Redrawing Female Superhero Comic Book Covers With Males

In the footsteps of art projects like The Hawkeye Initiative, artist Shreya Arora is redrawing female superhero comic book covers with male superheroes. She is challenging sexist drawings of women by parodying them using male heroes in poses typically associated with women. You can read more about her project over at her interview with the BBC.

Redrawing Female Superhero Comic Book Covers With Males
Redrawing Female Superhero Comic Book Covers With Males

Redrawing Female Superhero Comic Book Covers With Males
Redrawing Female Superhero Comic Book Covers With Males

Artist: Shreya Arora

(via: BBC)

13 thoughts on “Redrawing Female Superhero Comic Book Covers With Males

  1. It’s both amusing and annoying how people display their ignorance about a medium they don’t personally enjoy while pretending to be woke activists.

    She Hulk covers of the 90s usually had nothing to do with the story; it was a running gag that they were often used as commentary on things going on in the world at the time. That cover is a parody of the August 1991 Vanity Fair cover where Demi Moore posed nude, very pregnant, to make a statement that pregnant women can still be beautiful and sensual. The cover generated a huge controversy. Which is why SheHulk is holding the strategically placed green beach ball, duplicating the pregnant shape and pose of the VF cover and the words “vanity” and “controversy” were used, in case the people looking are uninformed idiots and needed additional clues. This cover would never be done with a man, of course, because of the scarcity of pregnant male super heroes.

    The second She-Hulk cover. If you pay a little attention, you will see Shulkie is covering herself, not with a random newspaper, but with an enlarged version of the Seal of the Comics Code Authority; you can see the regular sized version of the seal above her right shoulder next to the issue information. The seal represents the list of rules that governed what you could and could not draw or write in a comic; rules that had been followed by both Marvel and DC for decades. It was a commentary on how many newer artists of the time (the early 90s), skirted the edges of the rules, overtly sexualizing characters, especially drawing females exercising and showering as an excuse to draw them in provocative poses in skimpy workout wear or wet and glistening, covered only with strategically placed suds or steam. Like most Sensational She Hulk covers of the Byrne run, this had little or nothing to do with the story going on inside the comic; She Hulk does not jump rope, naked or otherwise.

    Every now and then someone says “Look, this spider girl or spider woman (there are many spider females in Marvel comics) is showing her butt as she climbs the wall that she’s sticking to, they would NEVER EVER do that with Spider-MAN!” …And then a Spider-man fan posts 20-ish covers and panels from various issues in which Spider-man, clinging to a wall on all fours, is sticking out his butt EXACTLY the same way, often more pronounced, because the artists minimize the spider-female butt poses since they’ve heard this sexist bullshit since the first time any female character climbed a wall. They still draw these poses frequently because THAT’S HOW HUMANS LOOK when all four limbs are all touching the same surface. Go ahead, press your knees, shins, hands and forearms to the floor and try to do it without sticking out your butt. go ahead. I’ll wait.

    The Wonder Woman cover is a wonderful exercise in light and shadow and movement. She is doing a “joy of flight” movement, catching the sun as she turns towards the viewer. The fact that she’s turning offers many shapes and surfaces of her body and costume for the light and shadow to trace or conceal. Superman’s “joy of flight” poses are usually a Jesus-like arms-wide, back arched, just thrust out, legs together, or one knee slightly raised in further imitation of Jesus on the cross. When they first did that pose with a female hero, I can’t remember if it was Wonder Woman or Supergirl, the critics lost their minds, because “Look, you can SEE between her LEGS!” and so it became a thing that all flying women all had to have one knee drawn up when flying to block the view so you couldn’t imagine that you were seeing a woman’s ‘down there’ region in your comic. Butts? Sure! Masculine bulge? Sure! A smooth area where you might imagine a hoo-hoo on the other side of the cloth? No SIR! Form the mob, it’s protest time!

    Last, and honestly least, Howard the duck. No one who has actually read, or even flipped through the pages of Howard the duck thinks that it is intended to be taken seriously. Are we complaining about the fact that SpiderGwen, who studied ballet before getting her spider powers, and even wears modified ballet slippers in her costume, is doing a ballet pose/leap? or are they protesting the obviously mocking text on the cover, and genuinely doing an angry parody to protest what was already an existing parody because they didn’t understand it?

    Are there lots of sexualized drawing of heroes, both male and female? Yes, of course there are; well over 90 percent of comic heroes are some sort of version of male or female physical perfection, usually wearing painted-on spandex or molded latex costumes. Of course they are often going to be beefcake/cheesecake. Are these good examples of heavily sexualized female poses? No. The Hawkeye article did it better, both in selecting art of females to protest and additionally the Hawkeye drawings showed some skill. These were done by a novice that was trying to duplicate something they didn’t understand.

    1. Thank you for this really interesting insight. I have a question though if you don’t mind. You mentioned that the Joy of Flight pose was so because they didn’t want to show her crotch. But I then thought straight away that Spider Gwen is in a pose where her crotch is on display. Why is that? Are their other rules at play her? Thanks.

      1. I could go into a long and detailed explanation, but the simplest most immutable part is that Wonder Woman can fly, and none of the Spider-women or Spider-girls can fly. Their movements must be dynamic and at least tipping the hat towards laws of physics. There are no “joy of flight” spider-poses because none of them can fly. Spider-Gwen is a borderline exception as she sometimes does ballet poses while falling through the air owing to her dance training but these are usually not pointed at the viewer, or feature crossed ankles when they are. The spider poses where they are doing a kick, or are otherwise pointing their legs towards the camera are generally unavoidable based on the storyboard, and you’d see bellybuttons and crenelations of abs and lines of ribs through the costume, but the groin will always be as smooth and featureless as a barbie, or obscured by the camera’s view by convenient shadows or other obstructions.

      2. also, side note, in this particular image of Gwen, even in a joke image her crotch is NOT on display. it’s a super high contrast image with zero detail flat black from waist to thighs, and certainly isn’t outlined or highlighted as it would be if she were wearing a star spangled bikini bottom

    2. Just stepping in to comment that they *did* have She-Hulk skip rope naked in a later issue, pushing the joke even further.

      Not disagreeing with the point (at least in that book’s case), just wanted to offer that correction.

      1. it’s been decades since I read the comic and I don’t remember that at all, despite remembering that cover. She Hulk was a title I collected due to a combination of cheesecake and humour but, sadly, I can’t check my archives since I lost my comics when my family house burned down about 20 years ago. Do you have a link to an online posting of the issue to refresh my memory?

  2. I’m an artist and I go through this all the time. I draw what I want and what I like. Someone doesn’t like my thick curvaceous goddess? To bad. Pay me and I’ll draw whatever YOU want. If not? Don’t look at it. Walk away. Its the same with comic covers. Especially if you’re not going to pick up and buy a comic no matter what’s on the cover. The cover sells the book more than whats inside. The majority of the comic readership… is male. There it is. Here’s the facts. Although the female (superhero) readership has grown, they are still in the minority. Stan Lee said it himself. You can have the greatest story in the world and it won’t mean a thing unless someone picks up the book. And that’s the reason why you have that great booty shot of Wonder Woman.

    Here’s another fact. Most of the people who complain the loudest don’t actually read these comics and the comic companies will lose money and the artist go hungry if they listen to them. Why will people take the food off their own table, losing their actually buyers, just to please people who won’t buy the comics anyway? This a proven fact. My son’s female friend bent my ear on this topic one day for more than hour one day. About a year later, Valiant Comics came out with ‘Faith’ the first plus size female superhero, created mainly in reaction to ladies (like her) complaining about sexism. When I told this young lady about it she wanted me to buy her a copy (not reach into her own pocket, mind you, but me buy it for her). I told her to go to the comic store and buy her own. This is what SHE, and those like her, wanted. Support it! She flatly said she didn’t go into comic stores. That means, she doesn’t buy/read comics. I looked at my son (who had sided with this girl that day) and he said, “Yeah, you were right.” Comic companies do try accommodate people and more often than not these titles fail because those who demanded these changes, ethnic and sexually oriented characters, whatever, get what they want and then don’t support them!

    Now, some of these criticisms of depictions of women (not all) are NOT fair. Men and women simply are NOT shaped the same. Every one of these Spiderwoman poses are done EXACTLY the same way when spiderman is drawn. It doesn’t LOOK the same because the male figure is not shaped the same. Iron Man in a spiderman pose?? Yeah, right. The reason why she chose a character like that instead of just using Spiderman himself was for the very reason I mentioned. It would have looked exactly the same. These are classic Spiderman (and later Siderwoman) poses. I didn’t see anything wrong with the Howard The Duck comic cover. It was sexist because the female Spiderman/woman had breasts and a female figure?

    As for the rest, men don’t have breasts. So there’s no logical reason why a man would be covering himself and EVERY reason why a woman would. The artist even had to feminize the male figures in these variant covers to give them the curves they really don’t have… because their men. Duh!

    The Wonder Woman image WAS definitely drawn in a unrealistic manner for one purpose. I have to give her that one. But I covered why this was done. However, to make her variant work the artist still had to change Superman’s costume and give him a woman’s body… which says it all.

    Truth to tell, the male heroes are equally exaggerated. If these guys were brought to life many of them wouldn’t be able to walk (much less fight) with the muscles they give them. Or they’d die in seconds because they’re charging into battle naked with only a loincloth or fur panties for protection. Women complain endlessly about Red Sonja’s totally nonfunctional bikini armor, but totally ignores Conan wearing almost nothing at all. There was even a Conan live TV show once with a big muscle guy running around wearing nothing but fur briefs and boots. No complaints from the female sector there.

    This is FANTASY, people. Its not meant to be realistic. Does Superman REALLY have to be handsome and muscular? In fact, Clark Kent/Kal-El shouldn’t have muscles at all. His powers are derived from Earth’s weaker gravity and Yellow sun. Any bodybuilder can tell you that in order to build muscle mass the muscles need to be challenged and pushed. Even as a baby Superman could lift trucks. So how could he have developed such massive muscularity? What was he doing, bench-pressing mountains? Yeah, never thought of that, did you? But who wants to see a scrawny or fat Superman? Women sure don’t. That’s why the character is always played by handsome buff guys.

    Look, don’t think too hard on all this stuff! Don’t take it so serious! They’re only comic books. You can go to Instagram and Facebook and see real live women taking selfies who’d put anything in a comic book to shame and posing the same way… or worse.

    1. “I draw what I want and what I like…. If not? Don’t look at it. Walk away..”

      Shreya Arora drew what she wanted.
      If you don’t like her work, then don’t look at it. Walk away.
      Yet here you are, whining like a fragile snowflake.
      Show us on the doll, where Arora hurt you…

      1. except this artist isn’t drawing what they want to please themselves and posting on their personal archive; they are drawing low quality rip-offs of art they are trying to protest, and posting it very publicly while ripping off a more talented artist who already did it much, much better. When you make a public protest you are literally inviting, nay, DEMANDING comment and response; that’s the very purpose of a protest.

        Like the artist in question, you don’t appear to grasp the point; you’re attempting to make an “aha!” moment about something you don’t understand and hope using buzzwords and personal attacks against the commenter instead of the content of their comment will make you seem like you know something. Like the artist, you are doing it badly, because, again, you don’t understand the comment that you are protesting.

        You should understand what someone is saying before you attempt to be condescending about it.

        “Condescending” means talking down to someone because they display an absence of intelligence.

    2. point of information: Big Bertha of the Great Lakes Avengers existed long before Faith came out.

    3. Also, I agree about superman; he should be a fit but slim man like Christopher Reeve in the Superman movies of the late 70 and 80s; If you never encounter anything that is heavy to you, you don’t bulk up.

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