Legion of Super-Heroes #4: Cheesecake Heroines
- Posted by Johanna on December 30, 2011 at 8:24 am
- Category: Superhero Reviews
As drawn by Francis Portela, this is how three of the female members of the Legion of Super-Heroes stand around talking to their teammates, all careful to cock their hips.
I’m especially put off by the “look at my crotch!” red panel in Lightning Lass’ costume, since that color appears nowhere else in her outfit. Along similar lines, I don’t really need to see in such detail how much higher Dream Girl’s costume is cut than the natural join of her hips to her legs. (What is her costume made of, anyway, since it seems to do an oddly specific job of lifting and separating, to quote the old bra commercials?) With Shadow Lass, it’s the odd position of her elbows. Instead of opening her arms to welcome back a team member, as the text suggests, she’s pinned her arms to her sides, the better to push forward her breasts.
There are a number of reasons why I’m not following the new Legion of Super-Heroes series. This style of art is one of them.
13 Responses to “Legion of Super-Heroes #4: Cheesecake Heroines”
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December 30, 2011 at 8:49 AM
As noted here, the orange panties phenomenon is, alas, not a new development when it comes to Light(ning) Lass’ costume –
December 30, 2011 at 8:51 AM
True, but shouldn’t we have learned by now, 40 years later, to do things better?
December 30, 2011 at 11:24 AM
Those costumes might be the ugliest things the Legion’s ever worn.
December 30, 2011 at 12:11 PM
Given today’s teens penchant for wearing jeans hanging so low you can see their underwear. Maybe teens in the 30th Century show off panties?:) lol
The costumes aren’t really that different than what they wore back in the original Levitz run. The posing is kind of weird though, obviously someone’s taking from magazine poses somewhere.
I have felt the new 52 LSH story lines have been missing something. I really enjoyed Levitz’s return, but since the new start it just seems lacking of focus. I honestly couldn’t tell you what’s happened in the first 4 issues, something about fighting a Daxamite but that’s it.
I also don’t like he new characters, there’s enough LSH characters as there is. The draw of having Levitz writing is his take on that group he made so popular, yet every interview has said how he’s changing focus to those new characters and I think that’s a mistake.
December 30, 2011 at 9:23 PM
Legion outfits haven’t exactly been terribly tasteful over ther years. If you want truly immodest outfit, go find a picture of 80′s Laurel Kent from the Legion Academy.
December 30, 2011 at 11:29 PM
I’m more shocked that Dream Girl is wearing Dart’s costume from The Savage Dragon/Freak Force. She just needs the boots:
http://www.comicbookreligion.com/?c=1687&Dart_Jill_August
January 4, 2012 at 6:52 AM
I’m reading very very little of DC these days and Legion is one of the titles I let go. When I see stuff like this, I stand by that decision all the more but I still can’t help to feel I slight bit of depression at how far down things have fallen.
January 4, 2012 at 8:21 AM
I’ve been thinking about this for a few days. It’s easy to blame the artist, but does Levitz’s have some blame here as well? Looking over the 4 issues there are a lot of scenes where the characters are standing around talking.
A writer friend of mine has often told me that the worst thing a writer can do is bore his artist. That while it takes the writer minutes to type up a page, the artist will be working days on it.
With no interesting backgrounds, most of the 4 issues take place inside space ships, HQs and factories. Add in that a lot of the LSH current members have point or stare powers that aren’t visually interesting. I can understand an artist trying to do something to make the work interesting to draw, which might be drawing pretty girls.
Not saying its right or cool, but maybe Levitz’s might consider writing something that engages the artist’s creative juices in a different way.
January 4, 2012 at 9:04 AM
That’s a really interesting analysis. You may be right. (“Point and stare powers” — I’ll have to remember that. So true.)
January 18, 2012 at 9:32 PM
[...] So many characters! But this is the first issue in a while that’s given me a sense of wonder about the 30th century. (Is that still when they are?) And it’s a pleasure to see them all doing so many different things (instead of the women standing around posing). [...]
January 21, 2012 at 12:37 PM
Artists who complain about “standing around and talking” scenes should read Faith Erin Hicks’s post on acting in comics (.She links here): http://www.friendswithboys.com/2012/01/page-163
As opposed to conversations with informational content, where the dialogue can often be placed in boxes over illustrations of what the conversation is about, conversations that have emotional content require an artist who is skilled at depicting the subtleties of human expression. A really good artist can create “invisible thought balloons” with facial expressions and body language.
January 22, 2012 at 6:55 AM
Faith’s posts about craft are usually wonderful and insightful. I would buy them, collected.
January 24, 2012 at 8:20 AM
And let’s not overlook the giant vulva on the front of Dream Girl’s mylar leotard…