Comments on: The Pregnant SuperHero

By: Ryuu74/RiflemanIII

Ryuu74/RiflemanIII — Tue, 21 Oct 2008 17:37:34 +0000

I wouldn’t necessarily attribute it to any particular malice against pregnancy, but rather the fact that playing out a pregnancy, birth, and aftermath to its fullest extent would require a long-term change to the status quo. The same reason that they can’t allow any of Reed Richards’s amazing technology to work properly and reshape the fundamental technological base of the setting, or why Batman villians keep on getting thrown in the notoriously porous Arkham Asylum rather than given the needle, and why they seem to have a revolving-door afterlife.

By: Numerico

Numerico — Thu, 16 Oct 2008 20:09:06 +0000

Comics in general have many issues and plot holes. But the reason pregnancy is most likley a plot problem is who comics are marketted too. Most comics are marketted to young boys. And despite knowing boys who prefer bigger women, or meeting those who love pregnant women, the mainstream is still working under the impression that all men want super models. Pregnancy just doesn’t fit into that mindset of early teenagers. They don’t want to hear about it, they don’t find it interesting. They want to see their super hot, mutant women fighting bad guys not preparing for the birthof their child and impending parenthood.
If they do a pregnacy they usually take the angst route because that’s the easiest thing for the hormonally crazed teenager to relate too.
Now for the comics that are marketted to young girls, in honesty I know more female friends that would rather hire a surrogate than bear their own child. (I know, I’ve been asked to a lot since I’m one of the few that actually would love a pregnancy.) So seeing their female heroine going thru the miracle we know as child bearing and birth might not be their cup of tea.
So in the end, my point is that a pregnnacy in comics would be great but what to remember is that comics are a buisness first and foremost. So until pregnant women become a popular source of entertainment, I doubt you’ll see a decent plot of one in comic books.

By: IWfan

IWfan — Thu, 16 Oct 2008 03:55:26 +0000

To further what KB said, I’m also pretty darn sure that Susan Richards was comics first pregnant superheroine, even if after she started to grow we never got to see her in costume, during the first pregnancy at least…

By: KB

KB — Wed, 15 Oct 2008 22:15:05 +0000

Yeah well I put the wrong name at least you know who I meant. But he like made his own sister.

By: Gil Gladrocks

Gil Gladrocks — Wed, 15 Oct 2008 22:08:58 +0000

It’s a skrull?

Fantastic, something ELSE I like about a character taken away. I’m glad I stopped reading Marvel just before the Secret Invasion stuff…

I also can’t believe I didn’t think of Franklin Richards. And I call myself a comics nerd!

By: KB

KB — Wed, 15 Oct 2008 20:51:31 +0000

But she didn’t name it. He was just like” OH HAI MOM! I’m an adult now and since you didn’t name me I will be known as Equinox!!”

Which kinda sounds like a 13 year old goth renaming themselves and demanding the mother not call them Todd but hey are now NOCTURNE!

By: RodConvoy

RodConvoy — Wed, 15 Oct 2008 20:40:54 +0000

You know I’m glad that Power Girl actually got back her original origin, so the weirdness of that pregnancy can just be forgotten just like the child. But the child’s name was Equinox.

By: KB

KB — Wed, 15 Oct 2008 16:32:14 +0000

It’s also a skrull.

The only example I can think of where a normal pregnancy ends in a kid that doesn’t age unnaturally (until he ages himself), and isn’t just a d-lister off screen thing, is Franklin Reeds.

By: Gil Gladrocks

Gil Gladrocks — Wed, 15 Oct 2008 10:36:51 +0000

Hmm, I’d cite the whole Luke Cage/Jessica Jones pregnancy sdtoryline, which splashed over into several comics, was drawn well by some artists (not all, but like I said it splashed into a lot of comics), and doesn’t appear to be a ‘plot’ baby, (in your meaning of the term) but more a creative effort to age the characters and give them a new set of responsibilities. (and therefore give the characters a new lease of life in comics)

But then again, even if I could argue enough to create that as an example of pregnancy in comics done well (which I don’t think I can) even I’d have to conceed that this was the exception rather than the rule.

By: Maximo

Maximo — Wed, 15 Oct 2008 00:03:18 +0000

Valid point, and another testament to the self-righteous inflexibility of mainstream comic artists. If they can’t see it in the mirror or in other comic books, they’ll either cleverly (or, as you pointed out with Spoiler, not so cleverly) hide it or draw it without reference, yielding laughable results. Seriously, for such action-intensive media, more artists should really be able to at least draw guns that don’t look like cardboard cutouts or massive chrome wangs.

Okay, I’ll quit being nasty and go read some TenNapel in the corner…