New "Supergirl" Art:
Awesome or "Fat & Ugly"?
Awesome or "Fat & Ugly"?
"But the real draw here–no pun intended–is artist Renato Guedes, who does some truly wonderful work. Ever since her return at the hands of Mike Turner and the launch of the series with Ian Churchill, the latest version of Supergirl’s been criticized (rightly, if you asked me) for her rail-thin, oversexualized appearance, but here, Guedes’ work blows them all away, and he does it without offering exploitation and calling it beauty. Here’s hoping these guys stick around for a while, and that this book finally gets the readability it deserves."
--Chris's Invincible Super-Blog
"The skirt in this issue was way to long, it just didnt look right. Noone is saying to make the skirt super short but make it a few inches shorter to make it lookg good."
--From the Comic Bloc Forums
"Kara (for the first time ever in her own comic!) looks like a real living person. She's not a perfect twig of a Paris Hilton-clone supermodel, she looks like an actual living, breathing person. And admit it, we all know Paris Hilton is leader of the army of undead... just look at her! She shoulda ate more of those bologna sandwiches while she was in prison, clearly.
And Kara's emotions and feelings were all over her facial expressions as clear as day."
-- Superman HomePage
"Fifteen minutes ago Supergirl tried to stop the Amazons' attack and somewhere along the line morphed into a chunky, cankled cheerleader wanna be. Oh wait, that is just the new machination of Renato Guedes as he and Tony Bedard start their [hopefully short] run on the title. "
--Cory Teague, Silver Bullet Comics
"The photo-realism makes it very clear and believable but at times, it appears a bit stiff. Some panels are clearly laid out around Supergirl striking a heroic pose-- even to the point of crowding out the other elements in those panels. Still, it is refreshing to see Supergirl depicted realistically-- not as an underage sexpot."
--The Comic Book Bin
"This issue confirmed all my fears about the new creative team. How long is their stay on the title? I can't wait till it ends. Art is the worst we've seen on this title by far (they actually made Supergirl fat and ugly)"
"Making her fatter and uglier with those biker shorts... it just annoyed me and made me feel like Supergirl and her fans are getting punished."
--Two from the DC Message Boards
"The art was GREAT. And so was the story! The bitchiness and sluttiness is *poof* gone! Is this a new creative team on the book? If so, I just might become a regular reader! "
"This was a great issue. The art – pencils, inks and colours – of Renato Guedes is just lovely, with, as has been pointed out, Supergirl looking like a human being "
--Another two from the DC Message Boards
"She's totally not fat! XD
I LUFF HER :D
She looks teh awesome! ^_^
She's pretty, she's strong looking AND she looks relatable :D"
--Ami Angelwings
Note: If you think the image at the beginning of this post depicts an overweight young woman, you need to get your head examined.
Ugh, they should just have George Perez draw the book, he's the only one who draws her well.
ReplyDeleteYou know, I always thought that guys didn't really need female characters to look like underfed, oversiliconed porn stars and that it was just the publishers thinking that "sex sells" better than good writing and art.
ReplyDeleteI was wrong.
Man, Supergirl actually looks hot for the first time since her comeback. Guedes interpretation of her is much more attractive and interesting than Turner and Churchill's stuff. It's a shame Bedard is at best a competent writer.
ReplyDeleteI also find Ami Angelwings comment almost as offensive to read as Cory Teague.
"Note: If you think the image at the beginning of this post depicts an overweight young woman, you need to get your head examined."
ReplyDeleteTruer words were never said. I love this style of art. It makes her look like a (still skinny!) human.
Possibly, the inevitable has happened - the antisocial comic-book nerd of legend has now become so terrified of women that he can't even jack off to a picture of one - preferring something that looks nothing like a real woman. Fanboys could sexualise and objectify the abstraction that Michael Turner and Ian Churchill presented as a representation of the female form, but Guedes confronts them with a well-realised depiction of a flesh and blood person and they don't like it one bit.
ReplyDeleteThis new Supergirl doesn't 'disappoint' them as much as it frightens them, as it represents the so-called 'growing sense of entitlement' of the female readership that they believe will ruin their boys club.
Having said that, Bedard still doesn't strike me as the best choice of writer to craft a human character around the art. Some of his Countdown material was godawful.
it really saddens me that there are people who disapprove of this change. she isn't 'fat and ugly' far from it. hell if they want a horrible image etched into their retinas i can show them my ex...the years haven't been kind...seeing that she's younger than me and now looks like the 50 year old guys she dates. i'm not even being mean..its straight up truth. the design of the new supergirl is really a refreshing awesome thing. its like a girl someone can actually meet as opposed to some nasty fucktoy unrealistic thing. i bet if these people who complain ever met a girl who looked like her now (however unlikely) they would creepily lurch after her and stutter like fools.
ReplyDeletei just hope that the team sticks around and with not so much editor driven nonsense.
don't get too harsh about ami angelwings...sure she writes like one of those AOL people from 1998..but she's also a young girl so its passable...if she was my age i'd take issue..but she's alot younger. hell i know a girl my age who writes like that and it pains me to say anything bad because she's really good to me. but sometimes i want to bash my head to pieces when letters are used to represent words and the non word 'luff' makes me want to punch a baby. i think i'm just overly critical and a dick...but i really mean well...i swear.
This just further means we need to redouble our efforts to contact DC and tell them to keep these two on the creative team.
ReplyDeleteFat? But... I... but...
ReplyDeleteFor cripes sake, she looks human (for once)!
I'm not following any of this Amazon Attacks stuff, but can anyone tell me whether this makeover affects other titles? I mean, it'll be sort of silly to have a realistic Supergirl in her title, and then Boobs McBeanPole in all the other titles.
ReplyDeleteHowever, "cankle" IS an objectively funny word.
Well clearly, anyone who disagrees with me is an idiot.
ReplyDeleteBlech.
ReplyDeleteThe "fat and ugly" folks are the exact reason that Michael Turner is still allowed to get the kind of work he does.
-M
I picked up Supergirl Issue 20, for the first time since selling off issues 1-3 last year to some sucker, or a teenager who wanted a stroke-book. I really enjoyed this new version of Supergirl. She felt like a person who was trying to do the right thing. She wasn't perfect and made mistakes, but that is kind of sensible and realistic. Superman has been doing his job of saving people for decades (even in the DC Universe where time stands still) so as a newcomer, she will be a rookie and mess up.
ReplyDeleteAs for the rendering of her, she looked like a real person. Fat? Nope. Ugly, well hardly, she's still an attractive blonde.
A vast improvement and I just hope Bedard stays on the book for quite a while.
I totally agree with you all. Fat? Where? The world has a serious problem if anyone think so...
ReplyDeleteI've always liked real women in comics, because I don't enjoy at all seeing skeletons with long hair and big breasts. And that's what many artists offer...
If she's fat then I'm... well.
ReplyDeleteThis is the art that made me subscribe to SG in the first place, and I'm perturbed that Bedard might be leaving after three issues
"Boobs McBeanPole"
ReplyDeleteMuch like McDonald's, I'm lovin' it.
I vote for "Awesome".
ReplyDeleteAnd Bedard is a good writer and I hope this team gets to stick around for a long run.
Hey, Rob, we're not all a "hive penis". I loved the new look! I gave the book a glowing review on my blog. I've enjoyed Guedes' art since the Rucka Superman days. The art reminded me of Pete Woods with bits of Garcia Lopez thrown in. My only reservation with Renato's preview drawings was that they didn't showcase Kara in action. But then I remembered that this was freaking Renato Guedes and my reservations were gone. Although his style is more "still life" in the vein of Jurgens and Ordway rather then frenetic like Byrne and Perez, he carried off the action scenes very well, especially with the cyclops. And he ACTUALLY MADE KARA AND CASSIE LOOK CONVINCINGLY DIFFERENT, something his predecessors couldn't master.
ReplyDeleteNot a SINGLE word against Ami Angelwings.
ReplyDeletePlease.
Her comic reviews for the most part hit the nail on the head - and the fact that she achieves this level of incitefulness using only cutsey-girl internet buzz phrases is all part of the charm.
Ami I salute you :)
Ditto re: Angelwings.
ReplyDeleteEspecially since she's the one regular poster on my blog. Rip her at your peril.
Hey, just discovered your blog. I gave up on Supergirl a while back due to the art and the heavy-handed stalker stuff. That's pretty vague, I know, but thankfully I've managed to block most of that storyline out.
ReplyDeleteGlad to see the series is doing better. I'll check it out again. Thanks for posting this!
Man this shit made me CRAZY. I mean, I am a totally superficial bastard. I am! I do also have actual experience with girls, though, which maybe makes me aware of what actual women look like? I mean-- SHE IS NOT FAT. EVEN A LITTLE BIT. SHE STILL HAS A MINISKIRT & A BELLYSHIRT ON. WHAT DO YOU WANT. Blows my mind. Staggering. Guedes is AWESOME. Middleton is too. I just...man, it made me embarassed for the hobby, it did indeed.
ReplyDeleteAlso, Ami has some good thoughts, but too be fair, the l33+ speaking, text-message style of writing does compromise it for me. I'm pretty tolerant of diversity of use of language, but some of the time Ami sounds like a parody.
ReplyDelete