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I thought this issue was aces; certainly one of the better Seven Soldiers. As a self-contained origin story it was slick, pacey and efficient.
With regard to the "cheesecake" and the representation of Alix.
1. I think there's a big difference between depicting one woman character as tits-and-ass, frequently posing in her undies and losing her clothes, and all female characters thus. Maybe Paquette always draws women this way, but crucially, Seven Soldiers as a whole doesn't impose this template on all its women. Justin(e), Beula, even Zatanna resist this mould.
For one female character to have a toned body, to have relatively large boobs, to sleep in panties, to stick out her butt a lot and stand around her house like a model, is not "unrealistic". If the entire female population of the DCU was shown in this way, that would be stupid and reductive, but I think it's clear that Alix is somewhat exceptional among the Seven Soldiers narrative.
I think we're used to criticising large-breasted women in superhero comics as "stereotypical". Of course, they're no more "unrealistic" than small-busted women. In terms of comic book representations as a whole, they fit a common type and may be seen to conform to a lazy teen-boy "ideal", but in itself it's not implausible for a female character to have the body of a glamour model.
Alix's appearance strikes me as being carefully bound up with her specific character. She keeps in shape and looks after herself ("My body's fine, okay"). Her husband is narcissistic, ambitious, vain; he sees her at least partly as a trophy, and is starting to compare her unfavourably to his superheroine porn. Note that Lance also has a gym-bunny body -- when he turns to metal, he looks like the Silver Surfer. That's not "unrealistic" either... this is a fit, physically attractive couple to whom looks are clearly important (more to him than to her, perhaps).
2. Unlike the cheesecake in All-Star Batman, we're invited to examine and reflect on the representation of Alix, through the sub-plot about the online porn. The pictures of posing super-starlets don't look so much different to the pictures we just saw of Alix lounging in her knickers, examining herself in the mirror, leaning in a doorway. The story encourages a critical perspective on the art. The episode is about sex, and porn, and cultural ideals of femininity in our society and the Seven Soldiers world. As has been pointed out, it's crammed with wittily semi-disguised sexual images -- the stuff splashing her face, the big helmet. It doesn't present Alix unquestioningly as many less intelligent and imaginative superhero comics would -- as in, "here's our main character and naturally she's a fit chick, and wouldn't it be cool if she walked around in her underwear a lot". Her appearance and presentation is integral to the story's themes. |
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