Last time we checked in to Better Supes, they had a number of illustrations that took inspiration from superhero-loving little girls who like to put their own costumes together. It was cute, heartening and kind of badass.
Alex Law, the artist behind the blog, has kept updating the site with more awesome designs — like the one above. “Kids are more impressionable than you, but kids can also be less restricted by cultural gender norms than you. Kids are more creative than you, and they’re better at making superheroes than you,” Law writes on the Supes blog.
Here are some more designs, starting with the batch of girls that influenced the Batman one above.
Comments
6 responses to “Little Girls Are Still Better Than You At Designing Superheroes”
I fear I disagree with your premise.
The actual girls in costumes are pretty awesome (just because I like the idea of kids aspiring to be super heros)…
Some of the art is awesome, the punk bat-girl is awesome and would be great in a future setting taking over from an old Bruce Wayne. But at the end of the day it’s Alex’s work that is awesome.
I don’t really get the obsession with trying to change a pre-existing characters gender, the graphic of the female “batman” and robin – where the female “batman” looks almost male anyway… steroids maybe… but is beyond ugly because of it, the Robin is ok (though the tutu is silly and pointless).
“the obsession” likely stems from ideas like yours that the female Batman is ugly, because she has the appropriate muscle structure for a superhero. You try fighting crime and being that agile without needing to have a six pack, I can imagine it’s very difficult.
“ideas like yours that the female Batman is ugly, because she has the appropriate muscle structure for a superhero”, the “female” batman is ugly, becase it is almost male. I am not saying it needs to be a classic female super hero style (I tend to find them silly anyway), nor am I saying it should be “sexy”, but if your going to try to re-imagine an existing character as the opposite sex why not try to do that, instead of producing an image that is equally silly as the way the old school female super heros looked (albeit from the opposite side). Now the reason I personally like bat man is that whilst he is usually represented as strong (but not olimpic weightlifter or anything), the main part of his shtick is that he uses his brain and his training to get the bad guys (in addition to a bunch of neet toys). So are you claiming that a female super hero needs to loose all femininity to be a super hero.
The reason I don’t get the obsession is that it’s foolish it’s not producing anything new or useable, and tends towards one of two things: either a female that looks male (as per this case), or a hyper-sexualised female version of a male character. I tend to find both pointless and ugly.
“because she has the appropriate muscle structure for a superhero” There are all sorts of superhero, with allsorts of muscle structures, the one being discusses is that I find a woman with the muscle structure of a man ugly, some may like it, but not me. Oh and just to rise to the bait, Men and Women do tend to be different structurally, thats just how it is, that shouldn’t be a problem, and yes whether you like it or not, men are typically stronger and have more muscle, thats the way testosterone works.
So again, yes, the female batman with the male physique looks like she’s been taking massive quantities of steroids. Are you trying to claim that if a female wishes to compete she must give up her femininity and take copious amounts of illegal drugs, and that we should find this to be a great idea or something.
So, again, stock costume in pink or with a tutu = totally rad girl redesign.
I’m surprised that someone so passionate about gender wars would enforce the normative view that “girly means pink and dresses”. Seems hypocritical.
Exactly, take an existing character, put it in a tutu and make it female.
Geez, I don’t know how I could ever come up with something better than that.
maybe you could!
the designers after little girls after all, and you are probably awesome
I have no idea who the character is that the pink knight is based off it looks incredible.
Yeah that one is super boss
I really like the fire and ice ones. They’d actually make a great superhero pair (I mean, yeah, a fire and ice team has been done, but I like the designs. They compliment each other, and I can see them working well.)