Does it disappoint you that WW is now drawn like every other superhero female figure?

[Robo Ape]

When she was created WW looked far more like what might be considered the average body shape for a women of the time. She was drawn in what could be considered in some ways a far more realistic way.

These days she is portrayed with same huge breasts and 'shapely' ass that nearly every other super-heroic female figure seems to be equipped with. I know she is unbelievably strong but does that mean automatically she should be so well equipped in the breast department, because as with Power Girl that's what it seems to equal. The stronger you are the bigger your breasts.

To me it's slightly disappointing that such an iconic character is given such standard body shape, well I suppose we should be thankful for the fact that at least she has far more of the classical Greek look than when she started out.

[Gail Simone]

Wait.

Are you talking about Aaron Lopresti?

'Cause man, I don't see it. He draws an extremely beautiful, but also humanly attainable, Wonder Woman.

[MinaRho1]

Wait.

Are you talking about Aaron Lopresti?

'Cause man, I don't see it. He draws an extremely beautiful, but also humanly attainable, Wonder Woman.

I loves me some Aaron Lopresti mainly for the way he draws women. No thongs, no buttcracks or needless boobcracks and balanced proportions. Before I took notice of his name, I thought the artist was a woman. It may sound offensive, but I mean it in the best possible way!

I think we need more artists like Ming Doyle. http://www.mingdoyle.com/illust/index.html
Beautifully drawn women, but without exploiting them. They're gorgeous but they look like athletes not pornstars. I can stare at MD's stuff for hours.

[Robo Ape]

Wait.

Are you talking about Aaron Lopresti?

'Cause man, I don't see it. He draws an extremely beautiful, but also humanly attainable, Wonder Woman.

His style isn't really too my taste. Anyway I wasn't trying to single out any one artist but more make a general point about how I feel she is drawn.

[PabloD]

I really like the Lopresti Wonder Woman. I like the muscles and the tone. It's also very much appreciated that he doesn't draw the bottom of Diana's costume riding up her butt.

[Robo Ape]

I really like the Lopresti Wonder Woman. I like the muscles and the tone. It's also very much appreciated that he doesn't draw the bottom of Diana's costume riding up her butt.

With a few exceptions I generally prefer a rougher more realistic look, the only kind of example I could give in this area off the top of my head is some of the art on the The Boys.

[nightforce]

I like Aaron's wo work but I prefer Terry Dodson and Rachael Dodson over his

[MinaRho1]

I like Aaron's wo work but I prefer Terry Dodson and Rachael Dodson over his

The Dodsons are indeed awesome, but I think Lopresti draws better faces and expressions.

[Spiffy]

I don't mind the current version of her that much, but I DO think the reason some think she's occasionally a bit cheesecakey is clear.

I get shit tossed at me everytime I mention this, but it all comes down to people identifying TOO much with the Lynda Carter version and not able to let go even a little. That version was lovely fun, but not DESIGNED to be taken seriously. The good of it was that it was fun and campy. The bad of it is that if its your sole vision of the character, it invites lots of comparisons.

To be fair, unlike the Lynda Carter-i-est versions, to be fair, the current one DOES have very good muscle tone. That makes a BIG difference. So she's got boobs? Eh. Big deal. As long as she's CLEARLY an athlete, I can deal.

I actually liked this version a lot:



I think its quite lovely, and not so "in your face" in the way a lot of comic book women are. Obviously she's still beautiful (beauty of Aphrodite, and all that...) but she's more althletic and less... bountiful.

Of course Quitely is very stylized, and can't do faces if his life depended on it, but... just as a general aesthetic "look" that slightly different but still very identifiably Wonder Woman, I think that's cool.

[MinaRho1]

I don't mind the current version of her that much, but I DO think the reason some think she's occasionally a bit cheesecakey is clear.

I get shit tossed at me everytime I mention this, but it all comes down to people identifying TOO much with the Lynda Carter version and not able to let go even a little. That version was lovely fun, but not DESIGNED to be taken seriously. The good of it was that it was fun and campy. The bad of it is that if its your sole vision of the character, it invites lots of comparisons.

To be fair, unlike the Lynda Carter-i-est versions, to be fair, the current one DOES have very good muscle tone. That makes a BIG difference. So she's got boobs? Eh. Big deal. As long as she's CLEARLY an athlete, I can deal.

I actually liked this version a lot:



I think its quite lovely, and not so "in your face" in the way a lot of comic book women are. Obviously she's still beautiful (beauty of Aphrodite, and all that...) but she's more althletic and less... bountiful.

Of course Quitely is very stylized, and can't do faces if his life depended on it, but... just as a general aesthetic "look" that slightly different but still very identifiably Wonder Woman, I think that's cool.

I love that picture. I can't judge the expression or the artist's ability to draw faces by that. I think the face looks fine. Its a pose that doesn't require much emoting, I guess?

I will take devil's advocate and say that its easy to fall into the trap of taking Wonder Woman too seriusly.
the campy fun of Wonder Woman is a nice break sometimes-- a little goes a long way. Some people want Wonder Woman to be a romantic comedy, or slapstick. I think others go too far into the 300 approach, which is JUST as campy, people just don't realize it. I would rather a more versatile approach to Wonder Woman. I like action dramedies.

If there's room in Superman for the angsty, thrilling and absurd, there's room in Diana's stories too.

[Gaelforce]

I just want her to be drawn taller.

She's an Amazon. She should stand taller than most of the DCU women yet is almost always drawn at the same height. Hell, she should be taller than some of the guys!

I still remember a panel from an issue from the first run. If I remember correctly, it's when her bracelets were stolen and she went nuts. She was shown later sitting in the police station with this officer in front of her. When she stood up, he was suddenly staring at her chest. The look on his face was priceless.

Lopresti does a great job drawing her as a beautiful, sexy woman without objectifying her with huge breasts, tons of cleavage and a bare ass hangin' out. Well done :)

[Kevenn]

Well, Wonder Woman's powers are MAGICAL. They're not a result of heavy exercize, so there's really no reason to draw her as a roided out athlete. I think it's much more "wondrous" to see a woman who looks beautiful but has a healthy figure accomplish great feats, than another Xena or Red Sonja or She-Hulk. We already have those characters for rough and tough "badass" women. Wonder Woman is supposed to be feminine. That's what's so amazing about her. She IS "girly." AND can kick your ass when diplomacy fails.

As much as you want to deride Lynda Carter for being silly and campy, she was feminine. THAT was the Wonder Woman that captured (and still does) the love of so many women and young girls. They saw themselves or a best friend in Wonder Woman who could do awesome things. I find it hard to believe that most women are going to identify as much with a Wonder Woman built like Corey Everson. That's what other characters are for.

[Deus ex Chris]

Well, Wonder Woman's powers are MAGICAL. They're not a result of heavy exercize, so there's really no reason to draw her as a roided out athlete.

That's true, but she's also an Amazon. She's been intensively training and pushing herself since she was physically able. She should have an athletic body not one that's all round and soft.

[MinaRho1]

Well, Wonder Woman's powers are MAGICAL. They're not a result of heavy exercize, so there's really no reason to draw her as a roided out athlete. I think it's much more "wondrous" to see a woman who looks beautiful but has a healthy figure accomplish great feats, than another Xena or Red Sonja or She-Hulk. We already have those characters for rough and tough "badass" women. Wonder Woman is supposed to be feminine. That's what's so amazing about her. She IS "girly." AND can kick your ass when diplomacy fails.

As much as you want to deride Lynda Carter for being silly and campy, she was feminine. THAT was the Wonder Woman that captured (and still does) the love of so many women and young girls. They saw themselves or a best friend in Wonder Woman who could do awesome things. I find it hard to believe that most women are going to identify as much with a Wonder Woman built like Corey Everson. That's what other characters are for.

I don't think anyone is implying that she be roided out. And its possible to be athletic and feminine at the same time. I agree with Christopher O. She fights superpowered beings on a regular basis, she's incredibly busy and active. In any incarnation of Wondy she's worked hard to hone her skills.

We're not talking about any extremes here.

And also, Lynda was very athletic and feminine. Do people actually remember what Lynda was like on the show?

CARTER: We did an episode where there was a bunch of football players, and I've forgotten exactly what happened, but they all sort of go crazy and Wonder Woman has to go in and flip them and do this and do that. I'd been working with these stunt people for a lot of years. And the director comes over, OK, now Lynda's is going to come over here, and she will just flip you right other here. But there will be a mattress.

He said, ain't no woman gonna flip me! He said, forget it. And I said -- he said, she couldn't do it if she tried. And so I just -- I kind of winked at the cameraman. And they started rolling. I said, let me just try. And they start rolling. He didn't know it was rolling. And it's just leverage, really.

KING: You threw him?

CARTER: I threw him. Whoop.

[Spiffy]

Well, Wonder Woman's powers are MAGICAL. They're not a result of heavy exercize, so there's really no reason to draw her as a roided out athlete. I think it's much more "wondrous" to see a woman who looks beautiful but has a healthy figure accomplish great feats, than another Xena or Red Sonja or She-Hulk. We already have those characters for rough and tough "badass" women. Wonder Woman is supposed to be feminine. That's what's so amazing about her. She IS "girly." AND can kick your ass when diplomacy fails.

As much as you want to deride Lynda Carter for being silly and campy, she was feminine. THAT was the Wonder Woman that captured (and still does) the love of so many women and young girls. They saw themselves or a best friend in Wonder Woman who could do awesome things. I find it hard to believe that most women are going to identify as much with a Wonder Woman built like Corey Everson. That's what other characters are for.

See? As predicted I'm taking shit.

I'd not deriding Lynda Carter (I didn't use the word "silly"... YOU did), nor am I claiming Wonder Woman should look like the WWE's Chyna (or whoever her current equivalent is, I think she's gone). I'm simply stating an opinion that Wonder Woman existed LONG before Carter, and yet since that portrayal people have a lot of trouble putting that one vision of the character aside. Superman has the same problem to some extent with Chris Reeve, and casting a modern replacement because they could make him look like Chris, but even still Superman in the comics actually doesn't LOOK all that much like Chris, plus there are the older George Reeves and current Smallville versions for more variety. And Batman... well... people seem to have shaken any inclination to think he needs to look just like Adam West, right?

Okay, this is all getting sidetracked from the main topic here. I think the current version is just fine, although as some have pointed out I don't think she can occasionally look different if you include portrayals outside her own book. We can take the costume debate elsewhere (and its already there) but just her figure? Its fine. She doesn't look weak. That matters to me more than the size of her boobs--I've said that already in previous posts.

Ah. But now we get back to the insistence that saying she needs to look strong is equivalent to saying she needs to look like a wrestler. No. No it doesn't. Take whatshername from that Biggest Loser show (goes and Googles... okay, her name is Jillian Michaels). I saw her on the Today show and remember being struck by how short she is. And clearly she's no more than 120 pounds. So that's clearly NOT female wrestler territory. But the woman looks strong. Maybe its just attitude, I don't know. Diana being taller ("because she's an Amazon", as some argue) is a position I'm not against, although its not a dealbreaker I guess. But just because there's magic involved, it doesn't mean she's going to look soft. It's the same thing as with Superman and the "his powers come from the Sun" stuff. I don't completely buy it. Sure, the powers do. But he's still got a body that because its been made strong, he uses vigorously. Repetitive movement forms muscles, even if the core strength behind those movements originally came from some other source. Now in Wonder Woman's case, even if we argue that her muscles are more efficient, thus need to be less bulky, they're still going to be VISIBLE, and I doubt she'd have any cellulite either. She'd be lean, as an overall tendency at least, and not rounded. I just don't see what else makes sense.