I have a question regarding Superman and the red trunks...

[stargazer01]

Personally, I much prefer a trunkless suit. I really liked the N52 one in that it had more texture so it didn't look like tights but more like a suit. And the red belt looked great to break up the blue a bit. Sure I prefer the open neck, but I still really like the N52 costume because it makes Superman look modern and really cool. I also really like the Reborn suit. I just wish it had more texture and looked less plain.

Texture is key. It's why I love the live action costumes for Henry. It looks alien and modern. Sorry but for me the trunks are very dated and silly, especially when Superman is the only one wearing them... However, I don't mind the trunks in some of the comics. Some artists make it work better than others, but in live action Superman must use a trunkless suit from now on. He simply can't go back to the trunks and be the only superhero wearing his underwear on the outside. It's embarrassing.. :/

One more thing. For me the trunks never made the suit. What makes the suit is the blue suit, the red cape and the S symbol. Especially the S on his chest. The trunks mean nothing to me.

[Jim Kelly]

Texture is a tricky thing in comics. What I admire about classic comics pencilling, inking and colouring is that less is more. Of necessity, comics art had to convey a sense of more with as little detail as they could get away with. But there's an unexpressed contract between the producer and the reader, where we understood that a few lines and a splash of colour represents more than we see. Modern comics have spoiled readers by providing excessive detail (through inks and colours) so the reader now expects the image to be overexplained visually.

If you look at a classic cover by Gil Kane and Joe Giella--



--you should be able to interpret this image to understand that it represents textures you don't literally see. Giella's signature use of black flecks on the outfits of the Trigger Twins tells you that this is rough leather, not smooth. You know that there's texture to the wood and the landscape, even though Joe and the colour artist (probably Jack Adler) haven't provided excessive detail. They trust that you're experienced enough in the world to know this without it being overembellished and painted.

Even though the Trigger Twins are coloured with yellows and oranges, you should be able to interpret those hues as various shades of brown. The colouring isn't supposed to be literal--it's supposed to be interpreted as different from what it actually is on the spectrum. Blond hair is coloured a flat yellow, but you know that it's supposed to be real blond. In fact, the Trigger Twins are supposed to look like Alan Ladd in SHANE,



Growing up with comics, I always knew that the costumes of Superman and Batman had texture--I didn't need a lot of inking and colouring to show that. But because of longer deadlines, computers and higher resolution printing techniques, today's comics art shows a lot more detail.

However, in the modern comics, I think that Gary Frank is very good at indicating texture in the classic Superman suit and giving it more weight--with just some more ink lines and colour shading--without going overboard.

[Ascended]

Gary Frank does an incredible job expressing the fold and wrinkle of fabric. I very much enjoy his take on the classic Superman.

But texture these days is largely done by the colorist, who can add entire layers of detail with a click of a stylus.

I have several (very cheap) art programs, and all of them have several different texture options that will make something look like leather, concrete, chainmail, etc. And those are just the low-end, ten dollar versions. A full price, fully loaded art app has far more options. Take a look at Stephan Sejic's art sometime; he does a ton of texture work with programs like that and it really adds a whole new dimension to his work. *Thats* the kind of texture I want to see in Superman's suit in a modern, contemporary comic book. And that's the kind of texture that can change a costume from "out dated" to "hot damn that's good."

[Jim Kelly]

The problem I’ve puzzled over since I was a kid was how the super-heroes managed to expose so much well-defined muscle through their suits. And it became more of a problem as inkers went into increasing detail over the anatomy of these heroes.

My three best theories for this were: 1) the uniform really is very thin and adheres to the body, but the notion that it’s armour flies in the face of this theory 2) the heroes are quite frankly very vain and have purposely made their suits with fake muscles built in or 3) artistic license--this is just symbolic and the suits really don’t look like that in actuality.

[Doomsayer]

Superman is the ‘dad’ of the superhero world.

Now ask yourself - isn’t wearing those trunks a very ‘dad’ thing to do? Like ‘trying to be cool, but dorky - but still, somehow cool’ - y’know?

That is one reason / the other is ‘i like it’ - and that is enough for me

[Vakanai]

Superman is the ‘dad’ of the superhero world.

Now ask yourself - isn’t wearing those trunks a very ‘dad’ thing to do? Like ‘trying to be cool, but dorky - but still, somehow cool’ - y’know?

That is one reason / the other is ‘i like it’ - and that is enough for me

My dad has never worn underwear outside his pants. I'm just saying.

[Jim Kelly]

My dad has never worn underwear outside his pants. I'm just saying.

Well, it's not underwear is it, when something is worn outside, it must be overwear--that's just good English usage. Besides the fact that with the belt the trunks don't look like gonch. But I get the dad remark. I might not be a dad but I have a dad brain and this is something I would do.

Many years ago, when I was at uni, I signed up for a ballet exercise class for which I had to wear leggings. Of course, I wore a cup under these leggings, but modesty still made me wear shorts over the leggings. It would never occur to me to wear leggings without wearing some sort of shorts over them, if I was out in public. To me it's downright creepy to see Henry Cavill's Clark walking around without covering up--he grew up in Smallville not New York, you'd think Clark would be more modest.

Even if the original idea was circus strongmen (I'm reminded of old school wrestlers), it's understandable why early publishers glommed onto the trunks for their superheroes as those trunks help to cover up a sensitive area. Otherwise, you end up with characters like Captain Marvel and the Flash who seemed to be lacking something in that area--and you couldn't expect artists to add detail there without upsetting the morality police. So the trunks and liberal amounts of india ink hid the details without making the heroes look like geldings. I'm just saying.

[Doomsayer]

My dad has never worn underwear outside his pants. I'm just saying.

That’s what you think

[JAK]

.....we served in *very* different branches of the military.

I don't recall capes and skintight spandex. Which is a shame, really. I'd have looked fantastic.

See what all you missed out on? lol

Personally, I much prefer a trunkless suit. I really liked the N52 one in that it had more texture so it didn't look like tights but more like a suit. And the red belt looked great to break up the blue a bit. Sure I prefer the open neck, but I still really like the N52 costume because it makes Superman look modern and really cool. I also really like the Reborn suit. I just wish it had more texture and looked less plain.

You should see the Reborn suit on the DCUO game. It really looks good, imo, even if I prefer a wider belt and larger buckle, myself:
https://news.xbox.com/en-us/wp-conte...0x528-hero.jpg

Interesting about the New-52 suits seeming modern to you, because all I could think of is that they looked like a throwback to 90's image comics (which made total sense when I found out that Jim Lee designed them). So to me, the N52 looked dated.

Texture is key. It's why I love the live action costumes for Henry. It looks alien and modern. Sorry but for me the trunks are very dated and silly, especially when Superman is the only one wearing them... However, I don't mind the trunks in some of the comics. Some artists make it work better than others, but in live action Superman must use a trunkless suit from now on. He simply can't go back to the trunks and be the only superhero wearing his underwear on the outside. It's embarrassing.. :/

One more thing. For me the trunks never made the suit. What makes the suit is the blue suit, the red cape and the S symbol. Especially the S on his chest. The trunks mean nothing to me.

At one time, I'd have thought it odd for Superman to be the only one wearing them... but as I get more years on me, I see that everybody has their own sense of style and combines what they like. And if Superman is just the oddball like that, I'm pretty cool with it. I do also feel that, because he's the most powerful man on the planet, nobody would react to them if he were real like we do since he's fiction. But that last line's the "in-world" explanation that I tend to go with.

Many years ago, when I was at uni, I signed up for a ballet exercise class for which I had to wear leggings. Of course, I wore a cup under these leggings, but modesty still made me wear shorts over the leggings. It would never occur to me to wear leggings without wearing some sort of shorts over them, if I was out in public. To me it's downright creepy to see Henry Cavill's Clark walking around without covering up--he grew up in Smallville not New York, you'd think Clark would be more modest.

Henry's suit doesn't bother me because I know it's thick - kinda like a scuba suit. It'd be thicker in "certain areas". lol But also.... UNI? Hey, cool - I'm from Iowa!

Even if the original idea was circus strongmen (I'm reminded of old school wrestlers), it's understandable why early publishers glommed onto the trunks for their superheroes as those trunks help to cover up a sensitive area. Otherwise, you end up with characters like Captain Marvel and the Flash who seemed to be lacking something in that area--and you couldn't expect artists to add detail there without upsetting the morality police. So the trunks and liberal amounts of india ink hid the details without making the heroes look like geldings. I'm just saying.

Another thing that just popped into my head: Clark takes a lot of crap from the general comics crowd for his "old school" mentality (as opposed to mindset) and behaviors, anyway... so in that regard, him being the one to call-back to a circus strongman could be kinda fitting from a character standpoint.

[Jim Kelly]

But if you look at Cavill's suit, it shows off a lot of muscle. So either Superman is wearing a thin costume that allows his muscles to show through or he's wearing a thick costume with fabricated muscles. Doesn't seem right to me that Superman would wear fake muscles.

[JAK]

But if you look at Cavill's suit, it shows off a lot of muscle. So either Superman is wearing a thin costume that allows his muscles to show through or he's wearing a thick costume with fabricated muscles. Doesn't seem right to me that Superman would wear fake muscles.

In MoS, the suit is given to him, so it's not so much a choice that "he" makes (except to wear it, I suppose) - but it's meant as something of a "basic" or "undersuit" (you see it under other things Jor-El wears, etc), so it can be thicker/more padded in places (the crotchal region, lol) and not so much in others (where the muscles show).

[astro@work]

But if you look at Cavill's suit, it shows off a lot of muscle. So either Superman is wearing a thin costume that allows his muscles to show through or he's wearing a thick costume with fabricated muscles. Doesn't seem right to me that Superman would wear fake muscles.

As somebody who has worn spandex in the dance world, I can vouch for it showing muscles (if they are there) and also having a certain practicality in terms of mobility.
So, Superman wouldn't be pretending to show fake muscles, he'd be showing his real muscles.

The downside of spandex is it hides ABSOLUTLEY NOTHING. Especially in the crotch area. (I learned this the hard way, early on in my dance career). So I like the idea of the trunks being for modesty sake. This saves us awkward dialogue with Supes going into battle and Brainiac screaming out "Holy Jeebus is that really all you?". LOL.

[Jcogginsa]

He just looks off without the Trunks

[Ascended]

See what all you missed out on? lol

I do! Dammit! I should've joined the....whatever branch you were!

Huh. I wonder if trump's "space force" will have capes? It gods damn well better!

[JAK]

I do! Dammit! I should've joined the....whatever branch you were!

Totally! It was the...um....
...imaginary one.. and the head of our troop was.. um... ...Mister Rogers..

Huh. I wonder if trump's "space force" will have capes? It gods damn well better!

Oh, I'd be in for that. I have my own cape, they'll just let me walk right in! lol