Comics/Graphic Novels

Unnecessary Boobage: Skein

Preeti Chhibber

Staff Writer

Preeti Chhibber is a marketing manager for HarperCollins Children's Books. She usually spends her time reading a ridiculous amount of Young Adult (for work, she swears!), but is also ready to jump into most fandoms at a moment’s notice. Her woefully neglected blog: Hurling Words Twitter: @runwithskizzers

If you read comics on a regular basis, you can’t help but notice when a character’s clothing doesn’t quite make sense. Or feels gratuitous. Or doesn’t cover boobs. Or is just boobs. Men, women, aliens, visitors from a parallel dimension, you name it — our goal is to take superhero costuming to task for its most egregious mistakes.

Today’s Unnecessary Boobage: Skein, Amazing Spider-Man #1

Skein2

Skein1
Skein’s costuming is pretty clever for the most part. She has skeins of thread around her arms and legs, but despite all that extra fabric, she only has one tiny-tiny thread holding those boobs in place. Now, I understand that as a man, maybe Humberto Ramos doesn’t know what it’s like running with boobs that big. Two sports bras, dude. Two.

You know, Spidey shows some skin in this issue. But it’s because his costume gets pulled apart by Skein. That is the reason. There is a reason for his nudity/web diaper. A reason. His lack-of-costume is part of the narrative.

Hey, give me Skein’s motivation for having one thread to hold her boobs in and I am on board. But until then, in the immortal words of Project Runway: “One day you’re in, and the next you’re out. Auf Wiedersehen.”