Scandal in Scarlet...

Created by Stan Lee and Jack Kirby way back in X-Men #4 (Mar. 1964) the Scarlet Witch first appears as a member of Magneto's Brotherhood of Evil Mutants. She fights the X-Men in Issues #4, #6, #7 & #11, and then Wanda and her brother reformed and joined the Avengers in Avengers #16. Confused? Me too, but most especially by the Scarlet Witch's head gear. I mean, what is that? Her strange choice of chapeau has been something artists have struggled with since she was created. At this point I have no idea what it is--a strange hood? A wrap to protect her coiffure? A misguided attempt at a crown? I'm not sure... She completes this stunning choice with a red bathing suit worn over a pink bodysuit with red gloves, boots and a cape. I suppose, considering what the rest of the Brotherhood or the X-Men were wearing at that time it can be understood why Wanda might have made some rather alarming choices. Now I know that speaking ill of Jack Kirby is like spitting on the Bible, but it's astonishing to me how many of the Marvel and DC characters I've disliked on look alone were designed by him. Seriously, does anyone else remember the original Loki? Sure now he's a she and seriously sexy but they kept the horns, I personally think to make the Scarlet Witch's head gear a little more palatable. But I digress. The Scarlet Witch became an Avengers character and for the most part remained one until the end of the Avengers series (more on that later). I guess they realized how ridiculous she looked and modified the chapeau to become more of a tiara or perhaps a headband. The bathing suit lost its straps and became more sexy but she kept the pink bodysuit and cape. This is probably her most iconic look. Her powers were simple at this point, Wanda had the mutant ability to manipulate probability via her "hexes", which usually manifested physically as "hex spheres" or "hex bolts". Wanda had a bumpy start with the Avengers, being wounded, disappearing, being kidnapped at least twice, before settling down and really joining the Avengers. Despite an attraction to Hawkeye, Wanda falls in love with Vision, an android created to destroy the Avengers but long since reformed. Despite her brother's initial objections (he couldn't accept the fact that she was in love with a robot), Wanda and Vision married. Shortly after this she finds out that Magneto is her real father and that causes her some stress. Also writer Kurt Busiek redefined Wanda's powers and maintained that they were given to her at birth by a demon named Chthon and the fluctuating levels of power she could access frustrated her further. She and Vision left for a leave of absence and then, thanks to Wanda's new upgraded powers she conceived and bore twins, Thomas and William. They decide after this to form the West Coast Avengers, needing time away from the main team due to Vision's attempt to take over the world. Confused yet? There's more... Wanda then finds out her children are actually two missing shards of the soul of the demonic entity Mephisto, and in an act of "kindness" the witch Agatha Harkness erases all trace of the children from Wanda's mind as the children had to be unmade. Wanda falls into a catatonic state and the Vision abandons her (having been reverted to an emotionless state). Now Magneto is able to take control of his daughter causing her not only to attempt to destroy the West Coast Avengers but change her costume. Wanda cuts her hair (bad choice), loses the head gear (good choice), keeps the red bathing suit (meh), changes to a black bodysuit (she is evil now), keeps the red gloves and boots (why not?) and upgrades her cape with a collar, color change to purple and a "W" front closure (big mistake). All of this must have been a side effect of becoming evil, but Wanda is defeated by her teammates and falls into a catatonic state. She is rescued from this by the Avengers and restored to sanity. She goes on to lead a break away team and Wonder Man dies, shortly thereafter the team dissolves and Wanda returns to the main Avengers team. Some wackiness happens that gets written out of continuity and an upset Wanda confronts Agatha Harkness and discovers her mutant power is actually control of chaos magic. Since the Vision rejected her Wanda uses her powers to bring Wonder Man back to life and the two become lovers. Eventually Wanda and Wonder Man break up because they realize theirs is only a relationship of passion and she returns to her true love Vision and inadvertently becomes energized with even more chaos magic due to villain wackiness. Embracing her power and gypsy roots Wanda dons a new costume. She wears a red corselet, red cape and red skirt with side slits right up to her hip. Bangles, baubles and beads adorn her in the form of earrings, bracelets, anklets and belt. Her hair flows free and she wears high strapped leather sandals, shown here in this picture by artist George Perez. She wore this outfit for some time and I think it's one of my favorite looks the Scarlet Witch has had. Enter writer Brian Michael Bendis who redefined her powers yet again, this time so as to allow the Scarlet Witch to warp reality, something Doctor Strange would later explain. A tipsy Wasp, after returning from an Avengers mission confides in Wanda about her brief pregnancy scare and mentions Wanda's own two children. This causes the Scarlet Witch to remember the children and she goes mad with power and warps reality to devastating effects reverting at some point to a variation of her most iconic look, seen below in a drawing by Adam Hughes. She kills a whole bunch of Avengers and recreates her children but Doctor Strange shuts her mind down and the Avengers and X-Men are left to decide Wanda's fate. Her brother Pietro convinces Wanda to warp reality once again as the Avengers and X-men were planning to kill her and this led to the cross over event, House of M. During this event Wanda granted all the heroes greatest wishes and her own, which was to not be a mutant and the mother of two boys, William and Thomas. I won't go into it now, but for a hilarious parody synopsis check out Wogoat's four part House of M series. Wanda is eventually defeated and punishes her Father by warping reality once again, this time robbing most of the worlds' mutants of their powers and mutations. She apparently loses her own powers and memories and lives a secluded life at the base of Wundagore mountain. Though Wanda is still living at the base of Wundagore mountain the Scarlet Witch can be seen in Mighty Avengers (though it's not really Wanda but the Evil Loki, who probably chose to keep Wanda's classic look because her tiara is more understated than Loki's own). Wanda has also appeared in several animated series, both as a main character and as a recurring character. In most cases she appeared in variations of what she was wearing in the comics, but in the animated series X-Men: Evolution they reinvent her as a goth, abandoned at a mental institute by her father Magneto. When Wanda escapes she is aided in learning to control her powers by Agatha Harkness and Mystique, eventually joining Mystique's brotherhood. She has short black hair with a shaved step cut and the shorter hairs are dyed red. She wears a red bodysuit and long red trench coat. Long black fingerless gloves, an ankh choker and ankh earrings and black boots with armoured greaves complete her look. Once again we see a powerful Wanda, driven mad by the levels of her power. It seems to be a recurring theme with the character, she possesses great power but due to her fractured emotional state of mind is continually losing control of it. To me it seems like an obvious case of misogyny, and Wanda isn't the only all-powerful female red head in the Marvel universe that has had to be repeatedly put down due to going mad because of her power. Even when reinvented in the Ultimates universe Wanda is the victim and ultimately serves as little more than a plot device to motivate her brother. Her costume in the Ultimates universe is very different from her other costumes. A red leather midriff bearing tube top with red accents and what appears to be matching leather pants. She wears no headband and lets her hair flow free, always a good choice in my books. This isn't really the purpose of my blog, but I thought I'd take a moment to get up on the soap box. The Scarlet Witch is an incredibly powerful character who is also very popular. Marvel has repeatedly demonstrated a lack of respect for its female characters whether through overt over sexualization or through the repeated and tired overly emotional female with super powers goes mad plot line. Why can't they tell a story about a powerful woman who can control her powers? Check out Women in Refrigerators or Girl Wonder.org to take a look at some of the atrocities committed in the comic book world to various female characters. You can also follow the battle at Girls read comics and I always encourage people to email editors when they see women being portrayed badly in comics. Join me later this week to see a few ideas I have on what the Scarlet Witch should wear and in the meantime here's a few more pictures of Wanda in various outfits by various artists.





Wanda Maximoff, the Scarlet Witch, the Avengers, the X-Men and all related symbols, insignia, costumes etc, are all © Trademarks of Marvel Comics and the images reproduced here are used only as illustrations for the purpose of costume critique and the promotion of Marvel Comics

Scarlet Witch coming soon...

But in the meantime here's a picture I drew of DC Comics' Batgirl, Wonder Girl & Starfire (for my Birthday party) all in their early 80's-ish incarnations. At some point in the future I will be discussing all of these ladies, particularly Starfire. The background is a bit of a cheat. I drew the background as boxes copied from a photo and added colours and then photshoped the hell out of it to make it look like that. Buildings are a weaknes of mine, I'm better with organic matter.

(All the usual copyrights apply-Batgirl, Starfire and Wonder Girl are all owned by DC Comics)

EXTRA!! Supergirl gets shorts!!!

Apparently someone is listening and in June, DC Editor Matt Idelson said "I never want to see Supergirl's panties again.” Check it out, forwarded to me by Ipstenu you can read about it here in Dorothy Snarker's Blog. It's a good first step, DC! We love you Matt!!

Solutions for Supergirl...

Sorry about taking so long to post this, I was called away from HQ to investigate reported sightings in Northern Canada of Alpha Flight, Canada's premier superhero team. While I was unable to find them I spent some quality time with a chipmunk, who was more than happy to eat from my hand and promised to alert me to the presence of any badly dressed costume commandos. In case you happen to spot them, this is what Alpha Flight looks like, and as you can see most of them are in desperate need of a makeover. But this post is about Supergirl, who is slightly related to Alpha Flight in that her cousin was created by Canadian born artist Jerry Seigel (with American born writer Joe Shuster) which can only lead one to suppose that in Shuster's mind Canada must be Krypton, and reveals the fact that Americans' fear its eventual overtaking of the world with its superior glacier technology. This also explains the chunky icy look in the film adaptations of the great planet Krypton--where fashion logic does not resemble our Earthly logic. Thankfully Canadians as a society dress better than Kryptonians (we tend to keep our underwear under our clothing) and avoid shiny glow-in-the-dark polyester robes. Supergirl is a character who has had a hard time getting out from under the shadow of her older, more established male cousin. Often portrayed as a female copy of Superman, yet emotional, more gullible and seemed to possess the unspoken super power of falling in love with the villain in disguise. While I find that amusing I'd like to see Supergirl become tougher (and she certainly has since Kara Zor-El was re-introduced into the mainstream DCU by writer Jeph Loeb and artist Michael Turner--read the collected issues in the Superman/Batman TPB "Supergirl"). While still maintaining her sweetness, youthfulness and exuberance she still wasn't afraid to let loose with the heat vision. So I took direct inspiration from her cousin's look and tried to give her a more imposing and powerful look. Her long sleeve mid-riff baring top has been replaced with a no sleeve blue bodysuit and yellow belt with red shorts, red boots and red gloves. I wanted something with clean lines and no cape, as both Superman and Supergirl wear their costumes under their clothes and capes tend to add a lot of bulk. I love a cape as much as the next guy, and certainly Supergirl has little to fear from cape catastrophes I still thought it might be nice to try a capeless look for the Girl of Steel. With that in mind and again looking to Jeph Loeb's re-vamp of the character I decided that I'd like to see a more obvious Amazon influence in her costuming as she states the fact that part of her uniform takes its inspiration from Amazonian culture. While Supergirl generally needs no armour I liked the idea of a stylized breast plate with a reinforced leather bodice and thought the Amazons' would likely have awarded her bracelets as a sign of their acceptance of her. Her hair is slightly inspired by Wonder Woman's from the 1970s Super Friends series. The blue pants and red boots acknowledge her connection to Superman and she still bears his symbol. I also really loved what Jeph Loeb did with Kara and would like to see more of that reflected in her attitude and dress. Anything likely to hurt Supergirl would be more than likely to hurt such a uniform, but I love the idea of Kara playing bullets and bracelets with kryptonite bullets, which since her arrival on Earth have been in plentiful supply (check your local K-Mart...you never know). While I believe a lot of said Kryptonite has been locked away for Kryptonian protection, it'll only be a matter of time before the vault explodes and every petty villain will have kryptonite in their backyard. Again. Part of Supergirl's role in the DCU is to act as a balance to her cousin and an inspiration to young women everywhere. In a sense she's a kind of cheerleader or as some prefer "inspiration leader". With that in mind I wanted something cute, and with a skirt and cape. I'm not against either if used properly. Skirts should be at the minimum mid-thigh and accompanied with hot pants or some similar piece of underclothing that you will look decent in when you are inevitably exposed. Capes require a suspension of disbelief for a variety of reasons but they still look good on a hero so we accept them most of the time. Also if composed of Kryptonian fabric the cape affords a shield of invulnerability that is useful in protecting innocent bystanders. I decided to make a nod to her connection to Power Girl in terms of colour scheme while still using to small "S-shields" to anchor her cape, and remind us of her cousin and origin. I kept the gold trim of the Turner design but changed the boots to white. While I recognize for most people white boots are problematic, these are Kryptonian boots which are indestructible, so a quick blast of heat vision or super breath will keep them looking clean and pristine. If Superman is the world's biggest Boy Scout than Supergirl should have at least a dash of Girl Scout, and I like the look of her as the world's deadliest cheerleader. I think it was Peter David who spoke of the Supergirl we all love and remember as the 1960s-70s Supergirl full of innocence and joy and ready to fall in love with any handsome super-villain she could find. Peter David's run on Supergirl was amazing, and while Kara Zor-El was not the title character her presence resonated throughout the series. You should read it (though only two TPBs were released the first one simply called "Supergirl" introduces us to Matrix and tells the story of how she becomes Linda Danvers, and the second, "Supergirl: Many Happy Returns" introduces Linda Danvers to Kara Zor-El). At any rate I digress, though good stories artist Ed Benes in the second TPB transforms Linda's skirt into little more than a spandex belt. The last thought on Kara that I have is actually Kara Zor-L, or perhaps as she's better known--Power Girl. For a long time she's been unable to publicly acknowledge her ties to both Krypton and the House of El (or L). Now everyone knows she's the Earth Two Superman's cousin from an alternate dimension, here as a powerhouse in the JSA and now appearing in her own eponymous monthly title. So I thought an addition was an order. I know it's a big gag in the comics world--the size of Power Girl's boobs and that her boobs are her symbol, but I think it's a little old. She can have an "S" and still bare a bit of chest, and while we're at it, notched bottoms--NO THONGS. I really quite like Power Girl and really enjoy Amanda Conner's art--I'm looking forward to reading it. I am very far behind on my comic book reading and have a week's worth of reading to do to catch up. I'm also collaborating on my own original works including an online comic or two and some animated stuff, but more on that later. So between chipmunks, hunting for Sasquatch and all the rest, the Fashion Sentinel has been a little busy as of late. But not so busy that I haven't been constantly attempting to locate my many and various targets. As the Fashion Sentinel I often feel it is part of my duty to avenge the costume crimes committed against the various heroes and villains I target. After all, its not their fault if they look bad, they're just drawn that way. Sometimes it seems to me that the artists and writers aren't giving the characters the portray enough respect, and with that we come to my latest target in need of avenging. TARGET ACQUIRED: Wanda Maximoff AKA the Scarlet Witch and member of the Avengers.
Superman, Supergirl, Power Girl, Wonder Woman, Kara Zor-El, Kara Zor-L, Linda Danvers, Matrix and all related symbols, insignia, costumes etc, are all © Trademarks of DC Comics and the images reproduced here are used only as examples of my ideas for various costumes and the promotion of DC Comics
Alpha Flight, the Scarlet Witch, the Avengers and all related symbols, insignia, costumes etc, are all © Trademarks of Marvel Comics and the images reproduced here are used only as illustrations for the purpose of costume critique and the promotion of Marvel Comics

Marvel Villains

I must confess to one of my biggest difficulties enjoying Marvel Comics--the look of the Marvel Villains. They are definitely working on it, but when I can bring myself to draw your attention to it, get ready for some truly frightening looks...and I don't mean scary. In the meantime here's a hilarious cartoon look at the villains in the Marvel Universe. Brought to us by Newgrounds.com and the brilliant Wogoat (and associates) take a look at "Marvel Villains Assemble".

Supergirl, the girl with a 1000 costumes

I wanted to confirm a few important facts before I made this post. When I review these costumes I like to look at them within the context of the comic book world they were created in because obviously we know there is no real skin tight fabric that could be made into a costume that would survive in battle for more than a few seconds. In most of her incarnations, Supergirl has access to Kryptonian fabric and it shares in her invulnerability to a certain degree. But not all Supergirls are Kryptonian and have access to all her powers. Seen here in a drawing by Ed McGuinness is a collection of the various Supergirls, going clockwise from the top left we have Linda Danvers (the Earth Born Angel), Kara Zor-L (Supergirl from a Parallel Earth), Cir-El (a human hybrid clone genetically engineered to have Kryptonian-esque powers)& Kara Zor-El (another Supergirl from a Parallel Earth). In the bottom left corner we have Bizzaro (an imperfect Clone of Superman) presenting these Supergirls to the Supergirl of the primary Earth in DC Comics. Its confusing, but I figured we needed that much information to address the various costumes she has worn. We'll start in the sixties when Supergirl made her first appearance. Originally created by Otto Binder and Al Plastino Kara Zor-El arrived on Earth and was the long lost cousin of Superman, whom he hid in an orphanage so that she could be his secret weapon in times of need. Eventually he allowed her to be adopted and go public with her Supergirl persona and after time, the girl could not decide what to wear. She originally appears in a simple blue dress with a short skirt, belt boots and cape. This costume was made by her mother after they had spent some time watching Superman on a "super-telescope" from the floating Argo City which was doomed much like its home planet Krypton. However once she went public it seemed Kara decided she needed to mix it up a little. So she traded in her cute mini dress for some shorts and a blousy top--its not entirely her fault it was the early seventies, and for superheroes a particularly interesting time in terms of fashion. Artists were starting to become a little more fashion conscious and started drawing their female character in different outfits that they supposed were a little more hip. It was shortly after this point that the Supergirl eponymous title offered reader/artists the chance to design new Supergirl costumes and she would wear winning designs in the book. One such costume, pictured her, shows Kara being fitted by Diana Prince (aka Wonder Woman who at this point in her life is a super spy/Mod Boutique Owner), in the panel they promise to reveal which contributing artist designed the costume in the next issue as well as several other designs. Here she wears a long sleeved variant of her blue mini-dress, adds red trim to the hem of her skirt, a seventies-rific belt, thigh high red boots, red gloves and keeps her cape. It's a cute look and probably a step up from the blousy shorts and shirt combo but that outfit returned and she continued to wear variations of the blouse/shorts outfit over the years until the 1980's when Supergirl got her second eponymous title, and after a few issues got a brand new look to go with it. The S-logo on her chest is lifted to her collar and attached to her cape, which gives her a neat draping look with the cape sometimes. Her red shorts became a red kilt and a v-shaped belt was added, along with boots to complete the look. Than she added one more thing, a red headband which in Kryptonian custom only men wore. I'm all about remembering past traditions but...let me put it this way, my ancestors were hanging people they suspected of being cattle thieves because they had wire cutters on them. I'm sure if I resurrected this tradition and starting hanging people who came around my house with lock picks or glass cutters it would be frowned upon. And whether DC agrees or not I think that headband was one of the factors that led to Kara Zor-El's death in "Crisis on Infinite Earths" (which has been released in TPB form--go by it its a great Supergirl story). They claim they wanted to return to the idea of Superman being the last son of Krypton and rebooted a great many of titles. They quickly realized though, that people wanted a Supergirl and they made a couple of efforts to satisfy that desire. Supergirl's first feature length film had been released a couple of years prior to "Crisis" and the look she wore in the movie was a mix of different comic looks and has become one of the most recognizable looks for Supergirl. Say what you will about the movie (I loved it but I saw it when I was a kid so...) but Helen Slater joins the list of people who were cast absolutely perfectly to play the role of a superhero. It was a lot of fun but something more suitable for kids to watch than adults (unless like me you enjoy a healthy helping of cheese with your movies). Seen here in a still shot in the fictitious town of Leesburg, Supergirl prepares to defend the innocent. So when DC comics reintroduced the character of Supergirl she was reinvisioned as a protoplasmic matrix made in honour of Superman with telekinetic and other gifts that allowed her to mimic his powers. The look of Helen Slater's Supergirl was so popular they simply adapted the costume and the Matrix Supergirl was born, or Mae as she was called by the Kents who helped her adjust to life on earth. She floundered around for a little while until getting her own series written by Peter David, drawn by various artists over it's six year run. I avoided this series like the plague because to me there was only one Supergirl: Kara Zor-El, Superman's cousin from Krypton. The little I knew about was the Matrix Supergirl had merged with the dying body of a woman named Linda Danvers and now as one they were fighting crime. Meanwhile the "supergirl" of Earth Two who was known as Power Girl was also kicking around, but she'd been given a new Atlantean origin and thinks got more confusing from there. Eventually they settled on the white uniform pictured her with the circle peek-aboo to show off Power Girl's ample chest--which has become something of a joke in the industry. In this picture by Amanda Conner Power Girl is rethinking her life and trying to understand her place on this Earth. It is eventually revealed to her that she's Superman's cousin from another universe and in a tearful explanation to this Earth's Superman Power Girl explains that the hole in her costume was left open because she didn't feel worth to wear the S-logo and left it blank until she could. Power Girl is now appearing in her own monthly title and I encourage you to support if for no other reason than Amanda Connor's art which is great for this character and drawing women in general. Meanwhile in Supergirl's 3rd eponymous title, it got more complicated than it had previously been and Linda Danvers had to find a new outfit. Forced to pick clothes from a Superhero-centric store she came up with this ensemble. A white crop top with black trim at cuffs and hem with the standard S logo, a blonde wig and headband (which stuck to her head due to the telekinetic nature of her powers) a blue mini skirt that's often drawn as little more than a large spandex belt that barely covers her, white gloves (presumably to hide her fingerprints) and red chunky heeled lace up boots. Not bad and definitely different from any outfit she'd previously worn. It wasn't until the 79th issue of the book that I actually read it and, boy was I amazed. I've since tracked down Peter David's entire Supergirl run and let me tell you, it is awesome. Despite the dramatic changes imposed on him by DC he never lost sight of Kara and though she isn't the main character, Kara is a guiding force in Linda Danvers life. The book was cancelled with issue #80 (I think) and Linda Danvers retired her cape and disappeared to make room for a new Supergirl, this one called Cir-El. Cir-El was part of a plot by Superman's enemies to make his life more difficult and she was presented to him as his daughter from the future. He eventually figured that out and she faded into obscurity or maybe disappeared from the time line, I'm not to sure. I was not in favour of this new Supergirl anymore than I had been in favour of Linda, despite the fact that this Supergirl broke from the previously established costume mold even farther than any Supergirl before. Seen here in a drawing by Ed McGuinness, Cir-El is wearing a black unitard with a mostly full bottomed seat and a red S painted across it, a blue cape, black boot and black gloves, but also black short hair. The first time any Supergirl hadn't been a blonde. Cir-El was a temporary measure and finally 20 years after her death in Crisis Kara Zor-El officially returned to the main Earth of the DCU. This time the story was complicated by the involvement of both Batman and later Wonder Woman so Supergirl ends up hiding out in the Fortress of Solitude while Supes and Bats do their tests. Superman gets Lois Lane to buy her clothes, having never met her and she comes up with this top (which suggestively features a snap crotch) and low riding jeans, as demonstrated in this picture by artist Michael Turner. If your partner came to you and asked you to buy clothes for a sixteen year old girl you'd never met, would you buy her slut wear? In another shot, also by artist Turner you can see Kara in another Lois provided outfit, this one contrasted by what Supes is wearing--his typical Clark Kent suit and tie ensemble. Is there a power deferential here? You tell me. I can just imagine how the conversation went; Clark: "Honey my sixteen year old cousin crashed on earth a few days ago and Batman thinks she's evil so can you buy here some clothes, I think she's a size 0." Lois: "No problem Honey, I just did a Pulitzer winning expose on a bunch of underage hookers and I can get some of their clothes from the Police impound with my contacts there." Having established casual clothes for Kara, Clark takes her out shopping which,"like any normal earth girl" she loves. Wackiness ensues and Kara ends up moving to paradise island where she trains to be a warrior and Clark goes home to get his Mom, you know wholesome Kansas born and Bred Martha Kent to sew a Supergirl costume for Kara (whom she's never met--"C'mon Ma, she's a size 0 I'm sure we've still got enough Kryptonian fabric somewhere.") as she's determined to join the "family business" of righting wrongs and triumphing over evil. Eventually presented with the costume (as seen here in art from Superman/Batman #12, again by artist Michael Turner, Kara at last wears her uniform as she and Superman fly cross country so that Clark can at last introduce his cousin to his adopted parents. Kara, of course, loves her uniform.I want to point out again that Ma Kent, having never met this girl made her a crop top with long sleeves and a mini skirt that puts the mini in minimum length of skirt to avoid portraying superhookers. This also established Kara as one of the thinnest superheroines and unlike Power Girl her breasts were not large and out of control. Now she just looks like in order to maintain her figure and be able to wear the costumes and clothes provided to her shes' decide to never eat again and live off solar energy. If I ever get the chance to pitch a Supergirl story to DC that'll be it: Supergirl "Anorexia", take another look at her waist and you tell me how often you think this girl eats. Both these pictures were drawn by Turner but the super thinness of Supergirl was continued by other artists even up to today. Supergirl needs to eat and dress less like a teenage hooker and more like the hero she's supposed to be. Kara Zor-El's reintroduction into the comic world
was a big deal and I still follow her monthly title despite the fact that internally it makes no sense that her costume should look like that. Do you really expect us to believe Ma Kent would make something like that? She'd have shortened the sleeves or cape to extend the skirt. And would Superman, big over protective cousin that he is, want his sixteen year old only relative wandering around like that? Most importantly, how must Kara feel as everyone around her keeps trying to shoe horn her into impossibly small and embarrassingly revealing clothing? Maybe I'm asking to much of the industry to be internally consistent, or maybe the artist needs to pay more attention to the clothing and where its coming from. I've heard rumours that this look for Kara was based on looks worn by Paris Hilton. Why would they do that? Why dress someone whose supposed to be good and kind with someone whose only just now growing out of her slutty selfish phase and whose mostly famous just for being rich? Well, I guess there's not much more I can do about it. Except wait for DC to come to their sense and hire me as a fashion consultant. All the comics companies could use the services provided by the Fashion Sentinel. I've also received reports on DC Comics' Edward Nygma AKA the Riddler, Marvel Comics' Hank Pym AKA Yellow Jacket, Giant Man and Ant-man, and Marvel Comics's Hercules. Thanks to Ipstenu for turning these criminals in, and Fashion Sentinels have been dispatched to locate them. Join me in my next post as we take a look at some of my ideas of what Supergirl should wear and I'll leave you with a few more images to spark your own thoughts...






















Superman, Supergirl, Power Girl, Darkseid, Kara Zor-El, Kara Zor-L, Linda Danvers, Matrix, Cir-El, and all related symbols, insignia, costumes etc, are all © Trademarks of DC Comics and the images reproduced here are used only as illustrations for the purpose of costume critique and the promotion of DC Comics

A few suggestions for Ms Frost...

I'd meant to post this last night but instead fell into an intense discussion with a couple members of my fashion team, Nicole and Gary about Emma's clothes. To be honest I'd not been very happy with what I'd come up with initially, which I'll discuss with you in a couple of moments and together we refined our thoughts and settled on a couple of what I think are really good looks that still acknowledge her complicated and confusing origin. Also Gary reported mutant and X-Man member Hank McCoy AKA Beast to the D.S.D.C.C. (Department of Superheroes' Dress Code & Critique) and we are dispatching Sentinels to locate him immediately. You can contact the D.S.D.C.C. at ghirdietus@gmail.com to report suspected violators of D.S.D.C.C. policies. Now, back to Emma Frost, teacher, CEO, millionaire and one of the well known faces of mutant kind, why do you even wear a costume? Oh yes, because you're a superhero--and at first that limited me too. My first take on her was to return her to a bob hairstyle (long hair is impractical in battle, even if I prefer it in theory) restored her to a stylized 18th century leather corset and the riding boots she wore with her original Hellfire Club outfit. I added a jacket with rounded lapels and of course suede pants and a white choker. I only gave Emma a single X logo on her belt buckle because I find it hard to believe she'd want to promote the team over herself. In my second take on her we still have the corset and pants, though I've extended the length of the corset to cover her midriff and changed her boots to clunky platform thigh high heels. I've added a white trench coat for a longer look to compliment the length of her hair and kept gloves (best to leave no fingerprints even if people know your face). This time the X logo is smaller and appears on her choker. I'd like to take a moment to address the issue of corsets, and how placement of lacing is incredibly important. Historically when women wore corsets, it denoted either lower class or prostitution to wear a corset that laced up the front. The wealthy had servants so their corsets laced up the back, and as such I've placed Emma's lacing to the back where it belongs. Besides when Wolverine is on your team, do you really want to give him access to your corset strings so with a simple snickty snak you're now topless and at the very least inconvenienced if not furious? I like the look of both these outfits but in many ways they're just pastiches of her other costumes and left me feeling vaguely dissatisfied. After talking with my fellow fashionistas I came up with some ideas that please me a whole lot more. We thought about Emma's origins in the Hellfire Club, who dressed in "oldey-timey" clothes and then discussed Marie Antoinette and Elizabeth as well as other famous and influential historical women who chose to adopt men's clothing styles to a certain degree and decided to give Emma a look that pays homage to her origins, her apparent and unexplained need to show off her curves and the power she possesses both as a mutant and a business woman. Here she wears a white satin frock coat, white gloves, a white silk brocade vest, matching satin breeches and white knee high boots. Her long hair is swept up and pulled back in a loose bun and she wears little to no jewelery. In keeping with historical tradition Emma has left the last couple of buttons on her vest open to show she is a "gentleman". I think women dressed in men's period clothing are extremely sexy and powerful looking and would have loved to see Emma dispensing justice to Sebastian Shaw in the Uncanny X-men Annual #2 (the Black King of the Hellfire Club) in an outfit more like this than the one she wore in the issue. We still weren't happy though and it's for this simple reason: Emma, everyone knows who you are--why spend extra money on costumes that have a habit of frequently being destroyed and are undoubtedly expensive? Here's our revolutionary suggestion for Ms Frost...sweetie just wear last seasons' clothes into battle. There's no point to the theatrics of a costume when a power suit can be just as commanding and is in many ways a uniform/costume itself. This is a woman who knows her clothing, designers, labels and what makes an impression and her clothing needs to reflect it, so straight from the board room to the battle field we give you Emma in a business suit with shoes by Christian Louboutin (the holy grail of the shoe world). This time we've also added jewelry, dangling diamond earrings and a diamond necklace if for no other reason than to compliment her in both her human and diamond forms. The business suit itself consists of a fitted short waisted linen jacket, and complimentary mini skirt which is a blend of 70% linen and 30% unstable molecules (a special fabric found only on Earth 616) which allows her freedom of movement in diamond form. Underneath the jacket she wears a silvery white lacy camisole and white matte satin gloves complete the outfit. Since the shoes are Louboutin this brings up a perfect opportunity to address the heel. Due to Emma's change in weight, strength and density when she changes to her diamond form regular heels just wouldn't do. She'd be leaving fights constantly to purchase new shoes. We suggest she have custom adamantium reinforcements in her heels which will not only insure they won't break easily as adamantium (also available only on Earth 616) is largely unbreakable, but make them weapons grade heels if she feels the need to make a point. At the end of the day I just don't see why she'd wear a costume at all, her fabulousness should be costume enough. Nicole said if she could draw and was working for the industry it would be her favorite part of the job researching current fashions and finding just the right look for each character and I agree heartily. Some artists, like George Perez, Phil Jimenez and the Dodsons to name a few are very fashion conscious but then there are artists who don't really seem to think about what the characters wear at all except for how their costume looks and rarely think about whether or not the character in question would wear such an outfit. There are costumes heroes wear that are given to them by family members or friends but when the artist actually draws the outfit it seems like no one informed him/her of that very relevant fact, but we'll talk about that in my next post...TARGET ACQUIRED Name: Kara Zor-El, Kara Zor-L, Linda Danvers, Matrix and Cir-El A.K.A. Supergirl.Emma Frost, the White Queen, the Black Queen, Sebastion Shaw, the Black King, the Hellfire Club, the X-Men and all related symbols, insignia, costumes etc, are all © Trademarks of Marvel Comics and the images reproduced here are used only as examples of my ideas for her costume and the promotion of Marvel Comics

Supergirl, Kara Zor-El, Kara Zor-L, Linda Danvers, Matrix, Cir-El and all related symbols, insignia, costumes etc, are all © Trademarks of DC Comics and the image reproduced here (penciled by Ed Benes) is used only as an illustration for the purpose of costume critique and the promotion of DC Comics