Krafty called me out on not criticizing White Queen’s costume yesterday, when I was so critical of Beast’s (ugly, ridiculous, stupid, impractical…) costume. I responded in the comments, but I decided I’d pick up that challange today. I was originally going to talk about Red Tornado (dig that blue cape with the red costume, buddy) or Hourman (Yeah… this is bad… this is bad ass) today, but, instead, I’m going to do something a little more elaborate. I’m going to take a look a few of the women in comic land.

In particular, I’m going to criticize inappropriate women’s costumes. It will come as no surprise to most of you to learn that women in comic books tend to be, shall we say, hypersexualized, regardless of how appropriate it is to the character. I’m fine with the idea that some characters- like, say, the White Queen- are blantantly sexual, and are drawn in a provocative fashion because it makes sense to the character. The problem is that so many times, women in comics are drawn like pole dancers, even when it doesn’t make a damn bit of sense.

So, without further ado: let’s dive in to Women Wednesday.

Since it was the X-Men who prompted today’s post, I’ve decided to set my sights on longtime member Psylocke. Honestly, at this point, I don’t even know if she’s alive or dead or brainwashed or in a coma or whatever other identity shifting state they’ve run her through. Psylocke has a convoluted and ridiculous story that I’m not even remotely interested in pursuing. The last I knew, she was an upper-class British woman trapped in the body of a Japanese martial artist.

Yeah. See, I told you. Ridiculous. Just like her costume, actually.

I can already hear the fan-boys crying: But she’s a ninja! She has to dress like a stripper in order to do martial arts!

I get it. She’s a ninja. She does ninja… stuff. She wants to be agile and, uh… sneaky? Whatever. This costume doesn’t work. Unless, of course, the goal is to look like a stripper or a porn-star. In which case it works really well.

This is not a ninja’s costume. Snake-Eyes is a ninja. Notice that he wears black, from head to toe. Why? Because a ninja wants to be stealthy. You can’t quite tell in this picture, but Betsy there is usually drawn wearing, of all things, a thong.

Psylocke is primarily a hand-to-hand combatant- but she’s wearing what is pretty much a bathing suit with some kind of thigh-high boots and stupid gloves. Also, some random strips of cloth that appear to be wrapped around her legs and arms. This costume offers her absolutely no protection from physical attack. Compare her to Wolverine or Colossus- both of whom are also hand-to-hand fighters, but who have costumes that are made of heavier material and cover more of their bodies than hers does. Let me also point out that Wolverine has unbreakable bones and a healing factor. Also, Colossus is, you know, made of metal. The difference? 

They’re not women. 

So, Psylocke wears a costume that doesn’t protect or aid
her in stealth- two things that you’d think would be important to a ninja. To make matters worse, she used to have a pretty awesome costume. When Psylocke was originally introduced, she didn’t have the ninja powers, and was kind of useless in hand-to-hand fighting, so Wolverine started training her and got her a costume that incorporated armor.

Super-strong, flexible armor that could resist energy attacks. Kind of a nice thing to have if you’re going to be hanging out with the X-Men and don’t have metal skin. It makes no sense that a ninja wouldn’t want to wear something like this. I can understand ninja-Psylocke ditching the cape, I suppose (although I love the hooded cape, personally), but why get rid of a costume that offers head to toe protection for a one piece bathing suit?

Oh, right, because the bathing suit is “hot!” and Psylocke quickly went from being an actual character, to being a pin-up for the X-Men franchise. Silly me.

Given her original look, Psylocke’s newer costumes look bad enough, but if you take a moment to compare her to someone like Big Barda, her costume (or relative lack thereof)  is downright ridiculous.

Barda is a hand-to-hand fighter, as well, but she looks it. Her costume, while brightly colored, is rather obviously armor. Alien armor, apparently. This costume isn’t perfect, but it’s a damn sight better than Pyslocke’s.

First of all, there’s the armor aspect. Barda is a brawler, and her costume provides protection. You can clearly see the metalic plates and the scaled metal underneath. Bare skin is kept to a minimum, which, if you’re going to be getting into fisticuffs with supervillains, seems like a good idea.

Secondly, her costume looks like a costume. Psylocke really does look like a pole dancer, not a hero. She’s wearing a bathing suit with boots. That’s it. Barda’s outfit makes it immediately clear that she’s both a warrior, and a super-being of some kind. You may not know if she’s a hero or a villain right away, but you know she’s ready to fight. It’s obviously a costume of some kind.

Also, she’s wearing a cape.

Did I mention I love capes?

There are some things even a cape can’t fix, though. I’m certainly not the first person to complain about this, and I doubt I’ll be the last, but as long as I’m talking about comic women and costumes, there’s one woman that has to be mentioned.

I’m speaking, of course, of Supergirl.

I’m not even completely sure what to say about this one. I mean, if you can’t see what’s wrong with those costumes, is there anything I can say that’s going to convince you? You’ve got a younger, female version of Superman, and she’s wearing a skirt? Let me remind you, folks, this is a girl who spends a great deal of time flying. You know… in the air. Above people.

I’m just saying, perhaps a tiny skirt isn’t the best choice. Especially a skirt that’s so short you can’t sit down without it riding up over your ass.

Oh, right. One of them is wearing underwear instead. Good call, that. At least it invalidates my short-skirt criticism. The plunging V-neck is a nice look with the underwear.

Meanwhile, Superman is wearing what? Oh, right… pants.

I can’t imagine why women aren’t exactly flocking to read Supergirl.

 

 

 

This entry was posted on Wednesday, May 2nd, 2007 at 8:47 am and is filed under comics. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.