Legion World Forums LEGION COMPANION Dr. Gym'll's Cultural Rarities Sexualizing men in comics: "The Myth of Sexy Superman"

From the "Legion Lost #5 -- assume spoilers" thread

Well I think this article is just for you:

The Myth of Sexy Superman and the Search for Superhero Beefcake [Op-Ed]

This was the point I was trying to make (maybe unsuccessfully). Go ahead and give the entire readership a chance to soak in some fun sexiness.

Thanks, Shining Son! (And sorry for the delay in responding. The damn carpal tunnel is really killing my ability to type much when I'm home. )

I personally don't want a metric ton of fanservice, at least not to the degree where it gets in the way of a story, or threatens to obliterate everything about the character's personality except "sexy."

I've noticed that both male and female fan artists who like to draw sexy Robin or whomever generally manage not to do this. Yeah, I see skin, but there's not egregious distortion of anatomy everywhere, and the character's expression still manages to imply that there's somebody home in there.

This is one case where pros could actually learn something from fans, especially fans who aren't straight dudes.

There is something almost natural about drawing people prettier than they are in real life. I can only think of a handful of artists that have done realism to that extent (Steve Ditko is the most obvious). I appreciate the article though, it reminds how much I like Noh-Varr.

I know some women who watched Thor, Superman or Captain America just to gawk at the lead actors. I asked one what she thought of General Zod, and she didn't even remember why he was sent to the Phantom Zone.

For that matter, I know a lot of women who watch football games just to watch the pretty athletes run around the field.

I don't remember anything that happened in Thor apart from the music being loud, and really terrible.

I suspect that a lot of women who claim to just watch sports for the eye candy are just looking for a socially acceptable way to explain why they're there. Now me... the only reason I'd sit through a football game was to get a free beer.

I'm sure some are looking for an excuse, but trust me - a few of my teammates at work can't even tell which team is winning in a football game, nor do they care

As for me, I never did like watching other people play sports. Maybe I'm too self-centered, but I'd rather be the one in the midst of the action! But bribe me with a free beer and I'd go too.

I used to enjoy going to the local women's pro basketball games, before the team went kaput.

[grumble]

For some reason, I have an easier time following the action in basketball than in other sports. Which is not to say that I was ever any good at playing. The only sports I enjoy doing on my own time are solitary ones. Even a yoga class bugs me because I can't relax and do my thing so long as there are other people around me.

I think with basketball it's because the rules are simpler (I find them to be!), and there's more momentum and less set-up time.

I prefer solo sports myself too - maybe I'm not a good team player, or I perform better when I don't have to depend on anyone else.

Well, not to foul the thread by getting it back on topic, but that reminds me: One problem with the constant "same kind of sexy" mantra in comics is that characters whose powers should leave them with different shapes all look the same. As one fan artist I like pointed out while watching JLU: There's no way The Flash and Superman should have the exact same shape. It would be like watching the Olympics and seeing the weightlifters and runners shaped exactly the same.

Oops, I forgot that this wasn't the topic drift thread!

That's a good point on the above. And of course we have Brainiac 5, who should NOT have the same physique that Ultra Boy or Karate Kid would.

Which is why I like artists like George Perez or Olivier Coipel who put some differentiation in their characters. Coipel had Cham, Garth, Brainy and Lyle be more wiry and lean than Jo or Cos or Thom, for example.

While looking at Perez's art over in Crisis, Kimiyo is less busty than Diana; Wally and Gar are much leaner than Dick or Cyborg (though the difference in the men could be explained by their age...)

Yup. Perez generally has a more distinctive array of "beauties" than a lot of other artists. I've always liked that about him.

Bob McLeod also went out of his way to do this when The New Mutants was first launched. He also drew adolescents who were proportioned more like real-life adolescents. Much as I admire Curt Swan's Legion, that wasn't really a strength of his.

Hear, hear. Crossing types of media for a moment, but it's always perplexed me how movies so often cast adult actors as teens. Come on, these artists have years' worth of maturity and workouts - you can't expect these teens to have bodies like that! Same for comic book art. Superboy should be a lot less bulky than Superman, it just makes sense.

Although if you could run at near the speed of light, would you really have the physique of a runner. After all, with that kind of speed, how often would you have to utilise it to achieve your goal. While it may look good seeing the Flash go at top speed, he could walk at super speed and still do everything he wanted to.

Likewise with Super strength. If you can lift 500 tons effortlessly, is you body really going to gain the advantages of lifting 1 ton objects.

Why not have couch potato heroes? They look like nearly everyone else, because their super powers mean that they don't have to actually exert themselves. Or a hero who does want to look better, but can't because their powers meant that they'd ave to shift planets regularly to have any kind of impact.

Well, when has he ever been portrayed as such? While the other Legionnaires all wore skin-tight super-hero costumes(including Bouncing Boy, who it definitely did not flatter), and Karate Kid wore a martial arts gi, he always wore a baggy jumpsuit.

Brains can't be buff is a stereotype. If anyone should be lacking buffness it would be the superstrong by powers.

Threeboot Brainy

Preboot Brainy

It's especially glaring in the story from which the Preboot panel is taken, the story where he and Dawnstar are stranded on Kol. There's a panel whrere Brainy is bathing, and his arms are definitely as muscled as any other male Legionnaire (besides Blok of course).

Not arguing that brains can't be buff (take Batman or Hank Pym or Ted Kord). But when have you ever known BRAINIAC 5 to hit the gym?

Without being able to strain muscles and break them down, there's no reason at all why a Kryptonian or Daxamite wouldn't have a very slender build. Exercise would literally do nothing for them. (Or, on the Marvel side of the fence, for an Eternal, or Wolverine, or the Hulk, or anyone else whose body regenerates injuries or is invulnerable.)

For the same reason, and toyed with in Sky High, with it's chubby speedster, someone whose *super-power* is super-speed, they'd have no use at all for a runner's physique. Being able to run 25 MPH or 5 MPH *without* super-powers would be a tiny irrelevant drop in the bucket when your super-power allows you to move at several times the speed of sound.

But that's just the way it goes in super-hero-land, where being bitten by a radioactive spider not only gives you super-powers, it also turns a skinny bespectacled science geek who never hit the gym in his life into someone with 1% body fat, six-pack abs and 20/20 vision.

I could see people like Batman resenting Superman not because he can fly or lift cruise ships or melt steel by looking at it, but because he maintains that physique effortlessly despite not having the first clue what the terms 'cross-training' or 'cardio' or 'electrolytes' mean, instead of having to spend four to six hours *every day* trying to keep it from falling apart.

As for Brainy, he's probably got something built into his clothing that electrotenses his muscles when he's working in the lab, so he's 'working out' 24/7, despite having never seen the inside of a gym in his life.

I'm reminded of Disney's Hercules. Herc starts the movie as a skinny, lanky guy with amazing strength. He only becomes buff after being trained by Philoctetes. The movie wasn't clear about whether his strength increased along with his muscle mass, but it was implied that the training only helped him control his strength better and not increase it.

As for Brainy... he's certainly smart enough to figure out how to keep buff without working out, but would he care enough to do so? To the extent that it keeps him fit and healthy, but certainly not to the extent that it makes him look good

In the 2995 Legion Mayfair Games Sourcebook, it indicates that the Legionnaires had some physical fitness/martial training requirements, and that Brainiac 5 always managed to pass those minimally.

I recall Shrinking Violet taking a pot shot at Invisible Kid (Jacques) when he appeared in the Gym. it just wans;t something he did a lot of. Probably just above the minimal.

Would Brainy not see the importance of being fit when it came to maximising his mental faculties? Not to the extent he's shown, but he at least would have a reason for working on it.

Odds are she just didn't see him there.

And one source, I believe, also used the term "inattentively".



Jacques doesn't go to the gym often, despite being drawn with six-pack abs and bulging biceps? Come on! He must have the same invention Brainy uses.

I'm sure Brainy would appreciate the importance of being fit, but I'd envision him as more focused on cardiovascular fitness rather than muscle building.