Storm and T’Challa just aren’t in love. I don’t buy it, nude or clothed.

Johanna, I’m still laughing at one of the lingering, unasked questions in your post — when have we seen a guy in a superhero comic where it’s clear that he needs to use “sensitive region” hair removal products?

There’s also the issue of the “female gaze”. Men are taught, in terms of most entertainment, to think of themselves as the protagonist, the one doing the looking and acting. Women are taught to think of themselves as what’s being looked at, an attractive object.

The female gaze of it is one of the aspects of yaoi that I find interesting, since both of the sexually-appealing characters are men, preventing the creator from reverting to ‘male gaze’ mode (something even female artists do).

Um, Mr. T’s jewelry is not nearly as impractical as Storm’s in the above comic. It is also obviously meant to be a display of his (buying) power – not a way to draw one’s eye to certain parts of his anatomy.

John, I remember that episode! I thought it was pretty ham-handed.

There’s also the issue of the “female gaze”. Men are taught, in terms of most entertainment, to think of themselves as the protagonist, the one doing the looking and acting. Women are taught to think of themselves as what’s being looked at, an attractive object. I don’t know how you subvert that easily within such a male-dominated area as superhero comics.

Create a relationship similar to the one in the Star Trek:Next Generation episode, Angel One. Notice, the women aren’t wearing leather, or carrying whips, so that particular fantasy is also eliminated.

And yes, I think it’s not just what they’re wearing but how they’re drawn. Presented the right way, a tight pair of jeans can be sexier than a speedo… but the artist has to want to present the guy as eye candy, on at least one level.

Well, it would be more than a thong, because, as Johanna pointed out, Storm’s clothes are meant to be decorative not just revealing. So, irregardless of whatever else he doesn’t have, the Black Panther costume must include metal bracelets for the wrists and upper arms and the like to be the equivalent of Storm’s getup. Preferably something dangly that gets in the way of all that fighting.

I find the pose very romantic, myself, partly because their heads are turned toward one another. Even when people aren’t looking into each other’s eyes, heads turned together or leaning toward each other is body language indicating affection.

You just have to ask what would be the most impractical costume for a guy to fight in. Excepting sumo wrestlers, I imagine it’s fundoshi.

But in order to have her body on such prominent display toward us, she’s turned *away* from him. And with her body facing front like that, the way he’s turning her head makes it look kind of painful! If she were facing him more, it’d look much prettier, in my opinion.

And I think Storm’s beauty is part of why I looked at the cover with new eyes… her body is more realistic than the usual types you see in this kind of presentation, which somehow made the discrepancy more obvious to me.

JD, I feel the same way about older comics somehow being more forgivable. Thanks for the compliment, and good luck with your blog!

Since I started buying comics again a couple years ago, I’ve had a hard time reconciling my adult ideals with the stuff that’s offered for sale. I tend to buy a lot of older material. Part of this is because I feel most modern comics aren’t particularly worth reading, but part of it is because I can at least tell myself that thirty years ago, the creators and the public just weren’t aware enough to help themselves. That’s not true nowadays.

Mostly, I stick to graphic novels and non-superhero stuff. This is part of the reason why.

It’s sad to mock and not remember “i before e except after c.”

I’d like to add that I like how beautiful and mature storm looks. Pity about the bikini wax.