what would you have me do?

The Yassification of Fabian Cortez, Exhibit A

As much as I disliked the HUGE over-muscled characters of the 90′s (even dudes meant to be “slim” would be considered massive, ripped guys in the real world), I also dislike how some characters have inexplicably lost their muscle mass.  Fabian should not be as skinny little dude.  Sebastian Shaw especially should not be a skinny little dude.   

I can only assume that the Five brought them back missing about 50% of their body to try to humble them.

Ok so I actually have an ESSAY on this. Okay, firstly, I love Schiti’s art and his Fabian design is beautiful. All his character designs have been stunning. And I too hate that every male character in the 90s was drawn as a hulking roidbeast, to the point that characters described as skinny or “pretty boy” like Shin and Fitzroy were ripped. So toning them down in general (like Shinobi’s post-90s appearances in which he’s the sleek bishounen he was clearly always meant to be) is in general a good choice imo. Except with Fabian.  Fabian is a sneaky, conniving little backstabber. And characters like that are typically drawn as physically feeble, either very short/hunched (ex: Grimer Wormtongue from Lord of the Rings) or very skinny (Jafar from Aladdin) The contrast of their “inferior” physiques next to the always-more-muscular hero is one of the shorthand visual indicators of their evil. And on an in-universe it does make sense that someone who isn’t going to be in the field is going to look a lot less like a physical fighter. But, Fabian is a fighter too, and a good one. In his very first appearance, he’s taking on the X-Men using a bigass gun (why don’t more mutants think of that?) and he’s able to physically overpower Psylocke—a literal fucking ninja—in a mere second in order to get a chance to use his power on her. This is a guy for whom it makes sense to have some muscle. More than that, though, what I like about Fabian’s design is it indicates the exact OPPOSITE of what he is. This is perfect for a deceptive character, while also undermining some problematic stereotypes that have long plagued comics. Fabian is large, strong, very tall, handsome, and wearing primary colors. All of these are “hero” traits. Villains certainly can be large and strong, usually “bruiser” types but they’re rarely handsome (though the 90s art is ugly in general, he’s literally described as having “movie star looks” in one of the novels) and traditionally in comics, heroes frequently have a primary color scheme, whereas villains nearly always have one or more secondary colors as their outfit. Look at Mufasa and Scar, or old-school Thor and Loki (hell, modern film Thor and Loki) You can pretty much tell instantly who is the hero and the villain, and I’m not gonna get into it because there’s better essays out there + you probably already know that, but the idea of what a villain vs a hero “looks” like is rooted in some pretty #yikes stuff. About the only telltale sign of Fabian’s evil is his red hair, which is typically a villainous trait for men (redhead women go either way) but it at least avoids the trope of associating darker coloring with villainy (heroes with black hair certainly exist–Batman and Superman come to mind—but it’s always in tandem with a buff physique and manly good looks) And this is cool not just on a visual level for readers, but it makes sense in universe. If Fabian was a small, ugly, weak-looking person wearing all black, how likely would people be to listen to him? He’s a joke now, he fell from grace after Exodus returns and Magneto showed up (aka a natural progression, unlike what happened with Shaw) and his lies were revealed, but when he shows up, he’s a successful cult leader who has amassed a force of 30+ powerful followers, trumping any incarnation of the Brotherhood in numbers and strength. People LISTENED to this guy. They BELIEVED him. When we meet him, he’s become comfortable enough in his role to start being cruel and tyrannical to weaker members and having outbursts in front of the whole team when things don’t go his way, but this is likely because they’re all loyal to him by then. He likely had to be FAR more charismatic and trustworthy-seeming in the recruitment process, and, unfortunately, people are MUCH more likely to trust and respect someone who looks like Classic 90s Fabian than like, say, Toad. It takes more than looks, of course, but they help immensely.  Making him into a slender pretty boy in a world where most men—especially most of the heroes—are still big and buff (even if it’s to a lesser degree) seems to me a more direct way of showing he’s a slick, weaselly coward. And I don’t think it’s some bad evil problematic choice, but it’s not as interesting subversive to me as his original design was. I think it still works, and it is very nice visually, but I strongly prefer the original (especially since I was so not ready for his writing to take the “poor widdle privileged baby is just SAD” direction) Similarly, Shaw’s been drawn huge and ripped af from his intro in 1980 all the way to 2018, it’s just how he looks, and it fits thematically to me that he’s this huge Neanderthal squeezing himself into antique colonial costumes that invariably come off the second he has the chance to fight. It’s funny, but it’s also thematically reflective of the fact that under his veneer of class and foppery, he’s a big brutal beast who can’t wait to show his true self and bash someone’s skull in.  I strongly LOVE the headcanon that their bodies were both modified to keep them in check tho fdjjshjfh

AHHHH!!!

reblogging this because I always love hearing your commentary on this! 💖💖💖

I did also realllly love how they made Fabian like the epitome of what a hero looks like despite that’s he’s the opposite, I love those types of juxtapositions in characters and character design, makes things a lot more interesting!