Monday, July 24, 2006

Gender Reassignment Challenge: Phantom Lady To Phantom Lord

Welcome to another installment of the Gender Reassignment Challenge, where I take the creme de la girliest of superheroine costumes and redesign them for a male hero.

Before Teen Whore Supergirl, before Witchblade, before Power Girl's cleavage porthole, long before any of these desperate, sweaty attempts to attract male readers, there was the Phantom Lady. Her costume was flimsy enough to land her in "Seduction of the Innocent" and to be brutally honest, it made her look as though she'd been forcibly giftwrapped. So how could I interpret this ensemble for a guy? Well, here goes!

phantomlord

I replaced the silky "nipple tarps" (foreplay called on account of rain!) with complicated suspenders. I tried to keep the diamond shaped negative space from the old top but I added a cross-piece and brought it across the tops of his arms to emphasize his shoulders. And I gave him pants. Because he has "Lord" in his name and I can't see somebody like that gadding about in their underpants. It's the same reason I gave him the sweet-ass VanDyke. It conveys authority. And yet the spiky hair says "I'm youthful and I'm ready for adventure!" I think he has a nice Mediterranean flavor. Very Antonio Banderas.

Next: another Gender Reassignment challenge: Snowbird to Snowbeast!

7 comments:

Anonymous said...

Nice one. It recalls its inspiration while also being distinctive in its own right.

I see that you're beginning to experiment with the watercolor pencils' capabilities--the greens you've elicited on the cape in particular are choice. In fact, I'd go so far as to change the boots and gloves to the cape's outer color were it up to me.

I expect Snowbird will be a snap for you compared to some of these gender swappin' costumes, but I look forward to it nonetheless!

Anonymous said...

Very sharp! Attractive lines. Banderas? Definitely.
Great head on those shoulders. And I gotta agree with Chawunky on those inner-cape greens... verdantly choice! It's his rugged golden age flavor I'm liking best.

Nicely subtle shading on the legs. Super pose. You're only getting better!

Lost in the dark, BHB

Anonymous said...

If you just tweak the colors and add a sword, Phantom Lord would be a great re-imagining for the Rapier for your Rescue Me project. The similarities are uncanny.

http://www.mycomicshop.com/res/unprocessed/fullsize/B2276002.jpg

Steven said...

I can't believe I'm going to write this but...

Since this is the male version of Phantom Lady, shouldn't he have a bigger and more, uh, prominent package? (Crotch tarp?)

Michael said...

Speaking of the Phantoms... There was a guy named Phantom Lad who tried to replace Phantom Girl in the Legion (or will try, since it's in the 30th century). He joined a bunch of rejected applicants who called themselves the Legion of Super-Rejects (no, really). His costume is even more hideous than her 70's bell-bottom costume, it reminds me of an Olympic weightlifter's unitard. Unfortunately I can only find one small image on the web but you get the idea of this mid-70's gender reassiangment.

Word verification: augnadsl, which is the 30th century drug of choice for those who don't want their costume to have a big crotch tarp.

Jeremy Rizza said...

Chawunky and Big Head Boy: Thanks!

Thing: Wow! Looks like Hellrazor wasn't the only one buying Barney Rubble shirts back then.

Steven: My guy is based on the Dee Tyler Phantom Lady. His current replacement would have a perfectly ginormous package.

Michael: Even at that size, all I can say about Phantom Lad is... yikes.

Scipio said...

HOT! VERY hot!

"Lord", indeed; no objections here.