Super Duper!

January 8, 2013 7:22 AM

Pixar Artist Everett Downing's 365 Supers

ComicsAlliance article

Even if you don't know it, you're probably already familiar with the art of Everett Downing. As an artist for Pixar, he's been an animator on movies like Brave, Up and Wall-E, but in his off time, he's developed an artistic exercise to keep his skills sharp: 365 Supers, a series of original superhero designs that he's knocked out in an hour or less.

posted by Fleebnork (32 comments total)

NO CAPES!
posted by schmod at 7:25 AM on January 8, 2013 [2 favorites]

But none of them is the Superest.
posted by Nomyte at 7:31 AM on January 8, 2013 [1 favorite]

Some of the women:
The Cougar
The Man Handler
The Dominatrix
Bubble Butt
Knock out
Meow Minx
Mis Shapen
Rune Maiden (appears to be naked)
Cat Scratch Fever
The Widower
posted by OmieWise at 7:32 AM on January 8, 2013

Oh, Susie Cube
posted by lbebber at 7:52 AM on January 8, 2013 [1 favorite]

Some of the racial stereotypes:

Miss Chief and Rick-Saw

But hey: A MOUNTIE from CANADA.
posted by zenon at 7:57 AM on January 8, 2013

Some of the women:
Stone
Silver
I-Beam
Gun Nut
Engram
Cataclysm
Cheshire
Acid Avenger
Wallstalker
Civil Liberty

I'm not quite sure what we're doing here.
posted by Homeboy Trouble at 7:58 AM on January 8, 2013 [1 favorite]

Not saying what we want to say I'd wager.
posted by edgeways at 7:58 AM on January 8, 2013 [1 favorite]

These guys are great! I totally want to see them in an all-ages comic.
posted by Artw at 8:07 AM on January 8, 2013

The description for Miss Chief:

Her Awesome Power: Blessed with the Sacred Calumet (peace pipe) by White Buffalo Woman during a vision, Miss Chief now possesses the power to deflect any attack with her indestructible tomahawks, the Smoke of Peace that quells the most aggressive foes, and the speed, strength and endurance of ten braves.

Her Dark Secret: In her secret identity of Elli Rosenblatt, liberal arts major at Vassar, she is plagued by existential angst over the cultural appropriation and objectification embodied in her transformation into a physically perfect Native American superhero, the implied endorsement of the tobacco industry inherent in her powers, and a nagging fear that her foes will one day discover that her "vision" was induced by really awesome Maui Wowie she overindulged in at a dorm party

Alcohol is such a big issue for the First Nation communities, this just makes me so very sad. And visions - those are such a big part of the spiritual culture - you don't get a pass on acknowledging cultural appropriation when it's built on ridicule and even worse stereotypes.
posted by zenon at 8:13 AM on January 8, 2013 [2 favorites]

I'm not quite sure what we're doing here.

I'd guess that you know what we're both doing. I sure do.
posted by OmieWise at 8:13 AM on January 8, 2013

Silent Knight! Love it, I'll be surprised if someone hasn't tried that already...
posted by Mister_A at 8:19 AM on January 8, 2013

I'd guess that you know what we're both doing. I sure do.

It seems like you might have been making some sort of feminist critique, but you posted a list of names out of context, with no explanation or discussion.
posted by Fleebnork at 8:23 AM on January 8, 2013

for OmieWise and Homeboy (and edegways):

Weave
posted by Conrad-Casserole at 8:26 AM on January 8, 2013

Alcohol is such a big issue for the First Nation communities, this just makes me so very sad

I'm not seeing the connection?
posted by ninebelow at 8:27 AM on January 8, 2013 [1 favorite]

Sorry, zenon, I don't think you'll get much sympathy here: making fun of religion and religious culture is kind of something metafilter does really well.
posted by resurrexit at 8:27 AM on January 8, 2013

zenon: Alcohol is such a big issue for the First Nation communities, this just makes me so very sad.

Maui Wowie is marijuana, not alcohol.
posted by Rock Steady at 8:29 AM on January 8, 2013 [2 favorites]

That said, I cringed at that one and some of the other stereotypical ones as well.
posted by Rock Steady at 8:30 AM on January 8, 2013

Well then this is really a slur against jewish liberal arts undergrads.
posted by Mister_A at 8:30 AM on January 8, 2013 [2 favorites]

I cringed at quite a few of these.

Also, would it be so hard to include a couple different body types for the lady superheroes? I can see plenty of unconventional looking dudes, but god forbid you draw a woman who looks like this or this.
posted by fight or flight at 8:44 AM on January 8, 2013

but you posted a list of names out of context, with no explanation or discussion.

Really? You're enough of a fan of superheroes that you posted this, but not enough of a fan to have seen the critique of the persistent mis-representation of female superheroes?

I don't think you need explanation or context, any more than Homeboy Trouble does. I think you just don't particularly care.

As I say, I think we know what we're all doing.
posted by OmieWise at 8:47 AM on January 8, 2013

I haven't gone through all the supers, but I did come across Miss Chief and did a physical recoil. Not just at the drawing itself, but the description, too.

Then I realized that the artist didn't provide the description, it was a comment. Is Downing basically allowing readers to submit their own thoughts on what the super should be?
posted by CancerMan at 9:03 AM on January 8, 2013 [1 favorite]

I think this calls for some Strong Female Characters.

Also, this? Sorry, zenon, I don't think you'll get much sympathy here: making fun of religion and religious culture is kind of something metafilter does really well.

Dude, if you're not part of the solution you're part of the problem, and whining "blah blah metafilter hates religion" doesn't do anything to change that.

Yours truly,
Madamina
legitimate church lady with legitimate hotdish credentials
posted by Madamina at 9:05 AM on January 8, 2013

While I will concede that the female characters in the set are disproportionately barbie disproportionate, please see #084, #002, #290 for example.
posted by mcstayinskool at 9:14 AM on January 8, 2013 [1 favorite]

I thought these were hilarious -- it reminded me of vintage Mad, and I mean seriously vintage, from when it was a comic book and before it turned into a formula. Some definite preposterous retro stereotyping going on there ("Miss Chief"?), but that just added to the humor for me: basically he's riffing for his own amusement, and I'm glad we get to see it uncensored. If some of these characters were used in completed works for a mass market it'd be pretty bad, but as it is I'm glad i wasn't protected from it and he wasn't prevented from doing it.
posted by George_Spiggott at 9:22 AM on January 8, 2013 [1 favorite]

You kids* and your drug lingo! Of course drugs are also a serious issue in the First Nation community - but there's a little more gas huffing action then high grade dope from the Islands.

There's a reason there's cartoon Irishman, an Asian one and an Indian. They are racist stereotypes. And they are so tired and cheap. I missed that it wasn't the artist who penned the awful backstory for the Indian character, merely let it stand. And it's not like this artist is reviving Andrew Jackson to shamble around the countryside - I know it's just some dashed off cartoons. And overall many are clever little characters and I really like clever cartoons. The bad ones are just a little dash of noro virus puke in an otherwise pleasant salad.

* I knew this. I did! Maui Wowie is even a song I am familiar with. Mea culpa.
posted by zenon at 9:28 AM on January 8, 2013 [2 favorites]

Yah, the "description" for Miss Chief is some random person's comment. Downing didn't write that unless he's using a sockpuppet to engage in non-PC flattery of his own creations...
posted by Atreides at 11:16 AM on January 8, 2013

He did each of these in an hour, right? Not a lot of time for self-censorship.
posted by JHarris at 11:21 AM on January 8, 2013

Miss Chief was just an attempt to visualize an obvious pun name. (one of the primary characters in Brad Guigar's popular webcomic Evil Inc. is a pyrokinetic named Miss Match). As are many of the Supers here. Downing isn't going into detail and is only passively approving of any commenters who do. It's an interesting project with a lot of hits AND misses (pun not intended), and based on Sturgeon's Law, if more than 10% of these quickly-executed ideas are NOT crap, it's well above average.
posted by oneswellfoop at 12:30 PM on January 8, 2013 [1 favorite]

X-Ray. Heh.

"Hey skinny, what's your power? Collecting comics? Huh huhuhhuh."

"Nope! It's cancer!"

"What th'? What a stupid-*koff*ass power. Listen you little shit *KOFF*, you get your ass out of h..hhhere.ugh. or *coughing* I'll. the fuck *cough* i can't *gasping* breaa*uncontrolled coughing. wheezing. death.*

"Ok, there's my demo! So I'm the leader and get a 65% cut, right? Ok then, questions?"
posted by Zack_Replica at 1:31 PM on January 8, 2013 [1 favorite]

I'll grant that he self-imposed a time limit to churn out superhero ideas, but I just wish he didn't feel the need to resort to using those kinds of stereotypes. Some of his works are pretty creative, others are what you'd expect a generic super to be in mainstream comics, so I figured he had enough imagination to not rely on the racial stereotype card.
posted by CancerMan at 2:38 PM on January 8, 2013

If there is a word for the extraordinary juxtaposition of the preceding two comments, it eludes me. 'Eponysterical' figures into it but doesn't really cover it.
posted by George_Spiggott at 4:41 PM on January 8, 2013 [3 favorites]

It was CancerMan's destiny to appear at that moment.
posted by surplus at 5:57 AM on January 9, 2013 [1 favorite]