Spider-Man hating protesters, 1950s Captain America... Marvel has had to retcon some awkward stuff. For more awesome content, check out: whatculture.com/ Follow us on Facebook at: / whatculture Catch us on Twitter: / wc_comics
I heard the origin of Power Girl's chest was an artist named Wally Woods who was known for dirty comic art (google his Disneyland art) and did some temp work for DC back in the day. The story goes that he thought the publishers were not paying attention to anything he was doing so as a joke he started making Power Girl's chest bigger and bigger in each episode to see how long it would take for the publisher to notice and apparently it took quite a while.
It's one hundred percent true. I came here to see if What Culture--which is always wrong--would get this and they didn't even know this pretty famous story. I would have given them slack if they explained the logo stories without acting like they knew where it came from originally, but since they acted like they knew where it came from from the get-go--and didn't include this--I knew it was just another case of them getting something else wrong.
@@Mhoramdude Justice League Europe #37 (1992) attempts to explain Power Girl's revealing costume by having Crimson Fox question her about it; she receives the reply that the costume "shows what I am: female, healthy. If men want to degrade themselves by staring, that's their problem, I'm not going to apologize for it. this one.....
Same as Mai Shiranui. Follows tales of Kunoichi using their bodies for seduction and distraction en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mai_Shiranui#/media/File:MAI_KOFXIII_stance.gif
One of the best moments in dc comics is in kingdom come, when Bruce Wayne asks what cut of chicken the power girl chicken sandwich is, and the waiter says breast
A minor correction to the Power Girl 'keyhole': It's actually the result of two separate issues. The cutout in the chest started because Gerry Conway, so he said, couldn't think of an appropriate chest symbol -- a very popular item for hero costumes at the time -- that didn't look stupid. So, since the character is invulnerable anyway, he just left it open. It wouldn't have become so noticeable, but Wally Wood drew her. Like many of the female characters on superteams at the time, she tended to get ignored by the male writers and editors. So, says writer Jimmy Palmiotti, he decided to start drawing Power Girl's bust bigger with every issue until someone noticed. Palmiotti recalls it taking seven or eight issues...
@@bgucci3135 especially since WW in her early days had a skirt or shorts. a bit later, in her "hippie phase" a relative long dress. the WW in her skimpy swimsuit is more since the 90's (good god, even this is 30 years ago. where's the time :) )
@@astrotrain85tr70 yeah, I was speculating that they are throwing lame reasons at lame people complaining to distract them for a few minutes. If they come again they'll create a new lame reason and the cycle repeats ;)
@@manoftruth0935 Kinda like what happened to Captain Marvel. Lets be honest, 80% of Captain Marvel's appeal was that she looked good. In the more recent years she lost about 80% of her appeal :p
Did a japanese manga artist actually say that ? Feels like something the author of Chainsaw Man could say, but the only japanese I remember saying that is actually Yoko Taro, the game director of the NieR/Drakengard saga
I would’ve respected the writers so much more if they just said powergirl likes to show off her assets. I mean that’s a completely understandable explanation
The reason why there is a hole in the chest for the costume is because: *Shows every fighting clip, Which one of these people did not get hit by the chest, The first thing they punch is the chest.
Solution for the Power Girl bit: it distracts at least a great deal of regular human criminals and potentially a lot of super powered ones too. Just make that the reason. Its weak but its a hell of a lot better than "I dunno what I stand for".
Confession: I came here for Power Girl. Defense: I wanted to see how What Culture would explain her boob window even though I already knew why it's there. Wally Wood drew her that way because he wanted to see how much he could get away with... a lot apparently. Now, there's definitely a story including ripping off the S, but that's isn't from her first appearance; the artwork alone should tell you that it arrives long after her character was designed, and thus isn't the story to be re-explained by her inability to design a logo. The original origin stems from a humorous artist and that alone.
Not neccisarily. It could literally be an explanation. If the writer was a marine for example and wanted to make the character be designed in a way that shows he was a marine, then it's not an excuse it's added character. Or for a better example, if the writer was a huuuuge fan of taco bell, they could do purple and blue coloring and make the character love tacos. And there's nothing wrong with that. Just gotta be careful with how you do it and what the thing is that might need explained.
@@adameins5622 those are both things happening during or even before the design. What I am talking about is if the character was made purple and blue for arbitrary, or quickly no longer acceptable reasons; so they made up the Taco Bell Marine thing years after the fact.
@Mal Mort objectifying a human or human character for any reason is wrong cmon now i know you didn’t just type that my guy😂, the first part i understand though but instead of objectifying we should just appreciate their physique as a bonus to what else their character has to bring
I think comic creators should just take a page out of Yoko Taro and the rest of the team behind Nier Automata Interviewer: So why are the female characters in Nier Automata designed like that Yoko Taro: Gonna be honest, I just like girls
The only version of the Hawks that has ever worked was the Thanagarians. We all WANT the Egyptian / reincarnated version to work, but at the end of the day, a guy who can fly and uses Medieval weapons is of limited use. My girlfriend accidentally came up with a good idea, though. I was explaining the Hawk reincarnation cycle to her, and she said "oh, so they're phoenixes". Now THAT makes a lot of sense, and it flips their grim cycle of death into a cycle of rebirth (which is more or less the same thing but more optimistic). Also, what sorts of magic come from being a creature that is perpetually reborn in fire? If I were a writer, I'd try to do something with that. Sure beats Hawkman hitting things with a club.
Well, he got HIS wish. But let's be honest. He probably would have gotten it no matter what the original design was. I mean, look at Velma from Scooby Doo. She's a more popular porn character than Daphne is. Not what one might have expected from their original character designs.
One embarrassing moment was she-hulk sleeping with juggernaut and how they explain later how that was like another she hulk from like a different universe or something.
I agree that if a character is designed to look sexy, just own it instead of assuming the readers are stupid to believe boob windows mean anything. Characters like Black Canary have sexy outfits but it doesn't diminish how badass she is.
But, homely wah-men can’t stand that a fictional character is hotter than they will ever be, so the character must wear a large, baggy mumu and not be pretty at all to destroy the e-e-evil male gaze!!!
I remember a power girl comic I saw once, on the cover she was fighting another super powered female. I laughed and said it would end in a tie because their breast were the same size...lol...after flipping to the end I was right...lmao.
PG actually shows less..a lot less..then Diana and a lot of other heroines. Her open window shows less the Ww's low riding crop top. And dont even get me started on Lady Death. Why the concern on Pg?
Honestly, I think her boob window draws questions is because of the rest of the outfit. More often than not, it has full sleeves and a collar. We therefore expect to see a complete top. Thus a boob window brakes expectation. This draws attention, and that draws questions. I expect that if she had no collar, she'd get no more or less attention than any other scantily clad female character. People are weird like that.
@@garyclark3843 Isn't that kind of the point for some actual irl dresses, like covered up to the collar but the entire back is exposed. It works at parties so why can't it work in a costume.
I still love the story of why Power Girl even needed that boob-window to begin with: Originally, she was just "Earth Two Supergirl" practically indistinguishable except for the white costume with blue gloves. The book she was being published in, Justice Society of America, was being pencilled by former Mad Comics (from the EC years before it became a Magazine to get around the comic code) artist, Wally Wood. He REALLY did not like the work he was being forced to do by contract and so, in a fit of pique, he began increasing Power Girl's bust every issue until someone mentioned it. I think it took... a year or more of issues before someone at DC mentioned noticing it?
@@smileyhappyface5864 Never said that they wear revealing clothes all of the time, just that when a real woman does decide to they aren't heavily scrutinized now a days. People complaining about a fictional character's cleavage sounds like something the generation living in the 40's/50's would do.
You have to understand that leftists control the education system in most countries these days and when they talk about education what they really mean is indoctrination. The guy who did this video isn't enlightened enough to think for himself and understand that all of the political isms lead to one thing totalitarianism which never goes well for the people and only helps the people running the government.
@@waltt69 Fairly sure that pretty much everyone _understands_ it. But understanding it only makes it worse. Everyone is capable of thinking for themselves - Choosing not to is lazy, _at best..._
*7:24* What you're all here for. Let's be honest, the thumbnail brought you here and you don't give a *_crap_* about what the other _"Embarrassing Comic Book Moments"_ are. 😂😂😂
The greatest & most interesting Green Lantern: Alan Scott. Especially Kingdom Come Alan Scott. Greatest Green Lantetn Corp. member: Entire Corp.: Kilowag From Earth: John Stewart Most interesting Green Lantern Corp. member Entire Corp.: Mogo From Earth: Kyle Raynor My favorite Green Lantern: Guy Gardner
7:24 I like what he had to say about the PowerGirl retcon! Just own the fact that the comics are appealing to the male gaze... Rather than some half-baked philosophy.
Spider-man was plotted and drawn by Ditko, but the dialogue was ALL Stan Lee. As a matter of fact, Stan is on record saying that Ditko would "write" dialogue for Spidey, which he would discard and write his own version. Spidey said NOTHING that Stan did not approve of, while he was the scripter of the book.
Regarding Hal Jordan, I'm kind of split. On one hand I love Geoff Johns' run. It's what made me a GL fan. I really like the emotional spectrum, flawed as it is (will isn't an emotion for a start). At the same time I don't really think Hal needed resurrecting, and it has led to arguably more interesting characters being sidelined. While on the subject, I also think Barry Allen should have stayed dead as Wally West had eclipsed him as the Flash both in terms of power, accomplishments and quality of writing. Unlike GL his resurrection didn't lead to a stand out run or event (Flashpoint being a bit meh and farting out the New 52). That said Joshua Williamson's run certainly had it's moments and led to superb climax with Finishing Line. Marvel and DC are always too eager to revert their characters to a specific default setting, wiping out their character/timeline progression.
Since it was the Text & thumbnail that got my attn. for this video, I was Honestly thinking that the reason for Power Girl's "B00b Window" was because that's how she best absorbs Solar energy to get to her strongest.
Lillie: “I mean... There nothing embarrassing about the window. t’s strength and independence!” *Lillie wears the Powergirl costume* “Also I don’t know if should alter it and what should I put as my logo...”
I feel like a lot of these issues stem from having too many hands in the pot. You got someone telling the chefs (writers) to make a soup to serve to the diners, and you have over 20 chefs all trying to make the soup they want to make in the same pot. They see some of what the other chefs are adding and go to add their own ingredients without checking what is already in there. The end product will be a soup-like product but generally not a soup that your average person will swallow.
I think a Spider-Girl who began as an actual spider would be a GREAT character for an Into the Spiderverse movie! Especially if she was self-conscious and defensive about her 2 extra sets of arms and tended to pick fights over imagined insults ("What do you mean, lend you a hand?!") so teaming up with her was almost more trouble than it was worth...
@@Friendly_Neighborhood_Edgelord but they kept the fact that he punched Nazis. It's weird that they'd retcon that to appease commies. Sounds like an agenda to me.
"Different Artists and Writers Always come on to books to keep things feeling fresh and to clean up any potential messes made by previous creative team" … HAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAH Writers and Artists come on to books to and clean up said messes, and end up messing up even worse, creating the need for huge retcons and reboots and crisis events which make a clean sweep on things… until someone comes along and messes up everything once again However, despite this, we still love comics
@@pietrocatalano4285 in that case do tell me what's good that's coming from the comics industry cuz all I see is virtue signalling garbage that no one likes.
@@danialyousaf6456 For Marvel, the King in Black run, very nice storyline, has actual buildup, the character isn't entirely new to us, and there's some very good moments in it. For DC, well, I can't really say much, since they just had their new reboot and I haven't seen all of it (I know the ending and the last parts of the battle, but I haven't read the issues before that, although I still do have a pretty clear idea of what's going on thanks to some RU-vidrs covering that series).
You got the reason for the Bob window wrong according to the Kara of earth two,you were partially right and partially wrong,what you said was correct asking far as how she first ended up with a boob window, but in the end after years of having said window in her costume she couldn't think of an insignia that she was satisfied with and then after having her pre-crisis origin restored, she briefly considered adopting the sigil of the house of El ,but before she could adopt it kara-Zor-El of earth one was brought back and she decided to wear it so Powergirl decided against wearing the aforementioned sigil to avoid making it any harder on Supergirl as far as establishing her own identity than it already was for her due to having just started out on her heroes journey, and it then the window itself essentially became her own personal sigil after she'd had it for so long that that the public got used to it to the point that she no longer wanted to change it last ther ever be any confusion among the public regarding her superhero identity!!!
I think I read in a comic somewhere that Powergirl said it was to distract her foes and give her an 'edge'. Not much better than what it's said on this video, but not worse either…
The reason why Power Girls window was there is because the original writer didn't feel as if he was being taken seriously so he progressively made her bosom bigger and having the window.
Huh. I never knew people had a problem with the boob window. I just kinda thought power girl was a confident badass. Hence the somewhat more revealing look compared to supergirl.
@Teresa Gonzalez I haven't watched that show yet, but it looks really good. But yeah while I was typing that the very same question hit me. I just figured everyone else knew how it translates to confidence and I was the idiot who didn't get it. Pretty common occurrence with those types of things for me. Honestly while I will admit I have no issue with her design whatsoever; it doesn't really matter to me what she wears. Power girl is power girl.
@Teresa Gonzalez well, you think it shows that she's not confident in herself? LOL how? A person has to be pretty confident and comfortable in their own skin and with themselves to dress in certain ways at least that's what I would think.
I love how official captain America lore is that a random guy made a captain America shield of decent quality along with a costume and trained physically and mentally to copy his style of combat and speech all just to fight communists while looking like his favorite super hero
Ok, When I was still reading DC comics, Power Girl was not Supergirl. She was Arion's Granddaughter, and thus of a different age to the modern age, ie she was from Atlantis when it was still a magical city, but then things went wrong and she was transported by magic to the future where as a fish out of water story she was often given to traits that seem odd with the modern world, so she didn't mind the cleavage that also served to distract the mostly male villains she faced, thus giving her an extra edge over most people. As a magic powered person, she was on a power level with Superman, and in fact was not vulnerable to magic as he was. Then they went and did that whole embarrassing thing of turning her into a clone or something of Supergirl, which was just stupid. Why do that? It takes away from her character, and also means one less character. Not sure how any of this was written, because after they started doing reboot after reboot (due to crappy writing by lots of idiots, and backing DC into storyline cul-de-sac after cul-de-sac that they just could not think themselves out of, and so to the old stand-by default of reboot/clean slate it) I gave up on what I consider a dead company, with incompetent and lazy writers. They cancelled all the comics and ended the DCU, so that was where I stopped reading it. I just do not really follow any of the recent rubbish which is change after change just to make things back into a multidimensional chaos that was pre-Crisis DC, and along the ignore some really well written comics. I have very nearly 15 000 to 20 000 comics in my collection (DC, Marvel and some independents), maybe even more... so still have plenty to read.
The reason for the “boob window” is pretty simple, to quote a certain scene in Simpsons: “The boys needed to breathe!” “Wouldn’t they be girls?” *”Mine are boys!”* 😂😂😂 (C’mon folks, if she’s really meant to be an alternate dimension’s Supergirl then where’s she get all the extra padding?)
@@LadyLeomon exactly, race is significantly more permanent than clothing so shouldn't be hard to accept that this Supergirl is wearing a different outfit, one that just happens to have a boob window.
@@LadyLeomon It really isn't when you are talking about alternate reality. There are realities where Batman's entire ideology is different. It's all fair play when it comes to those things
What makes the whole Supergirl/Powergirl explanation make even less sense is they're not even the same character. Supergirl and Powergirl have both appeared together in Justice League. I believe Powergirl was meant to be some sort of clone of Supergirl but still they're different characters, Supergirl didn't change her name and reject the S symbol, she still wears that symbol and uses that name. Powergirl was never Supergirl... and having an S symbol on her chest really doesn't make any sense when there's not even an S in her name. Of course there's the "It's not an S it's a Kryptonian symbol for Hope." excuse but most humans would still see that as an S.
One small correction as far as Ditko's comic references to Rand's Objectivism. Not long after leaving DC & The Question, he created the character Mr. A. He's made many appearances in indie comix & all his stories are based on Objectivism. Two great (to me) call outs in every Mr. A strip were "A=A" & A's calling card - a card w/black on one side & white on the other. This references Rand's ideas that things can be seen only as black or white - no grays. Hell, Allen Moore riffed off both Question/Mr. A & Objectivism in "Watchmen" in the form of Rorschach.
What's so "embarrassing" about Cap smashing Commies in the 50's. He should and would be proud...Retconning that character into a fascist is actually far more embarrassing . Hal Jordan is "too white bread" ? This video is embarrassing
I agree, the events leading up to Hal 'snapping' was poignant and then Johns brings in that 'possesed' crap like he did for Kyle when he made it so he was possessed when he was Ion and 'Ion' was the physical embodiment of 'will power' that and the whole "Skittles Corps' is just ridic.
Writers always use the whole they were under mind control by someone or something else as a excuse for everytime a hero does something that a hero should never do. It like bad writing covering up for bad writing. It writers would stop turing heroes into villains this crap would not happened.
What's to explain with #4? Attractive people sell or did you think every single male hero being a muscled adonis in a skin tight suit is a coincidence? There's nothing shameful about having attractive female characters too.
Cap fighting communism or Spider-Man not agreeing with a protest decades ago really didn't need a fix. Could've just left it unless the protest was something important.
Cap fighting communism didn't need an explanation? Except it does. 1950's communist scare is awfully similar to an actual totalitarian regime. It would be very out of character for Steve Rogers to take part in it.
@@chanterelle483 Communism is just as evil as fascism. It's 100% in Cap's character to fight communism. What they turned the second Cap into made no sense. That needs an explanation.
@@SalamandersRCool Also, being a communist isn't illegal in the US, and it wasn't back in the 50s. It was stupid and lame, sure, but communists legally ran for President for decades. Look up Gus Hall.
@@alanb8884 It's not illegal to be part of any political party in the US. Fascism is legal, too. But Fascism and Communism are tyrannical and totalitarian forms of government so it makes perfect sense for Cap to fight villains along those lines. The USSR was just as bad as Nazi Germany.
Terry Mcguines origin story Jason Todd 's origin AND return was retconned as well Elongated man and DR Lights goofiness Plastic Man The before watchmen is a series that focuses on retcons Ghost Rider Johnny Blaze
If I Made A Character Like Power Girl. And Someone Ask Why The "Boob Window". I Would Use Their Own BS And Just Say, Because She Likes It! She Can Wear Anything And If You Try To Control Her Clothes, Don't Blame Me If She Take It All Off For A Protest...
No, they just made a weird episode to reference Hawkman and the reincarnation cycle where some random guy named Carter Hall got confused by some alien technology he found. "Justice League" and the "Unlimited" sequel fully went with the Thanagarian origin for Hawkgirl.
Not sure why people ever had a problem with Power Girl’s boob window. There are literally other female characters in the DC and Marvel universe that expose way more skin or have skin tight outfits that emphasize their body parts. Imo, coming up with an explanation or excuse for why her costume is like that is even more embarrassing. Just keep it real with the readers and keep it moving is all the writers had to do for that one.
The excuse for Power Girl’s exposed cleavage is totally lame. Everyone knows we just want to see her bosom. Out of all the Blue Beetles, Ted Kord is definitely my favorite. I totally dig his costume and gadgets even though he doesn’t have any real superpowers. I still find him to be very entertaining and I’m surprised that the Blue Beetle hasn’t made his live action debut considering there are a bunch of DC television shows. I’d love to see The Ted Kord Blue Beetle team up with Booster Gold in some capacity within the Arrow-verse.
on the other hand it is kind of poetic to give a lame reason for people who lamely complain about sexiness. Kind of like that Simpsons joke "A Wizard did it!'
One thing that Women/Feminists dont understand about old comics is that the original Demographic of these comics were young boys and teen boys. And boys like big mommy milkers. Considering how most Feminists have a close minded view on this world, i wouldn't be surprised if this comment gets hate.
sigh, just started the video and I'm already disappointed. Spider-Womans origin is not weird or embarrassing. Look at the Celestials experiments with the Eternals and Deviants that led to humans and mutants existing. It's really no different.
I hate when people hate on Steve Ditko for basically just having a different view , Spider-Man asking to be left alone by some opportunist protesters wasn’t “cringe”
You can't have a super hero questioning the honor of protesters. Wtf you thinking? For real though, I agree. It's pretty sad. Happened 50 years ago too.
@@Emperorhirohito19272 Idiots who carry around the Little Red Book, spouting quotes they don't understand, then go back to their dorm rooms that daddy's money is paying for.
To OP. Objectivism is a effing stupid philosophy which only three kinds of people adhere to: 1) Naive and sheltered people (often teens) who lack life experience and have no clue how the world works, 2) Superficial and self-righteous narcissists who wrongly believe they'll be unstoppable and endlessly worshipped in such a system, and 3) The ruthless opportunists who are the only ones who truly understand this system and who are well aware most others would be scr*wed but don't care at all. And since type 1, 2 and 3 are in a distinct minority and unfortunately can't agree on anything or understand what defines all great cultures - the common good for the overwhelming majority - objectivism is rightly considered a fringe cult even in the USA. Elsewhere in the world it's incredibly obscure and is mostly propagated by loners who believe "the system is holding them back". As for "different view". Superheroes are meant to protect the innocent, fight super-villains and do the right thing even if they get sh*t fo it. They're NOT supposed to propagate some political system.
10- sounds more weird than embarrassing. 9- sounds more ridiculous and unnecessary than embarrassing 8- this one I agree with. 7- sounds more strange than embarrassing 6-i agree with this one. 5- once again doesn't sound embarrassing. 4- agreed 3- doesn't sound embarrassing 2- once again sounds weird, not sure about embarrassing. 1-doesnt sound embarrassing.
