Ultimate Wolverine vs Hulk

this was scaned from
Ultimate Wolverine vs Hulk

first superman

http://xroads.virginia.edu/~UG02/yeung/actioncomics/insidecover.html

http://ratcreature.livejournal.com/175099.html

A while ago I posted some scans from Wizard How To Draw series on drawing female superheroes (here and here), and I thought I'd post a bunch more from the first book of the series on "How To Draw: Heroic Anatomy".


As everything, it starts with the basics, i.e. proportions. First the male superhero


The female example is similar, but slightly different, notice how he stands firm and straight, wheras she stands with her hips cocked a little and the leg thrust forward?


Also notice in the direct torso comparison below, how the male one is ramrod straight, but she curves and leans just a little bit in the same pose?


Now onwards to the chapter "Sultry Women". It even cautions you against overposing! Yes, it's not as if Wizard wasn't aware of the problems! (Their definition and mine of which poses are already overposed might differ slightly though, heh.)





Next, Michael Turner explains "Sex Appeal". (Or what he thinks sex appeal is.) Incidentally it also illustrates the meaning of "overposed" that was brought up in the previous chapter very effectively...





Finally for compare and contrast purpuses the chapters on "Superheroic Men" and "Superheroic Women". For the male superhero it is all about more or less ridiculously enlarged muscles as we learn:





Female superheroes don't have it that easy, they need to worry about tilting their shoulder, nipple and pubic lines attractively at all times, not to mention legs, breast size, eye make-up and hair:

http://www.comicvine.com/women-in-comics/12-43357/

Marston's Dream of a Powerful Yet Beautiful Woman in Comics

"America's woman of tomorrow should be made the hero of a new type of comic strip. By this, I mean a character with all the allure of an attractive woman, but with the strength also of a powerful man. There isn't enough love in the male organism to run this planet peacefully. What women presently lack is the dominance or self-assertive power to put over and enforce her love diaries. I have given Wonder Woman this dominant force, but kept her loving. It is my hope to make this strip as appealing to adults as it has proved to kids.”

Marston was the writer for the first Wonder Woman comics, and he had written her as a woman with natural leadership skills, though he had always portrayed them with the themes of bondage. In one issue, she went mad because her bracelets had been broken, and the bracelets represented restraint and said that “power without self-control tears a girl to pieces.”

Body Image

The use of women in comics as sexual objects has been satirized where writer-artist Jhonen Vasquez had featured a tall, blonde, scantily clad, dumb super heroine in a comic called Squee! #2 where in the storyline, she has a hard time balancing herself because of her large bust and thin hips. Her career ends when she is tapped on the forehead and falls and breaks her spine, thus ending her career.

Also another example of how a woman in comics have been portrayed for her body image is Power Girl. Power Girl artwork was first done by Wally Wood who said that with each issue he would increase Power Girls breast. Eventually it was getting ridiculous of how large her breast had become to the point where DC didn't want to have Wally Wood to work on her issues anymore with DC saying that," it is becoming unrealistic of how big her chest has become", so since then they toned done her chest even though it is still rather large . In Justice League#37, Crimson Fox attempts to explain Power Girls outfit by saying that her outfit shows people what she is. "Female. Healthy. Strong. If men want to degrade themselves by staring and drooling and tripping over themselves, that's their problem, I'm not going to apologize for it."