Does Not Illustrate: Cerebro Electro

Current is poor quality and you can't tell the character has a big exposed brain as well as electrical powers.

Here is a better shot of the same character from the same source:

It's definitely an improvement, but I still question whether it's clear enough that the lightning indicates that the creature is smart.

Pull the current regardless.

It's coming from his brain and My Brain Is Big is usual visual short hand for intelligence especially in aliens.

My other thought was this but it relies on people knowing who Nikola Tesla is, which I thought could be a problem:

Edited by GracieLizzy on Apr 22nd 2024 at 5:11:40 PM

OP works

OP

OP=3

OP.

OP

to OP.

So, fun fact. When I made the comment at the other thread I already knew this about the character because someone suggested a video for it. A video I rejected because shooting lightning from your brain alone doesn't scream "intelligent electro" to me.

So I'm not completely sold on OP, either.

I get that it relies on visual shorthand but given we have a trope for visible brains being short hand showing intelligence (My Brain Is Big) and the trope is a Elemental Personalities subtrope of "electricity power users being intelligent" I think it gets the gist enough well enough.

Alternatively we could go with something like this:

Yeah, that I'd be okay with since it has a bit more for it. I know that big brain is shorthand for "smart" but I was also briefly tricked into thinking the trope could have been something more like "electricity from the brain" given that your body sends electrical signals and stuff.

I don't think the two panels are necessary. OP is fine.

If people disagree with me, that's fine. I just wanted to clarify my issue more since I already understood the context going in.

I did think the IQ read out in 12 was a bit difficult to see so I've made a version with the saturation altered a bit to still be more or less the same colours but hopefully to make the readout easier to see:

I didn't see it was an IQ thing, but just having him do robotic science-y stuff was enough for me.

OP

to OP

Dead or Alive 6

(this is cropped from official art, the basis of a tie-in figure)

First one is pretty good.

OP

I do like 20.1 a lot

I also prefer 20.1. The combination of Nerd Glasses and an outfit that is at least designed to invoke the Labcoat of Science and Medicine (bare shoulders are obviously less than ideal for a labcoat, but it's clearly designed to make you think of one) makes you think that this character is probably smart. Considering the trope name, I'd rather rely on that than My Brain Is Big to avoid creating the impression that the trope is narrower than it actually is.

20.1