I decided to take a different tack, this month. I was
going to pick another character to redesign, but I was
reading my Essential X-Men and came across the first
appearance of the Imperial Guard and it sparked an idea for a
different kind of column.
I made a short list of what I think are examples of
the most influential costume designs in comics. Partly,
this is inspired by my disdain for much of Hollywood
pointlessly, in my opinion, redesigning superhero costumes for movies.
As you might guess, I was disappointed in the costuming
choices for Batman Begins and Superman Returns. I had hoped
that Batman Begins might move away from the Amazing
Latexman look. Independent film shorts like Batman: Dead End have
shown, quite effectively, how the costume can work on film
while remaining truer to the comic book vision.
As for Superman Returns, the idea that Superman would
wear his emblem imprinted on every piece of his costume is
ludicrous to me. For Superman, the costume is a symbol
that says, "Hi, you may not know me, and I can't exactly
show you my American Express card, but you can trust me." Now, I'm
not saying there's no room for artistic license when
translating a comic costume to film and Sam Raimi's
Spider-Man is an excellent compromise. It remains faithful to the
comics while adding touches that look great on film. I will
say that I agree with Bryan Singer's choices for the X-Men
films, as most of the X-Men costumes are too ludicrous to
survive the translation to live action. Still, I wouldn't mind
seeing Halle Berry in the original Storm costume, though she
doesn't really have the figure to pull it off.
So, first we start with the classics, the icons of
the golden age whose costumes influence design to this
day, Superman and Batman. As with most superhero costumes,
these outfits are inspired by circus acrobat costumes.
Superman set the standard, with his clean lines and bold primary
colors. Batman is the prototype "creature of the night"
superhero.
Also from the Golden Age, we have the prototype for
patriot superheroes, Captain America. His costume is simple
and functional, though I'd armor the belly as well as the
upper torso. The cuffed boots give him a touch of the
swashbuckler. The original "kite" shield was too cumbersome and they
swapped it for the distinctive, aerodynamic "disc"shield,
giving Cap a bit of a ranged attack, as well as an
indestructible defense. There's simply no room for
improvement with Captain America, as far as I am concerned. Properly
constructed, this costume could easily make the
transition from page to film and appear faithful to the comic book design
as look good "live".
Very few female characters made my list, mostly
because good costume design for women has a distinct "fashion"
element to it. The womens' costumes become dated very
quickly. Take Rogue's "I Love the 80s" jacket-over-spandex with
"leg warmers" (her boots) and the big, streaky hair. Wonder
Woman's costume has followed fashion over the decades,
but has stabilized in the last 20 years or so. There are a few
classics, costumes that, while out of style in the
broadest sense, still work for the character. One such is Black
Canary's classic bodice and fishnets. They tried to put her in
an 80s style spandex suit, but thankfully, this was short
lived.
The last Golden Age character we'll mention here is
the original Captain Marvel. He had a costume design that
was too good to die, despite the homogenization of the design
into typical comic book "tights" for many, many years. His
classic style jacket and his short cape make him stand
out. I've seen this costume made and it can work very well in
real life.
Costume design changed, somewhat, with the advent of
the Silver Age, with costumes becoming "sleeker" and the
designs a bit more complex. The first hero of the Silver Age,
Barry Allen "The Flash", typifies this style. His costume is
so sleek, you have to have superspeed to even put it
on...no zippers, you see. Later, Green Lantern would introduce
a different styling that inspired many costumes in the
Silver Age and later, as well as the Silver Age Atom's simple,
almost generic costume.
One of the most innovative and downright creepy
designs of the Silver Age is Steve Ditko's Spider-Man costume.
The costume conceals everything about Spidey except his
gender. It is a clean, symmetrical design that has been borrowed
time and time again, with the web lines scrubbed off.
Spidey's costume is an early example of what I call
"wrap-around" designs. These are costumes with design elements that
are not limited to the front of the costume.
As the 60s ended, newer artists brought fresh designs
to comics. Neal Adams introduced a couple of costumes
during his run on X-Men that influence artists to this day.
One, the unrelieved black bodysuit of Havok I haven't included,
because the headpiece of that suit dates it. The
other, however, is a style that has inspired more than one of
my own designs, the blue and white Angel costume. With it's
vertical divisions, lack of trunks, belt or obvious closures,
it is a departure from traditional comic book costume design
that set a trend for a couple of decades. You can see its
influence in the designs of Dave Cockrum, John Byrne,
Bill Willingham and others. Oh, and just a note, the
red-white-gold version of this suit sucks. Blue and white, lose the
halo and it's perfection.
I've already mentioned a few characters who share a
common artistic source, the Silver Age Green Lantern and Atom
both sport designs by the inimitable Gil Kane. Another Kane
design that stands the test of time is the red-and-black
Captain Mar-Vell costume. This design melds elements
of classic comic book costume design with modern elements, like
the heavily stylized cutaway mask and the starburst chest
emblem.
I mentions Dave Cockrum a bit ago and I feel the need
to include a couple of his designs here, as well. First,
we have another female character whose costume has become
one of the icons of Marvel Comics. However, if you look at
Dave's history, you can see the elements of this costume
appearing in several earlier costume designs. Dave has a
fondness for the pointed thigh boots and opera gloves, as well as
the tied sash in place of a belt. All these elements
appeared in other costumes and were combined to perfection in the
Phoenix costume. I prefer it in gold and white, but
Marvel vetoed that color scheme. Even in green and gold, it's
not too shabby.
As it was the Imperial Guard story that got me
started, I thought I'd include one whose costume I have always
liked and I think needs no refinement (except, possibly,
reworking the leggings to lose the shorts). Fortunately, Marvel
let the black and white color scheme stand with this one,
so we have a sharp, clean look to a character whose name
strikes like a blunt instrument, Smasher. I know one of the
reasons I like Smasher is, he's based on Ultra Boy, my
favorite Legionnaire. It's interesting that elements of
Smasher's costume design have found their way into Ultra Boy's
costume design and elements of Ultra Boy's powers have been
transferred to Smasher.
The late 70s and early 80s were a time for innovative
designs and the next character is a perfect example of
innovative design using simple elements. Patriotic
characters have
been a staple of comics since the Golden Age and a
staple of propaganda for even longer. Usually they're dressed
in a costume based on some period of their ethnic or
cultural history. Captain Britain's first costume sported the
rampant lion and Union Jack, for instance.
John Byrne's solution to the problem of creating a
patriotic superhero for Canada is one of the most
elegant and striking designs ever to appear in comics. Using
Canada's flag as a wrap-around costume design produces a visually
interesting asymmetrical costume that works so well it
that I think it will be around for a long time. I prefer the
name Vindicator over Guardian, because it's just a more
interesting sounding word than Guardian. Just my preference.
This last character brings us back to the beginning
of the Silver Age, but I'm looking at the modern
interpretation of
the classic design. Based on Gil Kane's revised Green
Lantern uniform, Hal Jordan's current costume is one
of the best designs I've seen in years. By terminating the green
at the waist, it eliminates the lingering
underwear-over-pants
look of the earlier design.
I'm sure I could think of other examples, but these
will do, for now. All these designs have, at one time or
other, influenced my own designs. Sometimes inspiring new
costumes, other times showing me what I want to avoid in a
particular character.
