strange comic trends Archives

Tag Archives: strange comic trends

Strange Comic Trends: Fishnets Times Two

Posted on August 20, 2015 by

The history of fishnets in the medium of comics is an often bizarre one, and can be traced to their popularity and perception in fashion. In their earliest days, they were often associated with activities that were considered scandalous, not even necessarily through prostitution, but simply as part of a forbidden dress code. When the character of Black Canary was first introduced, she was shown sporting the form of hosiery, not particularly effective in crimefighting, but also speaking to the influences of her character, that of a femme fatale, who could dish out a punch to those that mistook her appearance for something else. For a long time Black Canary was the only character that ever wore them. Black stockings were common enough at one point in the medium through romance comics, but these were often shown as a sequence of bluish Ben Day dots as opposed to a true black. It was hard to show female hosiery in any detail and so artists tended to stay away from it. Zatanna came along and her most common costume featured fishnets, even when she sported various other versions. Incidentally so too did Black Canary wear other versions of a costume and had even done away with the fishnets after the Birds of Prey reboot of the character in the 1990s.

At some point though fishnets became part of popular fashion, or at least gained the respect that they could be worn without a stigma attached to them. Instead of a forbidden accessory they now represent edginess or being a little bit different from the pack. Even then though, it is a rarity to see any comic characters wearing them. They are still common enough on Black Canary and Zatanna, and two Grimm Fairy Tales characters also wear them often (The Queen of Spades and Liesel Van Helsing). Strangely in recent years they have also been a common enough accessory of Veronica Lodge at Archie Comics, but this week’s double release of two character from two different companies wearing fishnets on covers might be the first time that it has happened in comic book history (especially considering the numerous variant covers with Liesel all wearing the same). Although they have been around since the 1940s, they have never really caught on as a stylistic element of most characters’ costumes, and so seeing them twice on the same release day is truly an anomaly.

Strange Comic Trends: Carol Danvers Week

Posted on July 10, 2015 by

Secret Wars is now in full swing, and with so many crossovers being resurrected it can be hard to keep them straight. With Battleworld in full swing, there are still new stories coming into the overall mix, with yesterday seeing the release of some new #1s like Spider-Verse, Civil War, Spider-Island, and Age of Apocalypse. While it should be expected that with so many big name-crossovers being brought back from the past, that there are going to be a lot of recurring characters, it is interesting exactly who is showing up so much. We expect Captain America, Iron Man, the Hulk and a handful of the X-Men, but we don’t really expect to see so much of Carol Danvers, as she showed up yesterday in a wide variety of titles such as Age of Apocalypse, Civil War and Spider-Island. She was a big enough player in Civil War when it first came out, but not so in the other two.

Of course there is no reason that we shouldn’t see so much of her. She has undergone somewhat of a renaissance in recent years, with the change from Miss Marvel to Captain Marvel and having her monthly series relaunched once again. There is perhaps something a bit deeper going on here though. It happened first with the Inhumans, how they were almost forgotten by Marvel, and then all of a sudden, they were everywhere it seemed. If a random hero was going to show up, it was probably going to be an Inhuman. The reason came from the Marvel Cinematic Universe. Without the rights to the X-Men and in an expanding universe of the movies, it became necessary to explain the origins of certain characters, and as Inhumans are close enough in essence to mutants, with similar stories to do with their backgrounds and the prejudice against them, that it became an easy explanation for them.

Perhaps this week might represent the beginning of that process for Carol Danvers and Captain Marvel. She is scheduled for her own movie in 2018, and that is only two years off, which is daunting enough task for a character that has not yet been introduced on the big screen. Of course certain other characters have had the ability to pull off their big screen debuts without much of a lead-in, but not surprisingly, the odds are more against a female superhero than a male one like Iron Man. It might be that Marvel is getting a start on its own hype for the movie, as well as increasing awareness, just as it did with the Inhumans, as Captain Marvel slowly but surely becomes a constant addition to most story lines, whether that be as a human-spider hybrid in Spider-Island, a colonel of Iron Man’s half of America in Civil War, or as a human freedom fighter in Age of Apocalypse. Whatever her role in these stories, Marvel has decided to increase it, to essentially make her the first in terms of female superheroes, the first to get her own movie and to carry forward the Marvel Cinematic Universe.

Strange Comic Trends: Another Pair of 38s

Posted on June 12, 2015 by

The medium of comics is certainly not without controversy, and increasingly lately in the manner in which it depicts women. It would seem as though the medium has been going through a pretty rapid change in the past year in terms of how to present its female characters, and this is an indication that the medium as a whole is changing. It is a necessary change as the demographics of readers if changing, and so what is looked for in a female character these days is much more like solid writing as opposed to a revealing costume. In the past few years there have been a few different developments which have caused fans to voice their concerns for the direction of the medium and its treatment of its female characters. For instance the alternate cover for Spider-Woman #1 made a lot of readers wonder if there was ever going to be any change, and the comments about feminism and Wonder Woman caused many to raise their eyebrows.

One of the points in comic history was that of the launch of the new 52. Fans were promised that new approaches were going to be taken and that characters were going to be revitalized for a modern day treatment. The result was a bit of a mixed bag, some creators shook up the normal and gave the readers something really new, and some other characters just got costume changes. There was no bigger flashpoint of any character than surrounded Starfire and her depiction in Red Hood and the Outlaws. While there were aspects of the character which were in-line with what had come before, there was also a backlash over her depiction in this series. With Jason Todd and Roy Harper as the unapologetic frat boys, Starfire was turned into the dream sorority girl, one that wore almost nothing and solicited sex from strangers. At one point she was even referred to by her breast size alone (a pair of 38s). Obviously a lot of fans were a bit taken aback by this new representation of the character as the change in her case was to make her a two dimensional being judged only for her appearance, which is pretty much the exact opposite of what female comic readers wanted.

In the intervening years since the launch of the new 52, there seems to have been a renaissance in the medium, especially with its treatment of female characters as being capable as heroes without revealing their whole bodies to do so. In the past year there has been this new focus on Silk, Spider-Gwen, Spider-Woman, Batgirl, Ms. Marvel and Olive Silverlock, and it seemed as though the medium was catching up to demographics a lot more quickly than anyone had ever imagined. It thus makes the new launch of Starfire all the more curious. She is a little different than what we got during the new 52 relaunch, and while there are a lot of jokes at her expense as a fish out of water as an alien living in Key West, the same jokes also come off a bit as making her seem like a bit of a dumb blonde. That being the case, the writers even managed to replicate closely enough the description of Starfire as only being her breasts, as when she is trying to arrange to rent a room from two rowdy guys she offers the fact that she has three big ones ($3000) to spend but one of her admirers says that she has only two that he can see (her breasts). While the character is not treated as lasciviously as in her new 52 relaunch, it would equally seem as though the writers didn’t get the memo about the change underway in the medium, and without a change in outlook, Starfire might find herself left behind once again.

Strange Comic Trends: The Return of the Paper Masks

Posted on May 19, 2015 by

Back in 1988 there existed an interesting promo to entice new readers into picking up the new series Manhunter. The new series was a spin-off from the so-so Millennium company wide crossover, where former Manhunter Mark Shaw carried the torch as the last Manhunter, in this case more of a bounty hunter than hero or villain. The character was a bit obscure though, having appeared as an enemy of the Justice League of America on numerous occasions, as the Star-Tsar or as the Privateer. The character had a few tricks up his sleeve. The first was being an adept and deadly martial artist, but this was aided by his high tech energy baton and high tech mask, both of which were also associated with the Manhunters. The giveaway in this case was a paper mask which had to be assembled from the flat surface of thin cardboard to create a reasonable facsimile of the character’s mask.

In the meantime since now and then, a great transformation has taken place in popular culture and with comics place within it. Gradually but steadily comics have been entering the mainstream of popular culture away from the niche fans that it served before. The popularity of comics carries with it other facets, including the advent of realistic looking heroes in the movies (usually thanks to CGI) as well as devoted fans of cosplay. In this day and age the paper mask might seem like an anachronism of the olden days, a low tech solution to what is a serious fanbase.

It is all that much stranger therefore that DC Comics in its new promotional campaign for its post Convergence titles has decided to reintroduce the paper mask as a collectible and as an incentive to get fans into the stores. It might serve its place as a novelty of sorts but also is somewhat outdated, especially with the Harley Quinn mask, with so many other noteworthy and iconic takes on the character through dedicated cosplayers who devote a lot of time and money to getting the images right. This is only a part of the overall DC Comics marketing push, some of which seems to be really fun in its outlook, incorporating in other aspects of popular culture marketing, but this part is strangely only reminiscent of the past without offering much else which is new.

Commentary

Strange Comic Trends: Women Lying Down on Strange Backgrounds

Posted on May 15, 2015 by

This is not so much of a comic only trend, but it is one which is evident enough in popular culture, specifically music videos. As a design element it is common enough to find in music videos a female singer lying down on an eclectic background as she sings, with the camera panning around her, usually with them squirming a bit on the background as they sing. For some reason this has been an influence in music videos long enough that it was evident in some of Britney Spears earlier songs as well as recently showing up in videos for Meghan Trainor and Ariana Grande. Certainly there are only so many inspirations that can exist for music videos, but this is one which is evidently very female, as no male singer has ever been shown to do it. As such it would seem to be sexual in some way, even if there is no real implied sexiness associated with it.

Since the introduction of Grimm Fairy Tales from Zenescope it has perhaps been the covers which have gotten the worst press for the company. While the covers do often depict its female characters in suggestive poses it is also a series which is noted for the abundance of mostly well written strong female leads. As such over time the covers have taken on different context. While there are still some which are sometimes exploitative and even overly sexual, there are lots which also just pay homage to iconic imagery of women as presented in the media, whether that be a woman waiting at a train stop or an updated depiction of Rosie the Riveter.

One of the three main covers for Wonderland #35 depicts Calie Liddle in the previously mentioned pose, though in this case it would seem to be almost a bit tongue-in-cheek. Although this trend of using female stars lying down on different backgrounds is not really fully described as a concept, it evidently exists enough in the public consciousness that this title could almost be said to be lampooning it. At first sight the image doesn’t look too different but when looked at more closely it is very much not the norm. Instead of a background which is normal, Calie is instead lying on the scales of what appears to be the neck of a dragon, an abnormal place for this as compared to the pop stars who more often than not are lying on a carpet with a strange design. In so doing it takes this design element and removes part of the hidden sexuality of it and replaces it with strength, incidentally something which Zenescope is known to with its female characters.

Strange Comic Trends: Similar Homage From Different Publishers

Posted on April 2, 2015 by

Comic companies in the past few years have gotten wise to the collecting aspect of comics in a way which they never had before. The idea must have come from comic conventions, where publishers made alternate overs available for purchase (or sometimes to give away). The alternate covers caught on, and it became clear that there was money to be made by those that were willing to invest a little bit in variant covers, as truly some diehard fans would buy them all, as well as it served as a crossover for some others that would otherwise be uninterested in buying a comic at all. A lot of times these covers had a fairly basic premise, for instance showing characters common to the series in the city where a convention was based. Equally some covers were left blank for artists to fill in at the conventions.

In the past few years there has been an influx of these new titles, often times with a singular inspiration for an entire month for an entire publisher. This specifically happens at the big two publishers, as for instance in a somewhat shameless move by Marvel and its head company Disney, they decided to add in a string of variant covers for Tron Legacy right when the movie was being released (Tron Legacy being a Disney movie.) Other themes have followed since them between the two two companies, as well as occasionally with others, although the theme to note in this case specifically is the one which DC has ongoing at the moment, over its #40 issue of the new 52, and that is to pay homage to well known movie posters.

Tron Spider-Man

Some have been a bit forced, such as the Aquaman cover with Arthur as Free Willy. Others have been a bit more inspired and required a bit more imagination, as for instance the 2001: A Space Odyssey poster for Green Lantern, which mixes up too famous sci-fi Hals in a space setting. While the theme is a bit of a stretch at times, what doesn’t fit in exactly is the main cover to this week’s Jungle Book: Fall of the Wild. As opposed to being a variant cover, it was the main cover and was evidently inspired by the movie poster for Life of Pi. The cover even kind of fits, as Mowgli has been kidnapped off of her island and has animal companions in tow. Due to its theme though, it fits almost too well in with DC Comics’ similarly themed month, which could cause some confusion as to what certain people might be purchasing. Perhaps that confusion was part of the appeal on Zenescope’s part, for fans hoping to collect all the covers and then see another that fits. More likely though, the decision to use this cover was probably made long ago, and it was just coincidental timing that saw the Life of Pi cover go to press for instance during the same week as the Wonder Woman 300 poster cover.

Strange Comic Trends: Superheroines Get Impaled, Walk It Off

Posted on March 26, 2015 by

Warning, Spoilers Below for Realm War #7 and He-Man Eternity War #4

This is not a trend over one specific week exactly, but instead covers two months, though the end result of both comics occurred in this week (if the digital release of Realm War is considered to be this week.) It should be noted as well that there are spoilers here, particularly for He-Man. The interesting trend this time is a duo of unrelated female heroes that are locked in battle and are run through with a blade. Not run through as in a significant cut somewhere on their body, more like a stabbing movement with a blade that pierces both sides of the body, through the visceral mass. Presumably such a kill shot would hit many major organs as well and would likely result in a quick and painful death. This occurred to She-Ra in He-Man Eternity War #4 this week and in Realm War #7 in February to Britney although the resolution of her injury was shown this week. What is more interesting is that neither of these acts resulted in the death of the character, and instead was presumably shown more for the shock value.

It would be hard to remove either one of these characters from their active continuities. Although Grimm Fairy Tales has a fair assortment of female characters, Britney Waters is evidently one of the most popular. To remove She-Ra from He-Man would be even more notable as she is essentially one of only two main female characters in the entire series. In the case of Britney it was obviously even more for shock value as it was her werewolf metabolism which saved her, but although the blow to She-Ra looked just as bad, she was equally able to get away under her own power with the assistance of an old foe and presumably some magic, as her injury did indeed look to be quite fatal. What is even more interesting is that it happened to two female characters. While there is a move towards the modernization of female in media as able protagonists, their place as damsels in distress is still prevalent enough in culture. That this was done, at least in the case of She-Ra, is an easy way to prove the true evil of the villain. Regardless of the true motivation, the characters probably deserve better than to be treated as recipients of shock value attacks, especially after the degree of characterizations that has been built into them through some solid writing.

Strange Comic Trends: Villains Eating Heroes

Posted on March 12, 2015 by

This past week featured what might be a first in the history of superhero comics. On two separate covers from the same publisher, a supervillain appeared posited to eat a superhero. On the cover of Ant-Man #3, Taskmaster is seen trying to do away with Scott Lang simply by eating him, a solution that not many consider when facing off against the diminutive hero. On the cover of Silver Surfer #10, Galactus is seen to be in the process of eating the Silver Surfer, though he is shown to be putting up more of a fight than Ant-Man.

While this is a bit of an oddity, it is with good reason that it stands as an oddity. Heroes generally have pretty amazing powers, either the godlike heroes from DC or the generally more down-to-earth heroes from Marvel, but among these amazing powers the powers of super-eating rarely come up. My knowledge of Marvel is not as strong as with DC, but even at DC I can think of only two semi-prominent characters that can eat as a power. In the 1980s and early 1990s, Chunk acted as a villain and later as a friend to the Wally West Flash. Though evidently a dedicated eater based on his physique, his power was not strictly super eating, rather he could open a pocket dimension through his mouth. Another character is Matter Eater Lad, who can bite through and consume anything, even if it should otherwise be fatal to him. On a grander scale at Marvel, Galactus can be considered to be an eater of sorts, even if the eating is more figurative than literal, and this his inclusion in this strange comic trend is not surprising.

Regardless of how often a supervillain decides to bite into a hero, it is something which is rarely seen on a cover, even going so far in both of these cases to seem to be a complete consumption of the heroes. The incidence of this on two covers in one week from the same company is certainly an anomaly but also highlight the strange place of eating in the realm of superpowers.