Back to Empire Comics

[Varyx]

They say smart is the new sexy.

It certainly felt so as Varyx's eyes went subtly wider when Martha started breathlessly rhapsodizing about relationship of Wonder Woman to Greek mythology and the ideal of cosmic symmetry. She hadn't really expected the little blue-haired cutie to have the kind of familiarity with philosophy and history to be capable of applying it so casually to a conversation about super heroes, comic books and movies, but that wasn't to say she minded. Not at all. In fact, the innocent excitement on her face was really all the more alluring, and Varyx found herself leaning slightly toward her as she chirped happily about the Greek ideals of beauty.

She smiled as Martha finished her speech, and considered what she'd said, her smile turning slightly into something more like a smirk as a new thought occurred to her. "Apologies in advance for my painful lack of familiarity with the source material, but... Wonder Woman is the one whose strength is countered by her own lasso, right? I just find it interesting that you should talk about her as this ideal of pure beauty as separated from sexuality by the Greeks when the context of her powers is so overtly sexual. I mean, she's practically invincible... until she's bound by rope, and then she's helpless? Kinky. Though, either way, a stunningly beautiful woman as Gadot seems an appropriate casting choice, given the implications of both the Greek ideals and the rather unsubtle sexuality of that particular weakness."

[Martha Villiers]

As Vanessa spoke, Martha listened. Locking eyes, she rubbed at her flesh knee and then her flesh thigh. Carefully, perhaps purposefully, revealing several extra inches of her trime flesh thigh in the process of rubbing at her knee.

Imagining Vanessa is caressing her knee, Martha almost blushed as she hoped Vanessa couldn't read this fantasy in her eyes and gestures.

Biting her bottom lip, Martha's twin tails nodded as she listened; "K...kinky...? Oh...golly...one's reminded of that rather special club located on R Street..." she chirped, giggling.

"D... didn't Mister Joseph Shuster... the chap who d... drew the original Superman, spend more time drawing for bondage magazines than Detective Comics...?" she asked quietly, almost confiding her question to an inquistive Vanessa and Brittany while privately wondering if Zac, behind them, could confirm this. She knew his knowledge of games and comics was pretty deep.

As much as she clearly wanted to continue discussing Greek myths and their relationship to modern comics, it was clear to Martha that the conversation had turned again. As Brittany showed the strange and colorful image of Power Girl, Martha blinked. Her mouth turning to a bashful O as she found herself trying to picture the corporate meeting that led to such a costume design.

"I...well, I must say, she's quite a... er... striking character..." blinking, she almost blushed and rubbed her hand on her flesh knee.

Pain stabbed through her ruined hip and thigh. Wanting Vanessa to help ease her pain, she blinked. Falling quiet for a few seconds, she looked, wide eyed, to Brittany and Vanessa and asked; "Costumes go through so many transformations over the years. I confess, I am utterly fascinated by costumes and, thinking back to the sacred origin of costumes in the Greeks again, and the nature of the various persona they often try to convey and inspire - either covertly or overtly. One wonders, which costume transformation and alteration over the years, be it in screen or print, do you find the most appealing? Or which costumes you find the least compelling!" hoping the inclusion of screen and print will help Vanessa stay in the chatter.

[Varyx]

OOC: Sorry for my delayed response! :/

Varyx was a touch distracted when Martha brought up the club on R Street that was apparently kinky, and she found herself wondering, with a grin, how sweet little Martha might know of a place like that...

She was drawn back to the conversation, though, when Brittany pulled out her phone and found a picture of Power Girl. Varyx hadn't expected the costume to be quite so... overt in its purpose, and she actually began to laugh when she saw it. Okay, so it looked like her impressions of comic books weren't all incorrect. "Oh. Wow. That's incredibly tacky. Poor girl needs someone in her life to teach her how to dress."

Then Martha asked about which costumes they found most appealing, and Varyx had to pause and think. Across all modern media, that was a lot of options. Then, her face lit up with a wicked sort of grin. "Oh, it has to be the George Clooney version of Batman. Those nipples were just too sexy for me," she chirped, but she couldn't maintain the facade of seriousness, and began to giggle. "But, um, actually, I think my favourite might have to be that video game character who was recently selected as the new face of Louis Vuitton. She has an odd name, what was it..." She got out her phone and tapped a few things on the screen, then gasped. "Right! Her name's Lightning, from Final Fantasy!" She put her phone down on the table for the other ladies to look at as they desired, with an article full of photos open on the screen. "Now that's a character with taste."

[Martha Villiers]

Martha smiles and nods often. Twin tails bob.

As she hears of Louis Vitton's use of an animated character, she chirps in delight; "That is quite an innovation in style! That's the Future!" she giggles.

Blinking, she studies the images offered by Brittany and Vanessa; "One imagines these costumes are looking for a tactical aesthetic. Yet, when it comes to superhero costumes, I'm not fully convinced of the arguments for practical designs. There are a great many female comic book artists... many of the most important storylines have been led under the female direction...comic book artists and writers are not as rare as is often made out by the enemies of the industry and comic culture!"

"Also, consider the designs of costumes used by Mixed Martial Arts... kickboxers... Gymnasts... They are all very revealing and these activities closely resemble the tactical actions expected of superheroes. All that hand-to-hand fighting! The costumes here..." she blinks happily, nodding to and the costumes Brittany has identified, "are sensible and well designed. They are even fun! But they seem more suitable to SWAT teams and urban warfare than the agility needed to defeat an opponent in a duel of physical sill." she blinks, rubbing at her flesh thigh, pausing to formulate her ideas before cheerily adding;

"This new drive to remove the..." she struggles for the right word, "..the colour and the...the...style...from superhero costumes is ideologically led. Certainly, it's part of a deeper desire to remove a blatant, some might say, socio-politically harmful, sexuality the art form. Yet, doing so, removes an essential core element from superheroes! Anyone can wear anonymous tactical clothing... Yet not everyone will be so bold as to wear something so...so obvious and daring as the attire we associate with superheroes! Las Vegas showgirls..." tiny Martha cannot but sneak a shy smile to the alluring Vanessa and sneak a sly glance at Vanessa's sleek legs as she says this, "...do not dress like construction workers...nor can members of the judiciary be confused for either profession..."

"Setting aside the obvious commercial drive for easily identifiable heroes, again, my mind returns to the concepts initiated by the theatrical traditions set by use of persona masks in ancient Hellenistic and Dionysian rituals..." she smiles sweetly. Martha isn't looking for a fight, but clearly eager, in her own way, to restore the dented reputation of superhero costumes.

"Their costumes, typically, represent an outward expression of the inward process of Change and transformation... μεταμόρφωσις... in English, metamorphosis. It's essential to the identity of the heroes. Be it a secret identity, or some other extraordinary metamorphosis separating them from the realm of the ordinary..." tiny hands take a moment to rub hard at her crippled hip.

Martha cannot help herself. She's locked into seminar mode and eagerly enthuses while expanding her thesis; "These costumes are really liminal ritual accoutrements. It's no coincidence that Edna, in the motion picture, The Incredibles, exclaims that she used to design for Gods!" Martha raises her hand in brief and energetic emulation of Edna's gesture and posture from that scene, before happpily adding;

"Any uniform speaks of its function. But also of how that function should be perceived. Consider how the Keystone Kops ultimately led to a removal of the constabulary helmet from the inventory of the police equipment in the United States and the more commonplace introduction of the officers cap. A helmet is clearly more useful, but it was seen as being worthy of ridicule! The zany antics of the Keystone Kops soon meant that no one could take the police helmet seriously. It actually diminished the respect for law and order! No armed force in its right mind will dress like the German armed forces from World War Two; but every professional military force will happily adopt a ceremonial uniform and regalia visually echoes the most glorious period of their nations' military history."

"It's this ontological and phenomonlogical dimension to costume and uniform which, as much as their actions, identifies the superhero as someone willing to step outside the norm. Taking this away from heroes might make for a nifty and an amusing ideological argument against an obvious sexualisation of heroes and heroines; but it removes very necessary ingredients from the underlying desire and need for heroes in society. Heroes who will, for whatever motivation, be willing to stand out and accept extreme psychological, legal, financial and physical risks. They set themselves outside society and its understandable desire for safety and the much less desirable process to ensure a Puritanical Soul crushing conformity...uniformity..."

Smiling, reflecting on her words, Martha privately wonders if the Puritanical move to quell outrageous costumes is driven by an unconscious grasp in their opponents that heroes are, somehow, pagan in origin and focus. Such a thought prompts her to rub hard at her ruined thigh, as if trying to ease some pain in her stump. Blinking, she looks happily at Brittany and Vanessa, wondering if her defence of outlandish costumes was persuasive.