Superheroes In Pink?

Hi Everyone.

Is it just me, or is pink kind of a rare colour to see used in superhero costumes? From what I can find, the only characters I can see that have had pink on their costumes are Scarlet Witch, Star Sapphires, Boom Boom, Cosmic Boy and Saturn Girl, and even then, the pink is sometimes replaced with purple or red. Considering the number of superheroes that there are, it seems odd for a colour to be so underused.

My only theory on why it doesn't get used often is that pink is often seen as a 'girls colour', so creators may be reluctant to use it on male characters for fear of making them look un-manly, or reluctant to use it on female characters for fear of them being seen as being 'girly', rather than like strong grown women.

I think it would be good to use it a bit more often, as it would open up some extra variety in costumes.

Would anyone have a problem with seeing more pink in superheroes, would you like to see more, do you have any other thoughts on the matter, or do you know of any characters I've missed? Let me know what you think.

Scarlotte.

I have always liked the color pink, especially its history and that it use to be associated as a very 'masculine' color in western cultures, before being swapped with blue. i especially like pink and black as a combination. Jubilee use to have a fair bit of pink with her glasses and shirt but not its really only her glasses. Its not really pink but for all intents and purposes, Gambit's metal chest plate being the color it was, was telling of Chris Claremont's gender views to me, at least at the time... Oh and then there is Blink. Except not really a costume is it heh heh.

I like it, but only on superheroesses, superheroettes?

@sc: The fact that it used to be a masculine colour makes me think it would be quite possible for there to be a human-like race of aliens who still think of it as a masculine colour. Therefore someone from their planet could end up on Earth and use a pink suit. Pink and black does look cool.

@dayvid3: I think 'superheroines' is what you're looking for, but I think 'superheroes' covers everyone.

So why not pink for male superheroes?

Just having fun, but it would be flying in the face of conventional standards. Even for spandex and cowls :) Besides red and black looks much better

I hope this counts

there's so much wrong with that

A favorite character of mine is pink. Blink!

Gallery

It all depends on the character.

I agree. I would love to see more pink coloured superheros. Granted, pink is associated with females but breast cancer awareness, the use of pink has begun to stand for political movements like the character created below:

Of course, called the Pink Crusader. And not just for breast cancer, but also for bullying initiatives in the wearing of pink t-shirt, specifically for bullying behaviour towards homosexuals -- so then you would find images like below:

(note the trail of rainbow dust and right hand wrist limpedness)

I myself would love to see more superheros wearing the colour -- it's gorgeous and has lots of shades to play with and outside of the blatant cheese-cakedness of the Star Sapphires, seeing a female hero take on the colour and own it would be a great message. You can be a superhero, love being girly without needing to look like the headliner in a strip tease show (like below)

Outside of the jokes dealing with Hello Super Kitty and the lovely Gay Man above, I think it's possible to have superheros (regardless of gender) be swathed in pink. It's not that much of a stretch. Pink was associated with red which signified strength and passion (which is why baby boys were dressed in pink garments whereas girls wore blue which was consider a passive, weak colour) so while I am not assuming that distinction can be brought back and further to that, the idea of any colour being associated to any one gender is so limiting. In a visual art like graphic novels/comics, it's surprising it hasn't been discarded.

Awesome topic, something to get the mind chomping on. On a side note (if I can take advantage of the idea of pink and superheros) there are a group of women in India who take both and use it as an identifier of abuses against females. They are called the Galubi Gang, (galubi meaning pink) and they make their rounds through northern India, seeking out rapists, abusive husbands and others who perform atrocities against females whom receive punishment by this group through the use of sticks and sheer numbers. Those interested in learning more can watch a documentarycalled "Pink Saris" which tells the story of the origins and those who participate through a neutral and unidealistic lense. A trailer can be found here to give you a taste. It's really eye-opening, to say the least.

Again, thanks for bringing this up. For me, I really like the colour -- particularly ballerina pink. ;)

I'd love for more pink, Cap is man enough for Pink

If the Man himself did it, I'd happily rock black and pink.

@v_scarlotte_rose said:

Yes exactly. You might not even have to go off world either, I know its not the same thing, but Quentin Quire was a bit of a rebel with an intellectual streak, and he adopted pink hair. When I first learned about various color histories and the psychology of color and when how various artists and writers would try and incorporate color into character designs I figured they should go one step further and let the actual characters themselves explain some of their choices now and then - like how Emma wears white for her brother, and Magneto wears red the color of blood in remembrance for the dead of the Holocaust. It would be great for a character to wear pink as a critical statement towards lazy stereotypes and prejudice around and towards gender and sexual orientation. Since you don't just want one character wearing pink, also cultural reasons to wear pink. I think in Thailand there is a day assigned to wearing pink if you were born on that day, so a superhero born in Thailand on that day, not a bad reason for them to incorporate pink either.

@v_scarlotte_rose: What about the pink lanterns? Also everyone knows real men wear pink its just a fact of life.

Gambit wears pink, doesn't he?

I agree though, a bit more pink would help distinguish some of the more mundane costumes.

@lykopis: I think the Pink Crusader is a great example of how to make a pink superhero suit look good. If she wasn't an awareness mascot, I could easily imagine her in a mainstream comic. :)

The Gulabi Gang almost sounds like a comic idea itself, what with them seeking jutsice in their own way.

@sc: It would be interesting to hear why characters chose certain colours and styles for their costumes, and I'm sure there are loads of reasons to wear pink. The Thailand one sounds like a good one, unless a villain worked out that they wore it because of their birthday, and managed to narrow down who their secret identity could be, and go after their family. Actually that could be a good plot point.

@anywhichwaybutup: I thought Pink Lanterns and Star Sapphires were the same thing. I'm not a Lantern expert though, so I could easily be wrong.

@mr_lebeau: Yeah, the Komen covers are also a good example of pink in superhero costumes. I really liked the Captain Marvel one:

This is one of my most favorite costumes. I like female superheroes with Pink, Purple and yellow costumes (with a little bit Black/Blue in them)

I actually like the color pink. Despite its associations with femininity, I think it can work for male superheroes. One good instance I can think of is Gary Frank's redesign for Cosmic Boy from Action Comics. I think dark pink especially works well against black.

Still, until the preconception that pink is a 'girly' color is abolished, I'm afraid we won't be seeing much of it in comicdom.

@jedixman said:

That's purple to me. but whatevs

I know this maybe doesn't count, and probably is using pink as a girly colour, but technically she is a superhero who wears pink:

From what I remember, they were pretty strong and capable, so maybe she is a good example of a superhero who wears pink.

SheZow!

The High Evolutionary. Not sure why I didn't think of him before:

Pink and metal(silver, chrome?) seems to go pretty well together.

Jubilee has that pink shirt a lot.

Armor's armor is depicted as pink sometimes.

I agree pink is probably underutilized as a costume color for males simply because of the feminine connotation with the color. I think it could be used sparingly as like accents though without a problem. I honestly cannot think of any male heroes that regularly wear pink.

I guess pink just isn't a very good color for superheroes.

How do you mean?

Most of the pink you see in 4-color comics is magenta. This is because pink is fairly hard to print consistently. Magenta is a standard printing color, found even in today's home inkjet and color laser printers.

The same issue happened with the Hulk: originally gray, he was switched to green when Marvel realized gray couldn't be printed consistently.

I mean; If pink were a color creators and fans wanted superheroes to wear then there would be more characters wearing pink. It seems pink doesn't suit superheroes well.

This was Psylocke's first X-Men costume:

@tektheninja: Has he ever had a pink suit, or is this just cosplay creativity?

@xwraith: That looks alright. I wonder if it could make a comeback.

@mrmiracle77: That's an interesting point. Whilst perhaps it's easier to print pink now, maybe the difficulty doing it back in the day prevented so many classic pink looks from happening.

@powerherc: Ah. I thought you meant there was some specific reason why it wouldn't work. I think it could suit certain characters O.K., but yeah, maybe some creators and fans aren't fans of the colour.

I also think it could suit certain characters.

Gasp Blasphemy! He's Captain America! He can only wear red, white, and blue.

@knightrise said:

If the Man himself did it, I'd happily rock black and pink.

Was my favorite wrestler. I stopped watching, about the time he left the WWF (WWE). I was a teen in the 80s. So back then i had a couple of shirts, with a little pink in them. I wouldn't wear it now. I'm much older, and it's not the 80s anymore.

@v_scarlotte_rose: it's just cosplay creativity.

Kang seems to have pink sometimes, though some other times it seems to be purple.

I think it would be cool if they let the heroes wear pink for breast cancer month or print the pages in pink idk they should at least do something

When Marvel did the breast cancer variant covers last year, I thought it would have been cool if they'd recoloured the interior art to match the covers. They'd maybe have to raise the price to cover the cost of recolouring though.

I didn't read this comic, but the Tiffany Fox Batgirl has come to my attention:

Looks pretty cool I think. :)

Does anything in anime count?

Pink sucks compared to other colors. Why u mak dis thread? Why u do dis?

The Pink Crusader for breast cancer awareness.

Doesn't Scarlet Witch wear Pink/Red???

@rustyroy: Who is that?

@v_scarlotte_rose:

To be fair Star Sapphire are often also are purple. In nature pink is a very rare collou. You probably are right, in modern society Pink is seen as more girly collour and also because pink isnt collour that everybody enjoy it unlike Red or Blue or Yellow or even Green. Plus Pink isn´t very stealthy collour or collour that itimidates other people. The collour Pink is always connected with happy or good things. Plus lot of female characthers have tomboy traits even thought most of them have pretty femenine apperances. But in other hand powers seems to be pink like magic or Scarlet Witch´s Hexes or Jean Grey´s Telepathy and Telekinesis or Songbird´s sound waves and sound constructs and there are some others exemples probably.

Atom Eve