1 COMMENT

  1. That would’ve been one awful Victoria’s Secret ad if the model was covering up the product with her elbows.

  2. I’m sorry but, am I missing something here? Do you feel this cover is over sexed or something? I mean, I’ve seen way more over sexed comic covers then this, and the painting is kind of nice, I think. It’s skillfully done, and I like her belt. I’m not reading this title, so maybe I’m missing an in joke about math?

  3. hey Beat—do you really find this cover problematic as opposed to, say, the grotesquely ultra-violent KICK ASS, which you promote below with none of your snark? just curious how this works with you…

  4. I gotta join in on those that don’t get it… I don’t get the point of the post. I mean that in a sincere way. Is the math reference have to do with Supergirl being blond? Is there something wrong with the numbering? I don’t really read DC and whatever you’re mocking/pointing-out/whatever is over my head.

  5. She’s striking a pretty vacuous, shallow, confused pose that is pretty regularly associated with being kind of an idiot (the single finger up is what puts it over the top). The phrase “Math is hard” is also kind of famous for the talking Barbie controversy, remember?

    Putting those together around this picture is both incisive and funny, and I endorse it.

    The painting is well rendered. It isn’t sexed up, but neither is it flattering to Supergirl’s mental acuity.

  6. Math doesn’t scare me! I can probably still do a trigonometric integral if I need to so long as you give me a piece of scrap paper.

    And Graham’s number is the shit.

  7. Robbie Greenberger passes away at age 20: two comments.

    A cover of Supergirl: seventeen comments.

    Jesus.

    PAD

  8. You would be confused too if your Nazi counterpart crashed towards Earth and uttered that soon all life will see its last. Jus’ sayin.

  9. Sorry Peter, but I didn’t know Robbie Greenberger nor of his death. But any passing is a terrible loss and one that never goes without impact and sorrow. So my thoughts to his friends and family.

    The math reference may be to the loose interpretations going around about which company event is selling how well and by whose numbers, etc. And the art is definitely top notch there but Supergirl’s pose doesn’t really speak to the strength and confidence you’d expect from a Kryptonian.

  10. re PAD:

    hey at least it’s about a comic. Usually there aren’t any comments unless it’s about a movie. Of course 75% of the posts on this blog are about movies, so maybe that’s unfair.

  11. For those too young (or out of touch with news of the day) to understand the reference: About 15 years ago, Mattel produced a Barbie doll with one of those pull-the-string voices. She said a variety of airheaded-girl phrases like “Let’s go shopping”, the most notorious being “Math class is hard”, which was criticized as scaring little girls off from an important subject they are historically discouraged from studying (despite being at least as good at it as boys are). The Beat’s juxtaposition of this infamous line with this particular image of Supergirl is presumably intended to question her portrayal as a Barbie-like teen airhead.

  12. This kinda pales in comparison (on a variety of ways; discuss) to the breast implants Spider-Woman received from HYDRA.
    How difficult would it be to take a Supergirl Barbie and add the schoolgirl voicebox?
    DC’s homepage, featuring the above image of Supergirl, wonders what will happen if the antilife equation hit the Internet. I think it already has…and nobody noticed.

  13. “I’d say that’s she’s ready for Women’s Beach Volleyball, but for THAT she’s overdressed.”

    My niece plays beach Volleyball, and she’s both smart and beautiful. It’s a beach sport. That’s how people dress at the beach. I’ll admit that if they wore superhero attire, that’d be even better, but why so harsh?

    “Not to men’s synchronized diving, which is way skimpier than Women’s Beach Volleyball.”

    Are we all hating on the human body now? Really, that’s how you dress when swimming. When you think about it, smaller, tighter fitting close would make sense for both fighting crime and playing sports. More clothes get in the way of moving more freely. This aside, what’s wrong with a man or a woman wanting to show off how fit they are, and feel a little sexy along the way? Eddie Campbell points out in his new book that Leotard made the leotard to show off his body.
    Now that I know about the Barbie reference, I understand what’s going on a little better here. She just looked like she was seeing something that shocked her, to me. This may well be how she would react. She is supposed to be a lot younger then a lot of the superheros, right? That’s why I didn’t get it before. Okay, maybe I did a little, but as your friend, I’m just saying, it seemed a little harsh.

  14. I was surprised to see Beach Volley at the olympics, i guess i never considered it a real sport, just a bunch of people running around half naked pretending they know how to play real volleyball

  15. Sorry Peter-

    But how can you call people out for that. Did you send me condolences when my friend recently passed away? No.

  16. And sorry-but a friend of my wife’s just lost a six year old nephew to an unexpected and sudden seizure, his first one. Did post any comments? Nope, because you don’t know them. Not trying to be callous, but I’m sure that’s how most people feel about it.

  17. “Great Cover, wonderful painting of a beautiful girl. What’s wrong with that again?”

    COMMUNIST!

    In all seriousness, I think this post was meant as light-hearted ribbing not mouth-foaming claim of misogyny (not that a lot of stuff in comics doesn’t merit such a response). I like the cover a lot, myself, maybe the first time that Supergirl’s new costume really appealed to me, although I did have similar thoughts after seeing it a few times. Still my favorite out of the 3 so far.

  18. I agree with PAD. Things like this make me think the internet was invented only in order to give people a place where they tell others how wrong they are without fear of any real consequences. Don’t bother berating me with the normal barrage about how much the people here care about the comics industry or how this is a valid discussion because it really is about the portrayal of women in the industry. This is a thinly veiled bit of self-righteous crap that has slowly taken over this site and I’m sick of it. I’m leaving this site with one final thought: this is caleld Publisher’s Weekly, right? Then why do posts like this, which take pot-shots at the publishers or re-posts of Rich Johnston’s gossip column take up more room than anything else? Goodbye.

  19. It is VERY obvious that this an image that clearly depicts a vacuous female. It plays to an obvious archetype that only some one completely unschooled in western iconagraphy would miss. Heidi’s headline is ironic , also clever, and assumes she has a reasonably well educated audience. I guarantee you the artist knrw exactly what he was doing. What’s sad is that DC let him get away with it. From the little I know of Grant Morrison he would be appalled by this image.

  20. “It is VERY obvious that this an image that clearly depicts a vacuous female.”

    They said the same about El Woods.

    “It plays to an obvious archetype that only some one completely unschooled in western iconagraphy would miss.”

    It’s a little late to shoot us down before we get off the ground, isn’t it?

    “Heidi’s headline is ironic , also clever, and assumes she has a reasonably well educated audience.”

    That it is, and yes we are. Thank you.

    “I guarantee you the artist knrw exactly what he was doing.”

    Maybe he or she thought it’d be an interesting dynamic. Still, all good points. I’m just not feeling the outrage on this one.

  21. a lot of us read about bobs loss and wrote bob personally or were horrified at his loss and couldn’t put into words how badly they felt about this.

    the amount of posts anywhere isn’t considered that something is more or less important.

    I can speak for the unspoken majority that we all feel for bob and his families loss.

    I dont think a single person that posted here feels any other way.

  22. “My niece plays beach Volleyball, and she’s both smart and beautiful. It’s a beach sport. That’s how people dress at the beach. I’ll admit that if they wore superhero attire, that’d be even better, but why so harsh?”

    I’m sure she is and, as such, deserves better than having to obey the rules of an organization that has a MAXIMUM coverage limit, in order to participate. Swimsuits are fine, it is a beach sport after all, but bikinis of only a certain coverage? Excuse me?

    Plenty of people (of both genders) wear shorts and tank tops to play on the beach, so why is the women’s team REQUIRED to wear as little fabric a possible?

    Do a Google on “women’s beach volleyball” and see just how much of the photography is concentrated, not on the sport, but on ass-shots, then tell me who’s being harsh.

  23. “why so harsh on the Super-girl cover.”

    Because she looks like she’s learning fellatio from her pimp.

    “It goes…here?”

  24. Given the variety of responses to this image, someone with a degree in psychology should figure out how to use it as a Rorschach test for gender issues.

    (I personally think that it’s a very nice image that happens to be very easily read-into. Also the whole finger thing kinda makes me think Supergirl is bulimic. Go figure.)

  25. “Because she looks like she’s learning fellatio from her pimp.”

    I have to admit, that never occurred to me. The thing that’s really cracking me up at this point is that this cover has garnered more attention then any cover we ALL would approve of. Weather you focus your energy for it or against it, it’s still getting all the attention. May I suggest someone point out a cover that they think is wonderful, so we can all think of ways of getting more of that. You know DC’s just going to do more covers like this, because people talk (and post and re-post the image) when they do. Then they all get hostile with each other, instead of the company that published it. It’s a win/win for them.

  26. All this comment about Supergirl, yet none for the ad I just saw next to the Supergirl Final Crisis cover. The ad is for Elephantmen, from Image, and it looks like the woman on the cover of that one has elephant udders for breasts. And she’s in panties, flashing her trashy self at innocent viewers.

  27. Will you guys be quiet? Can’t you see the nice girl is ordering pizza using Wonder Woman’s invisible phone? She’ll never decide on a crust with all the racket around here.

  28. “And I’m still not sure what that cover had to do with issue 3’s story. Is she trying to remember her cat’s name before she says good-bye?”

    Look at the big splash page when the new “All Star Squadron” is being gathered…she’s looking with uncertainty to their leader as he’s trying to reassure them before the “big fight” they will so obviously lose; in the crowd shot, Supergirl is there facing their leader (I think its Jay Garrick) and has her hand to her face in a way that looks like it is a second away from moving into the same pose as in the cover. She was supposed to represent the entire issue’s sense of uncertainty and anxiety. Surprised no one else is catching this neat little trick (I’ve only read the issue once), using the cover as a close-up for a minor detail inside a splash page.

    I do think the cover pose is a little bit “off” in what they’re trying to communicate to us (she doesn’t need to come across as that stupid and vacant looking), but still, it is a neat narrative trick, giving resonance to a small moment that would otherwise go almost unnoticed, really helps imply a “life” to the characters, even when they are not front and center.

  29. Oh and short skirts and exposed midriffs are no where near as sexualized as are ass-tight red underwear (that hugs and conforms to every bulge mind you) worn on the OUTSIDE of skin tight blue leggings…lol and hot cha cha cha cha.

  30. I’m the only one who thinks it looks like a nervous post-nasal-pick lookup to see if anybody’s about to catch her compulsively snarf down a booger?

  31. Just looking at the cover, I don’t see a Vacant, stupid looking barbie doll so much as I see Supergirl having a moment of Lacking self-confidence. Hell Just because She is portrayed as Smoking hot does add to the picture of someone who is about to go into a battle against someone she is not sure she can beat.
    Yes ladies even Pretty girls have moments of self doubt.
    Awesome work…I love it.

  32. Re: PAD

    There might be a law, similar to Murphy’s, that the number of comments a blog posting generates are inversely proportional to it’s actual significance. I’ll have to work out the math on that one. Math is hard.

    But in general, “Snarky” is easier than “Sincere.” “Snide” is easier than “Sad.” Sex sells. And there isn’t anything sexy in the death of a child.

    The death of a child (and at 20, that’s still a child; much, much too young) leaves us at a loss for words. What can anyone say, especially not knowing the family personally? “Wow! That’s sad,” seems so empty, trite, shallow. Near meaningless.

    I’ve known Supergirl for 40 years. She died. I was sad, but confident that it wouldn’t last. I’ve known about Robbie Greenberger for about 3 days. Mike Gold has a very touching tribute to Robbie over at ComicMix.com. He’s known and worked with Robert. Knew Robbie his whole life. His words are better than mine.

    http://www.comicmix.com/news/2008/08/18/the-real-world-by-mike-gold/

    In lieu of flowers, contributions in Robbie’s memory may be made to The Tommy Fund for Childhood Cancer, Yale-New Haven Children’s Hospital, 20 York Street, New Haven, CT 06511-3202 (www.tommyfund.org).

  33. “I have to admit, that never occurred to me.”

    You must be the only one. I had already read this same response several times across the Internet, so it wasn’t an unusual reaction among the fanboys. As if this incarnation of SG wasn’t already being portrayed by DC as a JAILBAIT SEX SYMBOL….

    “The thing that’s really cracking me up at this point is that this cover has garnered more attention than any cover we ALL would approve of.”

    Well, it certainly doesn’t help when DC keeps shoving that cover art IN OUR FACES ALL THE TIME. Heck, they’re so proud of that cover, it’s now gracing the opening page of their website. Wall-to-wall HYPE sells, don’tcha know…

    …although I do find the technique ironic when the character’s solo book now needs to piggy-back her cousin’s in order to sell.

  34. “You must be the only one. I had already read this same response several times across the Internet, so it wasn’t an unusual reaction among the fanboys.”

    Must I? Hmm, I wonder what it is about me that my mind didn’t go there as an automatic response.

    “Well, it certainly doesn’t help when DC keeps shoving that cover art IN OUR FACES ALL THE TIME.”

    Well, if you’d have not quoted me out of context, you’d be able to read why I think that is, wouldn’t you? I’ll just write it again, for the benefit of those who don’t want to go back and read it. Regardless if people say they do want something or don’t want something, as long as people are talking, DC will give us more of it. That’s why “Heck, they’re so proud of that cover, it’s now gracing the opening page of their website.” You feed the fire with your outrage KET, just like I feed it with my interest in the phenomena feeds it, and The Beat posting it fanned the flames here to start with. If you really want to fight this sort of thing, then you’re going to have to stop fighting it, and start supporting something you approve of. That’s the only why you’re gonna change things.

  35. Or perhaps it’s gracing the front page of DC’s website because it’s the latest issue of their flagship summer event.

    No, nevermind. CONSPIRACY!

  36. HAHAHAHAHAHAHAHA.

    Maths IS hard.

    Lol.

    Belittling and insulting women who are pretty / pose in pinup poses as being stupid.

    Lol.

    Sexism has never been so funny.