Saturday, December 29, 2012

Long live the Legion—equality

PART III: EQUALITY

It's common in the super-hero world that women wear much less than men. But the Legion took it to an extreme between the Dave Cockrum and Mike Grell years. In the early-mid '70s ridiculously revealing costumes were sported by Saturn Girl, Shadow Lass, Princess Projectra, Duo Damsel, Dawnstar (check my other posts tagged for the Legion to see my take on them). Not far behind (surprisingly) were Cosmic Boy, Colossal Boy, Star Boy, and Tyroc. That's not bad, right? Except Colossal Boy soon reverted back to his less revealing garb, and Tyroc was a non-entity. Duo Damsel retired, and Shrinking Violet's neckline plunged, making the final score girls 5, boys 2.

Not much to say here, but, boys, show some skin! We need as many looking like they stepped out of an International Male catalog as there are women fighting in bikinis. Of course, the creepy thing here, no matter what, is this was a comic book about teenagers. They made lots of excuses as to why these teens were getting married and stuff, but still.

My drawings above: the Star Boy I promised Xavier, with '70s plunging neckline. Since I think he really preferred the '80s beefy bearded Star Boy, I compromised here with scruffy indie Star Boy. Ditching his turtleneck undershirt is Chemical King; then Cosmic Boy as he appeared in the comic—NO EXAGGERATION. And lastly, Ultra-Boy in a short-sleeve version of his shirt, and square-cuts. 

SPECIAL NOTE TO ALL MALE AND FEMALE COSPLAYERS: It is my firm desire that all cosplay be suspended until a very smooth cute guy shows up as '70s Cosmic Boy. Who's Who in the DCU asserts Cosmic Boy is 6'0" 190 lbs, so let's go with that too.

5 comments:

America Woke said...

Great stuff, Tim! I'm 100% in favor of defrocking (Hmm..I like the sound of that!) many of the male Legionnaires!

Element Lad could definitely do a rubber outfit...and Jo Nah has trailer park written all over him, so I would like to see some hot pants/Daisy Dukes with a wifebeater (complete with revealing holes!)

Yes, some cos-play Cos is necessary..although there was a smoking hot digitally enhanced version of that costume floating around a while back!

Scruff on Thom looks awesome! Thanks for some more great work, man!

-Rob

Javier said...

Ummmmm.

Cosmic Boy is so iconic that he really shouldn't have to share a page.

Javier said...

Oh and one other thing about Cos' costume. It actually matches the Grell redesign of Cos' girlfriend, the aforementioned Night Girl.

http://luchins.com/what-were-they-thinking/fashion-show-ii-the-night-belongs-to-lovers/#.UN_L_O0vSpE

Tim Fish said...

horrible!—keep her in the full body suit!

SCARCEXL said...

Javier: OMG: they look like a bondage SM couple!

Yes, I am TOTALLY in love with your Star Boy! Your drawings prove my point. Your legionnaires are alive, they have personnality and their design looks great. This is what the Legion needs, not some flat anonymous artist. They need someone with a strong style, cartoony is perfect, it really put the life back into those characters, unlike what we have been looking at those last 4 years at DC. :(

During the Giffen/Levitz area, there was also an amazing amount of barechest shots of male legionnaire, often while doing sports.
And do you remeber what was wearing Sun Boy?
http://chestofchests.blogspot.fr/2008/06/legion-sun-and-boy.html