothes explode. She tries hard to do the manic villain thing, but it's difficult to posture like Doctor Doom when she keeps having to hide her scary bits.
I've nothing against cheesecake, but if you aren't going to make any effort to have it make sense in the story, then stop pretending otherwise and just do pinups.
16 comments:
Hmmph...I don't think ANYBODY wears underwear. Just once wouldn't you love to see Batman's little bat boxers peaking out from a rip in his costume? On the other hand, to be fair, Poison Ivy usually is just "wearing" strategically positioned strands of plants, so I don't think that she's really much into Victoria's Secret.
Which I'd be okay with if we ever saw a male character with the same attitude, in the same way that I'd be less bothered about Poison Ivy's clothes destruction if Batman's outfit suffered any damage at all.
What about in The New Atom? I seem to recall that we've gotten some beefcake shots of him when he changed size...
And, over in the Ultimates a while back, Hank Pym (Giant Man) had to grow to save the Defenders and didn't have his costume with him.
So he appeared naked. A newspaper photographer even took a snap of him and it appeared in the Ultimate Daily Bugle (albeit with a fuzzed out groin area).
I definitely agree about Poison Ivy's (lack of a) costume in the Detective issue.
The All-New Atom did run around buck naked for the better half of his first after shrinking down.
Devon said...
The All-New Atom did run around buck naked for the better half of his first after shrinking down.
Your copy must be the extended nude edition then, because in mine he is without clothes for rather less than two pages before he constructs an outfit out of lint or something.
To be fair, Gail Simone wrote it...of course, that dosen't mean its not cheesecake, but...
I totally have no problem with cheesecake. I'm only annoyed when people try to justify it as perfectly reasonable in context when it's so blatently fanservice.
I don't really mind the Atom one. Okay it's absurd that Giganta isn't wearing her costume, but I know Gail is referencing pulp scifi all over Atom, and that scene is straight out of Attack of the 50 foot Woman.
It's the 'Tec one that's the real problem, where Ivy's outfit shreds the moment the monster appears and nobody else gets so much as a scratch.
Well, that and the expression on her face that hints at a whole sadomasocistic element.
Was the "yours-must-have-the-extended-nude-version"
comment absolutely necessary in your reply?
This is your blog and you can, like anyone else, answer comments as you deem fit but this was the first time I've ever commented on your blog. As a visitor, I'd have appreciated a bit of grace and none was found. I likely won't be back.
Best,
Devon
Aw Devon. I'm not sure why you felt offended by my comment. I thought it was quite supportive of me to suggest an unlikely but entertaining explanation that covered the discrepency between your comments and reality. You were wrong; you were factually innaccurate about something that could be easily checked. I corrected you without either calling you a liar or suggesting you were talking crap.
If that's going to send you off in a huff then I guess I'll just have to live with it and somehow try to struggle along without your support.
"Well, that and the expression on her face that hints at a whole sadomasocistic element."
...considering the rest of the issue, that might just be intentional.
To be honest, I don't think I'm the least bit coy about liking adventure comics to be slightly lurid and unseemly. And I think I've put more naked guys in comics than anyone outside of the gay porn comics realm. While Giganta is nude for longer, Atom is so nude in issue one we actually see his exposed heinie for a while, which I imagine is darn close to a new thing for a DC hero in a mainstream book.
I get that it bugs some people but I really can't apologize. I'm having too much fun to feel guilty. ;)
Gail
"Aw Devon. I'm not sure why you felt offended by my comment. I thought it was quite supportive of me to suggest an unlikely but entertaining explanation that covered the discrepency between your comments and reality. You were wrong; you were factually innaccurate about something that could be easily checked. I corrected you without either calling you a liar or suggesting you were talking crap.
If that's going to send you off in a huff then I guess I'll just have to live with it and somehow try to struggle along without your support."
Yikes. This does seem a wee bit WAY OVER-REACTING, doesn't it?
Gail
Are you EVERYWHERE Gail?
Gail, I don't know how you have time to write comics, the amount of time you spend online.
Atom is cool and I enjoy it. Particularly all the pulp scifi stuff. But if you are going to have Giganta turn up sans costume I'm afraid I am obligated to take the piss. It's in my contract.
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