69 Days of Wonder Woman, Day 3: Clothes make the (wo)man

The original Wonder Woman costume must surely rank high in the list of all-time great, iconic comic hero get-ups. Is this part of what puts me off?

Costumed (or semicostumed) heroes such as Wonder Woman and Superman, rather than the villains they fought or the outlaws rampant in crime comics, were the main objects of the Catholic Church’s early [1938] criticism of comic books, censure that began to take the form of a serious campaign against comics.

Bishop Noll explained that the NODL [National Organization for Decent Literature]* objected only to Wonder Woman’s costume. “There is no reason why Wonder Woman should not be better covered, and there is less reason why women who fall under her influence should be running around in bathingsuits,” Noll wrote.

(Hajdu, David. The Ten-Cent Plague: The Great Comic-Book Scare and How It Changed America. New York: Farrar, Straus, and Giroux, 2008. Print. 75-78.)

I did not save a lick of info related to this pic, but from the moment I saw it, I thought she was about to turn in a circle and transform in to Wonder Woman. If you can help with credit, please do!

I guess it’s true that I never liked her costume much, but I’ve never found it any more all-that-scandalous than those of usual dat-ass suspects such as Power Girl, Emma Frost, or Huntress. (God, I hate Huntress, and there is nothing mysterious about it. She sucks. You will not be seeing a “__ Days of Huntress” around here, ever.) I don’t think I ever gave Wonder Woman’s outfit much thought in print … but I did contemplate it onscreen, watching the Lynda Carter television series. The TV Diana had so many great wardrobe changes, not only with that wonderful spinning-into-Wonder Woman sequence, but with gear tailored to her various missions: remember that slick diving suit?

Separate from my later feelings about Wonder Woman as a comic hero, as an early television role model I had nothing but full esteem for the character, in particular her outfit. I can remember sitting on the tacky rose-patterned velour daveneau on which I’d been conceived and on which I took my afternoon naps — and, depending on where we were living, sometimes slept at night on the hide-a-bed as well (very strange experience, since my parents were extremely up front with me about the couch-conception thing and seemed to find it heartwarming; I had more mixed feelings) — in the early afternoons before I even started school, watching syndicated re-runs of the program and being wowed. If I picture Lynda Carter in a blouse and blazer speaking confidently to a male coworker, I can still vividly feel kid-sweat from playing after lunch melting the sofa’s scratchy, worn fabric in to faint little clumps under my legs. She was so glamorous that she wore earrings everywhere. Everywhere. I loved that shit.

This is definitely a non-issue. The outfit has nothing to do with me shying away from Wonder Woman for the last mumble-muffleth years. Asked and answered!

In any case, Wonder Woman’s costume recently underwent a redesign. That’s her new look up there. I don’t really care one way or the other. I guess I’m a little wary and disappointed, as always, by tampering with classics, even ones of which I’m not a fan — and, in the same way that I was slightly rankled by the initial reinvention of Kate Kane as a Jewish lesbian in the Batwoman comic (Why not make her deaf and HIV-positive, to boot? How unforgivably uninclusive of you, Non-PC D.C.!), I feel not-just-vaguely pandered to. Then again, I like the new Batwoman line now and I am hunky-dory with the matchup of Renee Montoya with Kate. So maybe the costume redesign of Wonder Woman will be another in-my-face situation. Tough to gauge since I don’t know if I’ll come out of this project wanting to read her or not.

Longtime fans, what do you think of the change?

*more on those guys soon.

Calendar Girls Day: Boys of Summer … and Winter, Fall, Spring — and the Vatican!! edition

“These Calendar Girls are all wonderful and well, E,” (you are saying), “But what about some rare bloody manmeat up on this plate?”

Oh, my god, hideous oversight, which I will rectify ASAP, starting with pictures from the infamous heathen book of delights, the Calendario Romano, an annual, non-profit, blasphemously magnificent calendar of hot, hot priests in action in the swinging Vatican City.

In my family, we call them Father What-a-Wastes (not to be confused with Sister Mary Knick-Knack).

According to the Calendario’s official site, they have already sold out of their 2010 copies, but stay tuned because they may do a reprint, as the calendars are sold to benefit The Food Chain, a UK-based AIDS charity group. So hopefully they will cook up a way to make batches more.

If you enjoy the sacrelicious hotness, then don’t forget to add Calendario Romano on the facebook. Now say ten Hail Marys and an Our Father, and go take a cold shower, you hellbound sinner.

NSFW November: Super-cute Grace Kim, Miss November 2008!

Heck yeah, Grace Kim!

Super-cute! I love this chick. She promotes video games and has a great sense of humor and is genuinely a geek, not like these phony faux-nerds they sometimes get on G4 and such. She’s rad! She is also, according to the wiki, the first Korean-American playmate, which is pretty cool, too.

Look at how real and adorable that smile is. I think she is almost always honestly laughing in pictures, not any of that coy b.s. that passes for an alleged giggle in some of these shoots.

She just always seems to be having fun, every time I see her in print or on television, and I think that reflects a terrific life outlook and suggests humility and the sense to recognize and appreciate good fortune. Those are great traits for anyone to have, but when you combine them with someone willing to take it all off? Winner winner, chicken dinner!! I don’t mean to gush. Grace Kim is just an all-around great girl in my book.

Dig that giant watch. Love it!!

Finally, funnyordie.com did a spoof of the presidential town hall debates which digitally altered real footage to show Grace and some other playmates asking the candidates questions. Grace’s segment is the best because some of those other bunnies are pretty dumb. (In one of their defense, I admit that “fiduciary” is a hard word to say. You know what else is hard? Math, like, omg!)

The Playboy Playmates Heat up the Presidential Debate – watch more funny videos

Go ahead and watch it but Grace’s part is brief and the whole thing is not that funny, although I’m not suggesting anyone die instead.

Okay, fine, when you put it like that, I guess you can play the drums. Just this once!

Okay, so I gotta go whip up my ambrosia (one of the things I’m taking to today’s chili cookoff!) and flat-iron this mad rad hair of mine. Hopefully I will have time for a Music Moment before I bounce down to Paolo and Miss D’s!