Male superheroes almost exclusively wear skintight outfits, meant to accentuate every rippling muscle. I have also learned that in many respects the same can be said about male comic book characters as well. I am an expert by no means, but having read over one hundred and fifty DC trades (trade collections, not individual comics) spanning six decades, along with a host of other non-continuity comics, I feel confident that I have a fairly decent grasp on the comics world and how it chooses to present its characters.įrom all of this reading I have learned that yes, many female superheroes and villains alike are often dressed in skimpy or skintight outfits and yes, they are often drawn with certain body parts a bit over-emphasized. At the onset of this blog, I worried what I might feel as I read comic after comic, knowing I would likely be seeing a host of half-naked women gracing the pages before me. This concern stayed with me even as I began reading comics. They seemed in all regards to be gratuitous and highly sexual in nature. At that time, I had no stories to associate with the images.

Having never actually read a comic at that point, I was basing my opinion solely on the covers or individual panels I had seen in passing. For most of my adult life, I subscribed to the belief held by many, that comics were filled with scantily clad women in order to fulfill some perverse male fantasy. I write this having been on both sides of this argument. They state that the physical depictions are unrealistic and unnecessarily revealing, perpetuating the ideal that women are meant to be objects of male lust and little else.

Many groups, often comprised of women speaking from a feminist perspective, claim that comics are rife with superficial and overly-sexualized female characters. The concept of the female form and its portrayal in comics has been a hot topic for as long as I can remember, and has grown in volume over the past few years.

Unbeatable squirrel girl costume