Among the non-disappointing moments of Zach Snyder’s ‘Watchmen’ movie is the fact that they kept Laurie Juspeczyk’s sky-high heels. (If only they’d have kept any of the other aspects of the comic book character, she might have had some actual potential. Mileage, as always, yadda yadda.) Still, all the action sequences features Malin Ackerman and/or her stunt double in flats with quick cuts to cover the fact that Silk Spectre’s fashion statement is a major broken ankle hazard. Similar tricks were utilized (albeit in a more skilled fashion) in Wonder Woman’s first film, leading to today’s stiletto query…
The MS-QOTD (pronounced, as always, “misquoted”) is always amazed about how divisive superhero footwear can be, from Iron Fist’s booties to movie Captain America lacking the buccaneer boots, asking: Is the aesthetic value of superhero high heels enough to overcome their impracticality?
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Comic book superhero costumes are 99% about the aesthetic value. It’s a medium all about being visually engaging, and because it’s drawn rather than acted by real people, aesthetic appeal will always be the bigger deciding factor of whether or not something is worth it.
It’s only when we try to translate drawn aesthetics onto real-world people in tv and movies that practicality begins to win out. The important thing is that when you take away an impractical but visually appealing element of a character design, you need to replace it with something that is equally aesthetically appealing. Hollywood has had mixed success with this.
TLDR: Superheros need to look cool
It depends on what they are trying to accomplish. In regular, traditional super hero stories, definitely. Almost none of their costumes are practical or make any sense after all, its all about looks . They are like those things in high fashion shows, nobody actually wears those things they display, but rather create an illusion of what we define as designer fashion.
I’ve always had this problem (the impracticality of it) not only with high heels, but with GLOVES. Even with latex, skin-tight, doctor-style gloves, it’s super hard to do anything, other than pushing buttons. How in the heck does Batman do anything with those things?
And yes, in comics it’s all about the aesthetics, not practicality. It does not translate to the real world. But that’s what comics are for, an exaggerated version of the world.
As every one said, it all about the looks. But, superheroines in high heels bug me.