Oh Ed Benes, You’ve Done It Again
Written February 21, 2008 by WendySkeletonBefore I begin, you need to say the title of this blog post in a rhythm to get a feel for it. Anyway…
I was reading JLA #18 and came across this page:
When I saw that page, I just sat there. And then I slapped my forehead. I noticed a few things about this. The first thing I noticed was my favorite character (Wonder Woman), showing off almost all of her butt. What. The. Heck. The way she is positioned just so she can show off her posterior is just really irritating. I checked who the penciller was, and lo and behold, it’s Ed Benes. I checked to see if any other bloggers would have noticed this, and apparently they noticed as well (the second link has swear words, mind you). And I am in complete agreement with them.
Second, look at how they are posed. A) the Wonder Woman posing which I mentioned before, and B), how Superman and Vixen are posed because Benes apparently has to prove how men are dominant where women are not. Looking at Superman, you can see him posing with his chest out, where Vixen just looks frightened. I also noticed the muscle in Superman’s arms. I’d say his biceps are just as big - if not bigger - than his head. This is why I love Gary Frank, people, because he doesn’t draw with bulging muscles.
Second, do you (I’m asking you, the reader) think Vixen looks Caucasian, or someone of an African/American decent in the picture? I remember reading Birds of Prey and I certainly do remember Vixen being from M’Changa, a country that’s meant to be like the continent Africa where white people aren’t the majority race. Point is, she’s not white. Yet we see Ed Benes draw her with a sharp thin nose, and it seems some color must have “mysteriously” been throw on Vixen, as she clearly has white/slightly tanned skin. We’ll have to blame the colorist on that.
Ed Benes, why do you hurt me like this? It’s clearly sexist and racist. I just want to know why Benes is such a popular artist, so popular where he is allowed to draw such crap.
Andrew Janzen says...
That really is pretty poor art. But I’m not sure if I would call it sexist or racist.
It might just be me but I don’t think that it’s that bad.
Mike Haynes says...
I think Benes is one of the better artists working at DC. I see what you’re saying about it being a little sexist. Racist, not so much but I don’t think W-W needs to be showing off quite so much of her ass.
vadia says...
While I agree with your assessment that Superman seems dominant, I am not sure I agree with the assessment why.
I see him with his ramrod straight confidence and the two superheroines have this curvature in their backs which looks kinda submissive.
In that I only get my comic fix from the library, I don’t know who Vixen is, but I honestly don’t even see the coloring as showing anything other than caucasian in shadow.
Well spoken see-through skeleton.
WendySkeleton says...
Andrew Janzen — Maybe you don’t have a trained eye for spotting these things, but this is perhaps Benes’ “better” drawn things. What really annoyed me was in JLA #14 where he drew a torture scene for Wonder Woman, Black Canary and Vixen. Benes’ has got something wrong with him; it’s like he draws this stuff thinking he’s drawing everyday objects, like a chair or a flower. I’ll give you a link of the picture:
http://i30.photobucket.com/albums/c325/Wengistein/2mxn8uh.gif
Don’t tell me that doesn’t scream “WOMEN ARE TO BE SUBMISSIVE!” I just want to know why it was the women who are focused on this torture scene, when there are clearly male members that are also bolted down.
Mike — While I do agree that Benes can draw (though clearly not in this picture), it’s what he draws that really gets to me. It’s depicting Vixen as Caucasian that irritates me. Like, how many Asian, Africans, Latinos etc. are there in the DC Universe, and just comics in general? If he’s going to blatantly rule out an ethnic minority just to live out his fantasy, then there may as well be a racist mindset happening here (and I’m also pointing my finger at the colourist here. And now that I think about it, the editor is to blame as well. Either the editor allowed this to happen, or decided to change Vixen’s skin colour himself.
vadia — Type “Vixen” in Wikipedia and you will clearly see the difference in skin colour. You won’t even have to put each picture next to each other. And trust me, she’s seriously cool.
Mike Haynes says...
I was going to say that it’s really more the color guy than it is Benes in the case of Vixen.
I hear what you’re saying about his angles and shots.
DEADPOOL says...
C’mon! It’s easy to find problems with something. Hell, I could go in a grocery store and find a hundred things to be racist about (Why do you gotta be coocoo to eat the black cereal? Why are black olives in cans? etc.). It just comes down to seeing what one wants to see.
So what’s so wrong with Ed Benes’ picture there? If Wonder Woman was standing forward, feminists would probably complain about how voluptuous and unrealistic her breasts look. Neither Wonder Woman nor Vixen seem scared to me either, they look like they’re trying to look cool, as well as Superman. If Wonder Woman\’s knee was a little higher, she’d look like she has a little captain in her (Captain Morgan liquor joke), and Vixen looks like she’s gonna F*** someone up!
Crackerbob says...
Also, it’s quite likely that the women are being tortured because it has more emotional effect.
You torture Superman or Black Lightning or Green Lantern or… any male character and most people are like “evs”.
Torture the women characters and it has more of an impact. People feel that it’s evil to harm women and children.
Yes, it’s a result of antiquated attitudes, i.e. that women are defenseless and to be protected, and those attitudes may be wrong in the sense that women are just as capable of taking care of themselves as men, but it’s not a malicious idea like you seem to be making it out to be.
sexy says...
wonderman looks so hott