Alright now that I'm back what to write, what to write... well the post about purses went over pretty well, so what the hell let's talk about Pouches.
Rob Liefeld gets a lot of shit. "he can't draw hands and feet", "his people look weird" are things commonly said about the artist. Many reams of virtual ink have been used on Liefeld's alleged short comings. And many of them have a point. But the one slight I've never understood however is the thing about the pouches. People go on and on about the pouches, and frankly out of all of Liefeld, or for that matter the 1990's, idiosyncrasies I find the pouches to be the least objectionable.
Frankly why not have pouches? Superheroes are typically depicted as autonomous units so one would think they'd need stuff. And let's face it the typical super heroic garment isn't exactly pocket heavy. Now I'll grant you, the pouches got out of hand when they started to be worn on leg belts, and also Superheroes in the Superman mold don't really need equipment. But Superheroes like the X-Men (the most egregious pouch offenders) who are often involved in espionage and covert strikes that often lead to the need to take on a survivalist mentality may just need equipment. Another group that could make good use of pouches is the badass normal. After all these heroes only have their equipment and training to defend them. Which leads me to the pouchtastic hero that never seems to get crap for it. Batman, but then of course Batman never gets crap for anything. Of course (my snark about Batman aside) all of Batman's pouches are logically placed on a belt, on his waist.
Of course in the 1990s pouches did get a bit overboard. Pouches everywhere, the thigh, the arm possibly even on a headband. And they where never shown being used. But we don't ridicule the artistic application of pouches we tend to ridicule the concept itself and the concept is sound, unlike other tropes of the 1990s.
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