Welcome to week two of our look at under-represented heroes in the Marvel Universe. If you want to check out Part 1 (focused on Heroes with Physical Disabilities), click HERE. If not, we're still cool.
Today we're goign to look at characters (a good portion of them villains) who represent how NOT to write characters with diverse body shapes.
If you’ve ever picked up a comic book or watched a superhero movie, you know that hero body types come in one of three shapes:
Slender and Muscular (a la Spider-Man), Squat and Muscular (here’s looking at you Wolvy), and WAY-Too Muscular (your Hulk variety) all of whom have perfectly chiseled figures in skin-tight spandex that shows off every sculpted muscle kicking villainous ass (and look great while doing it).
Now, while this image makes sense in a certain respect (taking into consideration the amount of physical training these characters go through) it doesn’t reflect the world we live in. You may not see an active marine with a spare tire around his waist, chances are you’ll see a cop with one! That same logic should be applied to the super-world, since not all heroes and villains are the best-of-the-best physical elite (nor should they be).
Although there have been heavyset characters around in Marvel Comics since the 1960s, very few of them were portrayed positively. These characters were depicted as physically disturbing...
slow-witted…
causing revulsion in others…
were often the target of cruel comments by other characters...
or themselves…
and often behaved in ways that made them targets for either their own self-pity or the audience’s disgust and jibes.
Even characters that were introduced in recent decades have had difficulty breaking this cycle, often allowing others to hurl insults at them without standing up for themselves.
Two of them (Blob & Pink Pearl) started their careers as carnival freaks.
The names some of them have are demeaning (Butterball, Big Bertha, Blob, Pearl Gross).
Many of them have been shown sitting on an opponent to defeat him or her…
making jokes about their diet, weight, or bodily functions…
or swallowing an opponent’s fists in their body fat.
In fact, several of the characters who have no powers at all are listed as having increased strength and durability just because of their weight.
For example: Black Mariah. Although few are familiar with the Luke Cage villain, many will be soon, asAlfre Woodard was announced to play her in the upcoming Luke Cage Netflix show. Although she has no powers, she goes toe-to-toe with Luke Cage (a man capable of lifting two tons) and is able to punch him (and take a punch from him) without being phased. Just because she is overweight.
Unfortunately, multiple writers have explained how characters escaped death by saying they were too fat. And, no; I’m not joking. Pink Pearl was stabbed in the heart...but she didn’t die because she was had too much fat on her chest for the dagger to penetrate.
Probably the worst indignity, though, is the character of Big Bertha. Created as a joke character for a joke team (the Great Lakes Avengers), Ashley Crawford is actually a svelte supermodel by day whose powers allow her to plump up her body with extra-dimensional fat stores. While the idea could have been used to create sensitivity in the audience, instead it was used as a gag. Here's a before and after pic...
The worst and most harmful “joke” is that in order to slim back down to her usual size, Bertha has to vomit up all of the extra body fat--making light of people with eating disorders.
Another particularly disappointing example of a missed opportunity is the teen character, Butterball. Aside from his general imperviousness to all harm, his powers froze his body in its current state, meaning that--despite the rigorous physical exercise he was put through--he would never lose the weight.
Writers could have taken a character like this and spun him to be a great role model for readers, challenging them to love and accept their bodies as they are--to find the hero within (as cliche as that may sound).
Instead, he was turned into a punchline. His name, by the way, was not self-chosen. That name would have been Bolder, but an insensitive drill sergeant at his superhero camp (Taskmaster) rebranded him Butterball because of his weight.
And he had such little self-confidence that he kept it.
The way that Butterball was brandished over a good portion of the marketing, it seemed like Marvel was poised to make him the Everyman character that the audience could relate to. Surely, his appearance is one that reflects a growing percentage of American readers.
His potential was recognized by his superiors--imagine having a truly indestructable hero on your side who felt no pain, never tired, and could not be harmed by ANY conventional means--however, he was written off because he was slow, because he was weak, and because of his size.
Obviously, this poses more than a few problems. As I’ve said numerous times in the past, everybody wants to see him or herself represented in the fiction he or she reads. If those characters are present, the way they are portrayed can directly influence how we think of ourselves (especially if the readers are young and haven’t established who they are yet). Therefore, having a string of plus-sized characters who are constantly self-deprecating or outright dumb can negatively impact a generation of readers and reinforce the negative body image our culture already touts.
Unfortunately, these negative images have infiltrated the superhero movies as well. Although many of us have tried long and hard to forget X-Men Origins: Wolverine, the character of the Blob does show up as a recurring character.
Here's a before and after pic (note the “Save the Whales” shirt worn specifically to reference his size in a joking manner)...
The demeaning comments that Wolverine makes about him only reinforce body shaming habits and--when coming from the lips of a hero--make them permissible.
Although there have been many negative examples, not all hope is lost! Join us next week when we look at Positive Examples of Body Size Diversity.
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