Monday, March 06, 2006

Gender Reassignment Challenge: Scarlet Witch To Scarlet Warlock

Here's the second entry in my self-appointed gender-reversal design challenge. In other words, I take a girly superheroine costume and butch it up for an (even more) imaginary male version of the same character. The trick is maintaining a visual connection with the femme outfit while keeping it from looking like "brawny guy in panties and a bra." It's harder than it sounds.

This time 'round, I chose the Scarlet Witch. Let's take a look at her in this panel from "The Avengers" #185 (July, 1979) in which Modred the Mystic surprises her in her bedroom while she's sleeping in the nude, and pretty much immediately decides to put some clothes on her. Gay! (Me, too, so no offense meant there. I'm just sayin', is all.)

Put some clothes on

As you can see, I had my work cut out for me, starting with all that pink, continuing with the strapless bustier/swimsuit thing she's wearing, and ending with the big dumb pointy tiara or whatever the hell that shit is on her head. And here's the result: the Scarlet Warlock.

Scarlet Warlock

(Roy Orbison tiger growl)

I'm really happy with how this one turned out. I mean, I don't know about you guys, but I'd do him. Oh, I'm sorry. That was really unprofessional. Let's move on. As you can see, I replaced the bustier-type thing with the closest equivalent for a (non-tranny) guy: a corset. Instead of using the pale pink, presumably gauzy fabric on the Scarlet Warlock's upper body, I just left the skin exposed. Yes, the nipples are a bit upsetting. Deal with it. Below the corset is a nice pair of tight, superhero-type pants. I made the tiara deal into a more masculine headpiece that covers the entire forehead and wraps around the chin. It has a nice Steve Ditko/Jack Kirby vibe, I think. I mean, I could see a guy who wore this fighting Doctor Strange, or maybe the Challengers of the Unknown. The cape, boots, and gloves were gender-neutral so I could leave them alone. I love how the little swoop of cape below the chin looks in conjunction with the corset. And then I just darkened the color scheme to make the outfit more serious and manly. So overall I'm quite pleased with it.

4 comments:

Jeremy Rizza said...

Haw! Awesome description of the Warlock's unblinking expression! Scary fact: it also applies to Tom Cruise.

Glad you liked the pic, Simon!

Phillip said...

Well, you deftly defused any crack I was going to make about the nipples, so I'll just say, good job, BB! (Yet again!)

Jeremy Rizza said...

Thank you, Phillip! Yeah, exposed nipples on a superhero isn't everybody's cup o' tea, but I figured what the hell. I actually saw how it looked without the nipples and with the top colored like the pants. But it just looked weird with ONLY the face AND hair exposed but WITH that big headdress thingie. So I left it like so. But I also knew some folks would have a similar reaction to the one Mike Nelson had when he saw a topless Ray Dennis Steckler: "Nipples too small... too dark and upsetting...!"

And if I'd extended the corset to cover the nipples? Well, then he'd look like a really sexy Eastern European version of Amazo.

Anonymous said...

My favorite bit is that the mask evokes Magneto's helmet.

Intentional?