Let us take a moment to step outside the world of design and consider these ideas within popular media. Reed Richards, aka Mister Fantastic, is a character developed in 1961 by comic book legends Stan Lee and Jack Kirby. The leader of the Fantastic Four, Richards gained the power to stretch and deform is own body at will after being exposed to some space radiation.
His "primitive form" is that of a man; not just a man, but an idealized man, physically and mentally. Artists, architects, and philosophers have long regarded the human form as a sort of sacred perfection: Vitruvian Man, etc. Richards' is superhuman. He is able to ignore the material nature of flesh and expand his physical self. His body is elastic. As he releases his "grip", his body returns to its human ideal. This affords him opportunities; to reach and to move through spaces where normal humans cannot, but to return to his human form and pass among his fellow people, insothat he may continue to lead and influence (his teammate Ben Grimm - the "Thing", does not have this luxury).
Deformed, Richards' has a comical appearance. Could this be partly due to his nature as a cartoon? If, say, his extended limb were to be seen in a level of material detail comparable to that of reality, would it look silly, or horrifying?
Image Source: The Comics Cube!
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