I have 2 young daughters who have some interest in superheroes, especially female heroines...

...that pic posted by Nathan is the reason why I'll only order old, cheap back issues for them from before 1986.

That picture just makes me angry, and convinces me again that most artists working today have no real, grounded references or examples of substantive women in their lives.

That second image Nathan posted. Examplifies exactly what is wrong today - every single one of those 'women' have their backsides thrust out and their boobs thrust forward.

Black canary even has nipples.

Not what I read comics for.

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Nothing new there, really. Comicbook artists have gone for "realism" in that region for a LONG time! In fact, there was a longish period in the late Sixties and early Seventies when the ladies (bless 'em) stopped wearing bras, and nipples were much in evidence out here in the real world, that the Comics Code even started taking a relaxed view. The Code, after all, insisted that the material could not be allowed to "offend current public mores". Neal Adams and Berni Wrightson were among the first to take a more realistic approach to portraying female anatomy.

(Back in my fan days, I briefly hooked up with an inker who insisted on adding nipples to every female form I drew. It seemed a compulsion with him. I would "joke" that he'd add a nipple to any curved surface. I kept expecting, I said, nipples to start showing up on top of Iron Man's head.)

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That page contains this interesting comment:

"I love the Emma Peel character and I enjoy many of those old 60s episodes. But newsflash: this isn’t the 60s. And when Byrne/Claremont created Emma Frost, it still wasn’t the 60s. There is no damn justification for Frost dressing in lingerie. The characters history objectively shows that she was created to be over sexualized and objectified. There are lots of ways to make a character like Frost look sexy without looking ridiculous. And to those women who continue to rationalize it and justify it, then I just want to say that you’re wrong, you’re part of the problem and you suck. Wake up." (Emphasis added)

No justification? Hm. Except, perhaps, context. The internal justification that all the villains in that story are dressing in styles about 150 years out of date (Yep, just like that old AVENGERS TV episode that was Chris' inspiration).

This is one of those things that truly, truly bugs the **** out of me. When some narrowly focused crusader goes off on a tirade, and starts pulling my work into the mix, ignoring the fact that I have spent the bulk of my career fighting against the clichés about which the crusader is, well, crusading.