Many articles to read but the one that stood out to me the most was Micheal Chabon’s Secret Skin essay.
If you’re taking this class then you’ll probably understand that maybe some point in our life we all wanted to be superman, batman, wonder woman or any other hero and wear their costume. It would feel great and be awesome. I myself have took part of comic con and wonder con and seen all the cosplay and extremely impressed of how it is. But Micheal does make a point. When you spend a year working on your costume compared to a guy who is only wearing a mask with his three day pass hanging around his neck, does it take the value or realism from your costume? I would say yes. It kind of wakes you up and makes you realize how silly you look.
I admit, I used to be one of those guys who thought people were nerds when they dressed up but then I started to dress up. I started to buy Mexican wrestling masks. When I first put on that mask I got this feeling of being unstoppable. That’s when I started to get into cosplay. Now you can say that I can understand why people dress up in these conventions.
Secret skins pointed out the horrible death of young boy who died because he jumped off a roof thinking he was superman. It’s a sad story indeed but even in today’s world we still see kids thinking they’re superheroes. When the Avengers film came out, you won’t believe how many people thought they were the Hulk or Iron Man or Captain American however the difference between this generation and the old one is that parents are more open about talking superheroes to their kids and telling them they’re not real. It’s kind of a bummer because it’s like telling a kid that Santa isn’t real.
Going back to the picture that we saw in class of Spider Woman and butt. Was it inappropriate? Of course. There were many different ways to make her pose than the way she was and still portray her flexible body. But in secret skins it tells us or at least it hints at us that every hero has a costume that may look like it’s just their skin. Green Lantern and the Flash are two of them. The reason for their costume to appear that way is so Flash can be more flexible when running and Green Lantern more maneuverable when flying through space.