Batman v Superman: Dawn of Justice

To be fair, it is better if you see the whole picture which shows her balling her fist and the sword...but the top part could nevertheless be better. Why not allowing her to take the typical Lynda Carter pose? (To clarify, a wide stance and the balled fist in her hips or the arms crossed in front of her).

edited 3rd Jul '15 11:22:23 AM by Swanpride

It's sad we're even having this discussion.

I thought it was a Kubrick Stare.

Seriously, people are raising issues where there is none.

Kubrick Stare indicates unhinged psychopathy. I supposed the intent could be to communicate that Wonder Woman is a bloodthirsty monster intent on murdering everything in her path. I'm not sure how that's better, though.

There's a reason the Trope Namer stare was used in The Shining of all places, with imitation by characters such as Anakin Skywalker and the Joker.

edited 3rd Jul '15 11:54:24 AM by TobiasDrake

It doesn't always have to be evil, though. I expect the intended look was "I'm an intense warrior" and all that.

It's a general stare for "pissed off and ready to kick your ass."

Don't really think Wondy is doing the evil psycho look.

I don't think she really knows what she's doing. Neither does anyone else on the cover, though. Batman's doing the Pouty Bat and Superman is about as far from fierce as humanly possible; he looks downright jovial, like he's about to offer a cup of tea.

And nobody is doing anything at all with their hands. They're not readying for a fight; hands down, face presented is the worst pose for an experienced combatant to adopt in preparation for impending violence.

edited 3rd Jul '15 12:03:41 PM by TobiasDrake

It's a stare if the lips are pressed together. Here they are invitingly open. And I don't think that the discussion is useless. Just imagine Batman in the pose.

I agree that none of the three have a good pose, though. Superman is okayish, but pouty batman isn't really a winner either.

Okay, I guess I was biased by the fact that one would not want to be in a fight with any one of them! Though sharing a cup of hot chocolate with two of them would be fine. I don't think Batman would want to hang out with random people.

Batman's more a coffee guy.

I could counter with the Coke advertising which came out in tandem with the second Burton Batman....but honestly, that one is way too ridiculous even for Adam West.

It's a classic unpleasable fanbase. Here we have Wonder Woman front and center, with Batman and Superman to her sides, wearing a close approximation of the classic costume, holding a sword and has the lasso on her belt, looking tough and serious and not exploitative, and we have people complaining she has a porn star look.

We should be grateful there hasn't been any pictures of her in a Boobs-and-Butt Pose, Shes Got Legs, mid Sexy Walk or any other sort of pose designed to show off her figure (see almost any movie poster that shows a female badass). The costume does that enough as it is, and even still there is no discernible cleavage.

Going to have to agree here. While I don't personally think all the complaints are entirely unfounded, in the grand scheme of things they are doing a much better job with Wonder Woman then studios generally handle female superheroes and there are a dozen things that could of made the magazine cover a lot worse.

While I'm a huge fan of the MCU, I'll admit that they haven't always done well with female superheroes. It certainly didn't help that until halfway through Age of Ultron the only female member of the Avengers was also the only Avenger with basically no superpowers, tech-based or otherwise (even Hawkeye at least has some cool trick arrows). While they seem to be on an upward trend here, DC may of completely leapfrogged them simply by having Wonder Woman in Batman v. Superman at all.

Gamora didn't get to have a sword. She got little knives. The "traditional" woman's melee weapons.

Marvel gets exactly the same kind of criticism, for exactly the same reasons. I have, btw, come to the conclusion that the open lips are the problem. There are similar promo pictures of Hermione in nearly the same stance, and she looks very fierce in them, but she has her lips closed and looks automatically more fierce than inviting.

And honestly, it is kind of sad when a TV show from the 1960s did a better job creating promo pictures with a fierce Wonder Woman (honestly, why not letting her make the iconic pose? It would be a nice reference and is truly unique to her).

There are promo pictures in which Gamora wields a sword, btw.

edited 3rd Jul '15 4:21:10 PM by Swanpride

It certainly didn't help that until halfway through Age of Ultron the only female member of the Avengers was also the only Avenger with basically no superpowers, tech-based or otherwise (even Hawkeye at least has some cool trick arrows).

Um, Natasha had her Widow's Bite in the first film and shock grenade thing in IM 2.

Marvel's come under fire for a lot of things regarding treatment of Black Widow in marketing. In posters and promo pictures she always has the Boobs-and-Butt Pose, Sexy Walk, Shes Got Legs (done either via a kicking action, curvy Captain Morgan Pose or Three-Point Landing), Side Boob highlighting profile shot and even photoshop failure (The Winter Soldier poster has her waist trimmed excessively and boobs enlarged). That's not getting into her romantic connections with the guys, catsuit always unzipped and lack of toys. Within the movies themselves she has done... okay, but she has not revolutionized the chance for women to be action heroes. Gamora is portrayed similarly.

In contrast, the male characters tend to get a more neutral stance, Power Walk pose (leading with their head or shoulders versus the Sexy Walk leading with their chest or hips), weapon ready to use or at their side. As far as the few promo pictures we have of Wonder Woman, she fits into that category more than the others.

I don't recall any shots of Natasha's suit showing copious amounts of cleavage in the movies. The comics are a different story, but I always found the complaint about her outfit odd. There are other problems though.

I think at this point we could have a female character covered by a burka at all times and people would still find ways to complain of how explotaitive-sexily they are portraying her as.

Was this posted Snyder and Terrio complete the script for Justice League, we learn new details about Batman v Superman.

edited 3rd Jul '15 7:56:54 PM by Halberdier17

Holy shit these fucking comments calling that pose "out". Holy shit that's fucking hilarious.

"Chin down is a submissive position" LMAO!

Black Widow is a play on the femme fatale spy character, right? Sexuality is her thing.

If Black Widow draws criticism, we're never getting She-Hulk then.

edited 3rd Jul '15 8:02:38 PM by Soble

Perfectly valid thought, but you also sort of answered your own question. Can you name a major female comic book character whose sexual appeal isn't a part of their character in some way? I mean She-Hulk certainly has people who are fans of her character and her stories, but a good number of people are just going to see her as a 7 foot tall, extremely busty Amazonian Beauty and nothing else. Even Sue Storm has something of a reputation as World's Most Beautiful Woman within the context of the Fantastic Four comics.

I've never really found Supergirl to be particularly sex appeal-y. Young girl in a skirt and cape. I'm not all that familiar with her as a character, but from what I've seen she's pretty modest as far as superheroes go. I guess she sometimes has a bit of Bare Your Midriff going on but as far as sexualization goes that's pretty tame. She's at least at the low end of the scale.

I think ultimately it's just a consequence of the genre. Everyone is beautiful and buff. Trying to fight it is futile, and I don't think any comic book artist is trying to say anything negative or positive by it, and no one reads comics and looks at them as being realistic expectations of real women or men.

Movies on the other hand don't have the advantage of impossible bodies, and thus shouldn't take the Halle Berry Catwoman approach to everything because what looks passable (sometimes even practical) on paper doesn't in real life. And movies communicate to wider audiences, and thus can arguably be held to a standard of influencing expectations because that's where a lot of people (especially kids)are first exposed to characters.

edited 3rd Jul '15 9:59:48 PM by HisInfernalMajesty