Comic books – or at least Western superhero comic books – have always celebrated an idealized version of the human body. Male heroes are chiseled specimens of muscle with less body fat than an Olympic swimmer and abs so defined they stick out through layers of spandex. Every inch of their physical form is designed to fight evil.
Female heroes, though, are a little different. Instead of being built like bodybuilders or athletes, they tend to resemble girlie mag models or
Baywatch babes. Sure, they’re slim and trim but you’re hard-pressed to find one that’s not sporting a massive rack. Anyone who knows anything about strong women can tell you that big boobs aren’t that ergonomic.
How did that happen? Who decided that huge boobs were the default female anatomy for superheroines, and how have cup sizes changed through the years? Come with us as we seriously explore this sensitive subject, with maybe a little tweak or two along the way to keep things lively.
Early Days
The first superheroines from the 1940s – characters like Sun Girl, the Blonde Phantom and of course Wonder Woman – had reasonably realistic builds. As their characters generally weren’t expected to resort to fisticuffs and feats of strength, they remained mostly slender throughout the next few decades. There were, of course, exceptions – Phantom Lady, published by Quality Comics, was illustrated by artist Matt Baker in a revealing costume that was designed to distract the crooks she fought.
The idea of sex appeal as part of a female hero’s power set wasn’t explored all that much back then, and with the dawn of the Comics Code Authority in 1954 Phantom Lady got covered up and eventually canceled. The archetype of the “femme fatale,” a bold and dangerous woman who wielded sexuality like a weapon,
In the 1960s, DC implemented an in-house editorial policy that read, in part, “Women, when used in plot structure, should be secondary in importance, and should be drawn realistically, without exaggeration of feminine physical qualities.”
The King’s Queen
No artist is as influential in American comic books as Jack Kirby. His career spans half a century and features the creation of pretty much the entire Marvel universe and a big chunk of the DC one to boot. Kirby brought a drawing style that stepped away from the mannered realism of the day in favor of a muscular, abstract vision of the human form. His anatomy was unlike anything on earth, but all of Kirby’s figures burst with energy.
That extended to his women, too. In 1971, he created Big Barda – an Amazonian warrior from the dark planet Apokolips who defected from the side of evil to partner with Mr. Miracle. With a body based on
zaftig singer Lainie Kazan, Barda represented a new direction in comic book pulchritude. Sure, she was stacked, but she had a frame that matched, with broad shoulders and hips. Kirby, always the innovator, knew it was possible to make women beautiful and powerful, but few artists followed his lead.
More Power
DC Comics introduced Power Girl in the pages of
All Star Comics in 1976 as a way to get Superman out of that title and inject some fresh blood into the adventures of the Justice Society. Wally Wood, who was the artist for the character’s debut, decided to push her figure in a thicker direction than most of the era’s mod-flavored heroines. Clad in a skin-tight white singlet with a big scoop (and later a hole) cut for her cleavage, Power Girl
was all about the boobs.
According to writer Jimmy Palmiotti, Wood made a bet with a studiomate that he could draw PG’s chest bigger every issue and DC editorial wouldn’t notice. If you look at that original run, her cup size does swell issue after issue. After
All Star was canceled, the character stuck around as the company’s boobiest hero. Artists like Bart Sears continued to depict her as top-heavy, but others like Alex Ross made her more muscular to balance them out.
In the 1970s, Marvel attempted to win female readers with a number of titles, including
Ms. Marvel (whose heroine was ostensibly feminist),
Dazzler and
She-Hulk. All of those characters still stuck to the now-traditional body type of a narrow waist and shoulders capped off by large breasts.
To the Extreme
The 90s were all about pushing the envelope. It was the decade where silicone breast implants finally took off, and now seemingly everybody in Hollywood had a perfectly spherical pair of D-cups. Characters who had previously boasted more reasonable anatomy started to puff and swell.
The apotheosis of this trend came in the form of artist Jim Balent, who started drawing DC’s
Catwoman book in 1993 and stayed on it until 1999. Previous interpretations of the thieving villain and sometimes romantic interest of Bruce Wayne portrayed her as lithe and, well, catlike. Balent threw that out the window, wrapping her purple bodysuit around a massive set of hoons and twisting her into poses that showed them off at every opportunity.
When Ed Brubaker and Darwyn Cooke took over the character in 2001, they deliberately returned her to her more agile build. Balent went on to self-publish titles like
Tarot: Witch Of The Black Rose where his love for massive hooters could roam unfettered.
Back to Reality
Over the last decade or so, superheroes have moved out of their ancestral home in comics and onto the big screen and TV. That’s also created a rebound effect as publishers try to keep their characters closer to their movie appearances. For male heroes, it’s not as difficult – they just have to shrink them down a bit, because actors are pretty ripped these days. Women, though, simply don’t come built like that in the real world, and if they’ve had the surgery to get there they typically aren’t known for their acting chops.
So you see actresses like Gal Gadot as Wonder Woman and Jennifer Garner as Elektra – women who are slim and muscular but with normal human-sized breasts. And fans don’t seem to complain about their physique like they did about Michael Keaton as Batman.
Behind the Bra
There’s actually a pretty fascinating
Reddit thread where this question is hashed over. Some suggest that superhuman strength allows comic book women to ignore the discomfort of having huge boobs, while others connect the genetic tinkering done by the Celestials on the Earthlings of the Marvel universe with a propensity for increased bust size. My favorite theory comes from user “expert02,” who states:
Having superpowers usually takes a lot of energy. And humans get energy from food. The superheroine’s body “assumes” any child will have similar energy/food requirements as itself, so the breasts grow larger to contain the extra milk for the child.
That’s a new one on me. Whatever the reason, the great breast debate rages on. Some interesting recent developments include heroes in an even wider range of body types, like Valiant’s Faith who has big boobs, but a frame that’s built to support them. At the same time, a conservative backlash to that diversity is building, with fans devoted to big boobies claiming that they’re being put down by the PC police.
We’re firm believers that all boobs are beautiful, so hopefully, the comics industry will catch up with the real world.
