Inside The Book No. 49
on July 7, 2009 at 12:03 am
This is my first drawing of Triops, a character who will have a much bigger role in future stories. I’m not sure what I was aiming for with this sketch, but I knew one thing: he wasn’t human. Very little else has been established about him, beyond his psychic abilities and gate powers. He is named Triops because at the time Benita and I had a pet triops, sort of a primordial, three-eyed brine shrimp. Life is weird like that.
Do human characters with greater mental powers always have to be less physically imposing? I get that Triops is not human thus the same rules do not apply he could be from a race of folks that do not get much bigger than he is or he is the biggest of the all, but it seems more often then not with characters like Professor X, wither have physical handicaps or are portrayed as physically weak. Is it just a balancing act or do you think that it has more to do with stereotypes?
I think you are correct in that it's an archetype, that mentally based characters have big heads and diminutive bodies. This can be found in Marvels "The Leader," DC's Dr. Sivanna, and endless others.
I tried hard to come up with an exception, and Gorilla Grodd is the only one I could think of. He's massive, and a super psychic.
But he is a Gorilla haha, he is one of my favorite DC characters by far. He is real fun on Batman the Brave and the Bold and was great on Justice League Unlimited. There is Cable as well but his powers are near omnipresent or non existant.
I won't argue that archtype isn't viable because honestly why would Professor X get in a fist fight when he can make someone sit down or put someone in a coma? And who would really want to watch it? Bucking the archtypes often make for ill-balanced characters that may not catch on.
Well, that seems reasonable. When we write superheroes, we are really digging into mythology, and there are good reasons those archetypes have survived. They made an interesting note of this in Unbreakable, when the art store owner described most villains in art as having out-sized heads and over-sized eyes.
Yes! That is a far too overlooked superhero movie.
I think the reason being for that is that if someone can skewer the villain in to something less than human it becomes more viable. Had the Minotaur been just a man that would have never become a legend but with the Minotaur being half man half bull it makes it easier to villainize as well much more exciting! The same goes for the titan Cronos, who was a gigantic baby eating monster or Typhon for that matter. You make a really cool point. The Joker ; had he just been a regular looking man would have been just another mundane psycho path but slapping on a purple suit, white skin, and green hair you make an ICONIC psychopath. This is the same with many Marvel characters as well; Red Skull, or Doctor Doom are quick examples. If any of these were just regular men there would have never been as much excitement or shock involved in the tales. Maybe I went off on a tangent but I think it all ties together fairly well as progression of sorts.
That is really awesome!
I think you've nailed it. I believe the outrageous appearance of the villains fits in really well with the comic medium. The more graphic and extreme the villain looks, the more memorable he is.
Um, well, except for Lex Luthor. Or, I might humbly add, our own Dr. Synn. Of course, Lex is bald, and Dr. Synn wears the white suit and he has a cane.
Dr. Synn did eat a demon once though
. I've never been a Luthor Fan personally. But that is probably because I am a Punisher fan, far too noticeable, and far too publically criminally evil.
I like the modern incarnation of Luthor, the arrogant genius who is set on winning all the time.
The Punisher is an outstanding character. I've enjoyed the Garth Ennis run, and I really dug the War Journals in the 90's with John Romita Jr. was drawing them.