Suggestion: Workout Fanservice

She's in a gym, supposedly working out but actually showing a lot of leg in a thong. 100% Workout Fanservice.

My suggested caption: "Perfectly dressed to discuss giant robot mice."

I must be the only person who doesn't see the fan service in the Batman image. It just looks like he's working out to me. Or ...is it about the woman in the background?

edited 17th Jun '14 2:20:39 PM by Lakija

He is bare-chested and she is wearing thong underwear.

Plus, they're discussing a completely unrelated topic, so there's no obvious reason to show them working out at all - aside from fanservice.

I agree with Lakija's sentiment in 52. My arguments are as follows:

1. In order to be fanservice, it has to be framed right. It must be deliberately designed to catch the audience's attention. Which means it should be large; typically a whole splash page or at the very least a tall panel covering multiple standard tiers in height. For it to be in a normal-sized panel? Feels a bit odd to me.

2. Another factor is the audience. Fanservice can only be fanservice if the fans appreciate the services at some level. Granted I lack the statistics to back it up, it's my understanding that Batman has primarily a male demographic with only a very small female demographic. Meaning, the Male Gaze would strike me as the commoner form of fanservice included.

So, to use such a small image in an unremarkable panel, it strikes me as a somewhat obtuse approach to appeal to the Periphery Demographic. Moreover, by the standards this establishes, pretty much all forms of workouts count as Workout Fanservice.

@54: It could simply be to add variety and give the artist something different to draw. A pair of talking heads is neither fun for the reader nor the artist. Not everything needs a deep, well thought out reason.

edited 17th Jun '14 5:35:32 PM by peasant

For me, I don't think it's a stretch at all to think that Catwoman's ogling him, so there's an element of in-universe fanservice that is enough justification to use the pic.

^^That's why I was a bit confused. I wish I had brought it up before the crowner was finished. I am sorry.

I know that comic books are mostly aimed at males. That's a no-brainer. There's nothing sexually enticing in Bruce's demeanor. I apologize in advance for being rude or lewd, but his man package is not accentuated in any way. There's no gratuitous sweat, twisting of the body to exaggerate musculature, no suggestive pose. His outfit is not out of the ordinary for working out. He looks pretty normal.

Catwoman is doing a standard girly pose and wearing a thong to the gym. That's overdoing it a bit, and seems to be fan service. I certainly haven't seen many thong-wearing ladies at the gym in recent memory.

^Isn't that more in-universe fan service and not audience fan service? She happens to find him attractive at the gym, but he is in no way designed specifically to be sexually enticing to the audience. Nor is he inviting her to ogle, accidentally or otherwise.

That is my opinion.

Now something from one of them super hero films, preferably Captain America, would be fan service.

edited 17th Jun '14 9:26:59 PM by Lakija

The crowner is over. That picture ran away with it. I really suggest giving it a rest.

Now, caption or not?

Actually, we're a day past the point that I normally give for caption discussion and there hasn't been consensus on a suggestion, so this is going away.

edited 18th Jun '14 6:23:02 AM by Willbyr