Warning: This article contains spoilers for Heroes Reborn: Marvel Double Action #1
In Heroes Reborn: Marvel Double Action #1, Marvel offers a canon explanation for why many heroes’ pupils can’t be seen through their masks, a feature that’s become a comic book staple over the decades. The all-white eyes first appeared in 1936 with the Phantom, widely regarded as the first costumed superhero.
The creator of The Phantom, Lee Falk, has said that he purposefully left out pupils in the hero’s design to resemble the pupil-less Roman and Greek busts of heroes. The funny thing is the original Roman and Greek busts were actually typically painted, pupils and all. Over time the paint wore off. The uncolored and pupil-less aesthetic did catch on though and inspired many artists through the ages. The creator of the original superhero, of course, being among them. The trend caught on in the burgeoning world of superheroes as well, with many of the most popular superheroes being drawn without pupils such as Batman, Spider-Man, and Wolverine.
In the Heroes Reborn event, Marvel reimagines their universe without the Avengers. The creators have had fun with the idea of a shifted history, doing things like using editor’s notes to reference comics that never actually existed. In Double Action #1, the creators go as far as to have a fully fictionalized letters page. One of the fake letters is from a 9-year-old Jason Aaron (in reality the writer of the Heroes Reborn event). He asks, “How does Nighthawk see out of his lenses? They’re solid white! Wouldn’t he just run into all kinds of walls?”
The explanation for Nighthawk’s all white lenses can be assumed to be the answer for all of Marvel’s heroes. In the letters page, the creators answer that the lenses work like a two-way mirror. Although from the outside, the lenses appear to be all white, the wearer can see out clear as day. This would be a useful attribute for a masked hero to have as hiding their eyes helps hide their secret identity. It could also add to the intimidation factor some heroes like Daredevil and Batman rely on.
The reason the trend of pupil-less eyes for superheroes caught on is difficult to lock down. It could simply be creators taking inspiration from the heroes they’re fans of, going all the way back to the Phantom. It could be that artists find the all-white eyes of masks to be aesthetically pleasing. It could even just be artists finding a way to save valuable time by skipping the pupils. Any which way, the lack of pupils lends to the larger than life and inhuman feel of superheroes when they are in costume.
Superhero movies tend to shy away from this trend whenever possible. This could be so the well-paid actors can still be recognized in costume. Or perhaps to allow them a greater range of expression while masked. In comics though, the trope has not wavered and with Heroes Reborn: Double Action #1, Marvel finds a way to both poke fun at it while at the same time giving comic book fans a quick explanation to the long unanswered question. The book is available now in print and digital.
