I didn't expect this, but there wasn't a better occasion for the red trunks to return than 1000th issue.
The problem with removing them is that DC never managed to create a version of his costume that would become a new classic. Instead there was always something missing.
But why? His Rebirth fit was perfect
Reading List (Super behind but reading them nonetheless):
DC: Currently figuring that out
Marvel: Read above
Image: Killadelphia, Nightmare Blog
Other: The Antagonist, Something is Killing the Children, Avatar: TLAB
Manga: My Hero Academia, MHA: Vigilanties, Soul Eater: the Perfect Edition, Berserk, Hunter X Hunter, Witch Hat Atelier, Kaiju No. 8
Part of the problem with messing with iconic looks is that it opens the kitchen to many cooks. Nothing will get to become the new classic because someone will always want to change it.
Not reading all these pages.
I'm actually very disappointed, and a little disgusted at how they're trying to sell it.
Lee called the trunks the most iconic part of the costume (or words to that effect)? Please. The trunks are pretty far down that list, well below the shield, cape, color palate, and spit curl. They're only slightly more iconic than the boots for gods' sake. He said it used modern and traditional elements? Throwing a tiny little cuff on his wrists isn't using modern elements, its adding two lines to the entire ensemble. To Lee's credit however, at least the wrist cuffs match the design sensibilities of the boot cuffs. The guy seems to have learned a tiny bit about design since making the New52 armor.
What disgusts me the most though, is the way they're being drawn. I have said over and over again that the key to contemporary looking costumes is in the texture work. I've said that the trunks can work if they're drawn in a manner that doesn't look like a throwback to a fashion that died decades ago. And here Lee is, who's supposed to be one of the industry's best, and he's drawing the costume like a poor Wal-Mart Halloween bargain bin discount deal.
Of all the "modern elements" they could have kept.....they settle on wrist cuffs?
F**k.
"We all know the truth: more connects us than separates us. But in times of crisis the wise build bridges, while the foolish build barriers. We must find a way to look after one another, as if we were one single tribe."
~ Black Panther.
Actually, with regards to the bolded part, it seems pretty clear the opposite is going on with this. DC has been systematically bringing back the post-Crisis, pre-52 Superman and having go back to the red trunks is part of that. As another poster said, it wouldn't surprise me if Doomsday Clock returned Clark's adoptive parents, or at least Martha Kent, back to life.
As for the return of the red trunks, I was okay with the "compromise" DC did after Superman Reborn, but I can understand why they decided to bring the trunks back. It totally fits with DC concept that Rebirth is a course correction after the New 52, a way to get things "back to basics" while, at the same time, developing their characters.
--Mike McNulty, a.k.a. Stillanerd. Contributor for Bam Smack Pow! and Viral Hare
Previous Articles for Whatever A Spider Can.
Previous Articles for Spider-Man Crawlspace.
Don't ever take a fence down until you know the reason why it was put up.--G.K. Chesterton
Superman is the archetypal superhero. It doesn't matter if people think that it is cheesy or dated. The trunks are associated with superheroes, so Superman must have them.
It's the Dynamic Duo! Batman and Robin!... and Red Robin and Red Hood and Nightwing and Batwoman and Batgirl and Orphan and Spoiler and Bluebird and Lark and Gotham Girl and Talon and Batwing and Huntress and Azreal and Flamebird and Batcow?
Since when could just anybody do what we trained to do? It makes it all dumb instead of special. Like it doesn't matter anymore.
-Dick Grayson (Batman Inc.)
This makes me happy.
Rebirth took it's sweet time getting here but I'm glad it finally did.
Maybe Superman will be able to sell toys again. I know I read somewhere that the new costume on toys didn't move product. That may be the biggest motivator of all for DC.
The costume without the trunks never worked and hopefully the cuffs will be gone in less than a year. Shaping up to be a good anniversary issue already. Oliver Copiel back at DC is also exciting.
Your logic here doesn't seem to make much sense. In an established continuity, its actually harder to rehash old story points because, well, writers who do their research know what plot points have already been told, and try to craft new ideas. If anything, a rebooted continuity is what gives writers a free pass to retell and rehash stories already told because they can just throw out the excuse "oh well this is a new continuity, so...." The New 52 was a prime example of this. We don't need another story about Superman and Lex meeting for the first time. We don't need to see Clark and Lois dance around each other and have romantic tension. We don't need another retelling of how Lois found out Clark was Superman. We already read all those stories...a long time ago.
Also, it doesn't really ring true to say that a decades-long continuity cannot be maintained when DC's biggest rival maintains a decades-long continuity and not only that but outsells DC doing so. After more than 50 years you'd think Marvel would run out of stories to tell about Captain America fighting the Red Skull or Baron Zemo...but they don't. I don't see how DC should be any different when it comes to their characters.
You realize that, actually, a lot of Pre-Flashpoint stuff has come back in the Bat-books. For example, Tim Drake getting his old origin back in the pages of Detective Comics and even Snyder contradicting Zero Year in favor of Batman's first origin story in Batman: Lost.
Last edited by Green Goblin of Sector 2814; 01-19-2018 at 03:36 PM.