Should there be fat super heroes?

yes, as long as the character is written well.

Nelson from Dial H was heavy. That book had two heroes that did not fit the norm for comics a flower child lady in her late 60's maybe early 70's and a heavy ex boxer.

Totally agree. Fat super heroes don't make sense, a fat hero would either totally fail as a hero or would become "not fat" from physical activity of being a hero. Like bruxae said there are some medical conditions that can make people over weight, but these conditions are rare and make you over-weight (not obese and "fat"). People can be naturally big or over-weight, but no one is just naturally fat, being fat is a result of lifestyle.

@captainrogers: Most superheroes are flawed, that's what makes them interesting. So what's wrong with them being "fat"? And not every hero needs to be in physically prime shape as many have powers, suits of armor, what have you, that donate abilities to them that don't necessarily require them to be in great shape to use. Batman, sure. Invincible, not necessarily. Invincible is a good example because he has powers regardless and can save people regardless. But he has to train if he wants to be as good as Viltrumites. So there's plenty of room for overweight or obese superheroes in plenty of universes.

Also it's kind of silly to say there shouldn't be obese superheroes. Comics are fictional. It's no more ludicrous to assume an alien wears a cape and flys around saving people, than a fat person doing the same. If you can suspend your disbelief to the point that superheroes even exist, why wouldn't some of them maybe have a weight problem? Some superheroes have mind powers, telekinesis or telepathy. They certainly wouldn't need to be in tip top shape now would they?

If you like superheroes at all, you have to admit they all have certain qualities that are unbecoming. None of them are perfect. So it's really a double standard to say we can have alcoholics, murderers and others don the title of superhero in comics yet not fat people.

People really confuse me with their logic sometimes.

new 52 highfather seems a little on the heavy side

Fat momma

Should there be fat superheroes? Well there is already a few, but doesn't make sense unless there super power is something that doesn't require much strength. Would I want more fat superheroes? I guess not, would I care if they made more fat superheroes probably wouldn't care either. But if they made Batman fat >:( then we have a problem!

The Blob?

I think it could work. They could start with a character that is fat and unhealthy in the beginning and then have him/her lose weight and become a Superior Physical Specimen through hard work, dedication and eating healthy. In fact it'd be a great idea in my opinion.

Wolverine was fat once in an alternate universe

This topic made me realise there are more fat villains then there are heroes.
That aside, Gertrude Yorkes from the Runaways is a bit chubby and I don't mind it.

So fat superheroes are okay in my book. :)

heroes should represent the best in humanity. do you want little kids running around saying 'i want to be as big as X'? being nice aside, fat people should be encouraged to lose weight. comic book characters can lose weight in 2 panels. an impressionable 8 year old that turns into 112 kg, high blood pressure, 38 year old cant.

Hell yes. There is no good or right reason not to include them. I loved how they portrayed Druid before he got skinny how when they were doing maneuvers and he was struggling to keep up. There are many ways to include heavy heroes.

Being overweight doesn't mean you're less heroic. It also ignorant to think it means lazy. Not only do I know many lazy skinny people but many of the overweight people I know are actually very active. Not some slobs that certain people like to portray as someone who sits on the couch all day eating junk food.

Having family members who are overweight, eat better, are more active, and yeah who are straight up better morally and ethically than myself who struggle with their weight but yet I would somehow be more acceptable because of ignorant ideas is ridiculous.

Oh look we have Punisher going around slaughtering people, heroes who go back, forth between villain, and hero. That's ok but fat people is a no no because it sets a "bad example". Oh ya a good idea is to reject fat people, just not include them, make them feel worse about themselves than they already do. That's going to keep people from getting fat or make fat people lose weight. They can't possible have any redeeming qualities on the inside right. No no all that matters is that they are fat and disgusting to you. (sarcasm)

Wow unintentional rant there.

@dernman: I like this person here.

Really? The "think of the children" argument?

Superheroes haven't been about being the best in humanity in years and that's not all they should be. There can be fat heroes so long as they're good characters, like the one I posted as an example.

You don't see manga folks getting bothered by this kind of questions. I don't understand how comic readers put up with this. It's like the word 'superhero' is an easier target to stuff agendas into. It's still fiction, people.

Ideals are great, but are some of you seriously suggesting the superhero can be an iconic figure, known for being heroic and cool, yet being a person who's seriously overweight? This is a serious question, and it's not in anyway to mock people who look different.

But it's 'superhero', saying anyone can be anything is a good philosophy to live by. But usually it means the person would work to achieve their goal. No one can just be who they are and suddenly become able to run a multi-million dollar corporation.

Superhero can be unattractive, in essence, they fight crime, supervillain, that's what they are.

To have superhero stay fat yet able to run around fighting crime is forced.

Am I being unkind? No. It's like there're those who would cheer the idea, cheer it for they want to be seen as people that're saints beyond all logic, they're being competitive, so they push till it finally happened. Someone who doesn't want to be under the spotlight is pushed under the spotlight. What happened? No one bought these new comics, not even the people who were cheering. Imagine how those reader who struggle with weight problem would feel?

So I reiterate, it's fiction, it needs a reader base, it relies on sale numbers. People won't reject it just to be mean, people reject it because it's a forced idea.

Do I seem like someone who hate fat people? Out of all those people that had suffered from others' prejudice, I choose someone who's under a condition with major health risk and hate the living daylight out of them? No.

Boogie2988 has diabetes, it's part of the reason why it's really hard for him to exercise. It's dangerous for someone like him to exercise. I'm perfectly aware that there're serious situations like those that over-weight people struggle with. Some of my favorite icons are considered heavily overweight, but none of them are known for swimming across the atlantic and still physically managed to stay out of shape. Imagine what kind of plot would it be to keep this plausible.

@decoyelite: i am positive there are chubby kids out there that are picked on because they're fat. and what do they do? they fall back on fiction. 'well x is awesome, and he's fat too. so i guess as long as i'm an awesome guy it's ok i'm fat.' no. it's not ok. look at america. look at the studies done. child obesity is at an all time high and you want to add a fat guy in tights saying 'i'm super'.

@turel_hash_ak_gik: Because comics are the only form of fiction and superheroes are only for kids?

More importantly, you can't just have every hero be the same bland type or else you end up with samey bland stories and that's just bad for the industry in general.

If you want someone trying to rescue people, but running out of breath. XD

Just like police and firefighters, superheroes should be in shape.

No more fat police. ;)

@decoyelite: there havent comics with fat superheroes in at least 25 years and the industry is still going strong. plenty of great characters and great stories. no great fat superhero story. people these days relegate behind the worst things when it comes to asking for new comic series. 'we want fat superheroes. they deserve to be represented too.' 'so what's their thing?' 'uhh being fat?' 'awesome. it will sell like crazy.' some thing with the 'i want a chinese/hispanic/african american/etc book' 'ok. what will that book have that will sell and distinguish it from the rest of the comics?' 'it stars a chinese/hispanic/etc character'. do you get what i'm saying? look at batwing. it had something relatively good for a couple of issues then it died. diversity for the sake of diversity is killing the medium and people dont care. they want it and when they get it they say 'this sucks. they didnt try hard enough with my one physical characteristic character'. yeah that's the problem.

Already wrong. Harbinger, Avengers Initiative, Legion of Superheroes(Bouncing Boy i still around), etc.

My point was that forcing all characters to follow a set pattern for the sake of a small percentage of readership is wrong.

You're argument relies completely on ignorance and the assumption that it's impossible to have a well written fat hero. I'm not here to argue that there must be more fat heroes, I think we could do with them or without them. You're guy who said that shouldn't be around at all, which is the more constrained view in my opinion.

It's not just about making comic book heroes 'hot' or more appealing to the general audience, it's common sense.

Activity burns excess weight. If a hero were obese, that would imply they were lazy or not regularly fighting crime. There are heroes like Big Bertha who's power is to be fat, but someone who just is fat wouldn't make any sense as a superhero. How many Yoga instructors, kung fu masters, marathon runners, MMA fighters, or 'World's strongest man' competitors are morbidly obese?

Those are all day to day activities of superheroes: flexibility training, endurance, fighting, lifting, muscle control. Even the Scarlet Witches and Hawkeyes of the world who require minimal physical effort to pull off their 'powers' still encounter physically exhausting obstacles on a daily basis. If there were a fat superhero, they would get skinny very, very quickly. It's like asking, "Why are there no NBA stars under 5 feet tall?" Because it defies the entire point of what they do.

(And I also agree with a previous post that mentions comics have an influence on people, and showing fat people is not a good idea. Yes, I agree comics can have some pretty bad stuff in them like over sexification, but that's still not as bad as life-threatening issues like obesity. Obesity is not a good thing in any environment.)

@havenless: Except there are some people who regularly exercise that are quite large IRL. Not to mention there's plenty of powers that don't require much physical activity. Look at Zephyr her powers allow her to be a physical powerhouse but because of their telepathic nature she doesn't really lose any weight. Still a useful teammate and more importantly a good character.

I love this post. So much.

@decoyelite: i read avengers initiative. cant remember a fat guy. and bouncey boy is a mandatory presence.

i don't really see the point of a fat superhero if it were not tied to his/her ability or he/she is undegoing a point (disease, gene history, family history/issues, personal issues etc) in life or he/she got afflicted with some other ability that rendered her/him fat.

@turel_hash_ak_gik: Butterball.

Harbinger is the big one that though, Zephr is one of the main characters, one of the first ones introduced, and a fan favorite. She completely shows off that a character who is large can work really well as long as the character is well written. Which Harbinger is.

I think shoe-horning fat characters into entertainment as a way to make fat people feel better is a terrible idea. There is a serious obesity problem in the U.S. and it's getting worse every year. We shouldn't encourage anyone, children, adults, anyone to be willingly obese. We also shouldn't perpetuate the stereotype that Americans are all giant walking garbage disposals. I have no problem with an overweight individual, I have a problem with an overweight society. Thanks a lot, Wendy's Baconator!

Geeks who read comics want big asses, boobs and sexy/slutty attitudes for female characters and hunky hunk muscle bodies for male characters because they want to imagine they are the sexy alpha male superheros dating the hot powerful girls, lol. Geeks wont allow it, sorry.

It has nothing to do with making "fat" people feel better. It also wouldn't be shoehorning. It's about not forcing a idiotic ideas or restrictions to certain types of people when there isn't any honestly good reason. Get a grip fat people are not going to start feeling better about themselves because suddenly they see heavy people in comics nor would it anyway suddenly become a justification to them to be heavy.

They are not mentally deficient where they can't tell the difference between reality and fantasy. I'm pretty sure they know better than you how how it sucks for them. There are also different levels of overweight. Not all overweight or extremely huge individuals. Some just have a bit of a gut.

The only shoe-horning around is the people making lame excuses towards "fat people" as to why they can't be a hero of some sort. There hasn't been one good reason in this entire thread as to why they can't be a heavy person as a hero.

Hell man they have handicapped heroes but heavy people are a shoe-horned bad idea? Yeah when they created Charles Xavier the editor told the writer "Just don't make don't make him fat. That would be shoe-horning"

Daily superhero shenanigans >>>>>>>> regular exercise.

Is that not just the armor?

@baron_von_santa said:

new 52 highfather seems a little on the heavy side

I don't see a problem with having obese heroes, but publishers generally want to avoid creating or promoting characters that might negatively impact the readers. Keep in mind that despite the "Teen" rating on most comics, they're still marketed towards kids, adolescents, young adults, etc. Don't believe me? Open ant T rated Marvel book and count the number of pages it takes to reach a Lego, DecoLights, or Saturday morning cartoon advertisement. It's usually under 5 pages. So it's pretty obvious why they would want to steer clear of the whole issue, after all, there are illiterate people in the real world too and being illiterate doesn't make you a bad person, but DC and Marvel aren't about to start creating characters that can't read and putting them forth as heroes for kids. And I understand that that's not the most accurate comparison because you could have some health issues that make you obese, but realistically the vast majority of people who are overweight are so because of the lifestyle choices they make. So I have no problem with making some overweight superheroes, but I don't think there should be some "call to arms" to create more of them in hopes of trying to make comics more like real life or to capture interest from particular groups of people.

I think comics benefits from diverse body types in almost every regard, weight and fitness included.

Depends on the hero and powers. Like I said.

The greatest sin of the New 52: making Amanda Waller thin.

@dernman: Comparing over weight superheroes to disabled superheroes is ridiculous. Barbara Gordon and Matt Murdock didn't choose to be crippled or blinded. Obesity is a serious health problem and 9 times out of 10 it's a choice and even for people with genetic issues proper diet and exercise can reverse those issues. Unless the obesity is directly tied to the characters power the idea of making obese characters just for the sake of making obese characters seems forced.

No what is ridiculous is the continuous use of flimsy bull excuses to exclude a certain type of people out of a medium which is indicative of a larger problematic attitude and perpetuates a prejudice, harmful behavior against those people that it ostracizes. Excluding these people does no good and actually makes the problem worse. It's an attitude that goes beyond simply comics. It's ignorant attitudes like this that actually make it harder for them to change. In many ways like pissing them off so that they rebel or they feel worse where they further sink into the hole they are in. Not to mention to just a plain shitty way for a human being to treat another like they are subhuman. Maybe you're too blind too see that or maybe you simple don't care because you're that kind of person. It's somehow acceptable in today's society to treat heavy people like garbage. Either for the straight up horrible people who go out of their way to harass them or to the ignorant who think they are doing something "good" for society towards this problem. Ya that's the answer further enhance the negative like they don't already live it every second of their lives. Know what maybe we should just lock them all in their basements so we don't have to see them. That will surely solve the problem.

Obesity is a problem SO WHAT? What do think some kid is going to see a "heavy" character and say wow I want to be like him or you know what maybe it's kinda good to be fat. Yeah the obesity rate is going to increase because you have a character that doesn't have rock hard abs and overgrown bulging muscles. Use your head man.

No its not ridiculous to compare because you used the phrase shoehorn them in like its forced because of their condition. Both have disadvantages and whether it was something they could help or something they "let" happen is irrelevant to the issue of them naturally fitting into the comic. Also just the fact that there is a "1%" where it's not their fault makes you already faulty argument moot.

Also I reject the idea of having to tie the powers to the weight. It's idiotic and insulting.

It's not forced to include people with a different variety of shapes. There is no basis in reality is introducing a heavy person as a hero is forced. Sure he couldn't be a street leveler like Batman but there is many powers that do not require physical perfection. Hell even a brick like Wonder Man where his strength comes from energy is an example. Not to mention the mind powers, the magicians, the hackers maybe even a clunky slow battlemech that was self designed? You know how many "fat" engineers there are out there. Ya that sure is forced.

What is forced is to exclude them especially when they make up such a large portion or the populous. Nobody is saying they should add a heavy person for the sake of adding a heavy person. What people are saying is they shouldn't be excluded and maybe see a more diverse natural body type instead of the same old same old carbon copied perfection mold we always see.

I have yet to see even ONE good reason why a heavy person shouldn't be in a comic. Until you give one maybe you should just not post.

As a satirical character, or a parody. Never as a serious character though. It would be interesting, but it would never happen. Nelson Jent from the most recent Dial-H run is probably the closest we'll get.

Not only can it happen it's happening right now. Zephyr, yo.

Yes, well maybe. micro max is fat secretly.

Of course!

Mojo

Jabba the Hutt

Villians too!

There seems to be an assumption that superheroing necessarily requires a great deal of cardio but some folks have little anti-gravity scooters or use mental powers relatively exclusively.

I agree with the someone else above who said "as long as they are well written".

@kuonphobos said:

Oh thank god, he's wearing pants.

The way to introduce an heavier super-hero is simple, have a well-written charactert just happen to be large and not making him being on the heavier the focus, just another trait.

Maybe he's a bookish wizard, constantly studying arcane hoary rituals and spells, such that he doesn't have the time or desire to exercise because nothing he does is based on his physical abilities. Maybe he's a techie with a powersuit, maybe he's a supremely talented psychic who compensates his lack of physical potence with powerful telekinesis and biokinesis. Or maybe he's super-strong and tough but happens to be lazy, thus he just happens to have a beer gut.

As long as the character has an interesting personality, is well written and the story and world he moves in is engaging there is not reason why a heavier character cannot be a good idea.

No. It would promote obesity.