For as long as I can stand it, I am planning a new feature called "Is This Gratuitous?" This is quite simply, where I take a picture from a comic book issue and we try and decide if it is tasteful, obscene, or somewhere in between.
For this week's feature, I present to you Teen Titans #43, part one of the Titans East storyline. On what I am presuming to be page three, Raven shows a little bit of butt to the world at large. There must have been a breeze to lift her cape up, I guess.
It makes me a bit jealous, because I don't believe my hind quarters have ever looked half as fine. It also makes me a bit upset, because I know that I will never look like that, no matter how much I work out. Does this mean that Raven is just naturally thin and pert?
This isn't the worst I have seen. I have dibs else where on that. But it isn't great. Why they couldn't have her face a different angle is beyond me.
Oh yeah.
It's the marketing.
Okay, now it's your turn. Is this Gratuitous?
Tuesday, January 30, 2007
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12 comments:
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Huh? What? Oh, yeah.
Is it gratuitious? Unless there's a breeze blowing through the room raising her cape up like a curtain, I'd have to say "yes", it is rather gratuitous.
They've also got the "Bruce Timm effect" going pretty strong on the bust, there as well.
Funny thing is, back in the Wolfman/Perez days of the Titans, Raven never came off as what sociologists term a "hottie". Lots of fabric.
That doesn't seem to be an issue these days.
Ahem.
I didn't know it was Raven myself. Of course, I am way, ummmm behind on the book. My first thought was that it was Batgirl without her hood or Talia in a new costume. I wouldn't say it's anything but typical of the current artists. I mean, all you have to do is look at the original or years back version of the characters to see the difference. The Teen Titans, The Outsiders, The women of the various X-Men titles and so on have changed from representing a fair variety of female shapes to all tall, buxom and with tight costumes, for the most part.
I don't know, I guess it really takes a lot for me to notice or say, damn, that's explotive, since movies, TV and other media have become slaves to reality TV, the growing ever icky unholy trinity of Paris Hilton, Lindsay Lohan and Britney Spears. After them, a super-heroine in a tight, tight costume seems kind of tame...
Have I seen worse? Oh yes!
But, her spine is really flexible because we're seeing her butt face on yet also a good perky breast shot and most of her face. Maybe it's not wind, maybe she's spinning her entire body around at the torso - some kind of ab workout or something.
And that outfit is SUPER tight and it seems to be a little cold in there. While it's more sexual than it needs to be, her flesh is covered, so that makes it slightly less gratuitous than some others.
I think you all have nailed it. It is slightly gratuitous, but not the most god awful thing ever. The butt defies all laws of gravity, and there must be a hell of a breeze there.
I wouldn't have even known it was Raven if it hadn't been for the book title and the cape! Yikes.
Yeah, I'm gonna say gratuitous. Also, I thought it was Batgirl until I read the post. That doesn't look enough like either the Wolfman era Raven nor the new cartoon version for me to have guessed it was her.
Yeah, when I saw that page, my immediate thought was "wow, that's unnecessary." You know, despite the fact that the first time I read a comic with Raven, she was dressed in tatters that made Vampirella look modest and breaking up Nightwing's wedding, I've never looked at her as a "hot" character, and it's weird to see her used for cheesecake.
But yeah, somewhat gratuitous.
Jeff, I didn't recognize her at first. The only reason I clued in was the title of the book. It was very strange to see her so "nimbly" posed. I don't see Raven as sexy, her dark side and mystery is what has made the character for me.
Starfire: sexy. Raven: mysterious.
Tom, that is exactly the point. Raven's character isn't driven that way. She is torn between good and evil, not underwear or commando, you know what I mean!
My two big problems are that Raven is too dark a character to portray as cheesecake, and that the artist is continuing the tradition of lazily drawing nudity and colored to pass of as "spandex".
The only way a clothed butt looks like that is if the costume is liquid latex.
Shawn, that is probably the bottom line for me. The portrayal of the outfit just didn't resonate. Raven isn't a poptart of a character. She is a more serious, dark one. To find her bathed in liquid latex is disconcerting to say the least.
I would have to say yes, the picture is gratuitous.
I can see entirely too much of Lex's bald head.
raistlinsghost- Hahaha! Good one!
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