Speaking of comics and nostalgia, the video game Arkham Knight recently confirmed it will feature Barbara Gordon as Batgirl (a curious decision given that Barbara featured as Oracle in Arkham Asylum) and this is how she’s being promoted.  Per perspective – this is how Batman looks:

image

That’s right, not only does he get an outfit he can physically move in – but he is portrayed as a tower of strength rather than beauty ideals.  See how majestically he looks over the city he guards…

While Batgirl rests awkwardly on one knee (seriously try that pose) in front of… industrial power lines?  From the look on her face she’s swearing revenge on whoever convinced her that loose hair was a good idea in that weather.

– wincenworks

As for less subtle differences than the problem with Batgirl’s posing, there’s (obviously) her boobplate. Seems like even though the comics recently got rid of the vacuum-sealed/painted on “batkevlar” in favor of something more believable, the games are glad to keep enforcing needlessly gendered costumes.

And before anyone jumps in to say that Batman has visible abs end pecs on his armor… first, they’re pretty streamlined compared to Barbara’s protruding breasts; second, his plate looks like it’s there for intimidation value, hers looks like your typical “if no boob how woman?

~Ozzie

leggomywaffle submitted:

Saw this cover from a post by my local comic store. This comes out on May 6th and has the description: “featuring Vampirella, Dejah Thoris, Red Sonja, Kato, Jungle Girl, and many, many more! Villains and heroes from a dozen worlds and eras face off against a legendary evil that threatens all their homelands.”

Funny how not a single woman from this various eras and worlds has ever considered wearing more than lingerie into battle. The one ladies sword has more metal than her entire set of metal “armor”!

Combined, these women almost fulfill the entire bingo card! Wow!

I was really hoping that this cover would not summarize the content of the book, which is the combining of many great heroines from the Golden Age of comics – but sadly the contents of the book do seem to send a clear message from Dynamite Entertainment: Women are only worth putting in comics if they visually coded as sex objects first:

image

Nostalgia has a massive influence on comics, largely because only a few creative people are involved in making them (compared with video games and movies) and most of them are specialist skill sets. This combined with general risk aversion, means that sadly none of the “big” titles are prone to challenging their old conventions. 

This is particularly disappointing for Dynamite since the company only started in 2005 – but has huge gallery of golden age characters they purchased but have continued to make them generic copies of what made them so unsuccessful they were up for sale.

I mean you want to know how generic this cover is? Let’s compare it to another heroine based book J Scott Campbell was recruited to do the cover for:

image

So, while I want to be really excited about having a big story that is a lot of Golden Age heroines getting together, it’s really hard to do that when the art is basically reduces them all down to the same Barbie dolls with the same “How do we dodge the censors?” costume design ideas.

I love nostalgia as much as the next comic book fan – but at some point we have to ask what is the point of continuing the art if we don’t really advance it? And what is the point of doing a girl power comic if the introduction to it could be used as a textbook example of male gaze in comics?

– wincenworks

More on comic books | More on Red Sonja | more on J. Scott Campbell

As previously mentioned, Vainglory is a baffling game.  However there are few design decisions ever made that are as baffling as the choice to set up dagger blade high heels on someone who’s shoes don’t have soles and who jumps from branch to branch.

Why not just save time and stab yourself in the foot?

– wincenworks

jacquelinefrosht:

screamingfires:

Dragon Quest IX vocation appreciation : from warrior to gladiator

lol warrior bikiniarmorbattledamage

Judging by the warrior class costume design, apparently the “feminine” equivalent to a knee-long chainmail chirt, proper gambeson and fully-covering pants is… an itty-bitty midriff-baring chainmail boobplate top and a bikini bottom with a random piece of chainmail covering the butt.

It’s kinda sad how in comparison, the gladiators look considerably equal, even though the female one shows her belly and knees for no reason. And wears half a boobplate that really shouldn’t hold up with a few randomly placed straps.

~Ozzie