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Captain Carol Marvel Danvers

Carol Danvers, aka Captain Marvel

(source:  claytoncowles,  via kierongillen)

This is quite a nice shot of Carol.  Clayton Cowles is more often known for lettering, but he clearly is an amazing artist as well.

 

Captain Carol Marvel Danvers

The Best of Humanity: Restoration

An ecosystem is deforested.  For housing. For urbanization. Cash crops. Farming. Among the many results: light pollution.  Frugivorous  bats are slow to return to the affected areas.  The bats enjoy fruit, and defecate while flying.  Their feces result in ‘seed rain’-part of a cycle by which new fruit can be produced.  The deforestation causes more sunlight to reach the affected areas, and the bats are light sensitive; less able to feed in well lit areas.

Humanity often has a negative effect upon the environment.  Often, but not always.  There are times when humans give back. When they demonstrate care for the world around them.  When they make the decision not to destroy, but to restore.

Nestled in Northeast India next to the Brahmaputra River sits Majuli Island, a giant sandbar that happens to be the largest river island on Earth, home to some 150,000 people. It is also the location of the 1,360 acre Molai Forest, one of the most unusual woodlands in the world for the incredible fact that it was planted by a single man. Since 1979, forestry worker Jadav Payeng has dedicated his life to planting trees on the island, creating a forest that has surpassed the scale of New York’s Central Park.

While home to such a large population, rapidly increasing erosion over the last 100 years has reduced the land mass of Majuli Island to less than half. Spurred by the dire situation, Payeng transformed himself into a modern day Johnny Appleseed and singlehandedly planted thousands upon thousands of plants, including 300 hectares of bamboo.

Payeng’s work has been credited with significantly fortifying the island, while providing a habitat for several endangered animals which have returned to the area; a herd of nearly 100 elephants (which has now given birth to an additional ten), Bengal tigers, and a species of vulture that hasn’t been seen on the island in over 40 years. Gives you more than a little hope for the world, doesn’t it?

 

 

The Best of Humanity: Restoration

Lovable Logan

The ole’ Canucklehead

(source: mtakara, via wheelr)

I’ve never found Logan to be the kind of character I think of as good looking, but if there were a human being whom this image was based on?  DAYUM!

(No, I’m not talking about Hugh Jackman. I know he has his legions of fans and I think he makes the perfect Wolverine.  I’m just not attracted to him.)

 

(source:  meteorite8)

This image looks like Wolverine has just escaped from the Weapon X facility where the Adamantium was bonded to his skeleton (although I think he was naked in the Barry Windsor Smith story that documented those events)

 

(source: humbuged)

Logan as cheesecake.  Nice.

 

Lovable Logan

The JLA has a locker room?

(source: Comics Alliance)

Comics cater to heterosexual males.  One can see this in dozens of titles from multiple companies.  The men are idealized male power fantasies, and the women are often beautiful and oversexualized (of course for the benefit of heterosexual men).  It’s interesting to see an image showcasing beefcake for gay men and women (yes, women enjoy looking at pictures of nice looking men too).  Note the difference in how the men are portrayed here versus women in comics.  The art doesn’t draw the viewers’ attention to anyone’s crotch, nor their ass.  It’s a wide shot showcasing a bunch of JLAers who are buff and intended to be good looking.  I’m not going to fantasize about this, but it’s a nice image to see.  Now if only comics would include a little more tasteful beefcake and a lot less over-sexualized T&A.

BTW,

Somehow I don’t think a sauna is going to make Clark sweat.

Also, Reddy doesn’t have hair.

Oh and Hal’s costume is ring generated.

(yes, I’m being silly and pointlessly nitpicky-it’s meant to be in jest)

The JLA has a locker room?

The many costumes of Power Girl; plus a redesign!

I like Power Girl.    Here is this supremely powerful hero, cousin to one version of Superman who is an assertive, tough woman who cares about others.  She has a heart but she’s not meek and mild.  She’s aggressive.  In fact, sometimes she’s bull headed, but her heart is in the right place.  She’s not a doormat.  She’s also smart and creative.  She was also created to be a feminist character (which has been lost over the years, IMO).

As originally depicted, Power Gir’s costume looked like this:

 

(source:  hubpages)

One notable aspect of her character, or rather her costume, is the presence of what is known as the “Boob Window” (BW):

 

According to character writer Jimmy Palmiotti, “Okay. When the character was created Wally Wood was the artist that drew Power Girl, and he was convinced that the editors were not paying attention to anything he did. So, his inker said every issue I’m going to draw the tits bigger until they notice it. It took about seven or eight issues before anyone was like hey, what’s with the tits? And that’s where they stopped. True story.”

 

This window was a pretty drastic change for the 70s, as female superheroes of that era simply did not show off their breasts.  They were supposed to be suitably covered.  Power Girls’ costume saw a few tweaks over the years, such as this look from the mid 80s, around the time of Crisis on Infinite Earths:

(source: fortressofbaileytude)

This is the “classic” Power Girl for me, as it was the costume she wore when I was first introduced to her back in the mid 1980s, just in time for Crisis on Infinite Earths.  I like this costume for nostalgia’s sake. Noticeably absent is the BW. Overall the costume is rather bland.

Following the Crisis, and a few tweaks to the above costume, Power Girl suffered a tremendous loss of power and went through an identity crisis. That led her to adopting a rather ugly costume:

(source:  hubpages)

Kara wore this costume during her tenure with Justice League Europe.  Not a fan.  The cape is gone. There is no blue.  For some reason yellow is introduced.  Even worse, she has bracers.  She isn’t Wonder Woman, she doesn’t need those.  The white color scheme was kept, but there is nothing about this costume that screams Power Girl to me. Even the BW is gone, and that’s more or less a trademark of PG’s costumes.   She would ditch this costume in time, to replace it with this:

(source:  hubpages)

This costume is meant to reflect her Atlantean heritage (don’t ask).  It is a step up from the prior costume.  She has a cape back, and the color blue has been returned.  But she has shoulder pads, which are not needed on a woman this powerful.  The headband is not to my liking either, it screams 80s, which dates the costume (even though, IIRC, this debuted in the 90s).  The Boob Window is back, this time as a diamond.  This is a good thing, as Power Girl is a woman who enjoys her sexuality (have I mentioned I dislike the fact that a grown woman is still called a ‘girl’? that’s infantalizing).  She likes her body and doesn’t mind showing it off.

As a feminist, it might sound odd that I support Power Girl having the BW.  However, I’m not saying that I want all women to wear costumes that show off their breasts.  That’s sheer objectification and serves nothing more than to titillate.  The 90s was an era with art that sexually objectifying women (and artists today still do this).  Throughout the 1990s (and continuing today), comic book artists  depicted wildly disproportionate and anatomically incorrect female characters.  The focus was on T&A.  “Camera angles” in comics often focused on T&A, which was not something that happened to male characters.  Artists often depicted angles showing womens’ legs, or tremendous cleavage, or the near impossible shots where one can see breasts and ass simultaneously.  I don’t like that crap at all.   It continues to play into the larger social idea that women are sexual objects who exist for the desires of men.

In Power Girl’s case however, she was created to be a feminist character.  She was a woman who, as I said, embraces her sexuality.  Part of being a feminist means supporting efforts to empower women.  Like all humans, women are not a monolith. They have a wide variety of tastes, interests, and beliefs.  It makes sense for a woman to be empowered and love her body (in fact, one of the messages of feminism is for women to love their bodies and be comfortable in their skin, no matter the external, patriarchal messages permeating society).  So for one character-Power Girl in this case-to like drawing attention to her sexuality, is perfectly acceptable.  It just shouldn’t descend into T&A.  Great artists can depict a sexy woman without objectifying her.  Sadly there are a great many artists who don’t understand the extent to which sexism pervades society, nor the extent to which it affects women.

In the 2000s, Power Girl’s costume was tweaked even more.

Power Girl by artist Amanda Conner

(source:  comicartcommunity)

This version is probably my favorite of all PG’s costumes.   As produced by DC.

The redesign below, however?  This is awesome:

Kara Zor-L aka Power Girl

Project: Rooftop

This redesign of her costume is by African artist Mista-M.  It is lovely. Her breasts are still a focal point, but in a different way and they aren’t overstated.  Combined with her haircut and the costume, this image portrays a sexy, confident, and powerful Power Girl.

 

 

 

The many costumes of Power Girl; plus a redesign!

Redesigned heroes!

Project:  Rooftop is a website that showcases artists’ redesigns of superheroes.  There are a host of wonderful designs.  This image of Jubilee, for instance, by artist David Tran:

(source:  Project: Rooftop)

 

Here is Ghost Rider by Javier Saltares (who worked on the second Ghost Rider series in the 90s):

 

(source: Project: Rooftop)

 

And finally, this image of a redesigned Teen Titans by artist Charles Rouse-Rodriguez:

(source: Project: Rooftop)

 

To be honest, my main reason for including this pic is that I like the costume for Donna (another favorite character of mine).  It’s not perfect-no superheroine is going to fight crime in heels, plus I think the books need some color (more red I think), but it’s pretty good.  It’s also striking.  My eye was drawn straight to Donna’s costume.  After her, I was drawn to Wally’s costume.  It’s a tweaked version of the Silver Age Flash costume, but it’s still good (in fact, given the sleekness, and IMO timelessness of Barry’s costume, I don’t know if I’d like any redesigns that ventured too far from it).  Mal Duncan and Aqualad don’t work for me in this image (the latter doesn’t do anything for me at all). The character in the center is apparently Dick Grayson as the Human Target.  Bumblebee is ‘enh’.  Not a terribly different redesign from her costume on the Teen Titans animated show (it’s not a bad design, it’s just not terribly different).  One thing of note too, the Charles Rouse-Rodriguez made a clear attempt at diversity here.  

Redesigned heroes!

Captain Monica Marvel Rambeau

Yeah, I know she’s Spectrum now, but I still think of her as Captain Marvel.  Even though I fully love the idea of Carol Danvers as Captain Marvel; if DC can have 7200 Green Lanterns, Marvel could have two Captain Marvels.  Either way, Monica Rambeau is one of my favorite comic book characters of all time.  She may even be #1.  Her original costume is kinda cool.

Monica Rambeau as Captain Marvel II

(Source:  noahbodie, via wheelr)

Her current costume is pretty darn cool too:

Monica Rambeau as Spectrum

 

(source: angelfire)

I like her current costume and the fact that she has decided to go without a mask.  I miss the underarm thingees (what the heck are those anyways?).  I look forward to seeing other artists depict her because Greg Land’s knack for making his characters look like models out of an issue of Cosmo is irritating as heck (though I do appreciate her smile here; it looks like she enjoys what she’s doing).

Captain Monica Marvel Rambeau

The X-Women by Kevin Wada

What an uncanny, amazing, extreme image!

Kevin Wada:

When the new X-men lineup was announced I, of course, thought it was amazing and refreshing and about damn time.  It wasn’t until a friend of mine brought the new team up again that the idea for another X-fashion developed.  It really was a “duh” moment for me – they’re ripe for a fashion piece, and not just because they’re women but because they are some of THE biggest female names of the X-men.  So I went for it.  Wanted something a little more dynamic than X-fashions of the past.  My main thought going in was more pants, less dresses and frippery.  Of course there’s still bling and heels – you can’t take away all the fun – but I wanted fashion that was a bit more street, more real, a little more badass.

Rachel is grunge.  Love her jacket, not so happy with her shirt.

Psylocke is NYC fashionista tomboy.  Dip dyed hair (so trendy) and a butterfly print blouse.

I’m really happy with Kitty’s dragon t-shirt and bad ass heels.  Had to get a shoe in there somewhere, people.

Storm is my 80s executive realness.  Her earring is fashioned after the one Willi Ninja bought (he has the receipt) in Paris is Burning.

My southern belle is in a loud print and hose – she’s the only one in a dress.  I wanted her in printed leggings but she was already such a patterned mess I decided against it.

And Jubes is just all over the place.  Bikini and hot pants and a bedazzled jacket.

The original will be going up in the store as soon as tomorrow.  Prints as well – in TWO sizes 🙂  Hope you guys like it, let me know what you think!

 

(Source: kevinwada,  via Wheelr)

The X-Women by Kevin Wada

Big & Miraculous

Another casualty of DC’s New 52:

Big Barda and her husband Mister Miracle battle Parademons

Comics Alliance revealed that a Big Barda/Mister Miracle book was pitched by Ramón Pérez prior to the almost but not quite reboot of the DCU in 2011.  

(excerpt)

Of all the characters that Jack Kirby created for DC Comics in the 1970s, a roster that includes OMAC and the Demon, the ones that have always resonated the most with readers are undoubtedly Mister Miracle and Big Barda. The story of a super-escape artist who fled an oppressive planet rather than be changed into something he wasn’t, and a fierce warrior who overcame her brutal conditioning and learned to love, and how they conquered evil is, one of the most compelling things Kirby created in a long and unmatched career in superhero comics, and it’s been a favorite of subsequent creators over the past 40 years too.

One such creator is Ramón Pérez, the Eisner-winning cartoonist of Jim Henson’s Tale of Sand, who revealed on Twitter this week that he pitched a Mister Miracle and Big Barda series that “died because of the New 52.”

Truly, we are living in a fallen world, but the good news is that you can at least check out a sample of Pérez’s work.

Pérez first wrote about this rejected pitch all the way back in 2010, but we missed it because we’re always incredibly busy, you know. The Mister Miracle idea was part of an initiative being developed for the now-defunct DC webcomics project Zuda.

 

I’ve read comics a long time, and I’m well aware of Barda and Scott, but reading the above was the first time that their essence was distilled in a way that appealed to me.  Combined with the art-which is super freaking fantabulous-I’d have bought the book in a New York minute (maybe in a Miami minute…not sure).  Click the link below for a few more amazing images from artist  Ramón Pérez.

(via Comics Alliance, image by  Ramón Pérez)

Big & Miraculous