Pedro Pena Shazam by LucianoVecchio on DeviantArt (original) (raw)

Pedro Peña / Pedro Shazam? Pedro Marvel? Sketch and thoughts, a thread.

#pedropeña #shazam #gaysuperheroes #queersuperheroes #lgbtsuperheroes

SHAZAM SPOILERS

-I tried drawing how I envision Pedro grown up and bestowed the strength of Hercules, empowered but still reading as plus size.

-The narrative of the chubby kid magically transforming into an hegemonic beauty made me go hmmm, to say the least a missed opportunity to diversify the already too standardized bodies represented in superheroes. Specially if he does turn out to be gay, with the internalized fatphobia and beauty standards pressure that are a big problematic part of capitalist gay culture.

-On that note: The line “It’s not my thing” after leaving a strippers show can mean literally anything. The fact that viewers picked it up as confirmation of his queerness speaks volumes of how much we strive for representation and will see it in the smallest element we can take. But it also shows how heteronorm is reinforced and reproduced even by us: If you don’t enjoy objectification of women then you MUST be gay. And lastly, it confronts us with our allonormativity if we don’t consider the possibility of Pedro being asesxual, demisexual, or merely not into strippers shows. He might be queer or not, but we didn’t really get an in-text confirmation so I don´t think it counts as representation of anything beyond strip shows not being his thing.

-(Now if that WAS intended as his outing line, I think we deserve better executions thank winks and nods, it smells of closet.)

-Body types representation in superheroes is already limited and standardized. The very few plus size superheroes and villains in existence are often played for laughs or ridiculed in some way, or have their power set related to fatness. From old characters like the Blob, Bouncing Boy, Even “Fat Marvel” within the old day’s Shazam Family, to more current characters like Goldballs and Roundhouse (see a pattern?). I can only think of Valiant’s Faith, Runaway’s Gert and the Bat-Man of China as positive plus size characters with name and powers not related to their body shape. I think comics need more of those and Pedro could join their ranks, queer or not.