Battle of the butt-in-the-air arachnid superheroes

Spider-Man? That degenerate supporter of Planned Promiscuity?

http://www.retronaut.com/2014/04/spiderman-and-planned-parenthood/

Touching the round ball that he’s straddling, you mean. If that were a flat surface, his thighs would be nowhere near the ground in that stance.

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The point is from her thoracic to her lumbar vertebrae there is a large change of angle because she is in what doctors call the “face down ass up” position, and it’s precisely because her face has not been drawn as “down” that her neck looks so awkward. His spine is much straighter.

It looks to me like he used some porn as a reference.

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Meh. The ass up pose like that is a classic Spider-Man one. Though the dip between the cheeks - the crack, I guess - is entirely too pronounced and exaggerated. It’s body paint vs spandex.

But the most horrible thing about it is the head isn’t on right. Very distracting and looks like an amateur with some talent, but one who doesn’t have a full grasp of how the human body works.

Can someone find an example? Because in the one posted here his ass is not up,

Sorry, but I have to disagree. Her arms are perpendicular to the ground - not flush to it. The right arm (always referring to her right or left) is bent under on the wall she’s on. The left arm is extended down because the wall drops down at that point. It’s the concrete edge of a building seen from above. I’d judge the drop to be about step height. (Check out the shadows, and you’ll see it.)

This angle would give her a smooth slope down on her back, slightly bent at the waist. There are two problems with the head. One is that it’s set too far off toward the left shoulder. It’s off center. Right now her head is also like an open Pez dispenser, but it’s actually tipped farther back than her shoulder line. The face should be more in profile, about 3/4, and probably titled at angle not so clearly displayed.

EDIT: I Shopped this edit really quickly to show what I mean. Sorry it’s not all that clean. Just wanted to get it on here.

Imgur

I moved her head to the center, and applied slight perspective to it so it would appear to be less far back to the shoulder. I also extended her left shoulder line.

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You are saying the architecture justifies it. I’m saying that doesn’t matter to me. Her back is arched. His is not.

I don’t know why everyone is so intent on justifying the pose as not sexual. It obviously was draw by Milo Manara to be about as sexual as his usual stuff. I don’t have a problem with ‘sexual,’ myself. If you look up my NSFW photos on my tumblr (same screen name as here) you’ll see that. I am also a longtime fan of the artist, although I don’t like this drawing much, and don’t get me started on the skyscrapers at all. Yikes.

I didn’t say anything about the pose as “sexual”. I said it was physiologically wrong, and that your description of the pose was wrong. Her arms aren’t resting on the ground, and the pose you described requires the arms be flat to the ground. Her arms are perpendicular to the ground, like a cat climbing over a wall.

EDIT: This picture shows pretty much what her arms are doing.

The office towers are totally distracting me from the ass. I guess Manara hates drawing buildings as much as I do…

It looks up to me in the example given…

Hmm - well. I thought this would be easy. I seem to remember him being in all sort of contortionist poses, especially when McFarlane drew him. But just my meager search attempt failed to show a good example. Perhaps I’m remember contorted poses, not specific ass up examples. Still if it were Spiderman in such a pose I wouldn’t give it a second look.

Yeah - much better anatomy. The neck would still probably be strained to get it looking that far up, but you can smudge anatomy some with comics and it still looks ok. But the original I though was really weak.

Thanks, I didn’t want to redraw anything, just edit the existing to show the problems. The head really shouldn’t be “face-on” at all, but I think the perspective does help.

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She is clearly a strong female character.

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You are saying, “her neck is wrong. Here, let me fix it.” I’m saying “her neck is wrong because he took some porn and tried to put a more appropriate head on it.” What is that muscle the green arrow is pointing to. Isn’t that part of her trapezius? That should be going up the back of the neck. In the original photo I bet it was, because that’s where the head originally was. And he may have also had to redraw the arms.

Over the last 5 years of the 1999 series I found:
Amazing Spiderman #581 - http://marvel.com/comics/issue/22865/amazing_spider-man_1999_581
Published Dec. 17, 2008
Amazing Spiderman #584 - http://marvel.com/comics/issue/23078/amazing_spider-man_1999_584 Published Apr. 2, 2009

That series ended in 2012 -the new series started in 2014 does not have a similar pose yet. I haven’t looked but if memory serves it was generally rolled out every two years or so - there are probably 15-20 similar covers over the whole run.

As an aside: Amazing Spiderman #601 - Published Sept. 6. 2010 - Type of art actually showing the type of cover directed to the “male gaze”, I’ll throw 602, 606, and 607 in there too.

My assessment is that the crouched position Spiderwoman is in is pretty common for an arachnid character. FYI - Spiderwoman is not related to Spiderman - i’m not sure what the current incarnation is but she’s actually a SHIELD agent in the comics with some powers, pheromone-based mind control, and an energy blast - I suspect Lucy Lawless is being cast to play her in the upcoming season. Comic nerd out.

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Also the faint hint of delicate watercolor wash over a nude comes across differently than opaque, dark, solid ink does.

Man, all this stupid attention. Now the variant will hit shops at $100 to start.

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Her neck is wrong because it’s broken. Since her head is closer to us in perspective than her body, if anything, it should be forced down and to the left of the page (note the perspective of the wall top). I drew two lines to show you how far out of alignment her head is.

It isn’t that way because of “porn”. It’s that way to cover up a mistake on the left arm. He didn’t bother to redraw them. Take a better look at it. See the place I have circled? The arm doesn’t even exist because the artist “faked” it in with a little color and a lot of hair. At that perspective, her yellow glove should end before the hair falling on it. He just didn’t want to have to draw that arm - which wasn’t drawn from a “porn” because it isn’t representing the position you think it is. Her body is at a simple slant, and she (like most comic book chicks) is herself rounded.

One more error. The right back leg I have circled. I did it because at that angle, that foot should be dangling in space! Her left leg is forward, and her spine bent. That right leg is knee to the edge. So she should barely be able to crouch her hindquarters in that fashion at all. She’s too unstable. I really doubt he was heavily focusing on a photo for this one.

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The Mary Sue have a good side-by-side comparison of this next to one on Manara’s erotic drawings.

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