Vampirella, Red Sonja, and Dejah Thoris cover up

[samurainoir]

any bets on how long before they are all back in pasties and bikinis?

[thunderbolt]

seems to be a growing trend. Wonder Woman, Slave Leia, and now these characters are cleaned up.

[palitoy]

These characters have always been marketed to adults primarily men (remember you could never get a Red Sonja shirt in kid's sizes at Heroes World?).

I think this is more of an attempt to market these strong female characters to the booming female audience, so i don't think it's cleaning up as it is growing up a little? Seriously if you look at most comics from the 1990s, you gotta wonder if Russ Meyer was an art director.

You can guarantee if it doesn't boost sales, they'll go back to the jiggle versions pdq.

[EMCE Hammer]

Doesn't everyone dress like RS when they are taking a horse up a snowy mountain? This is obviously an attempt at being more realistic.

[samurainoir]

In some ways you do have to appreciate that Dynamite is being responsive to the criticisms that have been levelled against their line up of female characters (and the comics industry in general), less the visuals and more the fact that they are loading the creative teams up with top tier female talent. Gail Simone in particular has been doing a great job in the writer's seat on Red Sonja for the past year or so.

I'm suspecting they are going to try and have it both ways eventually... some books featuring the new look, and a return to the retro costumes down the line in a few months. Gives them a chance to double up on merchandise as well (statues and such).

Not the first time Red Sonja has been given this treatment. Writer Louise Simonson joined artist Mary Wilshire on the ongoing Marvel comic launched after the Brigitte Nielsen movie, just prior to cancelation where Sonja wore a blue one-piece instead of the chain mail bikini.

[rche]

Vampi Sciuto?

[MEMEGO]

This is pure bs.
I will not buy these chacters.
Put them back in their thongs
i will not support ruining these great characters to just pleasure femenists.

[Hedji]

As a red blooded male, I can't support this.

On the other hand...

As a parent, I still wouldn't let my daughter leave the house looking like the updated Vampi. Empowered sleazy is still sleazy.

Red Sonja just looks... like Game of Thrones boring.

Funny that Vampi has a crossbow thanks to Daryl Dixon's popularity.

[Earth 2 Chris]

It's the Batgirl effect. Desexualizing and marketing to women/girls. We've still got plenty of cheesecake to stare at. I'd rather see them go this way than go the opposite and be complete smut.

Chris

[knight errant00]

For Red Sonja, this is truer to the books, where she wore actual armor.

For Dejah Thoris, it's OK -- I think in the books the intention was for her to be adorned like a barbarian queen, not a stripper, and modern takes on her costume have gone too much into ERB's use of "naked" as a synonym for "nude" rather than its then-contemporary meaning of "underdressed."

For Vampy -- seriously, that was the point of the character, turning her into a Lara Croft clone may be more PC, but not Vampirella.

[samurainoir]

last time Vampirella got a costume change

[emeraldknight47]

last time Vampirella got a costume change

Zowie!! Never saw that particular outfit. Kind of gives new meaning to the term "get to the point."

[Earth 2 Chris]

Looking at the images again, Sonja is still showing a LOT of thigh, and a quite a bit of side-boob. I agree that Dejah Thoris look may have been over-exaggerated by folks wanting to copy Frazetta, who of course is going to paint his women as nekkid as possible. I agree with Knight Errant...Vampi was meant as pure eye candy and that's it. So covering her up makes less sense.

Chris

[Brazoo]

It doesn't seem like a political move one bit - to me it seems like basic strategic brand management. Right now brands like Katniss Everdeen and Jessica Jones are gold - why stick with copper? And if it fails and they move back, then they make that a marketing event of that too.