Monday, June 27, 2011

Height Difference

Yes, I'm basically writing about every aspect of my hobby. :P But I recently saw something that brought this topic to my attention. Now from what I remember off hand Booster Gold is 6'5", a pretty normal build for a football player. But a lot of artists don't take this into consideration when they draw. One of the reasons for this is because this height makes Booster taller than Batman and Superman. Interesting fact is that Ted and Pre-Crisis Rip were the same height (either 5' 10" or 5' 11") which is a noticeable different between them and Booster. Jurgens came up with Boosters' build (in fact it's on one of the covers of the first BG series.) I never saw Rips' post Crisis height but Jurgens draws him slightly shorter than Booster. During his JLA days he drew Ted noticeably shorter (he might have been shorter than Bea.)

What brought this on? A post I saw listing the "official" weights and heights of the bat family. (Yes I know I'm in a bit of a bat craze lately.) Tell me if something seems off about these:


Bruce Wayne - 6’2”, 210 lbs.
Dick Grayson - 5’10”, 175 lbs.
Jason Todd - 6’0”, 225 lbs.
Tim Drake - 5’5”, 115 lbs.
Damian Wayne - 5’4”, 140 lbs
Barbara Gordon - 5’7”, 126 lbs.
Cassandra Cain - 5’6”, 115 lbs.
Stephanie brown - 5’5”, 129 lbs.
Kate Kane - 5’10”, 142 lbs.
I know acrobats are supposed to have a slighter build but I never saw Dick being this short. In fact I recall reading somewhere else that Jason and him were the same height (two inches shorter than Bruce.) How is Jason heavier than Bruce?! I know art various but I've never seen him look as bulky as his mentor. Damian is one inch shorter than Tim at ten but weighs more? And I laughed far too hard at the image this created with Damian and Tim. 

5 comments:

  1. These sorts of things drive me nuts, because with each new one, everyone gets taller. I thought that Bats and Superman were all 6' tall...just like Hal and Guy. John Stewart was supposed to be 6'2", and Kyle was about 5'10" or so. Booster IS supposed to be tall. He's from the future for one thing, and people are getting progressively taller all the time, and he was a football player, and I always loved it when Ted was portrayed as being shorter.

    Heck, Wonder Woman is supposed to be tall. Darwynn Cooke had her even taller than Suprman, which I also loved.

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  2. I always liked that (in BG at least) Jurgens always had a reason for his heroes preforming well in heroics based on their training, etc. It makes sense for Booster to be tall and I love it when that's shown in the art. Having Ted be smaller works well for their dynamics and for Teds' character by it's self.

    Don't forget Big Barda, I love that Superman has to fly up to talk to her face to face.

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  3. That's true. It doesn't do any harm to Superman to have to look UP to someone once in a while anyway. And it certainly never seemed to bother Scott in the least.

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  4. It's always been one of the most endearing things about Scotts' relationship to Barda.

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  5. It's funny that the Batfamily gets called out on their "nonsensical" heights and weights when they're actually the most realistic due to, y'know, not having superpowers.

    Dick is not short. 5'10" is a perfectly reasonable height for a man, and that would actually be tall for an acrobat.

    Ladies and gentlemen bitching about Jason and Damien being too heavy for their heights, I present to you Danilo Gallinari, a real person of roughly 6 feet and 225 lbs who is probably as athletic as a member of the Batfamily. (Okay, maybe a little less.) No, Danilo Gallinari isn't skinny by a long shot, but he's certainly not fat or more buff than Bruce.

    If anything, Bruce is the one who could stand to be a little heavier for his height and build. But then again, look! I found another real person who's taller and weighs less, but somehow looks buffer than the shorter heavier basketball player! (Mostly because of those humungous arms and shoulders, which Bruce definitely has.)

    So, to make a long story short: The Batfamily is made up of mostly normal people, and they have mostly normal heights to reflect that. Also, height and weight don't always translate to build. It gets you in the ballpark, but the margin of error is still pretty damn wide.

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