I just watched the “John Carter, Warlord of Mars” trailer, and while it looked fun, it got me to thinking (perhaps a dangerous thing)…
I have noticed lately that so many male action heroes in today’s movies (“Thor”, “Green Lantern”, and others) seem to be utterly devoid of body hair. I always thought that the “no body hair” look makes males seem “plastic” and unreal, but that is just my opinion, and I figure that I am in the minority on this.
So, besides Hugh Jackman as Wolverine, are there other heroes that actually look like a regular, non-waxed, hairy fellow? None come to mind, but perhaps you guys can refresh my memory.
One of my fellow classmates was a woman in her 50s (I’m in my 30s) and we talked about the lack of male body hair on actors these days. At the time, there was a commercial for some razor company that featured someone using their product to shave his chest hair off. For whatever reason, a lack of body hair on men has become fashionable. It does look odd to me. The Captain America ads that show him shirtless looks plastic to me.
In the case of Terminator and Conan, the fact that Schwarzenegger was a body builder before he was an actor likely has a bunch to do with it - they tend to be smooth, to better show off the muscles.
Which, come to think, is probably part of why it’s popular among action heroes. Hair might be manly, but buff is manlier.
Not often that I can think of. Thor doesn’t. Hal doesn’t. Cap doesn’t. (Nor do most of the replacement Caps) Batman doesn’t. Hawkman (at least the Carter Hall version) didn’t until his resurrection in Justice Society (and I think most artists forgot it afterward). The Atom (Al Pratt) didn’t, when he was wearing a costume that would show it. Namor doesn’t, but he’s aquatic. Ditto Aquaman, but I don’t think he went shirtless often until his hand got et. None of the Robins have ever had, though Dick was 12 for a long time.
I can’t remember ever seeing Superman shirtless until the 80s, but he’s been pretty consistently smooth for most of that.
Some artists have drawn a topless Bruce Wayne with some chest hair. I want to say Frank Miller’s Batman: Year One depicted Wayne with chest hair. I suspect most comic book heroes lack chest hair because the artist doesn’t want to draw it all the time.
