Sugar, Spice, And Everything…Naughty?

I’m also betting I’m not the only one to use that title.

I’m sure you’ve all seen this cover by now. A variant cover (retailer incentive?) for The Powerpuff Girls #6 from IDW Publishing featuring three older versions of Blossom, Bubbles, and Buttercup looking a bit more sexy. Also, Mojo Jojo’s a giant for some reason. Nobody mentions that. Is it a story where the Girls are shrunk down? And sexyfied? Has the traditional “shrinking” story been done with the Powerpuff Girls yet?

There are those who took issue with the comic, thinking that elementary school girls shouldn’t be turned into sexy, sexy teen girls. Now as longtime BW readers know I’m rather conservative person. I’ve been disturbed by certain adultified fanart. I’ve also been disturbed by some of the people looking for “hentai” of The Incredibles or Ben 10 somehow being pointed to my site. I am totally not kidding about that. I’ve discussed everything from Starfire 52 to Miss Martian’s panties. So you know that I can judge case by case. In this case…I don’t understand people.

The art for this cover was drawn by Mimi Yoon. I looked up some examples of her work and her style is rather sexy. In fact one of the two sites put a few images behind a “safe filter”. Otherwise, I’m not that familiar with her work. I and everybody else can only judge by what we see up there. And I’m not seeing what the critics see.

Yes, they are looking rather sexy. Yes, they’re wearing short skirts. Yes, they seem to be wearing makeup. Let’s bring up an image of the actual girls.

List of The Powerpuff Girls soundtracks (Photo credit: Wikipedia)

Hey, look at that. They wear short skirts. They’ve only worn makeup once as part of a plan to defeat the Rowdy Ruff Boys, their evil counterparts. You know what they’re missing? Hands. In fact this was a gag in an episode where everyone in Townsville kept switching bodies thanks to the Professor’s damaged machine. The girls up there? Full fingers. Personally I wrote it off as three girls cosplaying as the Powerpuff Girls or a trio of models. Not that it was the actual Powerpuff Girls.

Powerpuff Girls Z (Photo credit: Wikipedia)

Hey, maybe they’re the Powerpuff Z girls grown up? Are they even the same three? I haven’t seen a full episode and the clips weren’t in English. In fact there was an episode with the Powerpuff Girls as teenagers and they still didn’t have hands, still had super-huge eyes, and still wore short skirts. So I still don’t think these are the same Girls. And even if they’re meant to be, they’re teen girls. It’s not like they slapped breasts on a 5-year-old. They’re teenagers, if not college girls. I’m not even sure I’d classify the looks on their faces as “come hither” stares. Then again, I’m terrible at realizing a woman’s signals.

(Also, I would think Buttercup would have larger muscles because she’s always working out. Frankly they look more like Kewpie dolls. Sitting on a giant Mojo Jojo.)

I was going to discuss the back-and-forth discussion between Moon and one comic store owner that may or may not be responsible for Cartoon Network’s licensing arm pulling the comic. But frankly I don’t think it matters. Nobody’s opinion is going to change. Personally, I’m not bothered by it.

I have more important things to rally against than officially licensed fan-art for a variant cover exclusive to the direct market. Is the comic even pushed outside of comic stores and digital access? (You don’t actually download it so I can’t call it a download.) I’m just not offended by this cover. Can I see how someone would be? Maybe, considering the target audience includes kids (being an all-ages title) but it’s still a stretch to do so.