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RobertMacQuarrie1 — Power Girl Redesign
#dc #girl #power #supergirl #superman
Published: 2014-09-14 18:22:32 +0000 UTC; Views: 5624; Favourites: 117; Downloads: 72
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I was thinking about Power Girl's design recently, in particular the justification that is often used for the infamous "Boob Window." This is something that has been going on for years, and there are still those that try to give some form of rationalization as to why a character as supposedly as strong and as independent as Power Girl would choose to have a design aspect in her costume that seems to be there for simply fanservice. One story by Geoff Johns tried to rationalize it as basically being a placeholder for a chest symbol of her own, or one that was bestowed upon her by Superman. A touching scene, but one that tended to be overlooked for more fanservice.And there have been attempts to give her a more practical costume, particular in the New 52 which gave her a costume with a closed up chest, but it didn't really look all that well (The "P" symbol is, in my opinion, not a good letter for a chest design, due to it's asymmetrical nature.)
So, while thinking about it, I thought "Why have it at all?" I understand it being a classic part of her costume, but it doesn't seem to be a very practical one. I get wanting to have something on the chest, but much like giving Robin pants it doesn't seem like much is lost in it's removal. And since I was closing up her chest, why not give her covering for her legs as well.
It's a pretty simple redesign, and nothing too special, but I think it still keeps the classic look of her costume while still being more practical and less fanservicey.
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Comments: 41
She looks a little generic with the changes you made.
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I see where your coming from, but I don't agree. It's not like having the boob window hinders her in any way considering how she's pretty much invincible. With the change she just looks like a generic superheroin. And you should know when designing characters like these, everything about them needs to be special.
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Oh... This is very awkward.
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It's nice, and I gotta say your colouring looks great! But I still have to say she looks much better in her original design. You have good intentions though, but even if a character has the whole sexy look down, doesn't mean they can't be a badass at the same time. 
Honestly though, I think people can go a bit too far once they start treating female characters like they're delicate little flowers that should always be treated with respect, and go nuts whenever they see them in a certain outfit as if they just saw their daughter on a Playboy magazine. Before I get attacked, I'm not saying you're this type of person (you're definitely not acting this way for one thing) 
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They way I look at it, it just comes down to intent.
For me, a character can be sexy without showing tonnes of skin. Catwoman is a good example of this. If you look at her design, she is one of the most covered-up characters in comics. Yet she is undoubtedly a very sexy character. She doesn't have to be wearing a g-string thong and nipple pasties as a "costume" in order to be "sexy." It's part of the character.
Power Girl is a tall blonde with a fantastic figure. I doubt that regardless of what she would wear, she'd be very appealing. Especially if the character was drawn by the likes of Adam Hughes or Frank Cho.
And in regards to the men's costumes, again we have to look at the intent and how they are presented. When women show skin, it's usually due to a male fantasy. When men show skin, it's again due to a male fantasy. Characters like the Hulk, Hercules, or even Black Goliath's first costume, weren't showing skin to be "sexy." But female character's costumes were, and still are. It's not done to show how powerful they are, or how hardcore they are. It's done to show some thigh, show off their breasts, and be sexually titillating.
I don't think I've ever seen a male character's costume designed specifically to appeal to females. And most of the time when I see people making that argument, it's from a guy telling people that women are to find this sexy. It never seems to consider actually asking women what THEY find attractive. And when you DO look at the types of costumes and characters women find sexy, you rarely see them going on about the likes of the Hulk or other "ripped" characters, but characters like Nightwing or the new Loki in the Al Ewing series.
This isn't about treating women like they are delicate flowers. But it is about treating them with respect. I can find images of women in skimpy outfits very easily. I don't necessarily need them in comics.
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I guess different people, different experiences. I'v met women and knew some girls back in high school that would make comments about Hugh Jackman's body in the X-Men movies, or talking about how charming and hot Robert Downey JR is in Ironman. Heck, I even knew this one girl specifically who was really into the scenes with Bruce and his love interest together in The Incredible Hulk 2008 film. To me though, hearing what they would say seemed natural to me since guys usually always comment about female characters, it all seemed fair to me. But it didn't feel like any respect was being taken away from the characters, even with their good looks added in.
Your example with Catwoman is true, I definitely agree that a character can still be appealing or attractive without having to show so much skin. I wont deny that there are female characters out there that I find very appealing (such as Power Girl for example) because of their design, but there's also a side of me that likes the character for everything else, the cool powers, the personality of the character, their story, etc. I'm just one person though so I'm probably not the best example of someone who speaks for everybody else, but when looking at these characters, my brain isn't telling me that all these attractive looking female characters are simply there for us to get off to, and that women in real life should never be treated with respect. Definitely not. But really, it's not as if ALL female characters are made to look sexy, we have so many that are covered from head to toe, just like how we have so many male characters that are made to be total wimps, even getting beat up by small children, but you don't see guys protesting about how that destroys their image of masculinity, right? I personally don't want all female characters to all look the same, so some showing skin and some that don't just adds more variety in a way. And I'm not referring to you so don't worry, but I personally hate it when people force their views on how female characters should look onto others. That'd be like me going around telling other artists to not draw THEIR characters with blonde hair, because other hair colours are so much more better. It just takes away people's freedom.
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The Hugh Jackman/ Days of Future Past thing is a good example of something that could be considered JUST for the females in the audience. It's not exactly serving any real purpose other than fanservice, and it's fanservice that is directed not at heterosexual men, but at women and arguably homosexual men.
And it also gives a good idea as to what the difference between what is just a man wearing less clothing and what would be considered impractical and just there for fanservice. Look at how women's costumes are presented. Look at how many times Black Canary or Ms. Marvel showed off their ass in their skimpy costumes over how many times characters like the Hulk, Namor, Hercules or the Silver Surfer did the same. When a male character is in a revealing costume, they aren't drawn in positions that contort or pose to show off their forms in sensual ways that appeal to women. Not the same way female characters are.
In regards to women getting into a sex scene- yeah, there's nothing wrong with that. Women have sexual drives too. So it's no surprise that they are getting turned on by a sex scene between an attractive man and an attractive women.
As for how male characters are treated, I do find that there is a lot of commentary about how a "man" should act. They should drink like a man. They shouldn't cry. They should bed a lot of women. They shouldn't be beaten up by anybody, or else they should man up and "deal with it." But, again, it goes back to that notion of a male power fantasy- that they should act and behave in a certain way. It's just that for men, it's empowerment and respect when for female characters it's about taking away power and respect.
There's nothing wrong with finding Power Girl's costume sexy. But there's also nothing wrong with pointing out that it is impractical and it's more for sex appeal than actual empowerment. There will never be a shortage of attractive women in sexy outfits. But there is a real shortage of females in fiction that are treated as more than just sexual objects in one form or another.
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Yeah, you make some fair points. I wont pretend that the men and women in cover art or title cards are all posing in the same way. They're not, for the most part anyway. One guy would be pointing his arm cannon towards us, another one picking up big objects, then there's the girl with the power of butts. Me being a guy who's open to many things, I do appreciate the sexy characters every now and then, as said before. But I can admit when it becomes too much, mostly with the stuff that's supposed to be rated everyone.
From all the stuff I wrote, I don't want people thinking that I ALWAYS want characters looking sexy all the time. I'm not in any kind of professional field, but I do make characters of my own. So I know how to mix things up, and have a good amount of fully clothed characters and some showing leg, cleavage etc. So when looking at the professional stuff, I'd like to see variety in their too. Without sounding weird, I'm a big fan of the leotard look, putting the obvious reasons aside, I also like it because it looks light, and very easy for the woman to move around in without having to worry about some floppy thing getting in the way like the other gender has (maybe that's why men rarely or never wear leotards?
Still, like we said before, we should always have a fair good amount of different kinds of characters and designs. Because I know not everyone are going to like seeing skin. So I don't want to think so selfishly. Hopefully soon we'll get a fair amount of designs of all types for both male and female characters. Then everyone will be happy.
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I have seen some people get rid of the bare legs but remove her sleeves. That way, she still has some skin to break up the white outfit, but it makes her look stronger and more assertive than the bare legs would.
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Pretty good! What do you think, what kind of Logo could she have? Some kind of P for Power-girl seems Pathetic (Ha, get it?)
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I don't think she really needs a symbol. Her look is pretty distinctive even without the keyhole.
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I LOVE this redesign! I demand D.C. give it to her NOW!!!!!
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Practical can be sexy too. I tried to do the same thing with the costume designs for my original characters Red,White & Blue: a full bodysuit but still tight with symmetrical designs.
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One of the oldest golden rules in the advertisment business: Sex sells! Or in comic and computer games terms: Fanservice! Any other reasons why she wore a swimsuit with a hole in the front? I don't think so.
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Well, there is the issue of color separation. Kind of like Black Goliath here: keddisambivalenttowardscomics.…
Or Third Rail from the Blood Syndicate: www.comicvine.com/third-rail/4…
Both of whom actually show off quite a bit of flesh in their upper torso area, at least in their initial designs.
I get the need to have some sort of color break in the costumes, and chest symbols or other designs on the chest area can often be difficult to come up with. It is a wide area that takes up the character design, and there is a need to put something there to identify the character or separate them from the horde.
But as those characters got arguably better costumes that didn't show off as much of their flesh, there's no reason the same can't apply to Power Girl. Particularly since the element of her costume has simply warped into just being more about fanservice than anything else.
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The two characters you mentioned are both men. A men's chest is not a private part as it is at women. In fact, men are topless at the beach or in a swimming pool. That's the big difference here.
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I like the window -it brings her primary features to the forefront (not like that) - it shows she is strong, beautiful, and womanly... and if someone objectifies that rather than respects it, that's their problem, not hers.
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But her "primary features" can be shown without the Boob Window. She can still be strong, beautiful and womanly, without having a hole cut in her chest.
Sure, if someone objectifies her, that is their problem. But why make it easier to objectify her?
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Psychological advantage. If they're distracted by her visible rack, she has an edge she can capitalize one while they're distracted. And if they're not the type for such distraction, they're likely the type who's gonna think she's dumb for displaying herself like that and "relying on it to win", and she still has the advantage of them thinking she's not as smart or as skilled as she actually is.
Incidentally, both this argument and the one in my previous post are ones that have occured near-verbatim in the comics themselves - coming from people who weren't Power Girl, convinced they were the reasons why she did it.
The ironic thing is, while they are both very valid and fully plausible reasons, they're not why she wears her costume the way she does.
Nobody's really sure why she wears it the way she does, since she's never actually had reason for her to have told anyone, and nobody's really seemed to care enough to ask, either; the "left it empty so it could be filled with a symbol later" excuse is just one of many examples, across multiple characters, of bad writing from Geoff Johns that has basically gone forgotten-and-ignored by both the fans and later writers.
Far as we really know, she wears it like that just because she wants to, and there's nothing wrong with a woman choosing to dress in a way she wants for her own sake, even a superheroine.
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The issue I have with it is, yes, there is nothing wrong with the character wearing what she wants to wear. But that's not what is presented in the comic.
Quite the opposite- whenever it gets brought up, she seems quite disgusted and offended by the objectification. This isn't like Starfire, who doesn't mind the attention or has any issues with showing off her body. This is a character that doesn't like to be objectified, wearing an outfit that objectify hers.
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I can't really say as I've noticed her having that attitude/portrayal - then again, I haven't really kept up since the end of the Gray/Conner/Palmiotti run... is this change recent? Because from what I used to see, she took any disparaging remarks about her looks in stride, letting it roll right off, not see them as a point of anger...
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It's popped up time to time. I think that aspect of "taking the remarks in stride" only comes up when they try to justify the sexualized aspect of her costume. Most of the time, it's digs at the expense of her figure or her costume.
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It's trying to justify it, yeah, that causes problems. Overthinking ruins it. It's a comic-book, trying to rationalize things in a setting where meek scientists can turn into rampaging green giants frm pure anger and an orphaned billionaire can have a massive high-tech cavern-lair built under his house and nobody find out, is just silly.
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But as the audience becomes more sophisticated, you can't just get buy with "It's a comic book, these things just happen." That not only disrespects the audience, but it also diminishes the industry as a whole. It's essentially reinforcing the notion that comics or superheroes aren't to be taken seriously, aren't to be respected, and can't be legitimate entertainment.
And as things have progressed, there have been greater attempts to justify certain things. Creators have tried to modify the Hulk's origin from just being about changing because of radiation, and make it into a more psychological condition rather than a physical one. And creators have tried to give a plausible explanation as to how Batman could have built the Batcave without anyone knowing (one explanation being involving immigrant laborers and blacked out transport vans).
So if these elements can apply to the big names, there's no reason they can't apply to someone like Power Girl. And if the keyhole in her costume can't be justified, wheres the harm in losing it?
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Can Superman wearing his underwear on the outside be justified? No, but silly as it might be, it's a part of his costume, and always has been. Look at the negative way the fans reacted when it was removed for "Man of Steel". It's a recognizable part of the character's design, just as much as his S-symbol or his cape or that curly forelock on his brow.
Even if that hole isn't truly a "symbol", and even though it might be silly-looking, it's still an iconic aspect of Power Girl's design - it has been part of her look ever since the literal very first panel she was ever drawn. There have been times in the past where it was attempted to redesign her look, notably some rather bad redesigns in the 80's that looked more like weirdly-colored gymnastics apparel, but inevitably it was returned to the standard of white leotard with keyhole, blue gloves/boots, and red cape. Why? Because that's her costume. That is Power Girl's iconic look - put anyone in that costume, and they'll be recognized as wearing Power Girl's outfit, just as it would be recognized if you put someone in Superman's red-and-blue tights.
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Actually, the removal of the underpants didn't seem to get much attention. Neither did it get much attention in the Nu52. It's something to comment on. But once it's been acknowledged, people seem to have moved past it.
And, as I've hopefully shown, you can get that "iconic" look without the keyhole. She's still Power Girl, just without the glaring fanservice.
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Not really... the look you gave her... nothing particularly distinguishes her, she seems incomplete.
That's the problem with single-color full-coverage outfits, they're just blanks. Yes, the gloves/boots/cape do draw the eye a little, but overall, it just looks like an unfinished costume with stuff thrown over top of it - the loose hip-hanger belt in particular seems like it's a poor-fitting last-minute addition. Nothing really stands out, there's no real coloration or shape to it. That's what the bare legs and keyhole were partly for, to break up the expanse of stark white.
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It's not an uncommon fashion on womens clothing, its called a Keyhole, Power Girl just wore a variation of it.
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Not uncommon, but also not very practical in terms of a superhero suit.
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Unlike the loose belt and cape ? surely they would be more a hinderance for her.
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Those are design elements meant to identify the character as a superhero. The loose belt is my addition, as other artists have made it a more functional element.
The Boob Window really doesn't make a lot of design sense in and of itself. It's understandable why someone would add a cape to their costume to look more like a superhero. It's not as understandable as to why a female would add a boob window, particularly if their character is about demanding respect from their male colleagues.
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Marvel seems to manage with a lot of cape-less heroes, so does DC to be honest.
By and large Power Girl was about demanding respect from her fellows from her actions, not her outfits. If they had issues with her clothing, that was their problem. Which strikes me as the attitude a character that was strong and independent would have.
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Yet it seemed weird that she would demand respect, then wear an outfit that would objectify her body.
There's nothing wrong with a character wearing a revealing outfit. Someone like Starfire, for instance, makes sense to wear a revealing outfit. That is her personality. She is very open about her sexuality, and doesn't have the same social conditions that the average person has. It's just who the character is, and the outfit makes sense for that.
With Power Girl, the justification for her outfit clashes with her personality. She says that it's not her problem if she's objectified, it's the other person's problem. But then she lashes out when she is objectified, and treated as simply a pair of breasts with a cape. For a character that insists on not being treated any differently for being a female, the notion she would wear an outfit with an impractical design like the Boob Window that exists solely for fanservice and it's the other person's problem for looking at her in a sexual way runs contrary to that ideal.
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Kind of hard for her to wear anything then given her body shape.
If you had read the comics you should know that Power Girl is actually a pretty contradictory person. At the most basic level, she is strong, she is independent, but just below that surface she has a more sensitive side that she hides. She is very good at her work yet tends to fail in more regular activities, she can get lonely even when she has a mass of friends, and so on, and she has been that way since about 1987.
These contradictions make her intereresting and to be honest, very human in character.
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But it still doesn't mean she needs to fly around with a boob window in her costume.
You can have a contradictory personality without providing fanservice.
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And it doesn't mean she can't fly around with a keyhole in her costume ( or in a leotard, or in a bodysuit, she's done all of them over the years ).
Take that up with the artists although i think your problem is your own.
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But to turn this around, why do you need her to have a keyhole in her costume? It doesn't serve a practical purpose, it's not an identifying symbol or anything, and it just serves to make the character less of a character and more of walking fanservice. So where's the harm in losing it?
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This... Is a really good idea! I never liked costume in the new 52, but this, this works!
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NOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO!! THE BOOB WINDOWS GONE!! Ha! I'm just kidding. I like her 1st New 52 costume. It's very stylish. But I'm still a fan of the original.
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