Well, my fears about Power Girl in the New 52 were half-right because there were two artists in this book and one got it wrong. You see, I recently picked up ‘Worlds’ Finest #1’, DC comics’ new title featuring Power Girl and the Huntress.

  Now before I begin, this isn’t about me fixating on a specific part of the female body. Whether I’m a pervert or not is for me to know and while I will be discussing breasts in comics, it’s because it’s the most recent example of something that bothers me a lot in comic-books. I’d do a similar article if someone started drawing Dick Grayson/Nightwing as a bulky body-builder!

  There’s a serious lack of different body types in comics. Few characters escape it, be they male or female. Very often all heroes will have the exact same build and will be differentiated only by their costumes and hair color if it’s shown.

  When I met Marcus To to have an issue of ‘Red Robin’ signed, I congratulated him on drawing different body types for Bruce Wayne, Dick Grayson and Tim Drake/Wayne. Nightwing should be more lean than Batman because he’s more agile. Batman is supposed to be tall. Tim should look younger, but not like he’s 12. Marcus To was a great example of an artist who’s aware that not all characters should be copy/pastes of each other wearing different clothes.

  Even great artists fall into that trap though. And recently, no better example of this has been as obvious as with George Perez’ work on ‘Worlds’ Finest’. Before I begin, I want to state that Perez is an awesome artist and he’s done remarkable work in the industry. A lot of modern artists could learn a lot from him. With that out of the way, let’s move to the criticism I have with this issue and his artwork in it.

  So apparently this is Power Girl now:

  However, this is Power Girl as I remember her:

  Yes, the ‘boob window’ was a bit much for some people. But my point is that Power Girl was always a shining example of a different body type in comics. She was curvy, but in a way that looked natural, not in the unrealistic and gross way super-heroines were drawn during most of the 90’s.

  And to clarify again, this isn’t me saying that all super-heroines should be curvy. Another good example I have for a female heroine with a different body type is Cassandra Cain/Black Bat, who was always portrayed like an athletic martial artist and not a pin-up model. If an artist suddenly drew her with lots of curves, I’d complain just as much as I am complaining now for the semi-loss of PG’s curves. (Yes, SEMI-loss, more on that in a bit!)

  It gets even worse a bit later when this happens:

  O.k, I’m sorry but those look like they’re made of silicone, perfectly round and ignoring gravity. It seems Mr. Perez had an issue with drawing large breasts on a woman (because busty women can’t be taken seriously, apparently) but he still gave her perfectly round ovals that no woman on Earth would have naturally. And no, I am not attacking women who choose to get implants, I’m just saying that PG is not supposed to have those, so why draw them like that?

  Thankfully, the other artist on the book, Kevin Maguire, does it right:

  See? That wasn’t so hard. It’s not exploitative, the whole picture isn’t centered around that aspect, but she IS curvy. It’s how she’s meant to look. And here’s what she looks like in her civilian clothes:

  Again, not exploitative, just natural and realistic. She’s shapely and she does have a bit of natural sag. They’re not two unnatural round objects.

  I feel bad saying this because I do enjoy George Perez’ art usually… But I seriously don’t know if I’ll be able to stick with this title if George Perez remains as the main artist. I guess I can put up with Perez’ art as long as Maguire is still on board.