Ms Fanservice / Marvel Universe

Marvel Universe

"She's like putting Wonder Woman, an Orion Slave Girl and Joan Jett in a blender and setting it on damn."

• Black Widow: Under the pen of certain artists, she's drawn with the Most Common Super Power and an Impossible Hourglass Figure with a lot of Male Gaze, all of that while wearing a skin-tight black catsuit. Several of her stories have at least one fanservice scene:
  • During her appearances in Amazing Adventures she was constantly seen undressing or putting on her Spy Catsuit, with most panels using Shoulders-Up Nudity but a few showing more skin. She also had an infamous Shower Scene with only Godiva Hair covering her breasts.
  • During a Marvel Fanfare story, in order to escape a cell, she stripped and tore down her Spy Catsuit to make a Bedsheet Ladder, and made herself a tiny makeshift bikini with what remained of her catsuit, which she wore for the rest of the story.
  • In Iron Man #269 her entire introduction is a long gratuitous fanservice sequence showing her morning routine. It starts in her apartment where she Sleeps in the Nude under a Modesty Bedsheet but suddenly wakes up in a Catapult Nightmare in a panel with Toplessness from the Back and Sideboob. She then gets up and gets dressed (Scenery Censor blocking any nudity) and goes for a morning workout routine, with several close-up shots of her body as she exercises and then she goes to have a Shower Scene to wash away the sweat (Censor Steam covering her) and goes back to her room in a tiny bathrobe that barely covers her legs and exposes a ton of cleavage. All while the narration boxes keep telling the viewer just how gorgeous she is.
  • The Black Widow: The Coldest War graphic novel features several scenes with her in a state of undress, such as changing clothes, a Showerof Angst and a flashback sex scene with her husband Alexei.
• Deadpool tends to run into these types of female characters in his comics and get romantically involved with them:
  • Dr. Betty from the Merc With a Mouth mini-series is particularly blatant. A scientist who worked for AIM, she spent most of her time showing her sexy body to viewers in many different poses. She seemed to have serious trouble finding clothes that fit, but none at all finding frilly underwear in her size. Even her AIM costume has no pants and shows her cleavage.
  • Outlaw is a gorgeous cowgirl-style merc whose outfit always bares her abdomen and sometimes she wears even less than that. In all fairness, she is able to get away with it due to her body being highly resilient to damage, making the outfit's impracticality a non-issue.
  • Shiklah is a succubus princess considered quite stunning (except in her One-Winged Angel mode). Her outfit is also equally as flattering, a skimpy black outfit resembling a bathing suit over transparent skull-patterned lace.
• Elektra. She is a red-clad Femme Fatale whose outfits are Stripperiffic in nature, and is famous for Male Gaze scenes during fight scenes. When she dodges, artists usually draw her from behind to emphasize her ass. Flying kicks are drawn from the front, effectively becoming full-page crotch shots.
• Fantastic Four has Susan Storm aka The Invisible Woman. Her regular costume(s) are shown to be very form-fitting. She is also shown to have nice breasts that are buxom, an Impossible Hourglass Figure, and a voluptuous body. However, her sex appeal often gets dialed up in alternate universes, especially ones where her invisibility is tweaked to put her in Naked People Are Funny situations (as seen in 1602).
• Gamora is a Green-Skinned Space Babe whose original outfits sported a massive open cleavage that goes down to her stomach and was prone to tons◊ of Male Gaze, specially during Annihilation.
• The Mighty Thor:
  • Amora the Enchantress is a tall Nordic blonde bombshell who relies heavily in her sex appeal and sexual prowess. She also likes to dress in ways to accentuate her flawless figure◊. She is considered quite the babe In-Universe, whose umatched beauty makes her desirable to even males of other species, such as trolls and frost giants.
  • Hela also qualifies. She tends to be depicted half-naked from time to time and recline seductively in her bed. One instance she tried to pose as a human, she looked like a blatant Femme Fatale. In addition, her Ultimate counterpart is extremely Stripperiffic, wearing only a dark bustier, long boots and a thong.
  • Lady Sif the Asgardian Lady of War is a stunning brunette known toned physique, striking blue eyes and elegant armors and outfits. She once went on a Full-Frontal Assault on Loki when he tried to cut her hair while she slept naked, clad only in Censor Shadow and Godiva Hair.
• The Twelve: Black Widow, a gorgeous blonde woman in a skintight dress, who is shown she Sleeps in the Nude. Having pledged herself to Satan, modesty isn't exactly a priority for her anymore.
• Carol Danvers as Ms. Marvel. For a long time, she was practically the poster girl for this before her "promotion" to being the new Captain Marvel, complete with a literally form-fitting full-body costume that covers everything but her head (and then an additional retractable cowl that covers everything except part of her face). Her first costume (the Warbird persona) was originally derived from the red-and-blue Kree uniform of Captain Marvel, but after emerging from under his shadow she was given a distinctive new black-and-gold leotard costume with a lightning bolt motif; this costume get many Male Gaze. In fact, the both of Carol's original Ms. Marvel costumes have highlighted her Impossible Hourglass Figure, muscular yet voluptuous body, buxom breasts, strong toned muscles, ripped broad shoulders, sizable backside and long, muscular legs. Lampshaded by Moonstone/Dark!Ms. Marvel in Avengers: The Initiative when she asks Tigra just how Carol wears these outfits and by Kamala Khan (the new Ms. Marvel (2014)) later, who repeats Moonstone's complaint about the wedgies the suit gives while wearing it, after originally gushing about how much she wanted to wear it.
• The Scarlet Witch has been this since her first appearance in the comics. She's a very beautiful brunette who usually wears Stripperiffic outfits (particularly a red bathing suit) that are more seductive than her contemporaries Jean Grey, Sue Storm, or Janet van Dyne and highlight her very buxom breasts, ripped broad shoulders, voluptuous yet toned body, and long toned yet shapely legs. But she took this trope to the next level whenever George Pérez is drawing The Avengers. In 1998 he replaced her original, though sexy, costume with a Stripperiffic Romani-influenced outfit, which was replaced with a more practical superhero costume soon after he left the book and she later returned back to wearing her usual red bathing suit.
• She-Hulk is a buxom Amazonian Beauty clad in a Leotard of Power, gets frequent Clothing Damage and provides the page image for Fanservice. Just a few examples during John Byrne's run: In the first several pages of The Sensational She-Hulk #40, She-Hulk is skipping rope, apparently naked due to a simple joke she made in the letters column (she isn't actually naked, but was wearing skimpy undies that were hidden by the blur lines). In The Sensational She-Hulk #45, nearly all the story is filled with big and casual pinups of Jen that steal the spotlight from the actual story narrated in the box.
• Spider-Man: Spidey's love interests are, usually, shown like this.
  • Back when Steve Ditko drew the book, not so much since The Comics Code was in effect and they all wore modest dresses, and most of them were in high school. By college, however, characters like Gwen Stacy and Mary Jane Watson were introduced. Gwen, however, stopped being this par for the course of her Character Development and, y'know, death. Mary Jane, however, kept the revealing clothes and flighty personality even after maturing, though in her case it's justified: She's an actress/model, and it's literally her job to be hot. Still, while most superheroines have an Impossible Hourglass Figure, MJ is almost always buxom and leggy, and she doesn't have the superpowers to justify it.
    • Most fans will attest that Mary Jane fit the Trope most during Todd McFarlaine's run on Amazing Spider-Man; he did several "cheesecake" shots of female characters, and as the most visible member of the supporting cast, she had most of them, the art during his run giving her a sudden preference for midriff revealing tops and dangerously daring necklines.
  • Gwen is a very beautiful blonde-haired woman who wears outfits (particularly skirts with thigh-high socks and boots as well as dresses) that highlight her very voluptuous body (that's nearly as sexy as MJ's body), buxom breasts, hourglass figure, and long, toned legs. Her alternate universe counterpart Spider-Gwen, which put her in the same type of skintight costume and has her do the same kind of acrobatic poses as Peter, proved to be particularly popular.
  • Black Cat had a suit designed for Navel-Deep Neckline, made out of black PVC, and had a build that would require lots of surgery to get in real life, even more so than a lot of other heroes. Her miniseries The Evil that Men Do opens with a Shower Scene focuses a great deal on her body, such as a close up of her washing her legs or showing her figure via Sexy Silhouette.
  • In a very weird way, Marvel has been trying to turn Carlie Cooper into this, most likely to increase her popularity. Low cut jeans, bared midriff, a tattoo that's near her lady bits but still visible in order to increase the midriff, and was probably the only girl in Spider-Island shown during the 'Naked New York' scene. However, because people just can't stand her, it's been rather ignored.
• Tigra is a twofer, being a Cat Girl who walks around wearing naught but a bikini. Later books have tried to justify this with Tigra saying wearing anything else over a full coat of fur would result in heatstroke, and the bikini is pretty much for modesty's sake.
• X-Men:
  • Jean Grey is a beautiful redhead who wears form-fitting costumes. During The Dark Phoenix Saga, she starts wearing increasingly more provocative outfits due to Mastermind's influence, eventually settling on a just a corset and black underwear.
  • Storm usually wears revealing costumes, such as a sleek leotard in the '70s and her classic form-fitting suit which was made famous by X-Men: The Animated Series. Since her culture didn't have a taboo about nudity, she liked public nudity a lot in earlier appearances.
  • Rogue is a Southern Belle who fights in a Sensual Spandex, making her a target of Male Gaze across different adaptations. Also, her counterpart from the Ultimate universe wears nothing but shorts and a loincloth strapless bra.
  • Shadowcat, on the other hand, remains perhaps the only female character in Marvel over the age of twelve to retain her petiteness while having achieved the face of a young woman in her early 20s. Although that's partly due to every writer at Marvel except Joss Whedon and Brian Michael Bendis having forgotten she existed - and Whedon made sure to give Kitty at least two nude scenes during his run on Astonishing X-Men.
    • Kitty wasn't constantly subjected to Male Gaze on quite the level of her teammates, but considering she was underage for a majority of the 80's and 90's, the fact that it happened at all is a bit excessive. She was introduced in a skin-tight dance leotard that she switched out for a tube-top and vest combo that left her midriff bare, and was later shown in lingerie, a tiny bikini, a cheerleader outfit with a very short skirt that outlined her rear end and most of her costumes were painted on. As she aged into her teens and twenties this started becoming a bit more common, including her "Coyote Ugly" outfit in Xtreme X-Men #44.
  • New Mutants Wolfsbane and (usually) Moonstar are usually given petite frames and tomboyish haircuts, making them cuter than fanservicey. The few exceptions have either been by bad artists (*cough*Rob Liefeld*cough*) and/or just look ridiculous because all the past art has them slender.
  • Emma Frost. She almost always makes it to the top of any list discussing the sexiest women in comics. Since her inception back in the ’80s, she’s pretty much-worn variations on white lingerie, sometimes far more revealing than most of the other Marvel women. She gets quite a few scenes where she's wearing even less than usual and seems to be fully shameless about this.
  • Psylocke. Not so much with the Most Common Superpower, but the costume she was stuck in for twenty years was pretty Stripperiffic, giving her what might possibly be the worst wedgie in the entire Marvel Universe. Not forget that she is the poster trope of the Boobs-and-Butt Pose. Or, in some comics fan circles, The Psylocke Pose.
  • Not a heroine, but Madelyne Pryor, when she became the Goblin Queen, achieved the supreme level of accomplishment in this trope. Her tattered costume featured an open middle that left only the tops of her breasts covered. Only the cosmic power of the Phoenix Force stood between her and a Wardrobe Malfunction of such epic proportions that it would have almost certainly led to a revival of The Comics Code.
  • X-23 initially doesn't strike one as this, until you realize that just about every uniform she has (give or take a couple) as well as the majority of her civilian clothes show off her navel. Her civvies also have a tendency to involve short skirts, Painted-On Pants, and corsets. Also, being a female clone of Wolverine, makes the embodiment of a whole category of fanservice.
  • Rachel Summers was this during her Excalibur days. When she was in the X-Men initially, she was a stick thin tomboy wearing very conservative clothes and costumes. Then she got abducted into the Mojoverse, and when she got back her body had become a lot curvier (apparently somebody remembered that she's supposed to look a lot like her mother, Jean Grey - and she'd been sent to Mojo's Body Shoppe). Her costume was now a red, one piece leather catsuit with integrated heels and adorned with spikes. Her off duty clothes were not as risque, but only just. This was lampshaded by a disgruntled Kitty Pryde when the two went on a shopping trip, and a mischievous Rachel promptly used her telekinesis to transform Kitty's clothes into something more like her own. Kitty immediately complained that she looked like a hooker.
    • Her Marvel Girl costume, which consisted of a tight top and a skirt that at times only narrowly escaped the description of 'belt', was arguably just as bad for this. Afterwards, she went for a form-fitting red and yellow costume with a trenchcoat on top that both covered and emphasised everything.
  • Husk. C'mon, you know Paige Guthrie's mutant power is really just an obvious ploy to depict a teenage babe ripping all her clothes off and running around nekkid...
  • Jena and Madelyne Pyre in X-Men: Phoenix – Legacy of Fire wear nothing more than gold bikinis with only small jackets covering them. The former in particular gets in a couple of lewd situations such as getting seduced by a succubus and being suggestively grabbed by tentacles at one point. You could make the case that every female character in that comic qualifies as this trope, since they are all scantily-clad nubile young women.
  • Dazzler wore Navel-Deep Neckline with large breasts and great curves. She almost won the title of World's Most Beautiful Woman twice.
  • Monet St. Croix is a Proud Beauty famous for her looks, especially during X-Factor (2006), she tended to show plenty of skin, either with revealing outfits, lounging naked in her room, sunbathing in the rooftop. Suffering from Clothing Damage that left her naked due to her Nigh-Invulnerability also became something of a Running Gag during the story.
  • Zig-zagged with Moira MacTaggert she traditionally isn’t much of a Ms Fanservice being a subdued scientist at best. However various artists have turned her into one, one particular Jim Lee issue Magneto covers Moira in very form-fitting metal. In Powers of X Moria in a flash back introduces herself to Charles wearing figure hugging green thigh length dress.