Yesterday’s discussion about new looks for our favorite super-dupers started me thinking about the most recent round of new clothes. I’m cautiously optimistic about the armored Batman and a little puzzled by the design of Wonder Woman’s armor, but I grow more and more discontent with the idea of Superman’s new low-key look. Aside from the banal complaint that it resembles Superboy’s look circa-Infinite Crisis, the execution of the look has thus far been boring. While I admit it’s possible to pull of the civilian spandex look, the art thus far hasn’t looked like “average guy in jeans” so much as “featureless costume that’s blue on the bottom”, leading us to today’s dressed-down query…
The MS-QOTD (pronounced, as always, “misquoted”) has always preferred some “costume” in my costumes, especially in terms of boots and gloves and helms and such, asking: How do you feel about ‘non-costume’ costumes like Superman’s new look?
6 Comments
Casual day for Superman needs to be over soon. Jim Gordon as Batman is about as beliveable as me being Batman. Stop the madness.
I guess its okay if they want to do some down to earth story line every now and then but they usually turn out like companies are trying too hard to be *edgy* and contemporary to please kids with whatever they think is cool, especially when its usually traditional, established characters which are forced into to those. If he was Jeans & T-shirt guy from the start, let it be that way, but dont do it to Superman every five years, it gets tiresome.
Depends on the character. For some characters, a non-costume works better, for others it just doesn’t. I don’t really have a specific criteria, it just depends on various factors for each individual character.
Absolutely love the non-costume. In this day and age it makes sense. Anyone rocking a cape would be mocked to the point of being ineffective stopping a crime. Plus, you’d want to be able to, at least somewhat, blend into a crowd when the inevitable shadowy government agency shows up looking for you.
I’m with Alisha – it really depends on the character. The jeans & tee look worked for Superboy because of his age & personality, but like others, it kind of feels like a contrived attempt to “young up” Superman. But more often than not, they’re usually smart enough to choose characters where a non-costume works for them.
I sort of like the way they’re doing it in The Wicked and Divine – the gods aren’t in costume, per se – but their outfits all have a definite theme going for them. A recognizable theme, so that, even if they did have masks over their face you’d still be able to recognize them when their outfits changed. I would love to see a few more heroes doing that – change their looks from day to day, instead of once every all-new, all-different mega-crossover.
Really, really doesn’t work for Superman, though. For an arc, maybe, for a singular adventure, I love it, but all the time?
“Oh, everyone knows I’m not JUST an alien, now, that was really the ONLY reason I wore a cape and tights instead of jeans.”